Changing The Color of Your Car: What You Need to Keep in Mind

The color of your car tells a lot about your personality. We choose car colors for psychological reasons. Black on a car connotes luxury, mystique, power, and style. Red symbolizes ambition, sensuality, strength, and speed. Color-psychology lists are endless.

However, when choosing car colors, there’s more to consider than yourself. You need to take into consideration its price, durability, and other factors. Even if it’s your favorite color, the improper car color can harm its value. In this article, we have gathered things you need to keep in mind while changing your car color.

1. The Cost

One of the major considerations of changing your car color is the paint job cost. You may assume changing your car’s color with spray paint won’t be pricey, but it’s indeed an expensive and time-consuming job.

You’d be surprised by how pricey the paint is and how much you require. Proper painting includes the interior, trunk, hood, and underneath the automobile. If you hire a professional to complete the entire project, you must also consider the cost of removing all the exterior and interior trim and preparing the body for the new coat of paint.

Changing a car’s color might cost several thousand dollars or more. An average-sized car painted from metal to a show-quality metallic or iridescent finish may cost $12,000 or more. Larger cars may cost more.

2. Its Resale Value

A new paint job can add thousands to an old car’s value, but it depends on the car’s value to justify the investment. Keeping your car’s paint in good condition can boost its price, even if it’s not worth as much as the color change cost.

The car’s color can affect its resale value, and not necessarily positively. White, gray, black, and silver are safe hues.

Those aren’t the colors most people choose when changing colors. Unless it’s a rare or exceptional car, it should be easy to locate one in white, gray, black, or silver.

3. Durability and Maintenance

Regular cleaning and waxing will extend the life of your car’s paint. Cleaning a car wrap is as simple as wiping down the surface.

Furthermore, car wraps can maintain their luster for up to a decade. How long a coat of paint on a car will last is affected by many variables, including the paint’s quality, how often it’s reapplied, and how much it’s exposed to the sun. A high-quality paint job, if properly cared for, can last a lifetime, but it will cost you a lot more money upfront.

4. Matching The Interior

Will your new automobile color match the interior, or will you need to replace it?  

If your car’s inside is black, you can paint the body any color. Some cars have funky-colored interiors that may look good with the original color but terrible with your new hue.Say the car’s original color was red and the carpets, door cards, and seats are red but you’re altering it to green. If you prefer that color combo, then fine for you, but it’s going to be a fly on the wall when you’d try to resell it later.

5. The Climate

It’s easy to overlook the significance of color when it comes to a car’s comfort and interior ambience. But this is definitely what you should consider while changing your car color

Avoid painting your car black or other dark colors if you live in a tropical or subtropical area, as they will warm up quickly. When exposed to direct sunlight, the inside temperature of a lighter-colored car remains relatively constant. However, if you reside in a cooler region, deeper hues will help keep your vehicle toastier. They are also significantly more noticeable in the snow.

6. Legal Issues For Changing Car Colors

Different countries have different rules about notifying authorities about altering your car’s color, and in America, it differs by state. Even if there’s no state legislation requiring it, notify the DMV if you are modifying your car’s color.

On your car’s registration documents, the color may be listed as a number instead of the specific hue. 

Even so, it can lead to difficulties if you need to provide your paperwork and your car’s color is different than on the registration.

If you change your car’s color, tell your insurer. If you file a claim, your insurance provider may only cover the factory paint, so you could be out of cash if you’ve changed the color and haven’t told them.

7. Your Car’s Purpose

How do you use your car? Is it a family car? Do you drive it to work? Is it for your personal use? The color of your automobile has a big impact on how you feel when you drive it, so it’s important to think about your car and its purpose before picking a color.

You should not go with a bold red when updating your family’s minivan or hatchback. At a corporate job, you should avoid appearing too flashy. If you wish to keep your classic car looking classic, you’ll be limited in the colors you can choose from.

Wrapping your automobile in commercial graphics is a great way to get the word out about your small business, of course. If this vehicle is going to be your daily driver, you should pick a color that can easily be taken from the office or classroom to the driveway or garage and all over town.

This depends on your character, but also on the vehicle you drive. There’s absolutely no problem with using bold, athletic hues like reds, yellows and oranges. Also, the myth that drivers of flashy vehicles are more likely to receive citations is not entirely founded in fact. You should think about whether you want to stick out or blend in with the crowd regardless of the vehicle you drive.

Conclusion

Choosing to repaint your car raises a lot of factors that a car owner should consider. From the painting cost, durability, maintenance, resale value, and so on, it can all get a bit overwhelming. We have listed down what you need to keep in mind while changing your car color so that you don’t miss out on the important considerations. Give your car a new look with the correct preparation and enjoy your old car as if it were brand new!

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