cracked my front bumper cover ... need a new one installed/painted etc. Anyone have experience with Maaco? The guy said he would beat anyone's price in town ... Thats what made me suspicious. You get what you pay for!

 

I took a car to one of their franchises many years ago to be repainted and was very pleased with both their price and their work. However, they ARE franchises and thus only as good as their manager and employees. I would try to find some recent customers of the particular MAACO you're thinking about or check around the place to look at some of their other work. FWIW.

 

I have not been at one of their shops in a while. As I recall I had some body work (rust) and a paint job. It was good for the price, but they did not match the color. Granted this was back in like 1980 where they did not have the sophistication they have now.

 

If you lease and are planning on returning the car anyways, go ahead and use them, they're cheap. If you plan on keeping your car, I would go to a more reputable shop. Remember, you get what you pay for!

 

Ummm...Your going to take your new TL to Maaco?
Are you nuts?

They're fine for a 1992 Oldsmobile but a newer TL??? Yikes!

 

I have had three cars painted at MAACO over the years, all three lookked great for the money I spent. A TL deserves a better paint job than that. Take it back to Acura or to a paint shop that will give you the best paint job to match the paint on your car now.

 

i would say no to the MAACO, a friend of mine went there to have his bumper painted and it did not last the winter, the paint cracked off. he took it back there and they redid it but the quality from what i have seen is not that great.

 

spend the extra $ for a reputable body shop. you have a new car if you had some shitty 80s car then go ahead and take it to maaco.

 

The answer is contained in your initial question. I've been there and respect their work for what it is. Take the TL to a good body shop that can match the paint or leave it as is.

The only thing worse than a bad haircut is a bad paint job on your almost new $35K car. Just say no!

 

Well, let me tell you what i know. They do no prep work @ all. you take the car in, the sscuff it up and paint it. Your lucky if they wash,prepsol or even sand it @ all. Primer, well they will use it sometimes, depends on the one you go to. Masking off windows? AHAH you will be getting overspray, no doubt. Here is my advice. Do the prep work yourself. They do paint very well, but they DO NOT prep. Im speaking from experiance and what ive heard.

 

I have had a few run ins with maaco work at my shop. One guy had them paint his 67 jag, cost him 10k and the car turned out pretty nice (shitty overspray on the underbody though...bad prep work, as mentioned in a previous thread). Another lady went there to paint her 87 camaro and they messed it up really bad...drip marks all over...but it only cost her 300 for the whole car. You get what you pay for (i know i know its been said) but thats the truth to it. The sense that I have is that they treat the customers cars like shit.

 

i woulndt have them paint my car.... unless its a beater and you want to freshin it up....

as long as its just the bumper there wont be any problem with rust or such (as the bumper is plastic) and if your not keeping the car long term...

but i agree with subinf, you get what you pay for. if it was me i would have acura fix it.... whats th difference in price? have you even looked?

 

the differance in price? My bro has an 03 jetta. And he had the BLAC valances under the front/rear bumper painted to match the car(silver) I think the dealer told him $250-300) So for a bumper...Wich is going to be a lot more paint, im gona say they wil charge 500-600$? call and ask man.

 

I honestly did a double-take when I read this post. Taking your TL to Maaco? I wouldn't let them paint my Kubota lawn tractor! Maybe some people don't love their TL like I do but damn, it's not a Kia Sephia you're driving!

 

Boy do I have a story for you.... But let me preface that with: Stay the hell away from Maaco, as if it were the plague!

When in high school, I went to take my 68 Chevelle to get painted at Maaco. As a previous poster said, they do absolutely no prep work, so we prepped the car ourselves.

We bring car in, and get it painted. When we pick up the car, there were fish eyes and bubbles all over the trunk and rear quarter panels. The sign on their window says satisfaction gauranteed. So we had them do it over again.

We pick it up again. Looks marginally better... However, after a few days, the paint bubbled and fisheyed with a vengeance. So we bring it back again. We go to pick it up again, and there are still fisheyes and bubbles all over the car. This time, they say the car can't be painted, because of the materials used to weld the C-Pillar to the rest of the car. They refused to paint the car. They said they are sick and tired of spending money out of their own pocket. They didn't care about their, "Satisfaction Gauranteed" advertising.

Needless to say, we decided to get a lawyer. Once we started the ball rolling, Maaco painted the car again. (4 times now). After about a month or 2, the not only did the paint bubble and fisheye, it started peeling, and oxidizing. They still could not get it right, and they refused to do anything about it this time. After our lawyers talked to them, they refunded all of our money.

The paint would seriously fade every month, such that you would need to use rubbing compound to bring it back to life. A while later I got rearended by a guy doing 45mph. Dealer repainted the trunk and quarter panels. They asked us who painted the car before, because it was a pain in the arse to match. To get it to match, they had to paint practically the whole car. I think the only thing they didn't paint was the hood and front fenders.

Dealer's paint job looked flawless. It was pristine. 15 years later, and it's still pristine actually. Too bad what's left of Maaco's paint looks like crap. If my dad kept the car, I would've gladly have taken it, and done a proper make over. (as well as fully restore it... If only we had the money back then that we do now)

 

Like one of the other posters said, they are franchises and it depends on the manager and the techs. I used Maaco twice in the last couple of years. The first was to paint an after market spoiler I got for my old 2000 Monte Carlo. When I picked it up there was some noticable flecks in the paint. They told me they couldn't totally buff it out because it wasn't attached to something. I bought that and came back a couple of weeks later once I had it mounted on the car. Everything was perfect after that.

The second time was when I accidentally backed into the cement pillar in my garage. I had a nice scrape down the right rear quarter panel. Maaco had to paint the entire part because they were worried about matching and fading, especially with the clearcoat. They had it done in a few days and all was good. I found the paint jobs at both places to be as good as the profesional shop that the Acura dealer recommended when I wrecked the front of the car.

Joe