New Car Paint Colours

Published Date: 30th Jun 2016

Choosing paint is one of the most important decisions that you’ll make when ordering your new car. You don’t only have to worry about the colour and whether it will affect the resale value, but also the finish. There’s many different options available when it comes to finish, and to clear things up for you we’re here to explain the lot with the pros and cons of each.

Solid Paint Finish

Almost every car sold today will have a solid paint finish as a no cost option, unless of course you’re going for a special edition where the cost of the paint is built into the price or super rich and aiming for a super car.

The most common solid colours available today are black, white, blue and red. The basics of this make up of a single application of the colour, followed by a clear coat or lacquer on top to protect the paint from scratches, stone chips and weather and bring out a little bit of shine to the normal paint.

Many manufacturers now use a cheaper alternative called “two-pack” paint that mixes the acrylic paint with a hardening agent. They’ve used this method as it doesn’t need the second coat of lacquer and cuts down on labour and time spent on the car during the factory build process.

The upside of this for the customer is that scratches can be easily touched up due to the single even shade of colour. Repairs are cheaper if you ever need any panels spraying. However the paint is cheap and quickly applied, the finish can look a little like orange peel sometimes when you’re close up. They only come in basic, almost boring colours like white or black, read and blue.

Metallic Paint Finish

This type of finish is almost like solid paint but with the added powdered metal. The type, size and quantity of metal added, depends on the manufacturers choice.

The paint and process works out more expensive for the manufacturer due to the multiple coats of paint and lacquer needed. So they charge around £400-£500 for the normal metallic colours but the price can go upwards for the special shades.

The usually aluminium particles that are used in the metallic paint will reflect more light than the basic solid paint, this gives your new car a much more appealing shine. This is all good so long as you keep your car clean! You can look at our paint-seal protection page here, which helps your car looking newer for longer after cleaning.

The good thing about metallic paint is its ability to hide minor scratches from a distance very effectively. The bad thing is getting a good colour match touch up pen can be a challenge, due to complex nature of the paint and its mixture.

Pearlescent or Mica Paint Finish

The mica or pearlescent paint is different to the metallic paint and instead of the shiny aluminium flakes used to give an almost glitter effect shine to the car, ceramic or mica synthetic particles are used.

This creates more of a glow effect rather than a shine, although the light on the finish will be reflected it’s also refracted, this slows the light down and gives the paint a deep glow of colour depending on which angle you look at the car. This also gives an interesting effect and look to any lines or creases built into the exterior design your new car.

Mica and pearlescent finishes can cost a lot more than its metallic counterpart, the cheapest can start at £550 and go all the way up to £2000. The same pros and cons can be said of pearl effect paint, very nice to look at, expensive to buy and repair.