What protection should I buy?

« Back to BlogPosted: 11 Sep 2021 

Hi AutoFX WA, I have just bought/ordered a new car and wanted to know what paint protection should I buy?

We get these sorts of questions all the time.

What is the ultimate package? what combinations should I go for?

Below offers some facts without any agendas from a sales point of view and offers some real life perceptions that you never even bothered to think about.

Hello you lucky new car owner 🙂 The ultimate package is subjective to each person’s view. For someone that cares mostly about pure protection over looks will go 100% PPF which is about $5500 to $9000. My suggestion is using P20 (185 microns) or most areas and UPRO (245 microns) or Suntek Reactive (225 microns) on panels with less curves. I would highly recommend using Mirror Black PPF on any black trim for the best finish.

In regards to the other options, many who cant stomach too much PPF because they may find it hard to live with or mainly too costly will only request PPF on panels that they feel is important and then correction/ceramic coating the rest. This might be as little as just doing a lip of the bumper the a full front end coverage. If you are going to do some high speed driving both country road cruises and track then roof and a pillars with the front end is a good option.

If stone chips do not bother you then there is no need to use PPF. If the self-healing properties of PPF from light scratches do not concern you then do not do PPF.

PPF is a product that you either appreciate or just hate it. “glass half full or glass half empty”

Facts to know,

PPF is undisputed the best paint protection over it’s competitors by over 100 times compared to ceramic.
Ceramic coating regardless of cost and how good they claim to be do not offer chip resistance or scratch resistance.
Ceramic coating ability to withstand sand blasting rock chips in city/hwy driving is about 0.1%
PPF depending on the thickness of material has about 95 to 99.9% ability to resist rock chips and up to 100% against sand blasting on city/hwy driving over a 3 year period
Ceramic coating offers UV protection of about 2/10 compared to PPF of 10/10
PPF for track & rural driving offers 100% protection against sand blasting and about 95% against rock chips
Ceramic coatings no matter how hard they are and no matter how many layers and no matter how good they claim to be the best thing in the world all come off in a matter a couple seconds with some light cutting compound/polish. Where as PPF almost impenetrable even with an electric buffer or coarse sand paper.
PPF will always outlast any of the best of best ceramic coatings.
The advantage of ceramic coating are, the are cheap compared to PPF, coatings can easily be removed by any novice unlike old PPF. A car already in perfect condition coated in ceramic will look perfect on the day you pick up the car unlike PPF that is slightly less perfect.
The advantages of PPF (well if you read above you should know it by now). If you were to compare a daily driven car with ceramic coating with the best washing standards vs a car with PPF with average washing standards and put them side by side after 2 years or more the car with PPF will look anywhere from considerable better paint to an overwhelming difference and car with PPF will be the winner. Why? Because the car without PPF now needs a paint correction to remove fine swirls and scratches and even worse will have chips that are very noticeable that cant be buffed out. The car with PPF will have almost no scratches and have almost zero chips.

Regarding my comments about “PPF almost zero chips” can I just say just because I say that a car with PPF might still get chips, in 99% of the time any chips are usually on the film and not the paint.

Pulling of the PPF after 5 to 10 years vs a car without PPF after 5 to 10 years is where it is the difference between black and white, night and day.

Ceramic coating for most people is a much easier product to live with day to day. For some strange reason majority of car owners prefer to spend money on regular paint corrections and multiple reapplications of ceramic coatings, they prefer to look at a front end plastered in chips, scrapes and swirls galore than to add PPF to their asset.

This has probably answered many of your questions as well as made you think about new questions. Please contact us for more info