Would you repaint a brand new car? (Answer content)

I'm considering a new ND2 as a daily driver. Club trim, 6 speed, LSD, black cloth, all sounds good to me. But my one hang-up is the color choices. Black, white, 50 shades of gray, and the most boring red I've ever seen. This seems to be a common complaint in the Miata community. I would love this car in something like Volvo Rebel Blue, or Ford ST Tangerine Scream. This would be my first new car ever, and if I'm buying new, I want it to be exactly what I want. I will look at this car every day, so seeing it in a cool color will certainly increase my quality of life, as crazy as that sounds. But is it crazy to paint a brand new car? 

I know wraps are the easy answer, but I'm just not a fan of them. I don't trust the paint to be in good condition and not peel up with the old vinyl in 5-10 years when (if) I'm done with this car. Plus I've really gained an appreciation for quality paintwork recently with my projects.

What all would be involved? Just a simple scruff and spray? Do you need primer if spraying over white paint? Would you hire it out or try it yourself? 

What's the difference between painting it now vs wrapping it now and painting it later? I mean, if you're willing to paint a car, who cares what the paint under the wrap looks like in 5 years? 

I wouldn't do it.  I understand your reasons, but you also have to also deal with the door jambs, in the trunk and engine compartments, etc. so changing the color can get pretty involved and expensive.  The Grand Touring version is available in blue, it may be easier and less expensive to get one of them instead.

No.  I've never seen a respray that looks as good or holds up as well as the OE paint, not until you're into the five figures region of restoration specialists.  And even half of them are kinda shoddy.

Too much of the corrosion protection system is involved in the paint  system. Pretty sure a new paint job would invalidate any corrosion warranty that came with the car.

An effort worthy of a new car quality is going to run 10k or more if done by a shop. 

The answer to your question is how much are you willing to spend?  The actual painting of the car is easy and considering it is a new car there should be no body work to speak of. But to change the color of a car to a level that I would accept on a DD that was a new car would require a complete tear down and blow apart. Would you really want a body shop to take your entire new car apart and then re assemble it?  Then there is the matter of the new car waranty. At some point I am sure the level of disassembly required for a quality color change would void the Mazda new car waranty. 
 

The answer for your new answer is wrap it. They do it all the time to cars costing 10x what a new Mazda costs with no issues. Hell wrapping it may actually Increase the value 5years from now as the original paint will have been protected and it would basically have original perfect paint. 

NOHOME said:

Too much of the corrosion protection system is involved in the paint  system.

Mazda has corrosion protection?  I worked on a '19 CX-9 lat week that all the spot welds in the rocker panel were rusting out under the paint and bubbling it away.

In reply to stuart in mn :

That blue is no blue worthy of a Miata  

Can wraps have the depth of color that real paints have?

To do a nice job there'd be a lot of disassembly involved. It'd be a BIG job if you want all the door jambs, inside trunk/hood etc. to match. Doors disassembled to remove mirrors/handles. Bumper covers off.  You're talking thousands in labor before the materials costs. Scuff & shoot since the car is new and you'd want high quality paint products shot in a nice booth to get a BC/CC finish that would hold up on a DD for 5-10 years.

No way I would do it. 
 

If the color choices are a common complaint among Miata buyers, I'd wait a year or 2. They will fix it. 

Get it white, and put blue Shelby stripes on it

Why do a full repaint? Your color scheme on Datsaniti was excellent, and most of the car was white? So how about some stripes, designs, patches, whatever it takes to turn it into something awesome! Easier, cheaper, more fun, and can be done with vinyl or paint. You obviously have a strong creative side, have some fun!

My wife worked at a Ford dealer about 10 years ago and this happened with a woman who wanted a new Mustang convertible in pink (like the Mary Kay Cadillacs). I got a chance to see it just after it was out of the paint booth. It looked very good. They did all the jambs, both sides of the trunk lid and hood. They even removed the top. She was charged 5K for the colour change and was thrilled with the result. 
It was the car and colour she always wanted.

maschinenbau (I live here) said:

Can wraps have the depth of color that real paints have?

No, but there is spay on coating now, look at clarity coat

https://claritycoat.com/

Looks like paint, peels off later.  The blue is the coating
 

I guess you could ask the dealer what they would charge to do it. That should maintain the factory warranty. Maybe?  

Funny as I drove by the Mazda dealer this morning and had the same thoughts.  Yep change the color but have it done by the dealer so that they can take the heat for any problems.  I vote for a bright orange.

No. 

When I worked at a dealership, a lady bought a 6 cylinder Challenger and had it painted plum crazy purple.

dean1484 said:

I guess you could ask the dealer what they would charge to do it. That should maintain the factory warranty. Maybe?  

It's pretty uncommon for a dealer to have a paint shop these days.

I think $10K is too low, doing it properly (including engine bay, etc) is going to be $25K or more.  Effectively you're doubling the price of the Miata.

I think a wrap is the right choice.  That won't get the engine bay either, but at least if you decide to sell the car you can pull the wrap off and it will all match again.

Yeah, this is my problem as well.  I really, really, want an ND2, but the colors are lame. 

I bought my Rx-8 new in 07 that is phantom blue mica, absolutely beautiful.  I hit a deer a few months after buying the car and had it resprayed by the best shop in the area (at a cost of over 5k for the paint & panels).   After living outside for the majority of a decade, the resprayed hoods' clear coat is peeling off, it's still fine were it's official.  I washed and waxed the car numerous times per year and never drove it in salt, so even though it lives outdoors, it was well maintained.

I wouldn't have it painted.

I would, however, already be at the dealer buying a new ND if they had British Racing Green & Tan, or probably even cool colors like that limited edition orange.   Their palette is just SO boring right now. 

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

No way I would do it. 
 

If the color choices are a common complaint among Miata buyers, I'd wait a year or 2. They will fix it. 

People have been complaining about the lack of color choices in Miatas since the ND came out. 

But if Soul Red Crystal is "the most boring red I've ever seen" we have a problem. Only electric colors worthy of a 70's Italian car will do :)

Long term wraps are fine for paint. It's exactly what they're designed for, and factory paint will adhere better to the underlying metal than any aftermarket job so you're not going to have the equivalent of taking a Maaco paint job off when removing sign vinyl or something. We had our NC wrapped for something like 8 years and when we removed it, the Winning Blue paint underneath looked fantastic. So a wrap is the best choice for cost, resale and durability.

Get a black car. Then the jambs and engine bay won't matter.

Stampie (FS) said:

Funny as I drove by the Mazda dealer this morning and had the same thoughts.  Yep change the color but have it done by the dealer so that they can take the heat for any problems.  I vote for a bright orange.

Mazda already did that one for you.

I wouldn't trust a dealer to stand behind a paint job any more than any other paint shop. The fact that they have a franchise to sell cars doesn't mean their body shop is any good - or even theirs.

I could live with the white, if there are any 20th anniversary ones for sale. White with red is much nicer than white with black

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

No.  I've never seen a respray that looks as good or holds up as well as the OE paint, not until you're into the five figures region of restoration specialists.  And even half of them are kinda shoddy.

Yes, you can absolutely do it OE quality, but it's going to be $15k minimum. Maybe a bit less for a MX5 since, being a convertible, you probably wouldn't need to do any glass removal. But a nice wrap job and some touchup when it's removed (if it's even necessary which it probably wouldn't be) sounds much, much better. Vinyl might not be able to look quite as good as paint but in a good color it'll still look way better tha any of the colors you can buy a ND in. The repaint would maybe make sense if you planned to keep it forever or the cost of the paint job wasn't 50% of the cost of the vehicle.

Keith Tanner said:
But if Soul Red Crystal is "the most boring red I've ever seen" we have a problem.

It's definitely not the worst red ever, but for whatever reason it just looks uninspiring or boring or something on the ND. It could certainly be worse...but it's not great either. I liked the blue they used to offer on the GT (but I think since dropped?).

Lots of good input here and I appreciate that. My large$t experience with body shops was actually my El Camino. The local Maaco did it in a period correct GM color about 15 years ago. Including bodywork, some rust repair, jambs painted, BC/CC it was about $5k. They didn't do under the hood or a few other places, and I did all the disassembly myself, but it has held up very well, and most importantly, felt like a factory job. That was a long time and it took several months of waiting though. I'm not sure a color change would be worth $5k to me. But it's a fun thought experiment. 

It's been 4 years and the best mazda could do was a 1 year only orange. Are we even sure Mazda paint will actually last longer than a decent body shop job? If I had to list manufacturers with the lowest quality paint, Mazda wouldn't be far down, but that's just like, my opinion man.