2016 BMW Touch Up Paint (73 OEM Colors)

The 2016 BMW Vibe

Welcome to 2016, the year BMW decided that "too much" was just about right. This was the era of the high-performance F80 M3 and M4, the futuristic i8 looking like it fell off a spaceship, and a garage full of X-series SUVs that basically owned the school drop-off lane. With 73 colors in our database for this year alone, it's clear the factory was feeling adventurous. You had the loudmouths of the bunch, like Austin Yellow Metallic and Yas Marina Blue, leading the charge for the M-division, while the rest of the fleet was draped in sophisticated, multi-layered metallics like Black Sapphire and Mineral Grey. It was a good time to be a Bimmer fan-provided you didn't mind the attention.

Paint Health Check

But here's the cold, hard truth from the spray booth: we are firmly in the Thin Paint Era. By 2016, the factory robots had been tuned to "Maximum Efficiency," which is just a fancy way of saying they got real stingy with the clear coat. While these cars left the showroom with a decent shine, the layers are thinner than a salesman's promise. If you've spent any time on the highway, your front bumper probably looks like it's been through a gravel storm. Between the "Robot Efficiency" thinning out the protection and the notorious factory "orange peel" texture common in this generation, these cars are absolute magnets for stone chips and light swirling.

Restoration Tip

When you're touching up a 2016, you have to respect the thinness of that factory finish. My advice? Build your layers slowly; don't blob it. Because the original paint is so thin, a heavy glob of touch-up will sit on the surface like a sore thumb. Apply your color in 2-3 paper-thin passes, letting it tack up in between. This mimics the way those robots originally laid it down and ensures the metallic flakes in colors like Sakhir Orange or Long Beach Blue actually lay flat and catch the light correctly. If you try to fill a chip in one shot, you'll end up with a dark spot that never looks right. Patience is the only way to beat the robots.