I purchased a new Cadillac in June 2005 and a month later it was
dinged on the left rear quarter panel.  This resulted in a small dent
and also the paint chipped down to the prime coat in an area about the
size of a dime.  When I picked the car up after being repaired, I was
informed that the left rear door and left rear quarter panel had
previously been painted.  The paint is a three stage paint that is
white, grey, or gold depending on the angel from which is it viewed. 
When I contacted the dealer I was advised that the car was received
with defective factory paint on the left rear door and they had the
door and quarter panel repainted.  I was not informed of this when I
purchased the car and I would not have purchased the car had I been
told of the after market paint job.  Intuitively I believe that a
factory paint job is far superior to an after market paint job and my
past experience with cars that have been repainted is that the after
market paint chips more easily than factory paint.  I am negotiating
with the dealer and need to know any references that I could use to
show the difference in factory vs after market paint and specifically
any references that indicate after market paint is more prone to
chipping that factory paint.  Am concerned that another ding will also
result in chipped paint.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 03 Nov 2005 06:56 PST

dick1010-ga,

One reference you can use is the Kelly BlueBook resale value of the car.

A car in "excellent" condition has never had a paint job.  Since your
car had a paint job before it even left the dealership, it wasn't in
excellent condition, and could never be resold as in excellent
condition.

The difference between Kelly values for your car in "good" and
"excellent" condition would be the right starting point, I would
think, for negotiating with your dealer.

Does that help?

pafalafa-ga

While I have no sources at this moment, I believe if you check you
will discover that factory paint is baked on, that is, it is cured
hot, whereas repaint of course cannot be.

When I bought a car cover for my mini-van, the cover instructions
explicity said not to put the cover on repaint, because it will be
damaged.

Depends on the quality of after market paint job only. After market
painter CAN reach equal or even better quality than factory! But it is
difficult to find such a professional...
Tom, Czech republic, 
(over 10 years experience with both factory and aftermarket paint jobs)