Paint protection, undercoating, rust protection... etc on a new car. Worth it?
 

Greetings, all.

Just thought I'd get some opinions on these upsells from the dealer when buying a new car.. Paint protection, undercoating, rust protection, interior protection, clear bra, etc.

My first impression is that if we wanted to get any of it done, going to a 3rd party shop would be a better choice.. Less "salesperson-y", less pressure, more reasonable costs. (I've read that the "interior protection" that the dealer charges hundreds for can be done for $20 worth of supplies from Lordco/Canadian Tire.)

My main concern is the exterior/undercoating/clear bra stuff. What do you guys think? Are they even necessary/worth it?

Has anyone gotten any of that work done from a dealer or at a 3rd party shop? If so, any thoughts or recommendations?

Thanks :)

Paint protection, not really
Undercoating, not really
Rust protection, not really
Interior protection, no idea what that is.
Clear bra works.

If you live in Van, there is really no reason for your car to rust unless it's a work truck that gets beat on.

Never get any of that done at the dealership

I didn't buy anything when I was at the dealership. I did undercoating afterward by a third party and I'm getting paint protection done (opticoat or similar) also through a third party.

Whether or not you get the undercoating done, just always wash the undercarriage :P
My parents got the undercoating done when they bought their car, new. It definitely is a good precaution, but like trollface has said, you probably don't NEED it if you're strictly driving locally in Vancouver. Toronto is probably a whole different story...

One other thing to remember is to wash up behind the rear bumper. My car is in fairly good condition for being 19 years old but the rear bumper rebar is swiss cheese because they never washed it out.

Keep in mind new cars have MUCH better rust protection than say a 15 year old civic. You don't really see rusty cars from 2000 on (unless it's a Mazda 3).

Wash the salt and dirt off the rockers/fenders/under body and your car will be long dead before it turns into a basket. I've got a 50 year old Japanese car. Rust protection back then was literally WAX, the metal these days is 100X better. Waste of money imo.

I keep my cars between 4-8 years and none of that really matters in Vancouver

Congrats !

Which vehicle did you buy ?

Krown is popular here in Ontario.

As are Petro Canada wash cards shared by colleagues. Set rate for 90/180/270 days, 1 wash a day, each colleague gets a day a week. Car wash has underbody spray.

Most new cars have Paint craftsmanship and general paint warranty anyway. I find the Paint Protection does help a lot though. Ive seen cars with and without it and the difference is amazing.

dealers overcharge for extras. but if you're really good at haggling, maybe you can get them to throw it in and then maybe it's worth it.

most of the interior protection stuff is scotchguarding of fabric seatcovers and carpet. whether it's the same stuff you get in a rattle can at crappy tire i'm not sure. so if you have leather/leatherette or don't eat or drink in your car, don't bother.

undercoating only good if you live in places like ontario and eastern provinces. otherwise, maybe do nothing more than the fenderwells to get some sound deadening. keep in mind it's going to take a few gallons to cover an entire underside and that adds weight. do it wrong and cover drain holes or do not prep properly and it will rust underneath the coating until it falls off and you're in for a big nasty surprise.

as for paint protection coatings and film... here is an example of pricing you can expect to pay (i've only made inquiries and i haven't yet tried this company): Services « GlossWorks

Unless its specify opticoat, most of these dealer/3rd party place definition of "exterior paint protection" just = spray on wax. Done in 10 mins, literary.

Thank you! I got a Forester. Chances are I'm gonna be taking it camping and stuff regularly-ish, so some of this may be a little redundant anyway. I'm just clinging onto the hope that I can extend the life of its condition :wiggle: .

Lots of good info here, thanks!

I figured the interior protection was likely just scotchguarding or something of the sort. I didn't get the leather package -- I work with animals and have dogs getting in and out of my car pretty frequently, so the seats would've been scratched to bits before I even broke the car in. I do like how Subaru's cloth interior feels a lot tougher than other makes. Maybe this is something to do with their "dog approved" campaign they did a few years ago. Anyway, I'm probably going to end up just scotchguarding the seats myself and invest in some rubber floor mats. For some reason I'm pretty good at dripping coffee everywhere in the morning. Wonder how well the rattle can stuff performs.

The more I read about undercoating the more it seems unnecessary. Maybe I'll just drive through a car wash every now and then and do an under carriage wash.

As for paint protection, I did a search on RS and apparently there's someone who's pretty well-recommended in Maple Ridge for clear bra work. (Can't remember his name or company). There seems to be quite a few different options for protecting your paint... I'll have to read into it a bit more.

pets? what about aftermarket seat covers? or have you tried this pet hammock (it has other names):

http://a1272.g.akamai.net/7/1272/112...37163P_002.jpg

cargo area cover:

http://wooska.com/images/products/de...orrester_2.jpg

i didn't know you were going offroading... maybe others can comment on undercoating for those kind of conditions.

if maple ridge, you may be thinking of Autowerkes Exclusive . ken's screename here is 911fanatic.

Haha yeah, I've been looking at those too. My clients' dogs are usually pretty good at staying put when they get in the car.. but my own little guy just jumps all over the place as soon as he gets in. I figured if I had leather, I'd have to have the hammock/seat protector in place 90% of the time, so I just went for the cloth interior.

As for off-roading, we don't really do any "extreme" off-roading... but the places we like to camp often have some rocky/uneven roads. Nothing too crazy though (Civics make it up these roads fine... aside from maybe bottoming out a couple times). My main concern is the inevitable rockchips on these roads.

And yeah, that's the company I was looking at. Just reading a bit more into the different options and other owners' experiences with each one.

personally it's a no-brainer to get seat covers if all your passengers have more than two feet imo.

i used to come from a subaru family. subaru hard plastics tend to scratch easily. i'm not sure what to recommend on how to avoid that short of declawing.

my experience with subaru fabrics is very limited (02 wrx/05 forester). hopefully someone else here can offer more.

many of us here, including myself, have gone to autowerkes. i had paint correction and opticoat done there with my old car (but like many other detailers they are slowly moving away from the opticoat product because the brand is getting more expensive to buy), but haven't yet been able to afford to do the film.

Agreed. The hammock is only $20 right now at Canadian Tire so I'll probably swing by there.

The new Subarus' interiors have this new hard-but-softish-touch, plastic-rubber-ish material that does not seem pet-friendly at all. Luckily there's not too much of it -- mostly just a panel on the doors. And with my line of work and outdoorsy lifestyle I'm obviously not expecting my car to stay in mint condition for very long... just seeing what precautions I can take to minimize the damage ;)

I think rust protection is a completely waste of money...
new car nowadays don't rust for 10-20 years even in harsh winter provinces.
And Vancouver barely gets any salt on the road...(I recall Toronto uses about 30x more salt compare to vancouver each year.)

if you work with / transport large dog all the times, the best thing is to do is get a beater you don't care for

I imagine those vinyl seat you find in work truck will hold up pretty well against dog, but chances are they will still scratch and mark the plastic on your dash board and door panel anyway.

Honda's continued inability to paint a car disagrees. Between the thin, soft paint and the orange peel :heckno:

BMW can be pretty bad at this too.

i'll throw ford into this list... they can't paint aluminum worth a damn. can't wait to see what the new f-series all aluminum trucks will look like in a couple of years.

Blame water based paints.

I put undercoating on all of my vehicles - mostly for sound deadening from rocks hitting the metal body (and we do use sand on the roads throughout winter). As an example, take a rock and drop it into a metal can and shake it to hear the noise. Now spray/ let dry undercoating into that can, drop the same rock and shake - listen to how quiet that same rock is now.

I should add - that on one VW I bought, I paid for the undercoating and paint protection from the inflated dealer price. I did have an issue with the paint on the roof of the car, and took it back to the dealer to handle. They tried to blame the coating people and vise versa, but nonetheless, I told them I didn;t care who they wished to blame, I paid for their 'lifetime' protection and fix it; so they ended up painting the whole roof of the car.

I would be concerned about getting undercoating done after a new car has hit the road. If undercoating can be done at the factory, it seems like a great idea. But as soon as the car hits the road, or even leaves the factory on a flatbed, then after the fact you decide to get undercoating done, you're trapping dirt and moisture forever, thus potentially leading to rust issues. Correct me if I'm wrong?

Maybe you won't notice for a while but I would think that could lead to rust problems down the road. Or maybe the undercoating would sooner protect from rust issues from being on the road before any trapped moisture rust was an issue? I dunno, it's always seemed dicey to me...

I would assume shops have a prep procedure before just spraying it. Otherwise there would be more horror stories and less places offering the service.