I have ordered a Toyota Yaris (delivery to be in October) and have been offered Super Gaurd paint and interior protection for an extra charge (£350 normally but as I am disabled and purchasing via Motability the cost is reduced to £150)
Is it a worthwhile treatment?
Has anybody got any good/bad experiences of this type of treatment?
Any comments please. TIA Brian
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I gather from previous threads on the same subject that it's pretty much a waste of time, more a case of making some extra money for dealerships and salesman's commission.
The £200 reduction might just provide a clue of sorts...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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The materials won't cost as much as £10. The labour won't cost as much as £10. The margin is about a gazillion per cent.
Buy a can of polish on the way home. Pay a local lad £5 to wash and polish your car every month. In four years time you will have a superb looking car ans a youngster who has been gainfully employed.
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That's fine if you really do that - in reality most people probably intend to wax their cars several times a year but never actually get around to doing it.
My Merc came with 'StarShield' (I didn't know it had been done until after I bought it) and it does seem to make a difference. Bird muck etc comes off easier and doesn't mark the paint (by maybe all MB's are like that - it's my first). However I'm supposed to use a 'conserver' shampoo every month, which I don't.
Not sure what the trade price of the kits is, but you can get them on eBay (probably nicked) for £20 or so. If you want it doing, I'd check how much an independant valeting company would charge before paying £150 for it.
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It all depends on what you want really.
If your the type of person who cleans the car every weekend regardless, then these types of protectants are a complete waste of money.
If you like the car to look clean but hardly ever actually clean the car then they have some worth, they add a synthetic coating to the paint (like an atrificial wax) that has pretty good longevity (but nothing like what they claim) that aids cleaning the car when wash time does come around.
But certainly don't pay anything like the dealer price, as already said, they cost the dealer onlt a few quid plus another couple of quid to an under paid overworked valeter who will be forced to rush the job anyway.
Only have this done if the dealer is throwing it in for free, all in all it probably cost the dealer about the same as a set of matts.
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I friend gets paid good commision to sell this stuff with any car. I think that says it all (!) and...
A recent thread highlighted that it's no better at discouraging things like bird poo dissolving your paint than the bare out-the-factory finish.
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Mike Farrow
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Buy a bottle of the Autoglym Extra Gloss protection and apply on a sunny day (rare in the UK this summer apparently), you don´t need much and it does the job.
Then go to Oddbins/Majestic and spend what you´ve just saved on a couple of cases of something red and fruity. For example.
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>>on a sunny day (rare in the UK this summer apparently), >>
Just where have you been during the two months up to the last fortnight?
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Paint protection, what protection? .bilthamber.co.uk/autobalmcomparison.html i think the salt spray test speaks for itself. BTW: this Autobalm is very good stuff (as I keep ranting...)
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Firstly, no it's not worth it - as the other posters have intimated, the price is way over the top. You're as well paying £20-£30 for a decent set of polish and wax (I can recommend Meguairs products, available from Halfords) and in your case, having someone do it for you. Secondly, didn't you find the salesperson's attitude patronising? - 'as I am disabled he knocked £200 off'. If you had been more disabled than you already are would they have knocked £250 off? I have a physical ailment, and if I'd been confronted with a remark like that, the salesperson would have need 'Super Guard Protection', to keep his teeth in.
Moderators - sorry if that last remark breaks the forum rules, and feel free to edit.
S6 1SW
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From my personal experience, the 'warranty' they provide is totally worthless.
I was sold the protection on the basis that it meant I didn't have to worry about damage from bird lime.....complete with a cock-and-bull story about the salesman's friend who had to have his car repainted because he lived by the sea and got plastered in bird poo. Aparantly this mythical person was away from home and told his wife to wash the car, but she didn't, resulting in the need for a respray; "clearly if he had this treatment then he wouldn't need to worry". Yeah, right, pull the other one!
What the salesmen don't tell you is that the the paint protection companies refuse claims on the basis that "in their opinion the bird lime was not washed off within 24 hours, which is a condition of the warranty". How they decide this is anyone's guess - I think basically the test is that any damage means you didn't adhere to the small print, so warranty invalid !! What warranty?
Well, if you washed it off within 24 hours without any protection, I think it highly unlikely any damage would occur. Further, this condition means you can't leave your car for more than 24 hours - e.g. you get bird muck on the car whilst flying for a 2 day trip to Paris - tough, it wasn't washed off in 24 hours, so warranty invalid. I think it is basically impossible to claim for any damage. Furthermore, based on my experience (bird much on car for less than a week, damage resulting), I don't believe this stuff does anything to lessen the risk.
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I just walked over to see my neighbour and noticed how really shiny and clean his 'Y' reg Vauxhall looked. I asked him if he had just waxed it and he said that he had taken it up the road to a new handwash, which I have used once, and they had cleaned it up. 2 gentlemen from somewhere in Eastern Europe rush around it for 10 to 15 minutes with spays, water jets, wheel cleaner etc and send you away £5 poorer. This is a good deal compared with the cost of one application of Autogard or whatever!
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There is a similar hand wash in Lee Green in London that, for £10, leaves your car looking brand new inside and out. I fully intend to go there next week while I'm nearby.
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I was in the coating industry a long time and the expert opinion there was that modern finishes don't benefit from such treatments.
Oz (as was)
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Thanks Oz and everybody else who replied.
My current car goes about a year between washes so once a week / month etc are not an option (Lazy B*gg*r 'aint I?)
All things considered I think a going over with a good polish sounds the order of the day (must teach the other half how to wash/polish a car as well as drive!
Thanks all. Brian
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Secondly, didn't you findthe salesperson's attitude patronising? - 'as I am disabled he knocked £200 off'.
Not really, I was in my wheelchair, I am buying the car with Motability doing the finance and getting the vehicle VAT free as my wheelchair hoist is being fitted before handover.(dead giveaways for being disabled!)
Evidently all 'Motability' vehicles are offered this discount (sorry I diddn't make that clear did I?)
OTR price is £10310.00 for the model I am getting.
My price is £8657 (with £100 included for hoist fitting, if it's more I'll have to pay the extra).
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O.K. point taken ffidrac.
S6 1SW
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Thanks for your comments no offence ment or taken
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My last car had Super Guard (bought car as an ex-demonstator so didn't pay for the SG), my present car doesn't have it - I can't see, or detect when cleaning it, any difference.
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Phil
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