The title phrase for this post was borrowed from another post here. In general I would completely agree with that opinion.
My '08 Grand Prix had a number of fairly big scratches and chips when I got it. So I bought the official GM paint tube with pen & brush, and tried to touch up. It did indeed look like butt! The GM color was close but not a perfect match. Since it was not a 2 -step coat it had a different finish. At most viewing angles it looked too light.
Recently I added a few more scratches in a parking lot. I was thinking about taking it in for some professional paint repair, but the insurance estimate convinced me not to do that. I'm not ready to pay many hundreds of $$ just to fix some chips and scratches.
I did some research on the web, and decided to try a new Duplicolor product, the All in One Repair Kit. It sells for about 15 bucks.
I already had some polishing compound and surface cleaner, so I spent a couple hours working on it today.
The results were not perfect, but a big improvement over before. The Duplicolor paint has the exact same code number as the official GM tube, but Duplicolor is a better match. The duplicolor kit comes with a clear top coat too. I could have done better with the clear coating. I learned it's best to just make one big swipe, don't try to touch it up or smooth it out. Messing with the clear coat only makes it look worse. I may decide to buff it off and try over, but I'll wait a while on that. Overall it does not look bad at all for the money.
