Pre painted body panels from Audi.

[Juntuned]

Always wondered why Auto manufacturers, specifically Audi, couldn't sell pre-painted body panels. doors, bumpers, hoods...... etc, at least during the first 3 years of a vehicles life. What would be the drawbacks to this, other than affecting the body shops? The paint is never the same as OEM.

[kevin#34]

huge stock of parts painted in all the different colors… not so cost-effective for the manufacturer (and probably neither for you)

[Juntuned]

Audi already stocks every single part on all of their cars, of every single model they make, engine components, seats, trim pieces, anything you would need that is defective on your car, can be repurchased at Audi. Why not specifically painted panels? The panels could be painted as ordered, you wouldn't necessarily have to stock "painted" everything. The panels themselves are already being "stocked". Every other isolated part under the sun can be purchased through Audi. It's not like you run to the Auto parts store when one of your trim pieces breaks, you order the part through Audi inventory.

[kevin#34]

I guess that they would not paint just a single part on demand, final price at customer would be astronomical, especially if compared with an ordinary body shop.

[Group_B]

It doesn’t work because paint has to be blended to match the panels on the car, which vary with age, exposure, and variances in production.


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[kevin#34]

also

[JohnEnglish]

It's a lot cheaper to stock 10,000 primed fenders then figuring out how many red, blue, green, etc of each you need to stock and then producing more of a certain color when that stock drops even though you may have tons of another color still. Plus the cost of finishing the fenders. It's a lot cheaper just to stamp and prime it as opposed to painting and finishing.

[Amazonchitlin]

I'd also say that quality control could be an issue. If the paint got scratched in shipping the customer would be more likely to refuse the part, causing even more stock to build up and/or costs to repair it.

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