I have had mine since October, and the black becomes badly pitted and chipped near the wheels and all along the panels under the doors. If you paint this area it will look horrible in one month. The aero kit and some other aftermarket body panel accessories provide matching body painting in these areas, but if you look, they have redesigned the wheel area so that debris no longer hits this area under the doors and wheel wells. I think BMW made this area black plastic for a good reason.