I'm not going to believe the car makers are spending anywhere near $10K for a paint job. Even given their production quantities, $4k is way over what they are spending.
I know what it will cost, as I have a friend in the body shop biz, and new paint and clear coat on my 20 year old Tacoma would be $4-7K he said. A few dings in it, but within the last couple of years the clear coat has gone bad and the windblown area at the top of the windshield is getting down through the actual paint.
I doubt it costs the manufacturers more than a couple hundred to paint a vehicle but it's an apples to oranges comparison. They're painted by robots on the production line before anything else is installed. The body panels are brand new and straight from the stamping dies, there aren't any dings to repair. Most of the work for a body shop guy is involved in getting the vehicle back to the stage where the manufacturer started.
