I'm looking for some feedback on vehicle wraps and how they are perceived by potential owners, current owners and how it might affect the resale value of the vehicle as an option to a respray. I am not sure where to post this topic in reviewing the different forum areas. The vehicle I have is a 3G Acura TL type S.

 

Thread moved from AcuraZine User Help, Support & Suggestions Area to Car Talk due to general nature of the topic.

 

With a wrap, it can be undone as it's only vinyl. And in this day and age, vinyl technology has come along way. It is more breathable than of yesteryear .
With that said, no chance of hurting resale value, as you can take off vinyl.


You can completely change the color of the car, or you can do wild patterns, or you can even do anime characters!!!

There's just so much creative ways you can express with vinyl.

 

Why are you thinking about wrapping vs respraying? Is it to cover up clear coat/paint failure? If I was looking at a used car and saw that it or a part of it was vinyl wrapped, I'd question why it wasn't removed prior to being put up for sale. Is the owner/seller trying to cover something up?

 

I would pay less for a used car that was wrapped vs. one that's been resprayed well. They still can't beat the gloss and longevity of a clear coat.

As a potential buyer, if you wrap a car a solid, "regular" colour (i.e. a black, red, or blue or something) I'm thinking there is an issue with the paint underneath you want to cover up in a cheaper manner than a respray. If the rest of the car is fine, I would still buy it - at a lower price.

Flip side, as an owner it makes fine sense if the car is cheap enough that dropping four digits on a respray isn't feasible. I looked into wrapping my car a while ago.

 

Have vinyls come far enough where you could peel it off after a year or so, and the factory paint would still look as good as it did brand new? I remember a lot of concern years ago about vinyls (along with clear bras) affecting the car in that way.

 

Precisely. The clearcoat failed which is common with black (mine is nighthawk blue or whatever it's called). I'm considering a wrap in dark grey or black matte as opposed to spending $5k for a quality respray. Nothing to cover up.

 

How much would it cost you to have a pro do a quality full car wrap, $2,000? $3,000? Or are you planning to do it yourself? Is your car a daily driver? If so, the wrap will probably last you, what, 5 years? Maybe 7 years? How long do you plan to keep your 2007 TL-S?

$5,000 for a quality full car paint job can easily last more than 7 years. If you ever plan to sell the car, it'll be easier to find a buyer for a painted car vs a vinyl wrapped car. You'll also be able to get more for a painted car vs a vinyl wrapped car too. It goes back to what I said before, if I saw your 2007 TL-S up for sale and noticed that it was vinyl wrapped, I'd want to know why it's wrapped, and if it's because of clear coat/paint failure, I'd either pass on the car or would pay at least $1,000 to $1,500 less than if its paint was in good condition. In the end, the difference between a paint job vs vinyl wrap is what, $1,000 to $2,000?

And if you have to wrap the car a 2nd time for whatever reason, you'd be paying more.

 

oh....
so he wants to fix his car and not display creative patterns....
why didnt op say this in the first place!???

 

I think I would wrap the vehicle only if I did it myself, I don't wanna pay 3-4k for that, and that seems to be a going rate around me. Even just getting the materials it's close to 1k. So I would od it if it was absolutely necessary

 

I could see the other side of the issue, vis-a-vis resale.

If the paint is in poor shape, it will affect what one will pay for the car; true. But if the seller/owner was not looking to invest any more in paint, putting a vinyl wrap will be a fairly quick, cheap, and effective way to get it looking sorted for a period of time (however long vinyl wrap can be expected to last).

If in the future, they were to sell, they could remove the wrap and still have a factory original, albeit worn condition, vehicle. It would presumably *maintain* the condition without allowing it to get worse over time.

 

Also, it depends on the condition of the 'failed' clearcoat. If it's peeling/flaking, you'd have to add in some time/$$ for prep work, as I imagine a wrap isn't going to go well onto peeling/cracked paint/clearcoat.

 

if you got in an accident with your wrapped car, you wouldn't have to do any painting on your replacement bumper....just wrap and go.

 

my buddy was doing $1500 wrap specials.

 

wrapped their toliet seat at the shop gold

 

That drippy paint one looks pretty cool.

 

Piss off a S.O., and you can get it done for free.

 

What are they charging now?

 

i think +500 more

so $2k depending on how large vehicle is and if you want any other special shit done, like the green/teal m3

 

that's the shop owners car.

"HellaWetDips"

they came from cali but settled in Houston

 

DAMN!! That's pretty cheap actually. But I guess this is much cheaper in states since everyone does it, it seems. Where I live there are 3-4 places that do good job, and prices are around 3-4k, depending on the size of the car it can get up there to 5-5.5k. Seems completely dumb to pay that much money for something like that. Unless you're loaded and wrap your whole new 100k+ car in clear bra.

 

when I met the dude, he had just purchased/rented the warehouse/shop. he does a great job and I suppose its a marketing thing. get his name out there with GREAT work at very great price!
he'll vinyl your roof all day for $100.

when I'm bored on the weekends, I sometimes just go over and chill at the shop.

 

Be cool to do a TL in the chameleon color of say a TVR, i think HellaWet did something like than on a Tesla didnt they??

 

funny enough, I met our very own VR1 from the 2nd gen TSX side at the shop...he randomly showed up to get his grille vinyled

 

wheres your yerrow fog lights

 

lost them in a curb accident

 

wtf I thought you had the aspec type-s front Justin...

 

that is type-s no ?

 

 

shiet, didnt see the "aspec" part.

lol no, never got the lip kit

 

you may be correct, I believe Hellawetdips is a front runner in "plastidip and wrap" technology.

they've done some crazy cars for some local houston athletes

 

damn autocorrect....hellawettits is NOT a car wrap site.....

 

here is another one of their $1500 specials
Matte aluminum grey by 3M 1080 series.

 

Damn. That looks nice. Very tempting.

 

^they wrapped a Honda Accord with an Electric blue wrap. pretty suite way to change up the color of your car.

 

 

Nice wrap but damn I hate both the heads and tails on the new IS 250/350s...

 

^must have been "hella' hard to wrap those curves

 

I love the heads/tails..


you kno which tails i hate... the ones from the new Prius.. whoever designed those needs to retire... they're blind.

 

Those wraps looks incredible and the Prius tails look TERRIBLE, IS has grown on me.