Name a car manufacturer that recommends applying a "coating"

Mr Megane said:
I appreciate there may be bias as users and suppliers of the products but I do feel you are missing important points. I just cannot help but interpret many of the comments as saying that you do not believe the application of a coating to new paint will notably decrease the chance of a warranty claim on the paint. This is the flip side of cost - there is a large cost associated with warranty claims. If a product made a notable improvement on warranty costs then the manufacturers would be looking at it.

Beyond this there is the high end sector of automotive. At a certain point, the cost really does go out the window. Certain manufacturers go to extreme ends to get the ultimate performance so all the arguments provided fail here. Why does Ferarri not coat every vehicle?

Protective coatings are everywhere in the world. Look at marine or metal coatings - these are far far larger sectors than automotive coatings. Protective coatings CAN move into the world beyond the fanatic but this has not happened for automotive. Ultimately, until that happens, you cannot avoid the conclusion that the larger industry simply does not rate their worth.
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As someone who works in the auto industry, these are questions that I ponder is well. Well put.
 
New car paint warranties average 5-6 years. The paint coverage does NOT cover any damage as a result of environmental effect, or any mechanical damages such as road chips, or small scratches resulted during washing and cleaning your vehicle. What is covered is only workmanship and the quality of the paint work which will likely last without failing for he duration of the warranty without peeling or having significant fading. But, is not failing the goal?

Basing maintenance and product usage on the manufacturer's paint warranty would be very economical as it would involve not much more than a monthly wash which can be attained for around $3-5 at any express tunnel wash. This may be fine for someone who leases or buys new every three years, but not for the owner who takes pride in his ride and sees it as an investment. And...it is certainly not the "best practice" to perform a "minimum" service recommendation when looking ahead to resale a vehicle. Any expense to have Optimum Opti Coat Pro applied could easily be recouped when the vehicle is resold based on the ranges I see when browsing Kelly Blue Book. Even a car with high mileage will bring several hundred dollars (if not thousands) more when the paint and body are in excellent condition.

So what are the benefits of having Opti Coat applied?

A Superior Clear Coat Film
Opti-Coat will provide the owner with a superior clear coat film and the most advanced paint protection product in the marketplace, that is resistant to chemical etching, and harder than factory clear coatings to reduce swirls and scratches

A Permanent Hydrophobic Surface
Opti-Coat will provide the owner with a permanent hydrophobic surface that is easier to clean, and stays cleaner for longer!

Improved Resale Value
By maintaining a quality finish using the Optimum Clear Coating, you'll also maintain a solid resale value when it comes time to upgrade to a new vehicle.
 
It's all about car sales to those people, who listens to car dealers anyway? Shine on.
 
Local dealerships sell exterior and interior packages by simoniz system 5 with Teflon.

Packages is nothing new to the car dealerships it's been going on for years. The name of the product brand changes from time to time. Bottom line it's about profit.

If the manufacture does not charge for a add on at time of sell to the dealer, then the dealer has sales people to up-sale and make more profits.

The truth is we detailing cars/Show cars long before all the new super product x was released and we did just fine. Just like today,
each vendor pitches his sales of his product brand as the best.

Now we debate who has the best product?
 
Mr Megane said:
1. If you were applying 50k litres per month, you would be spraying it on after the clearcoat, not having someone apply by hand.

2. 5 years is the lifetime of OC, if I am not mistaken so no problem there.

3. Can't argue this

4. Why bother advancing paint technology at all then?

5. OC is apparently not picky on the cleacoat.

Basically the whole argument I am hearing is that manufacturers are intentionally making their paint systems of a much lower standard than they can actually achieve. Now, I have enough contacts in the industry to know that there are massive amounts of money spent looking at ways of improving the performance or clearcoats and paint systems... this just doesn't sit right with the arguments for not applying a coating with galactic performance claims (and also, as I mentioned, I know for fact that a german manufacturer DID look into a nano coating...).

There is something missing from this whole discussion and I think it is something that some of you guys might like to take up with the manufacturers in a more official form.
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Look we could debate this all day, its like asking why doesnt apple sell you a screen protector already installed on your phone. At the end, its all about the money. Its cheaper to get the paint supplier to mix a hard clear then put on opti-coat. There are good reasons for it, but if there is no money to be made in doing it, there is no value.
 
Didn't Apple reformulate the system for making their screens so that they were more scratch resistant?
 
I have no clue tbh; I thought they always were. I know that since Steve Jobs died, they haven't made any major breakthroughs
 
Andr3wilson said:
Do keep in mind, 99.9% of car owners are not auto geeks like us. So a manual saying "apply a permanent lacquer sealant to the paint" would probably confuse a lot of people (considering you could charge the average car owner $100+ to fix their hemiquads :P ) and would cause more damage then good.
Overall a clear coat is a clear coat, yes they range in different chemistries and what not, but I do not see how applying a permanent sealant to the clear would damage it.
A company like Optimum, Carpro, or Gtechniq all invest lots of $$$$ into R&D, so that the products are universal.
I would not worry about it.
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As a retired factory rep for BMW, Honda and Porsche for 30 years, I agree with this. Car mfrs want to stay generic in the manual as they are written for the general public, not the enthusiast. MB uses Menzerna quite a bit but I don't they go so far as to recommend it. BMW, my main employer for 20 years, just recommends you wash and apply a wax of your choice. And of course we all know the protections offered by dealers are just profit builders often applied by kids slightly above minimum wage that don't really care. BMW is however reformulating their clear to be harder after investigating MB and seeing better scratch resistance results than what BMW was getting...
 
Whilst I hear everything that people are saying and in no way am I pointing out Optimum, but as fishincricket says, something is missing. I absolutely do not doubt the merit of putting a coating onto a used vehicle which has had to be heavily corrected due to lack of care but new vehicles - I can't help but wonder. It is not all about cost, if it was, companies like PPG would not be having the success with so many of their technologies. So who is using these technologies? The advanced clearcoats are massively higher spec than those that the 'pro-coatings' people are alluding to. These hybrid coatings offer the UV resistance, the long term stability, the abrasion resistance, the gloss retention, the hydrophobic performance (etc.). Those are the same sort of claims made by the after market coatings people.

So, OK, cheap old clearcoat technology is not great, it can benefit from aftermarket coatings. But this high tech stuff... strikes me that it offers the same characteristics as the aftermarket coatings so the benefits have to be questionable. So from a detailer perspective, would it not be useful to ascertain who in the industry is using the advanced paint technologies (someone is) instead of making the blanket assumption that the clearcoat is rubbish?

(and again, not targeted at Chris, it is your business to disagree with me in this are and I respect that!)
 
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