Appreciate some advice. Am taking delivery of a 530d A SE next Tuesday from BMW. They've asked if I want to pay £299 to have a BMW Seal & Protect applied to inside and exterior of car. Costs keep adding up so is it a rip off?
They've agreed to do it for £249 and it comes with a 2 year guarantee.
Question: Is it worth it? Or shall I just have the free valet.
Interior has new black mats and black leather upholstery. Colour of exterior is titanium grey.
Best to save my money or will it really mean that for 2 years the car will shine like it's new. Apparently it's a hard wax applied to paint which then bonds with it and means it's simply a case of wash and shammy for protected gloss shine.
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Personally, I'd buy a Supaguard or Autoglym Lifeshine kit off ebay and do it myself. They usually go for well under £50.
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Complete and utter waste of money
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Please divulge a little more... why etc Obviously I don't want to get ripped off!
I was simply going to look after the car and have it regularly cleaned
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Because you can do it youself for £20 in an hour
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OH and lets be honest does a BMW suffer from such bad paintwork it needs extra protection ,I have a 2002 BMW and the paints immaculate and it was never done with any magic lotions.
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The only advantage of getting the garage to do it is the stink (of the interior protection) has worn off before you drive the car. The instructions for lifeshine suggesting doing the interior several days before delivery. Whether this is worth £200 to you....
Joe
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my other half is a car valeter and he buys the chemicals for 10 pounds and charges 45 pounds to do the job. it looks very nice when its done but it lasts knowwhere near as long as its said to do. usually 6 months.
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Get some Meguires polish and #21 sealent. Cost about £20 and a mornings elbow grease. Brings my car up like new every time I wash it. Do it every 4-6 months.
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Don´t bother Jon.
Other backroomers strongly recommend the Bilt Hamber autobalm stuff:
www.bilthamber.com/autobalm.html
Cheaper than 250 quid, which will buy an awful lot of nice red wine.
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Put it like this, dealers make more mark up on the sealant /protection kit than the car, and the salesman gets a bonus for flogging it.
Its 250 quid for 1/2 day of your work.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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The biggest problem I have with this sort of stuff as a valeter, aside from the fact that its overpriced and rarely is any better than just cleaning regular, is that it reduces the opportunity ( and likelyhood ) that a regular wash and wax gives the owner to have a close check around their car.
When I wash my van and indeed my customers cars, I look for stonechips, rust and paint defects
( which can then be rectified under warranty in some cases ). Its also a good oppotunity when you clean the wheels to check the sidewalls of your tyres for damage along with looking at the tread wear.
You can also check the wiper blades condition and while your messing about, its a good time to check all your lights aswell.
These products generally encourage people to get lazy about their cars condition and promise to protect the car more - unless you have dodgy paintwork to begin with, your car shouldnt need that much protection.
Ive come across so many people who assumed these products would mean they didnt have to do anything, mainly because they promise the earth.
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Ask the dealer if they can supply you with some of the special snake oil they use.
Should be about $1000 gallon, but I can let you have it for $700 for cash ;-)
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Someone in my family paid the full price to the supplying BMW dealer on their new 330d - within 3 months (10,000 miles) the water was hardly beading at all on the paintwork. Very disappointing, he had it done again FOC but from then on, knew he had been stung. Some time later we did it ourselves with some Meguiars polish and wax products (not cheap) for a fraction and it looked just as good, cleaned off easier and lasted longer.
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Have you asked why they are selling you £30K worth of car that comes with paint so poor that they feel it needs extra protection?
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