Does anyone have experience of 'wrapping' a car in vinyl instead of a respray? Only  thinking about it right now but as I don't plan on buying another car it is something I'm considering as the car is showing its age with stone chips etc.which will only get worse. In theory it looks good and seems to not look like a car in a carrier bag! 

Yes, I have quite a lot of experience.

 

Good and bad.

 

First, you need a reputable wrapper.

A bad one will do a bad job and possibly damage the car paint underneath using a knife to cut the wrap to fit the panels.

A good company will protect the car, partially strip it when doing the work and the finish will look like a respray until you get close.

 

They will last 2 or 3 years on average.

Ignore the "life" of the wrap because it'll start to look a bit tatty in places before the 5+ years are up.

 

Here is my second wrap, you can see the damage caused by the first...

 

Thank you very much for your answer, very much appreciated, I'll probably give it a go when the time's right, should be a good value move instead of a re-spray, if only to see what it's like and maybe save a shed load of money. I'll let people know how I went on. Denis ><>

I'm quite tempted by this ... I really like the yellow color that you can get fabias, octavias and rapids in ... but no yellow roomsters :( Mine's a mid blue that I quite like but still, Yellow, y'know, it beckons ...

For cost, the wrap on my GT-R was around £1,700.

 

Just for info.

A good wrap is not cheap.