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Am I insane for choosing matte paint on my new car? Starting to read up and see plenty of people saying it's harder to look after. But a lot of this comes from articles trying to sell car cleaning products, so I'm taking it with a pinch of salt. I don't care for keeping my car in pristine clean condition all the time, so I'm not going to be out washing it all the time. I've not one to be out applying polish to my previous cars anyway, so no need to worry about not being able to polish matte paint!
Anyone actually owned one for a long time and can tell me if it's really anything I should worry about?
so I’m taking it with a pinch of salt.
oh, don't do that - salt creates havoc on your paint!
oh, don’t do that – salt creates havoc on your paint!
😂😂😂😂
Could see you getting totally humped with depreciation if it's a new one
I don’t know about a car but I own a number of ex military land rovers with matt paint. Generally it is porous, but I’m guessing car manufacturers must put some kind of undercoat on to prevent corrosion. I find a wipe over with a diesel soaked rag every few months works wonders😀
Intending to keep the car for a while, so I'm not terribly worried about extra depreciation because of a colour choice. Just about whether it deteriorates and can't be kept in decent condition really. I read it's hard to smart repair stone chips and the like, so whole panels need painting for otherwise minor paint repairs due to not being able to polish to blend in.
If it got scratched I doubt you be able to polish or compound it out to blend as you would do on a gloss finish.
Not sure how susceptible it would be to bird shit either……
Autoglym has a good guide to maintaining Matt finishes.
The general view is hand wash the car regularly with e correct detailing products and stay away from automatic car washes.
https://www.autoglym.com/blog/2017/01/16/caring-for-matt-and-satin-paint-finishes/
No experience on a car but my matt painted bike is a ball ache to clean
Any grease or oil gives it a really uneven finish
With matt paint on a car would you not get the same thing? Thinking about greasy children’s fingers, overspray/runoff from any tyre shine or general road grime.
Hmm. What about having a Matt wrap job,get the current fashion fad without being fully committed.
Hmm, no experience of a fully painted car but parts we supply are painted sub gloss, i.e. matt finish. Lots of lower spoilers and splitters for Jaguar and Aston Martin. They have a low gloss clearcoat over the base colour so there is a protective finish on them (assuming it's the same for body panels) but you have to be careful how you clean them. Any localised cleaning, getting bird dirt off for example, can leave a shiny spot where you've rubbed and looks terrible.
No experience on a car but my matt painted bike is a ball ache to clean
This. So much so that I’ll be actively avoiding for the rest of my days
Wouldn't touch a matte finish car with a barge pole!
It's the opposite of a gloss car where you can polish out a scratch, blemish or repair. With a matte finish you can't rub out a scratch, blend in a touch-up easily or wash it too often as the paint starts to go shiny in odd spaces and looks awful. On a military vehicle, off-roader or agricultural vehicle where scratches don't matter and the best wash they'll get is a hose to remove the worst muck then it's fine but for a car it'll either have to pretty much stay dirty or end up going shiny in places. A guy on my estate had a Mercedes in matte green (proper paint, not a wrap) on lease and he vowed never again after the finish went shiny in random spots after a few hand washes and he also got pretty badly stung by charges on hand-back.
Edit: I had my old Orange 5 powder coated matte blue and it looked stunning but quickly went shiny in high wear areas so have direct experience of matte finished stuff.
I do like the matte/matt? look on older or utility vehicles, but on a new motor? Hmm. There's a stupid matt green merc (private plate too so double-cringe) that goes around here and it just looks like it's made of plastic, and thus - cheap and nasty when it's probably worth a fortune. Each to their own though, taste is subjective...
Surely there's a reason cars haven't been matt since they were pretty much invented!?
Matt paint is one of those things that look good in staged photos on CarStrokerWorld.com but unbelievably naff in real life.
Slowly coming round to thinking I should change my order.
I've had a succession of old VWs in matt - red oxide, satin black, yellow filler primer and matt nato green. All of them were excellent, as I could respray any scuffs or scrapes.
On a new car? As people above have said, if it's anything like a matt finish bike, no thanks! 🙂
No way at all I’d even consider a Matt finish on a car, other than a wrap that can be removed, but even then I’d go for gloss, it’s just easier to clean.
We had a Fiat 500 at work for a while with a Matt olive green finish, pretty sure it was paint, not a vinyl wrap, and it looked ok-ish, but I wouldn’t consider buying it.
I wouldn’t say insane, but it’s not the most practical of finishes.
If you’re job title is “influencer” go for it!
The guy with a car paintshop across from my workshop has a big 7 series BMW, matt green (I think, colour blind AF). He says it's a nightmare to keep clean and worried himself about getting a chip in the bonnet as it means redoing the whole thing and then hoping that the finish matches the rest of the car.
Leave alone unless you do a wrap....
Wraps kinda make sense for motors on tick as it protects the paint underneath. Remove the wrap before handing back your rental.
Please tell me you’ve gone for light grey too? Then it’ll look like it’s had a coat of primer and then they gave up (like lots of new cars round here)
was going to say, looks like undercoat to me. Also read that they don't like bird poo or tree sap either and unless you're on it cleaning it off with a damp rag pretty much as its fresh before it dries hard, gently so as not to flatten the paint in a small local area, then you're screwed. Can't think of a more inappropriate paint finish for a car...goes 100% against what the primary function of paint is. Just is crap on every level...sorry. I get beauty is int he eye of the beholder, but unless you really like the aesthetics so much that you're willing to put in the effort to maintain it then just don't bother.
If you really want the matte finish then maybe buy a colour you can maintain and sell on and wrap it in a matte finish wrap...or as per a Bently Continental knocking around in these parts, a flock or alcantara type of finish. Looks kind of furry. Always reminds me of the dog car in Dumb and Dumber.
Painted my last two vans in matt paint (military vehicle paint from Ebay) Tend to clean them just using a sponge and afew buckets of water, marks quite easy (adds the the 'patina') Would I do it to anything worth decent money though? As much as l love the look, No TBH
Just to add, I’ve got a Peugeot that’s half matte and half gloss - it’s a marmite thing but I love it!
The matte has actually been really easy to look after and clean (I’m a little obsessive with car cleaning!) I just use a pre wash and shampoo with a mitt, then every now and again I use auto glym fast glass on it.
Our local car detailing place said they could do a ceramic coat for £250 but I honestly have need to as it’s pretty tough and easy to work with. I have even touched in a stone chip to my satisfaction!