As the reign of Nardo Gray draws to a close, automakers need a new paint trend to jump on. Of all things, it seems the industry is moving on to vinyl to fill that niche — paint protection films, which automakers are increasingly using to alter the color of your car without going so far as to paint it. Now, Ford is the latest automaker to jump on the nascent trend.
Ford’s approach, though, is a unique one. While Tesla will wrap your car in a whopping, mantis shrimp-like seven colors, Ford’s $6,000 approach simply adds a satin top coat to your Mustang’s existing paint. The only problem is that satin car paint never ends up looking any good.
Take a look at Ford’s own photos, comparing a satin protection film-coated Dark Horse to a standard Vapor Blue car. The images appear to have been taken without a circular polarizing filter, really playing up the reflected highlights on the glossy car, yet it still looks better than the drab satin finish of the wrapped Mustang.
Vinyl finishes are often (though not always) less reflective than their painted counterparts, but the tradeoff is usually a better color — wrap a gray car bright green, and what you lose in albedo is more than made up for with hue. With the Mustang, all this wrap does is make your stock color less saturated and less shiny. Sure, it’s protected, but at what cost?
Paint protection film is often a worthwhile add to a nice car, but that shouldn’t come at the cost of your paint’s appearance. The whole idea is to keep the car looking nice, right? Why sacrifice its glossy finish, its vibrant colors, just in the hopes that the paint might look better for the next owner?