Fifth Gear was investigating the car wrapping trend and asked Bromley-based Creative FX, which has 13 staff, to create a finish that would be impossible to replicate using paint. The company used 3M Chrome and 1080-series carbon fibre materials and wrapped the car using a hot gun and laser thermometer.

It took Creative FX a day to wrap the Metro, which was originally blue.

The car was placed on auction site eBay after it had been wrapped and sold for £440.

Presenter Jonny Smith said: "It’s convinced me this is not a DIY job, not on your nelly. It’s very easy to get it wrong and there’s a fine line between good and crap, especially with chrome.

"What came across was the attention to detail; I’ve seen some vinyl wrapping before but never a full wrap. I was blown away by the professionalism. These guys are used to wrapping the top marques but even though this car was a bit of a laugh, it didn’t stop their dedication to the job and they made it absolutely as good as it can be."

Creative FX has worked on a series of high profile projects recently; it chrome-wrapped a Skoda that broke the world record for the fastest ever two-litre car at Bonneville in August and wrapped a car for Elton John that was sold in a charity auction in June.