Does respraying reduce value that much?
 

We just had a windstorm here and my portable garage became VERY portable, so portable that it did a little dance on my car in almost every corner of the car. The insurance claim says they will fix all dents and repaint all of the car except for the drivers rear corner and the roof to the btune of $2400.00. I am paying the extra to have the entire car repainted. The car was resprayed about two years ago and now here we go again. Will the value of the car be reduced allot by being resprayed twice? Not that I am planning on selling at the moment anyway but I am curious. :(

Original paint will be always desirable...if in good condition.Repaint shave about 10 % to 20 % compared to an original (in condition) paint.

If its been repainted once already I don't think repainting again is going to hurt value unless it is a lesser quality repaint.

It will increase the car's value from where it is now. A repaint can actually increase a car's value if 1) it is in the original color, 2) the original (or current) paint is in poor condition, and 3) the repaint is done to the highest quality. In other words, a concours-quality resto.

Ask yourself this - how much will your car's value decline if you DON'T repaint it?

In this scenerio the re-re-spray will increase the value.

You're lucky. A friend of mine had his big portable garage collapse on his cars (from snow) and neither his car or his house insurance would cover them.
-Chris

I think the blanket statement made some famous P-car expert that a repaint devalues a 911 by "X%" is laughable. A properly repainted car can be worth much more than one with original paint and 25 years of rock chips etc. We are not talking about rare cars here, we are talking about mass produced 911s. Now, there certainly will be cases where rare, low mile and otherwise original cars will be worth more with original paint, but most of us don't own that car.

If you go and sell your mid 70's and up 911, my guess is that the potential buyer wants great paint, original or not.

Cheers

agree 100% OEM paint does nothing for me unless it is perfect and resprays are fine with me as long as there is no overspray and they paint all the right areas and take glass out

Repainting a car can certainly enhance its value if done correctly. If the car is properly prepared (removal of glass, rubber, logo's) basically stripped, the job will improve value! Worse case scenario is a car with over spray on rubber seals, logos, and engine!

I always find discussions of re-paint or re-finish fascinating. In the guitar world (the other half of my internet time), it's often said that a re-finish devalues by 50%. That's a pretty big hit.
What is not as often said is that quality of a re-spray or re-finish is everything. In the car world, a really good refinish (all parts off, trim, rubber etc) can sometimes enhance a cars value. Everybody likes an original finish, me included. However, in the real world, finishes deteriorate unless the car (or guitar) is kept in incredibly ideal circumstances. I would not turn down a really well re-sprayed car if everything else was what I wanted. Same thing with guitars, a really good refinish in several years won't matter much. IMHO.
(one difference, sometimes a really good respray can still be hiding some pretty nasty damage and eventually it will show up, with a guitar, it's hard to hide damage with finish..)

I got my car with a lowish 85K miles on it and it had been resprayed (decent job). My mechanic who did the PPI couldn't find any evidence of body damage. He said, "Would you rather have 85K miles worth of rock chips and door dings or fresh paint?"

IMO, original paint is overated unless you are talking about a concours/collector car.

Give me a new professional paint job over the 25 year old faded original paint. One reason why many car shoppers may shy from respray is what it can hide. Of course a bad new paint job is worse than old factory paint.

Our cars are getting so old that unless the car has been hiding from the sun, chips, acid rain, and other elements, most are ready for paint.

Why has the term 'repainted' been changed to 'resprayed' in the auto world? I guess repaint conjures up images of the local $90 Maaco paint booth, while respray is associated with innoculous things like spraying Armour All on your tires, using a spray wax, or spraying a deodorizer ..... :cool:

Let me ask you this,what sounds better,a previously owned Toyota Camry or a used Toyota Camry ;) The answer is,the car dealers are getting smarter if you know what i mean...
My explanation would be that both terms i,e resprayed car and a previously owned car sounds as if the owner has really babied the car which of course we all know is not true...

I'm a bit curious about this word "respray", too. One thought is that it may be a derivative of an older term meaning same thing. In 1946, the film classic "The Big Sleep", with Humphrey Bogart portraying Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled private eye Philip Marlow, was released. At one point in the film, a chop-shop lackey refers to repainting a car as "Giving it a spray job".

yes, simply because most people will think "why paint?", "accident?"

If there is body damage I think it's a good idea to take some digital photos before you get it repaired to show buyers when you want to sell the car. That way people won't just assume you're lying when you say the damage was minor. I mean, everyone says that. Also this helps if it shows up on Carfax.

I agree with SoCal911SC, I always thought respray implied you kept the same color and didn't need to do much body prep. It is all just sematics though. I'm sure people out there have had nearly totaled cars basically rebuilt and then written "resprayed" in the ad.

Personally I like the terms Pre-Driven or Formerly New. I've never actually heard that last one but I think I'm going to incorporate it into my vocabulary.

"FS: Formerly New 911, Mint Condition"

"It is all just sematics though."

That's the problem. One would assume 'respray' means a mere 'freshening' of the orignal paint. But it seems to have morphed into a term that could mean just about anything. Just like a 'pre-owned' car - WTF does that mean??!! Is it different from a USED car??? Sheeesh!

A high quality paint job should not affect the price of the car. On the other hand, if this was the 5th or 6th paint job, then it would be a problem....but most buyers would never know how many coats of paint the car has. But if the body work and paint are done right, it's value should go up.