[Trevor G]

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My thoughts on the value of full car PPF vs. Ceramic. I have been checking prices at several body shops and detailing companies. The average price to wrap an entire i5 M60 is $8000. A ceramic coating with paint correction and interior detail and coating is around $900. The benefits of preventing rock chips to the finish of a car are obvious but my concern is that if I get into a fender bender or accident the cost of the PPF was useless and after repairs I will need to wrap the section damaged again at an exuberant cost. The ceramic coating is a lot cheaper and protects us from the things we do not see often, mainly UV rays. What I am asking here is if the benefits of PPF really out outweigh the costs?
Please be brutally honest with your opinions so I can make an informed decision on weather to wrap or coat.

[RJH52]

I always do PPF on the front, full hood, front fenders, and headlights the have the full car ceramic coated. I got quoted to have this all done for $2,600.

I would do the full car but the likely hood of the doors or rear getting rock chips are slim so I don’t pay for the full car to be done in PPF.

[SpaceSilver.X1]

Originally Posted by Trevor G

My thoughts on the value of full car PPF vs. Ceramic. I have been checking prices at several body shops and detailing companies. The average price to wrap an entire i5 M60 is $8000. A ceramic coating with paint correction and interior detail and coating is around $900. The benefits of preventing rock chips to the finish of a car are obvious but my concern is that if I get into a fender bender or accident the cost of the PPF was useless and after repairs I will need to wrap the section damaged again at an exuberant cost. The ceramic coating is a lot cheaper and protects us from the things we do not see often, mainly UV rays. What I am asking here is if the benefits of PPF really out outweigh the costs?
Please be brutally honest with your opinions so I can make an informed decision on weather to wrap or coat.

my friend lives in SoCal and she has used this company a couple of times on her Mercedes(GLE SUV and E350 wagon). She said they were great. For minor dents, scratches and paint chips, they were able to remove, buff or hide the marks 99% of the time. Of course, the marks can still be detected if you are within a few inches from car.

For me, that's good enough. (but I just have to find someone who does that on the East Coast) I have better uses for $8000 or even $5000.

[Trevor G]

Originally Posted by SpaceSilver.X1

my friend lives in SoCal and she has used this company a couple of times on her Mercedes(GLE SUV and E350 wagon). She said they were great. For minor dents, scratches and paint chips, they were able to remove, buff or hide the marks 99% of the time. Of course, the marks can still be detected if you are within a few inches from car.

For me, that's good enough. (but I just have to find someone who does that on the East Coast) I have better uses for $8000 or even $5000.

I scuff up my paint and for a few hundred I can have it fixed like new. That is why I am unsure as to the value to cost of PPF.

[Trevor G]

My ears are ringing, my wife knows I am talking about spending money and I am 50 miles away and 6 feet below sea level. The force is strong with this one!

[SpaceSilver.X1]

Originally Posted by Trevor G

I scuff up my paint and for a few hundred I can have it fixed like new. That is why I am unsure as to the value to cost of PPF.

$5000 to $8000 can buy a very nice set of new wheels/tires on my upcoming 530i..... or have a very nice competition-worthy stereo system installed. that was how wasted my money when I was young and stupid many years ago. I'm not young anymore and I hope I'm less stupid now...

oops, forgot to provide link to the company that my friend has been using for years.

[Scrapula]

When I lived in Florida, I used PPF because the love bugs would just eat the paint off. Once I moved to Seattle, I didn’t find it necessary. The weather here is very mild. No strong sun, little hail. I thought about doing ceramic on my Jaguar, but my detail guy said it wasn’t really worth the cost. I am considering ceramic now, just because of the rain. It did leave water spotting that had to be buffed out each time it was detailed.

[Theophilus]

If you are in So Cal, you can call Sam at Wicked Detailing in Santa Ana. He’s done many of our cars with Xpel PPF on the front for $1500-2000. He also does ceramic tints at a reasonable cost

[SpaceSilver.X1]

Originally Posted by Scrapula

When I lived in Florida, I used PPF because the love bugs would just eat the paint off. .

I know I'm going to regret asking this, but do you mean the love bugs are literally eating the paint off the car!!!???

I used to love Florida, but with the alligators, giant pythons, mosquitos and who knows what else, I'm not going there ever again.

almost got eaten alive by the thousands(millions?) of mosquitos when I sat on the balcony of my room at the Disney Contemporary Resort hotel a few yeas ago. It was so bad that I had to go to urgent car that night. How do I put this delicately... well.. the only thing I was wearing was my bathrobe with nothing underneath... so the mosquitos found their way into very delicate areas.

[Trevor G]

Originally Posted by Scrapula

When I lived in Florida, I used PPF because the love bugs would just eat the paint off. Once I moved to Seattle, I didn’t find it necessary. The weather here is very mild. No strong sun, little hail. I thought about doing ceramic on my Jaguar, but my detail guy said it wasn’t really worth the cost. I am considering ceramic now, just because of the rain. It did leave water spotting that had to be buffed out each time it was detailed.

I think a good quality ceramic coating is what I will do. $799 exterior and interior coating. Going to stick to my original plan of taking the car straight from dealership to the detailing shop. Told my SA to forego any detailing at the dealership and leave the shipping plastic on the car (at the request of the detailer). Might get some strange looks for my first drive in the car

[Scrapula]

Love bugs swarm and they smoosh onto your car. By the time you get to your destination, their guts have already oozed out, are stuck to your paint, and destroying it. It truly is a hellish place to live.

[cpt]

Rock chips on the front surface is inevitable. The previous 2 cars I owned: 1st one without any protection has 10+ rock chips scattered across the front after 100k miles. 2nd car has front PPF, paint looked fresh out of factory when I sold it at 70k miles.

So in my opinion PPF on front bumper/grille/hood/mirror caps is a must. At this point you might as well also wrap the rocker panels and B-pillar plastic trim. All these shouldn't cost more than $2k.

I'd also do full car ceramic coating, but it serves a different purpose. It doesn't protect against scratches or rock chips, rather it makes cleaning the car much much easier due to the hydrophobic property. It's also rather easy to DIY the coating, especially on new paint since it doesn't require extensive prep work.