White Is Never Just White: A Detailed Analysis

Here’s something most repairers don’t realise:
You could be losing hundreds of thousands in profit every year — just because you’re quoting paint jobs without factoring in the real cost of each colour.

Sounds crazy, right? But it happens all the time. Even the most experienced estimators get caught out, because some colours cost way more than others, even if they look nearly identical.

Not convinced? 

Well… at PaintWizz, we’ve analysed over 7,000 real-world paint formulas and found that the cost of materials can vary by up to 92%. That’s not a small discrepancy — it’s a serious margin killer.

Let’s look at this example from popular Toyota colours:

Here’s what we found when analysing white and grey Toyota shades:

Colour	Labour	Material	Total	% Increase
1G3 – Magnetic Grey Metallic	R5,501	R5,369	R10,870	–
040 – Glacier White	R5,501	R5,726	R11,227	+7%
4R8 – Inferno Metallic Orange	R5,501	R6,939	R12,440	+29%
089 – Platinum White Pearl	R6,420	R10,315	R16,736	+92%

The difference in total cost between these colours for an average repair job? As much as 92% or R5,866. 

But here’s the real kicker…On the Platinum White Pearl job, materials make up 62% of the total cost — a huge portion that’s often underestimated or overlooked.

Now…Let’s say your shop handles just 5 paint jobs per day, over 48 working weeks in a year. That’s 1,200 jobs annually.

If you’re quoting every job using an “average” material price, and under quoting high-cost colours by just R1,000 each time (a highly conservative figure), you could be losing R1,200,000 in annual profits — just from under quoting paint!!

The good news… 

Using PaintWizz for all your repairs, will ensure you’re fairly compensated for every paint repair job, potentially saving you thousands. At only R40 per quote, it’s a no brainer