Bro,

I have spent $$$ for the past decades to do PPF, Coating etc etc.

My advice: do not waste your hard earned $$$ away on these bs. None is worth the money spent.

Just wash your car, apply some wax and coating yourself periodically is the only way to do.

Do not trust anyone telling you after PPS / Coating = no need to wash car, just hose it down, it is all bs.

You must well keep the $$$ and do respray of your car every few years = looks 100% new again.

the older I am, the more I agree with ur statement. I just spend rm900 for full car coating 3 years ago when the car is brand new, does it work? yes and no. To make it clear and look good, it needs weekly wash. for rm900 maybe for me is ok but there is shop quoted about rm4k-6k for coating, that for me a rip off. Better to put that money for painting on 4th or 5th year to make the car sparkling back.

Again, yes and no in response to the above 2 posts.

Going for a paint respray can cause other problems - costs notwithstanding. For example, they have to remove the doors for a proper spray. When the doors are refitted, the seals may not align properly and you get wind noise. This happened to a classmate’s M3 previously which put him (and me) off the idea of unnecessary resprays.

I suppose very few people will repaint their old cars just to make it look new again although the original paint do not have any major scratches and still look good. People will only respray the car usually only at the part where it is damaged due to accident, or there are major scratches or dents which will require repair and respray.

When the car is already old, say more than 5 years, the interest to spend money on the car to keep its outlook appearance at tip top condition is less already. It's only when it is new up to about 2 years old, then only you try to keep it looking as good as possible since it's new. Everything new you will treasure more, and when it's old it will lose its appeal so you don't pay so much attention to it anymore. With older cars, most people will just focus on the maintenance, less on the appearance since it's old already. Just try to keep it scratch free or accident free is good enough by practicing good parking and driving habits.

Also, most people would have wanted to sell their cars when it's approaching 10 years, and if the original paint is still in good condition it makes little sense to respray the cars. Some even sold their cars earlier in 5 years or earlier. In my mind as long as there are no major scratches on the car, that's good enough.

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Aug 18 2023, 10:20 AM

Depends on usage. Mine mostly outstation work, full of rock chipping, front area, plenty of under sun parking, so faded. No harm for me to put rm2k+ repainting just to make sure it good looking back. Im the one who use car till end of it life, maybe 10 years per change.

I see, understood. Yes agreed it depends on usage. So your vehicle has gone through harsher conditions. My current vehicle although 9+ years still looks good with shiny paint, no major scratches. It's mainly parked indoors most of the time for 8 years. It's only parked under hot sun starting from earlier this year.

Rock chipping, can reduce by keeping a distance from the vehicles in front when on highways.

Coating or PPF, good question. Before spend money on both of it, ask yourself whether u are willing to spend the time and money to take good care of your car exterior. If u willing to do so, will u be consistent or just simply following trend of others.

If u are the kind of always wanna keep your car shiny and willing to spend time and money on it, yes go ahead. But if u are other way round whereby u think spend in a heartbeat to get all it done without maintenance on it then forget it. Don't waste ur money and time.

Lots of people assume that after apply the coating and PPF job done. I don't need to spend so much money and time on car detailing which is totally wrong. Both of this product are good but maintenance needed. Both of them if u don't maintain it as it should, it will give u more headache and spend more money and time on it that's where people feel such a waste on both product.

This post has been edited by popmaster22: Aug 18 2023, 09:58 PM

Agreed. If you normally wash your car once every couple of weeks, you will still need to do the same even with a ceramic coating applied. From what I’ve learned on the Car Care & Detailing thread here, coatings will not magically make your car maintenance-free. It will simply make your regular maintenance easier. Maybe without coating you would need to apply pre-wash first to loosen grime, but with the coating you can just rinse and go straight to shampoo. That’s the main benefit. Some people say coatings also have UV protection to protect paint from yellowing (especially for white cars) but I’m not sure how true that claim is. Also learned that, if you’ve coated your wheels, need to be careful at carwash shops and make sure to tell them not to spray that rim cleaner liquid. The soda content will supposedly kill the coating.

As for PPF, I don’t have enough knowledge to comment. Some people say the protection from stone chips is good to have, but others say it doesn’t really offer much protection and all the self-healing promises are just marketing. They also say PPF will eventually yellow and sometimes even crack and damage paint, and you also have to be careful when using a pressure washer. I was once tempted to PPF the door cups, but now I think I will just buff out scratches once every year or two.

This post has been edited by dev/numb: Aug 18 2023, 10:34 PM

I bought my car 6 years ago and the agent told me they had a promotion for car coating and tinted windows I didn’t know about coating but took the offer as agent told me car would be easier to wash. I didnt wash car regularly and sometimes for a few months. As a result, the are water marks on the car even with the coating. I still don’t regret. Coating keep the car shiny especially after washing. The watermarks are only visible if you are near and look for them. Coating cost about the same as repainting but you got a shiny car all the time whereas for repaining, your car is dull all the time until you repaint. I am planning to recoat my car again and this time would try the carwash2u.

water mark can rub off finger= coating still got
cannot rub off = coating gone le

depend the soap u put during wash too.