Quote:
Originally Posted by jmk
Here is one of the other reasons Maaco is cheap.
Their paint quality is not as good. The materials they use are at a lower price point that what you would get in a high end shop.
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I'm not sure that I agree with this comment. I'm friends with an owner of a Maaco and he uses Sherwin Williams paint system.
As a matter of fact, while he advertises enamel paint for $299 paint job. He only uses Urethane and Base / Clear because he feels that it's too much work for his painters to learn multiple paint systems so you actually get a better quality paint then what you pay for.
He has his own paint mixer on site and can pretty much mix up anything. I know of one other Maaco in the area and they use Dupont paint.
Because they mix their own paint, their costs are far lower then what it would cost you or me to get paint from a paint jobber.
The high end paints that will run into thousands will probably be used by restoration shops that perform $10,000 paint jobs and not the collision repair shops that paint cars for $2000-4000.
If I had a gullwing, then sure, a $10k paint job is worth it, but not on my 91 560SEL with 240k miles.
Paint is a small part of the equation, the big part is labor. As Maaco is a production shop, you need to either prep the car yourself and make sure you have your boot on their neck so that they don't cut corners in masking or painting.