Whenever you buy a new car, you sit in the finance officer's office while he tries to get you to buy a lot of extras like "paint protection." What exactly does a dealer do to your car when you pay about $900 for "paint protection?" The dealer told me I would never have to wax my car again. I didn't buy anything but tax, tags, and title, btw.

 

Typically it's just a teflon coating that is supposed to bond to the paint. It doesn't last any longer than some of the better sealants out there and certainly doesn't look as good.

 

There's nothing "extra" you should buy while sitting at the finance officer's desk. That's where all the haggling you did on the price and all the shopping around you spent time and money on is lost once they upsell you on extended warranty, gap insurance, paint protection, pigeon fodder avoidance plasma, rock chip avoidance halo and a romulan cloaking device for speeding tickets.

All

 

Basically, give me $450 and I'll Zaino the entire car for you- that'd do twice as much good.

 

Its a complex process which begins by bringing the car into the shop. Next the mechanics will take extra special care to ensure that they leave greasy fingerprints all over your door and steering wheel. After that step is complete, they install a special "protection" sticker in the engine bay that reads: "SUCKER". Finally, they return the car to the delivery area, hand you the keys and the salesman gets on the phone to his travel agent to book a Caribbean cruise with the extra $900 he just made.

Craig

 

I have a friend that's been in the body shop for 30 years. He's the exclusive dealership repair for a Honda outlet in Spokane. His opinion on my S paint was ' this crappy thin paint is setting a new standard in crap on a honda'

He was shocked that the passenger cars (more than two seats) were much better than the S.

His words.... "paper thin"

And as a side note. The Berlina BLack.... Isn't really BLACK. It's a black with (believe it or not) WHITE thrown in. He had a hell of a time matching it when the paint started to peal off on the passenger lower rear quarter. He said it was due to improper prep(cleaning) prior to paint application at the factory.

Don't give them $900 to wax your paper paint.

 

Its the finance person who gets paid on it. Not the salesperson.

 

Purple:

This dealer add-on "paint protectant" falls in the category of those magnets (around since my youth in the 50's) you can put on your fuel line that "allign the molecules in the fuel giving "greatly increased power and fuel economy." Or those electric "superchargers" called Turbonators" that are like salvaged units from electric leaf blowers. In other words, snake oil and bull crap. There ought to be a law against such ripp-offs.

The guy who offered to Zaino your car for $450 had the better deal of the two, except you probably can find a good detail shop to do the job for 1/3 of that and probably less. Some of us use a good glaze with a hard carnauba wax on top. For glaze, I use AutoGlym Radiant Car Polish, really a glaze that bears the seal of the Brittish Royal Family. For the topping wax, I use a thin coat of Griot's Garage "Best in Show" wax which is a combination fo carnauba and hardeners. Sealing you paint by my method (1000% better than the dealer's crap) should take you 1/2 hour, and cost you about $45 for enough product to do about 20 S 2000s. And you will be making (or saving) about $1800 per hour. When was the last time you earned that kind of money for working?

Sorry for the scarcasm, but I bought a "dealer paint sealed" car once -- only because this new car already had this on, and it was on sale for about 20% off MSRP! This stuff didn't make it past the second car wash.

Again, I think so little of $900 paint sealant jobs from the dealer that I think they should be illegal, just like if I offered to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.

 

Same as most undercoating and interior fabric protection package. Just a way to clean out your wallet. ("After all, it will only raise your monthly payment by a few pennies.")

When I bought an Si a few years ago I told them I'd wait for the next one and take it right off the truck. They finally talked me into buying the one they had on the lot but only after I made them remove the pin stripes (PIN STRIPES on an Si! ) from both the car and the bottom line, along with the various "protection packages" that mostly just protect the dealer's profit margin.

 

Like one of the user said. It is nothing but a car wash. I work at a dealership (dont ask me which one) and have seen it with my own eyes. The vehicle goes to the detail area and gets washed and thats it. Some dealers call it a uniseal package some call it paint and fabric protection. Its bad business. The only people benifit from this, are the finance guys and ofcourse the owner or the company. Never ever buy this crap. Its useless.