Ok, MAACO can in theory do an alright job. Show quality? Heck no!! Maybe the painter can do that good of a job, but there is no way your gonna get that good of a paint job for a couple hundered dollars.
Honestly people, come on. The "I want a cheap paint job, why do "real" shops cost so much?" crap gets old. If even half of you realized how much G.D. work goes into doing a good/show quality job you would be "upset" with people as well. It takes about a day or 2 just to tear the car down for a full re-spray! thats potentially 16 hours of work just to remove everything that needs to be off BEFORE THE CAR IS EVEN SANDED! Maaco's full price is less than the labor to do that in some cases.. Then all of the sanding begins... all of the dings/dents pulled and straightened. Then the car gets blocked out to make sure its perfectly straight. then primer.. then more blocking/straightening... still.. no paint yet. at this point there is probably 25-40 or more man hours into the car (from my own experience, and depending on the condition of the car). Still no paint yet! After everything is perfect, prepped and cleaned the masking begins.. this alone takes a few hours for a full car. Ok, now after all of that you can paint the car.. that takes about a day or so. OK, the car is out of the paint booth. Now comes the wetsanding and the buffing.. another day or 2 here for best results.. Lot of time huh? Tell me you can do that for a couple hundred bucks...
Yes a good paint job is expensive. The shop I work for STARTS at $2500 for a full re-spray (the same color) that includes ZERO bodywork. That is an additional charge. Heck, just to do a full re-spray/color change to my car this winter im effectivly paying $5K, and im doing all of the bodywork all of the sanding, teardown and everything else. Thats, basically, how expensive it is to have the painter in the booth plus some extra for his time. Granted I am spending extra time at the shop and trading labor, for labor and materials to "pay" my debt. Yes the shop uses good paint and its rather expensive so that jumps the price up, but still.. please.. be REALISTIC people.
Oh and ND4SPD, was your car painted with PPG paint (if you know)? From what I know/have seen PPG has a tendancy to chip rather easily as well as develop tiny bubbles where the solvent remained trapped in the paint and "popped" it.
Im not trying to vent at anyone in particular, but please people, develope an understanding of what has to be done for a correct, and good paint job if you are looking into getting paint work.