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With so many paint protection products on the market our customers often ask which product is the right one for them. We get it, it’s tough to know which one to choose. In this article we will guide you through the options and help you discover which paint protection solution is the right one for you.
The paint protection products available are broken down into ceramic coatings and paint protection film or PPF as it’s more commonly known. We’re going to break down both of these options so you’ll know which option is best suited to your vehicle.
Ceramic coatings are a clear liquid that cure when they are applied to the paintwork on your vehicle. This creates an invisible and very hard layer over your paint work which sounds great, right? Whilst that sounds great, in real life situations it’s not quite enough to protect your vehicle from everyday scratches.
That being said, ceramic coatings still do have their place on the market. The hydrophobic effect that the ceramic coatings provide makes the surface of the vehicle extremely slippy. The slippery ensures your vehicle stays cleaner for longer due to dirt, water and other contaminants falling straight off.
It also makes cleaning your car much quicker too, as you wash your vehicle with a jet wash the contaminants just fall straight off reducing the need for wash mitts and other products that may cause swirl marks on your vehicle.
Our advice is that ceramic coatings are more of a wash aid than a form of paint protection.
PPF is a transparent plastic film that goes on top of the paint to protect against stone chips and scratches. When choosing a quality product like ours, paint protection film can last in excess of ten years.
Most importantly, it self heals which means your car always looks like glass. Unlike ceramic coatings, we’d be comfortable rubbing the paintwork with a wire brush confident that no scratches would appear on the vehicle. We would always recommend PPF as the solution when looking for paint protection on your vehicle.
How long are you planning to keep your vehicle?
If you’re only going to keep your car for the next 12 months, it would make sense to spend less on the protection compared with if you were planning to keep it for the next five years, you’d likely spend a little more protecting the paintwork.
What is the current value of the vehicle?
Roughly ten years ago, it was only supercars that would receive PPF due to the cost. We’re seeing more and more people protecting their everyday cars as they are now typically more expensive than they were ten years ago and therefore protecting the paintwork with PPF makes sense.
What is your planned use for the vehicle?
If you have a supercar that only does 200-300 hundred miles a year and spends most of its time in the garage then the cost of full car PPF might not be worth it and it may be worth considering adding ppf to certain parts of your vehicle instead.
A budget of £800
Ceramic coatings are likely your cheapest option with a good quality coating costing around £800. With that being said, for around the same sort of money you could get our essential PPF package which is the smallest package and includes; protection of the front bumper, headlights, the front section of the bonnet, the wings and the wing mirrors. With an additional £100-£150, we recommend adding a high quality wax or sealant to the rest of the car.
A budget of £1,500-£2,000
Increasing the budget to £1500-£2000 which is the most common price bracket we work in would allow you to get a full front ppf package or our extended front package which is even more popular. The extended front package will cover the whole of your front end as well as your side skirts and other key areas like behind your wheels.
A budget of £3,000-£4,000
With a budget of around £3,000-£4,000 you would be able to go for a full car PPF package and ceramic coating if you need it. You would be able to drive the car away worry free that all painted areas on your vehicle have PPF on them.
By choosing a full car PPF package you are retaining the full value in your vehicle because in 10 years time the car will still look brand new.
Hopefully this article has shown that there is some level of protection for all budgets. We’ve been in the business of paintwork protection for over 20 years and the products we use and recommend have been tried and tested on our own vehicles as well as for our customers.
We would always recommend avoiding the life shine products that the car dealerships provide. Independent dealers such as ours have access to higher quality products and we invest far more time in the application which is crucial.
