BERLIN: "A customer can have his car painted any colour he wants, as long as it’s black," Henry Ford famously once said. Almost 100 years later, the days of Ford’s legendary T-model are long gone, and these days, the paint manufacturer BASF Coatings alone offers more than 600 shades of paint finishes.

And yet it seems that's not enough choice for customers. When buying a new car, you are offered the choice of both the specific colour and the type of paint you want. While manufacturers’ standard offerings have come to include established solid, metallic and pearl-effect lacquers, there are also many more effects and types of paint available. So what are the differences?

For starters, the paint has a protective function. Each type of car paint has several layers, which serve as protection from rust and light. What’s visible from the outside is the basecoat, which usually consists of colour pigments and - depending on the type of paint – any additional effects.

"On top of that comes a clear coat," explains Mark Gutjahr, head of design at BASF Coatings. This layer is added to provide extra UV protection, while also protecting against tree sap and bird droppings and offering better wash resistance.



Solid paint finishes have no effect pigments and are usually the cheapest option, as they often come at no extra cost – albeit in a limited selection of colours. The VW Golf, for example, currently only comes in one colour at no extra charge: Urano gray.

More pigment-intensive colours like red are more expensive in solid finishes. VW’s tornado red, for example, will cost buyers an extra US$275.

Demand also plays an important role. "Dark colours such as gray, black and blue, as well as silver metallic, are among the most frequently chosen," says Christian Buhlmann from VW. Tornado Red, for example, is usually ordered for specific models, such as the GTI sports series. Meanwhile, the compact 308 from Peugeot is cheapest when ordered in Hurricane Gray.

Peugeot and VW each charge about US$700 extra for metallic paint. In this kind of paint, aluminium particles are added to the base coat to provide a metallic shine in sunlight. "Due to the refraction of light, we see glimmering on the body," says Gutjahr. This offers extra optical emphasis to the car’s contours and works especially well with light, silver tones.

In contrast, pearlescent coatings have a softer shine and have richer colours thanks to added particles. In the case of a red basecoat, for example, orange particles can be added to cause the paint to change colours under certain light. For those who want very vibrant, bright colors, Gutjahr recommends a solid or pearlescent finish. "If I want to see the car’s contours better, then I'd go with a metallic paint," he explains.



But there are many more effect finishes. There's matte paint, which means a car with a final matte coat instead of a glossy varnish. Then there's paint with a so-called "flip-flop effect" that refracts the light differently depending on the angle, thus showing different colours. That means a red area on a car’s finish might appear green in the right light.

For a deep black car, automotive expert Christoph Petzoldt advises solid block paint, which is usually cheaper than metallic or pearl effect variants. It also looks better than a metallic black paint, but is more susceptible to marks and scratches.

And what’s the best way to look for colours – in a carmaker’s brochure or an online colour configurator?

"Go and see the original in the dealership," says Gutjahr. "Photos do not show how the effect comes off."

You should be able to look at the paint close up and at a distance. If the car doesn’t have the desired colour pattern at the dealership, buyers should ask for additional paint samples.

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