Yeah they aren't nearly as durable as a quality paint job, but I saw the 300 get covered in about an hour. The cool thing is that if you decide that you're tired of red, you can do blue, or green or keep it off and paint it. Repair is easy as just rewrapping the damaged panel. It has it's benefits and negatives.
I agree that it probably wont look as cool as what you're suggesting with paint. I'll look up the Nova, thanks for the heads up!