zentin

got my buick painted white back in 2007 and it still looks good and hasn't faded or chipped yet. It costed me only like 300-400$.

But I hear its a horrible place to go and etc - did i just get lucky or something?

I want to get my mustang repainted as it has some scratches around the body, which shop would you recommend if not maaco? Also what color would you say looks best on a 98 stang but isn't too hard to keep clean (ie: i had a black stang a while back and i swear i would wash it and within 2 hours it would look dirty O.o) Also what color paint is generally cheaper?

thanks

BTR-75

Because most people pay for the cheapest paint job and expect it to be perfect, they have several levels and you get what you pay for.

Kevyn

I've seen everything from decent looking jobs to paint that lasts a couple months and tons of overspray from maaco, so I guess it really depends on wether or not you get lucky. Just don't except something so cheap to look like a top notch job haha

Matt's 95 Stang

They did horrible on my wife car. Over spray, masking tape left on the moldings, they even painted the car two different colors (car was metallic green) so I will never go back.

Matthew

mph07alloy

Maaco=K-mart of autobody.

AutoPart-Performance

I think its because they expect more than what they pay for. If you were to prep and tape of the car yourself (and did a good job of it!) and just have them do just the paint job I think you'd be very happy.

Torch_Vert

One thing to bear in mind about Maaco is they're all independently owned franchises. Owner competence will vary greatly from location to location. There are ones near me that I wouldn't trust to paint a soapbox derby car, whereas there's another a bit further away that's run by a real "car guy" and has great attention to detail and outstanding workmanship standards.

Same thing with most franchises. We have two Burger Kings in the next town over from me, One serves food exactly the way the BK promotional pictures show it should and the burgers are always fresh off the broiler. The other makes burgers that look like someone sat on them before wrapping them, the beef is reheated and gray, and you'd be lucky to avoid food poisoning. Owners/management matter...

mfergel

I had a friend years ago that worked at one. He told me about an older lady that worked there. Her job was to mask things off prior to painting. You know, the grill, taillights, etc. He said she would miss stuff all the time and the painters would just go ahead and paint. Wasn't their job to remask or properly mask stuff.

That said, like anyplace, it really depends on who works there. You might get someone who gives a **** and someone that doesn't.

Vader99

I paid almost 3k for a new paint job at Maaco when my Honda civic got t-boned. I'll never take a car there again unless it's something I'm getting rid of soon, even then I doubt it. There were tons of defects. I'm not sure they taped off anything but the windows and headlights. They sanded the edges of brand new headlights I had on it and somehow got paint on my taillights. No offense, but $300 -$400 gets you the cheapest/fastest job they can do and get away with it.