What does this cost in your state?
California is the costliest state and Arkansas the cheapest; each square shows that state's midpoint of the estimate.
Lower-cost states ($352)MiddleHigher-cost states ($448)
What it shows: CA is the highest at $448 and AR the lowest at $352, across 51 states.
Counts below are complaints filed with NHTSA, not failure rates: a longer bar means more owners reported it.
Is your car affected?
What it shows: The most common band for complaints about this repair is 3-5 years (38%). The biggest difference from all complaints is under 3 years old: 23% against 40%.
Is it urgent, and what do owners notice first?
628 owner complaints name this part.
What owners describe. Recall mentioned: 12%; Dealer could not fix or repeat repair: 4%.
Owners say the dealer could not fix or repeat the problem. If it comes back after a repair, ask what was tested before you pay again.
How fast were owners driving when it happened?
55 mph or faster leads at 51%.
Owners reported it most often at highway speed. Tell the shop what speed it happens at, because that narrows the diagnosis.
Which model years show up most in the complaints?
Among the 628 owner complaints naming this part that state a model year, complaints cluster in a few model years instead of spreading evenly.
What it shows: 2016 is the largest at 121 (19%); the smallest shown is 2025 at 2 (0%).
Have prices for this kind of repair been rising faster than other car costs?
In the BLS consumer price index for U.S. cities, prices for motor vehicle body work are up 41.7% since December 2019, against 74.2% for motor vehicle repair and 55.2% for maintenance and repair overall (latest reading 2026-07).
Consumer prices since December 2019: motor vehicle body work against motor vehicle repair. Motor vehicle body work: +41.7%; Motor vehicle repair: +74.2%; Motor vehicle maintenance and repair: +55.2%.
How much of a repair bill is labor and how much is parts?
In the 2017 Economic Census, auto body, paint and interior shops took 52.5% of their repair revenue from labor charges and 47.5% from parts installed, close to the 51.0% labor share of all auto repair shops (U.S. Census Bureau, national, 35,516 shops).
| Shop type (NAICS) | Labor charges | Parts installed | All revenue of the shop type | Establishments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Automotive body, paint, and interior repair and maintenance | 52.5% | 47.5% | $38.7 billion | 35,516 |
| Automotive repair and maintenance (all shop types) | 51.0% | 49.0% | $115.3 billion | 162,185 |
| Automotive mechanical and electrical repair and maintenance | 50.4% | 49.6% | $54.9 billion | 92,088 |
Which U.S. counties get hail that damages cars?
NOAA Storm Prediction Center logged hail of 1 inch or larger most often in El Paso County, CO, Pennington County, SD and Sedgwick County, KS, about 40.9 reports a year from 2000 to 2024, against 1.5 in the median U.S. county; reports also reflect where people live to see and call in hail.
What it shows: El Paso County, CO is the largest at 40.9, followed by Pennington County, SD at 37.4; the smallest shown is Ford County, KS at 19.2.
Has the maker published a fix?
A bulletin is a repair procedure a maker sends its dealers, not a safety defect: if your maker is listed, ask the dealer whether one covers your car and quote its number.
| Maker | Vehicles | Bulletin number | Date | What it says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toyota | Tacoma 2016–2022 | T-SB-0099-24 Rev1 | Jan 17, 2025 | Some 2016 2022 model year Tacoma vehicles with Super White (040) paint may exhibit paint peeling along the exterior window door frames, inner fender edges under the hood, and/or A-pillars. |
| Toyota | Tacoma 2016–2022 | T-SB-0099-24 | Oct 22, 2024 | Some 2016 2022 model year Tacoma vehicles with Super White (040) paint may exhibit paint peeling along the exterior window door frames and/or inner fender edges under the hood. |
| Honda | Accord 2024 | ATI&08072024905 | Aug 8, 2024 | Dealer Message - American Honda Motor Co., Inc. |
| Toyota | Tacoma 2016–2022 | 23TE08 | Oct 26, 2023 | DP: Toyota has received some reports of paint peeling along the exterior door window frames and front inner fenders under the hood on certain Tacoma vehicles with 040 Super White paint color. |
| Jeep | Compass 2021–2023 | 2305423 | May 13, 2023 | Paint Peeling on Front Bumper The customers may complain about paint peeling on the front bumper on vehicles with polar white color paint. |
| Cadillac | XT4 2019–2023 | 20-NA-074 | Mar 6, 2023 | This service bulletin provides repair information to correct a customer concern of the front fascia paint chipping at headlamp opening. |
54 more bulletins name this part; the car finder at the top checks yours, and the NHTSA bulletin file linked below lists them all.
Manufacturer warranty extensions naming this part (1)
| Maker | Vehicles | Date | Notice number | What the maker extended |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyundai | Elantra 2015–2018; Palisade 2020–2023; Santa FE 2019 and 3 more | Sep 9, 2026 | Z05 OL | Factory-applied white paint peeling or bubbling on exterior body panels. |
What do owners say?
4 complaints quoted word for word, each with its NHTSA number.
The car has around 40,000 miles on it, and I have paint peeling issues on the hood and the roof.
Significant paint peeling on the roof of the vehicle on both driver and passenger side was reported to Honda prior to 36k miles.
The paint is defective , the clear coat is peeling off a lot of scratches all over the body of the vehicle in many places .the is 2020 and has less than 1400 miles.about 6 months old garage kept .
2019 mazda cx-9 soul red, paint chipping under 30,000 miles.
Check your car
Car scratch repair cost is $220–$590 for a scratch through the color coat at a shop charging $120 an hour. Depth moves the price most, then shop type and vehicle class.
What does the car scratch repair cost estimate cover?
The estimate covers one scratch repaired at the stated labor rate: sanding, paint and clear coat where the depth needs them, plus parts and materials. It assumes an economy car at the default shop.
It leaves out dents, rust that has already spread under the paint, and scratches that cross a panel edge into the next panel. Those turn a spot repair into a panel repair. Ask the shop whether the quote is for the scratch or for the whole panel.
How does scratch depth change the car scratch repair cost?
Depth decides the number of steps. A clear coat scratch can be polished, while deeper damage needs paint matched and sprayed. Each row changes only the depth from the default.
| Scratch depth | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Clear coat only, fingernail slides over | $110–$270 |
| Color coat, the default | $220–$590 |
| Primer damage, gray primer visible | $390–$1,080 |
| Bare metal, rust risk | $660–$1,720 |
Bare metal is the one to act on quickly. Steel starts to rust once it's exposed, so a repair that waits turns into a repair plus rust work.
How do shop and vehicle change the car scratch repair cost?
Shop type changes the rate. An independent shop at about $100 an hour is $200–$550 for the default scratch, and a dealership at about $175 an hour is $275–$700.
Vehicle class matters because luxury and truck paint costs more to match. An SUV or truck is $235–$642, and a luxury or performance car is $270–$765. Pearl, metallic and tri-coat colors sit at the high end, since the shop has to blend them into the next panel.
Can you fix it yourself, and when should you not?
You can try a polish on a clear coat scratch. It's the only depth where removing paint isn't part of the fix, so the downside is small if the scratch doesn't catch your fingernail.
Don't DIY anything that shows gray primer or bare metal, or a scratch on a leased car. A bad touch-up usually costs more to undo than the original repair. Get one quote first and compare it with the table.
How do you get a fair quote for scratch repair?
Ask the shop what depth it sees and whether it will blend the paint into the adjoining panel. Ask whether the price covers the clear coat and whether the work is warrantied.
Then run the same scratch through the calculator with your shop type and vehicle. A quote that's well above the top of your range, for a scratch you can describe by depth, is worth a second opinion.
Sources
Data shown on this page
- NHTSA owner complaint file (2015-2019 · 2020-2024 · 2025-2026) file downloaded 2026-10-05
- NHTSA service bulletin file (2015-2019 · 2020-2024 · 2025-2026) file downloaded 2026-10-05
- CalcScrape calculator model scaled by BEA Regional Price Parities data from 2024
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average file downloaded 2026-07
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 Economic Census, Other Services, revenue from labor charges and parts installed (EC1781LABOR) file downloaded 2017 data, published 2021
- NOAA Storm Prediction Center, Severe Weather Database (hail reports 1955-2024); county land area from the Census Gazetteer file downloaded 2025 (file covers through 2024)
Terms: US government data, public domain.
Observed: records as filed; owner reports are unverified and are not failure rates. Modeled: our estimate, not a quote.
What is our own estimate
The price range comes from our calculator's formula. Its parts prices, labor hours per job and shop-rate tiers are CalcScrape estimates, not a published price dataset. Not independently checked: no established price guide publishes a general range for this exact job (looked 2026-10-06), so the default has no outside comparison. Methodology