Do you have a fleet of cars, vans, trucks or SUVs and find they need a little appearance maintenance? Business owners and fleet managers are experts at paying attention to vehicle maintenance—even ensuring vehicles are cleaned inside and out, but what if your fleet is looking a little poorly due to paint fading or scratching?

You can’t “clean” fades or scratches but you can offer all of your fleet vehicles (even if it’s only one) a new look with vehicle graphics and wraps. Your first thought might be to paint your fleet of vehicles but before you do, let’s look at the advantages of wrapping a vehicle over painting a vehicle.

To Paint or Not to Paint?

Your company cars are an asset and through normal wear and tear, they often become dull yet these assets still have a lot of useful life left in them. Many fleet managers and company owners can’t resist the ads of “paint jobs only $500” and often fall prey to these ads only to find out the $500 paint job is not as expected.

Why are these low-cost paint jobs a poor choice? First off, painting a vehicle the correct way so the finish and appearance is of high-quality takes a lot of effort and can be quite costly—much more than $500! Car painting experts will tell you the process to paint a vehicle is labor intensive

First there is the labor cost to properly remove door handles, any ornaments, bumpers, etc.—what the industry calls the “prep” or “tear-down” stage. Next comes the sanding phase to ensure the body of the vehicle is smooth and textured correctly to accept the paint—the sanding phase can be a lengthy labor cost depending on the vehicle and its condition. Once the vehicle is ready for paint you’ll need to consider paint and materials costs—also included in vehicle painting estimates as a labor cost and the average in the car painting industry is approximately $30 per hour for paint and materials.

The paint and materials labor hours do not include the cost of labor to paint the car either—this is an additional labor charge and depending on the expertise of the paint technician, you could be looking at $60 to $70 per hour—even higher in some areas. Once the car is finished in paint, it also requires a clear coat and buffing—you guessed it—more labor charges. Next is the process of reassembling the parts taken off (handles, ornaments, etc.) and finally, a finish detail—both of these are additional labor costs.

The $500 paint jobs skip many of these steps and that is why they are not only cheap, but look it and a bad paint job won’t last long before fading or peeling occurs.

A high-quality paint job using top standards in the industry will come in around the $3,000 or higher range and there is no guarantee the paint won’t fade in a couple years especially if your fleet is exposed to increment weather or lots of sunlight.

The Vehicle Wraps Are Expensive Myth

The price of vehicle wraps has now overcome its dreaded past of being too expensive. This myth has been debunked time and time again especially because many full service vehicle graphics and wrap companies are turning out some excellent vehicle wraps at surprising and affordable prices!

Many of these companies (including Sunrise Signs) offer discounts on fleet wraps. Because fleet wraps can be bulk-discounted, a full wrap costs less averaging around $2,500—less than a high-quality paint job and the wraps last up to five years, are 100 percent removable to protect paint underneath and that means a higher resale value when it’s time to sell company cars or fleet vehicles.

Beyond the lower cost of fleet vehicle wraps over painting, there is consistency. Because vehicle graphics are digitally designed each wrap once printed on the vinyl, will be the same in graphic design and color—even typography.

Vehicle wraps also gain more visual impressions than painted vehicles—one wrapped vehicle can garner between 30,000 to 70,000 visual impressions per day! The graphics they possess are impossible to ignore while traveling the streets and highways of any city or town. To build a brand, your fleet needs to be consistent in design, color, message and logo and vehicle wraps can provide that—a paint job cannot.

At Sunrise Signs, we also quote you one price from design creation to printing the wraps to installing them. There are no hidden labor hours for “extras.” Of course the cost of vehicle wraps may vary due to customer preference in design and the size of the vehicle, but a paint job can only do one thing—offer a newer, cleaner looking vehicle for a short period of time with no message, visuals or brand identity.

Dare to Compare

Because Sunrise Signs are experts at vehicle wraps and graphics we dare you to compare the cost of painting a vehicle vs. wrapping a vehicle. Make sure the paint estimates you receive include all the items (stages/phases) mentioned above and you get your estimate from a well-known and respected auto body and paint company.

Next call us and we bet our company car and fleet vehicle wraps will be cheaper than the paint job and with extra amenities such as announcing your fleet or company vehicle along with turning each one of them into a 24/7 moving billboard advertisement!