All these answers are spot on IMHO. I for one always pass on a color change car and as said it's even more costly in the present to correct a car back to original.
The other situation we didn't touch on is a custom color like Viper Red or a Indigo Blue ETC... That makes me not even read the ad!!
Ron

Paint
 

HI it's your car selling ???? you only live once paint it your couloir my 2 cents

I’d say that’s a valid opinion, and I certainly agree that you only live once and enjoy what you have how you want. However the question was how much will you lose and that’s relative to the situation but as a question of average loss across multiple cars I would bet a color change is 20 to 30% of value lost.

Now I’d also say that varies by kind of car a Camaro, Chevy guys tend to care a little less than say Pontiac guys who are purists to the core . (Evidenced by day 2 pervasiveness)

Camaros are. A little harder to document (no phs or marti report ) original equipment and I think that has lended itself To a Little more leniency in many changes.
Although a color is easily present and verifiable on a cowl tag where many other changes may not be quite so in your face.
Just my 02 that’s probably worth .01 or less .

ipdate
 

Hello Shane.
I have a few questiions.
What was the original paint color?
What is the present paint color?
What make and model is the car?
Thank you,
Drew Papsun

Around 2011 I bought a '69 Chevelle SS396 300 Deluxe sport coupe. It was 396/325 automatic on the column.. nothing special. Car was clean and had all of its original drivetrain and was a great driver. Car was originally burnished brown with a champagne painted roof and black interior. About 10 years prior car was repainted red including the roof. They did leave the top moldings in place. It kinda looked like crap so I added a black vinyl top. I sold the car about 3-4 years ago. Though I am not a fan of color changes. I feel in this case it was beneficial when it came time to sell it.

My '67 Elcamino was originally red. Previous owner repainted it black. I like black.... but they should have left it red as red is a good color and original to the car. The Elcamino is a prime example of why I hate color changes. There are spots in the jambs where the black has flaked off and you can see the red. I'll eventually get around to respraying the jambs one of these days.

My perception is:
Color change = good if it's a "run of the mill" car and should add value if popular color chosen
Color change = bad if it's a rare car that is restored factory-correct. Buyers of these cars want it all just like the factory built it. They will either not buy or pay 20%-ish less if not the correct color for the car.

Here's a current example.

A 70 Chevelle L34 396/350 Super Sport. The original color was Cortez Silver (12,959 built) and it's been changed to Fathom Blue (22,388 built) w/ a black vinyl top. The 350hp Chevelle has become coveted in recent years with their prices steadily rising. This one is currently sitting near to 50K on eBay with 16 hours to go...but something tells me the bidding would be stronger if the car was in factory Cortez Silver.

Whatever it sells for, the buyer will now need to appreciate Fathom Blue or go through the expense of stripping the car to repaint all of the jambs and inner structure back to silver if they should decide to correct the car. That's likely a 20K procedure these days.

Note: Silver was a much rarer color according to production numbers noted above

On the flip side, someone who truly prefers fathom blue may be hoping to score this L34 car at reduced costs and may want to leave it that way, and simply enjoy it.

:biggthumpup:

Car in question is a fathom green 325hp convertible 1969 Chevelle SS.

If all the numbers match - ALL components. And the only thing "wrong" with the car is it isn't the original color as seen on the Tag - then that's going to definitely affect the value. IMO - 15%/20%.

What color's the interior?