Does anyone have any experience ordering a car from the MFR rather than just seeing what’s available at the dealership?
I’m not quite in the market yet but I’m looking at cars and I hate that everything is white, silver or gray. The only cars that come in ‘interesting’ colors are on the lower end.
Can you order a car in a color that isn’t standard for that particular model? Like, for example, get a ford escape in a color that is normally available on a ford focus?
No
the 2015 Ford Escape is available in these colors:
Deep Impact Blue
Ingot Silver
Karat Gold
Magnetic Oxford White
Ruby Red Metallic Tinted Clearcoat
Sunset (maroon)
Tuxedo Black
White Platinum Metallic Tri-Coat
Only about half of those meet your desires. But you can always have it repainted by a local body shop – cost will be around $2,000.
Some manufacturers will allow you to pick any color from anywhere in their lineup, or from a custom color you provide details of. Those tend to be the more expensive manufacturers though. I know Porsche and BMW will do that. I also have heard it’s a pain in the ass.
When you buy the truly elite models, they will paint them any color you want. Some of the Veyrons have shipped with shudderingly awful colors and color combos, and it seems that most of the top-end Porsches are some subtle variant of a standard color - purples seem big, for some reason.
Yes, but it will depend on both the manufacturer and dealership, as well as the time of year. I highly doubt you wouldn’t be able to order a 2015 model from anybody right now, as factories are finishing up their 2015 year production and will switch to 2016 models, and in fact have probably already done so for many models.
I ordered a Subaru Legacy in the color I wanted and with the exact options I wanted. The dealership was glad to do it, and told me it would take 4 to 12 weeks, as it would depend on when the Indiana factory was running production on the color I wanted and could work in the options. As it turned out, it was delivered to my dealer in 4-5 weeks. Not all brands and stores are willing to let you order a car. But most will search a reasonable distance for one at other stores that matches your desire.
Having said that, the other factor is price. Most dealerships want to sell you a unit sitting in their parking lot. Next best option is one available from another store that they can trade with. Third best is letting you order one. The pricing on these options often goes from low to high. My dealership was very reasonable, and they promised me the negotiated price no matter which way I went. I appreciated that, and I realize they don’t like the 4-12 week delay because people are fickle, and anything could happen during the wait period - job loss, personal crisis, change of mind, etc.
I would highly doubt it, because different models are made at different factories, or at least during different production setups.
I have never done this but I would think you would have to work through the dealership regardless, and not order from the factory (except for maybe Tesla, which takes orders direct).
My experience has been that dealers will honor a price, plus shipping, for any car they can locate within the dealer or manufacturer inventory system. That seems fair to me - someone has to pay to transport the car from one region to another.
Odds are the car you want, or one you would accept, is in your dealer’s region already. About the only exception I can think of is one fitted for special conditions not normally sold in your area (cold weather packages, for example, in the southwest, or extra cooling and tinting in the northern midwest, or such). But colors? There’s one around near you.
Rolls-Royce will also customize your car (although being British, they call it “bespoke”). You can get your monogram stitched into the headrest leather and get the car painted to whatever shade you want.
BMW has the “BMW Individual” program, and some other high-end automakers have similar deals. You can have them match the color of your favorite t-shirt, if you want – but you will pay dearly, and you will be waiting awhile.
In general normal people terms, you can only get the colors they make that model in, period, even if they have that color available on other models. This stuff is all automated now, and doing one car in a different color just isn’t going to happen. If you like a color that’s actually available, have your dealer do a search if you have trouble finding a car locally in the color you want…only order a car if you need to, because it can take awhile.
And whoever mentioned a $2000 paint job, ehhhhh. A brand-new car at least wouldn’t need much in the way of bodywork, but you’d probably have close to that amount in materials alone for a truly professional job.
The trend in colors (or should I say lack thereof) in new cars seems to be getting a little silly to me…an Audi A3 is available in 13 colors - great, right? - well, NINE of them are variations of black/grey/silver/white…
Ferrari gives you a large choice of leathers for the interior. But that’s what I would expect for a $100k and up car.
Materials wouldn’t be that much but $2k is about the minimum I’ve seen for a complete paint job on a simpler car. That would be for disassembly, materials, paint labor, and reassembly. Anything less than that and you’ll have a blue car with red door jambs and engine compartment and all the trim will have a hard line where it was taped off and painted around.
go look at the available colors for the Mercedes S-Class. four blacks, four silvers, two whites, and a few dark blues which might as well be black.
One of my friends has a Telsa Roadster. Because they had a roadster and they were early investors in Telsa they were allowed to get a custom paint color on their model S which was one of the first few to be delivered. Based on what a huge pain in the ass that was they told us that Tesla said they won’t do custom paint colors again.
In general there’s a lot fewer options nowadays. Maybe now you have “Standard”, “Limited”, “Driver Convenience” Technology", "Off Road’. And a lot of things that were options are now standard, like Air Conditioning. You can’t check off every little thing like vanity lights and cigarette lighter. So you’re more likely to find a car that you want in the dealer’s network.
that’s because each individual paint color has to be individually tested for robustness and compatibility. Things like film adhesion or Taber testing. The prettiest paint color in the world is useless if incompatibility with the primer means it flakes off in a few years.
Talk to Cessna (the airplane people) about color coats and primers.
When the “Wet Look” urethanes came out, they were told to use a epoxy-based primer.
The primer require 24 hours to dry.
They decided to use the old water-based primer (dries in 12 hours) with the urethane color coat.
Those planes are now junk - I saw a 172 that had just been pushed down a slope at the back of a lot.
There are actually two different things going on here:
You can order any “stock” color that is used on other models built at the same factory. Getting a color from a lesser model requires less hassle than getting a color from a more expensive model. Your dealer needs to know how to work with BMW and their contact at BMW has to be in a good mood. This generally doesn’t take longer once the car is in production - the delays are from getting BMW to process the order.
BMW Individual lets you order any color, stock or not, along with custom color trim, leather, etc. There are also things available that don’t exist on any regular model, like a cigar humidor in the center console. Traditionally BMW Individual was not available in the US without major effort (I have an Individual car, but without the humidor). They have become somewhat more flexible, but true one-off options are still rare in the US. It has been stated in the past that the reason for this is most states in the US require deposits to be fully refundable. So if someone orders a car with Barney Purple paint, lime green leather seats and orange wood trim, the dealer has to take (and pay for) it from BMW, but the customer doesn’t have to buy it. These orders can take more time, depending on how custom the options are. There are actually standard Individual parts (in Group 91) and then there are true one-offs without part numbers. BTW, the ugly car configuration I listed above is actually composed of Group 91 parts, not true custom ones.
The more expensive or rare a car is, the more likely it is that you can order custom colors. My Atom has custom colors for both the body panels and the frame (it is an exoskeletal car). The body panels are Wildberry Metallic (a mid-90’s Eagle color) and the frame is Pearlescent Lounge Gray which is a custom color of my own design. The manufacturer didn’t save the formula for the frame powdercoat, and when they discovered the car was ordered with a rollbar, they had to ship the frame back to the powdercoater to have it matched. Having learned this lesson, I had them give me a 2 lb bag of the powder to be used for any future touch-ups.
My brother graduated with degrees in statistics and chemistry. After a stint in the military, he worked for BASF in a paint lab. He literally watched paint dry.
