PPF is it worth it for complete car?

[Fred 930]

I avoided driving my new ITS until the PPF / Ceramic coating was completed. First time I've ever purchased it. Had the normal front bumper, fenders, hood, mirrors, rear deck done, plus added the rockers & B pillar area. Ceramic coating applied, including extra cost for wheels. Truthfully, I remain skeptical it's worth the considerable cost, but thought I'd try it. It's one thing to invest that much additional money to protect a high value car, but I wonder if the ITS (as nice as it is) is worth the extra investment. I tend to keep my cars a long time, so hopefully the cost will eventually be justified. Time will tell.

Lastly, the care & feeding of PPF requires an alteration of everything I've done in the past to keep my cars looking nice. Absolutely No Wax ; No Car Cover ; No Touchless Car Washes ; Special Chemicals ; low pressure electric Pressure Washer ; and Foam Cannon. Makes me wonder if it's worth the hassle.

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[ChromaPop]

I personally wouldn't go this route since the chips underneath the wrap will all be visible on the wrap itself. Also, a wrap is not always equal to ppf in protection. There are some thicker wraps out there, but in general wraps are more likely to tear and chip than ppf is.

Ppf and wrap, it's recommended to fix all the rock chips and imperfections before putting it on, and on average a good respray is 5-700$ per panel. So if you wait to get the ppf done, you'll likely spend 2500$ or so doing a proper respray over the front end before getting the ppf.

For anyone who's currently cross shopping films, I would recommend a film with ceramic built in. You can still ceramic on top, but the extra money spent on the film is worth it. Also, be aware that there are two types of installations, total precut and plotted with custom rolled edges. Precut you will always be able to see the seam standing back, and I can typically spot it from 15ft back but I'm ocd about car detailing. These edges will also trap and cleaning agents, wax, sealants, ceramic, dirt, etc. Rolled edges go around the whole edge of the panel and are tucked behind for a nearly invisible install. All PPF will increase the amount of orange peel, but the more expensive films like ceramic pro and xpel fusion plus will use less adhesive and minimize the orange peel.

Excellent response thank you. If I still have to polish out or spray the chips before doing a wrap later down the line it may still be the best choice for me.

 

[Victorofhavoc]

Excellent response thank you. If I still have to polish out or spray the chips before doing a wrap later down the line it may still be the best choice for me.

Totally fair. I personally am too lazy to respray a car that's 5 or 6 years old and beaten up on the front end, but if you're not aversed to taking that time then there's certainly nothing wrong with punting the cost down the road!

 

[Victorofhavoc]

I avoided driving my new ITS until the PPF / Ceramic coating was completed. First time I've ever purchased it. Had the normal front bumper, fenders, hood, mirrors, rear deck done, plus added the rockers & B pillar area. Ceramic coating applied, including extra cost for wheels. Truthfully, I remain skeptical it's worth the considerable cost, but thought I'd try it. It's one thing to invest that much additional money to protect a high value car, but I wonder if the ITS (as nice as it is) is worth the extra investment. I tend to keep my cars a long time, so hopefully the cost will eventually be justified. Time will tell.

Lastly, the care & feeding of PPF requires an alteration of everything I've done in the past to keep my cars looking nice. Absolutely No Wax ; No Car Cover ; No Touchless Car Washes ; Special Chemicals ; low pressure electric Pressure Washer ; and Foam Cannon. Makes me wonder if it's worth the hassle.

And this totally makes sense...

If all you want to do is have a car that looks decent and 85-90% by year 5 or 6 then you can certainly just do a quality ceramic and do all the car washes you want. PPF won't buy you anything you care about in this case.

The counter argument is that no one is really waxing in 2024 and people who want to maintain their car at a higher level of "paint perfection" over time are not using a car cover on a dusty or dirty car, never using automated car washes (touch less is often just as bad or worse than with brushes), almost all car shampoo are pH stabilized and clear bra/ceramic safe, and a pressure washer and foam cannon are just there for fun and making the job a bit faster.

Properly maintaining paint is ALWAYS more hassle than simply doing a car wash once or twice a month. The amount of hassle you're willing to tolerate is definitely a thing to be aware of when purchasing ppf, ceramic, paint correction, or any car care supplies you need.

 

[Clark_Kent]

There's some argument to be made about it having resale value in the 50% range. Some dealers do check and it does show up on carfax if done by a ppf installer that reports it.

I don't know how much of a difference it really makes, but I do know the only used one I saw that had ppf sold the day before I bought mine for basically msrp with 5k mi on it.

If you're keeping the car outside for a chunk of its life, I can see it helping retain value.

There's no argument to be made. You're not getting that money back on resale, none of it. The dealership doesn't care about ppf or tint or ceramic coating during trade-in or purchase valuations. Excellent condition or average condition will fetch you the same trade-in value from a dealership. Where you may (and that's a big may), have some leverage is a private sale. It's a function of whether the buyer values those things.

 

[Victorofhavoc]

There's no argument to be made. You're not getting that money back on resale, none of it. The dealership doesn't care about ppf or tint or ceramic coating during trade-in or purchase valuations. Excellent condition or average condition will fetch you the same trade-in value from a dealership. Where you may (and that's a big may), have some leverage is a private sale. It's a function of whether the buyer values those things.

Nothing in life is black and white only, there are always arguments to be made... So if two cars were the same mileage, year, color, etc but just separated by ppf or not, you would choose the non-ppf car?

 

[Evolving_e63]

I avoided driving my new ITS until the PPF / Ceramic coating was completed. First time I've ever purchased it. Had the normal front bumper, fenders, hood, mirrors, rear deck done, plus added the rockers & B pillar area. Ceramic coating applied, including extra cost for wheels. Truthfully, I remain skeptical it's worth the considerable cost, but thought I'd try it. It's one thing to invest that much additional money to protect a high value car, but I wonder if the ITS (as nice as it is) is worth the extra investment. I tend to keep my cars a long time, so hopefully the cost will eventually be justified. Time will tell.

Lastly, the care & feeding of PPF requires an alteration of everything I've done in the past to keep my cars looking nice. Absolutely No Wax ; No Car Cover ; No Touchless Car Washes ; Special Chemicals ; low pressure electric Pressure Washer ; and Foam Cannon. Makes me wonder if it's worth the hassle.

Hmmm. My ITS sits outside. I cover it with the car cover all the time with the ppf.

 

[Evolving_e63]

From my understanding the ppf does help with resale. And it seems to be something that is more asked about now than let's say even 5 years ago. I follow BaT auctions for certain cars to keep an eye on the market. And a common question now is if the car has been ppf'd and ceramic coated.

I've asked my detailer about this. And his response was ppf helps with the resale of the car as , if you wanted. When it comes time to sell the car either yourself or the new owner could peel it off and have a very unmolested front end. Which can be appleaing to a new buyer to see a chipless front end. People like myself who absolutely hate the site of rock chips like the piece of mind that the hood and such is protected underneath.

My evo 8 which I've owned for over 8 yrs and is a 2003 the front has seen better days due to basic rock chips. The car Is meticulously cleaned but the chips are unavoidable. I'm now in a pickle because I want to get the car repainted and ppf'd so this doesn't happen again. But I also don't want to respray the car as it's original paint and imo a unicorn evo with only 32k miles on her. Mitsubishi uses very thin paint back in the day

 

[Nohops]

Keep in mind PPF isn’t a cure all. I had a 996T with it and it still had some chips. A friend of mine has a GT4, which he tracks. Despite having the thicker xpel he has some chips. I just had the front end and hood done on my DE5 and it cost me $1700. The fenders and mirrors would have been $500 more. Water borne paint doesn’t hold up like the paint from years ago. My 99 Tacoma has fewer stone chips with 229k than my 2017 Accord with 97k.

 

[Evolving_e63]

Keep in mind PPF isn’t a cure all. I had a 996T with it and it still had some chips. A friend of mine has a GT4, which he tracks. Despite having the thicker xpel he has some chips. I just had the front end and hood done on my DE5 and it cost me $1700. The fenders and mirrors would have been $500 more. Water borne paint doesn’t hold up like the paint from years ago. My 99 Tacoma has fewer stone chips with 229k than my 2017 Accord with 97k.

The boys over at speed acadamy had a good video with their track integra type R where they ppf"d the front then took her out to limerock

 

[optronix]

There's some argument to be made about it having resale value in the 50% range. Some dealers do check and it does show up on carfax if done by a ppf installer that reports it.

I don't know how much of a difference it really makes, but I do know the only used one I saw that had ppf sold the day before I bought mine for basically msrp with 5k mi on it.

If you're keeping the car outside for a chunk of its life, I can see it helping retain value.

I agree with the assessment that there isn't really an argument about this, possibly outside of a private sale. Where I'll still argue that most people don't give a shit; just us nuts hanging out in enthusiast forums like this. Vast majority of regular consumers may not even know what PPF is.

Outside of a private sale, good luck. Go to trade your car in and try to have a conversation around the PPF.

edit- I'll actually add a counter point- a bad ppf job will most definitely affect value negatively. I'd probably still be the proud owner of a BMW M2 CS right now had the one I looked at not had a horribly bad PPF job. And as we are all probably aware, bad PPF jobs are not uncommon!

I have xpel and you can't see it unless your face is literally up against the car and your purposely looking for it. And even that. All you can see is a faint line where it meets the end of the fender and beginning of your door. Idk who's car you saw looked awkward but that just sounds like a bad wrap job if it's throwing the car off like that.

You must have a crazy keen eye if you can notice these tiny blips where the wrap gets cut

I don't think you understood my post. I was referring to wrapping half the car in Xpel Stealth. That would look awkward.

My car is not completely wrapped. You can't tell from more than 3.5 inches away. Hence me suggesting you can't see the wrap- if it's done correctly.

I'll own the failure in communication.

 

[Evolving_e63]

I agree with the assessment that there isn't really an argument about this, possibly outside of a private sale. Where I'll still argue that most people don't give a shit; just us nuts hanging out in enthusiast forums like this. Vast majority of regular consumers may not even know what PPF is.

Outside of a private sale, good luck. Go to trade your car in and try to have a conversation around the PPF.

edit- I'll actually add a counter point- a bad ppf job will most definitely affect value negatively. I'd probably still be the proud owner of a BMW M2 CS right now had the one I looked at not had a horribly bad PPF job. And as we are all probably aware, bad PPF jobs are not uncommon!



I don't think you understood my post. I was referring to wrapping half the car in Xpel Stealth. That would look awkward.

My car is not completely wrapped. You can't tell from more than 3.5 inches away. Hence me suggesting you can't see the wrap- if it's done correctly.

I'll own the failure in communication.

Mine isn't either. I'm wrapped on the front end. Then the rockers. They call it the track pack. But I didn't get the rear bumper done. Just go around the rockers

 

[Victorofhavoc]

I really don't understand how the ppf producers and resellers can call that a "track pack". I did have a long discussion with the xpel and ceramic pro folks in my area and they don't disagree, but they have no option on what to call it from the producers.

I'd say a real track pack should include bumper, fenders, hood, roof front, a pillar, rear spats, and valence. Rocker panels are a nice add on. Less than that and you see damage from longer term track use from track dust, tar, and rubber.

 

[Evolving_e63]

I really don't understand how the ppf producers and resellers can call that a "track pack". I did have a long discussion with the xpel and ceramic pro folks in my area and they don't disagree, but they have no option on what to call it from the producers.

I'd say a real track pack should include bumper, fenders, hood, roof front, a pillar, rear spats, and valence. Rocker panels are a nice add on. Less than that and you see damage from longer term track use from track dust, tar, and rubber.

I opted to not have the rear bumper done. But that rear fender is wrapped like the front and the wrap trails to the end of the rear bumper

 

[mattm]

Like this? A millisecond after the windshield hit.
I did the goop insertion covered by warranty at Safelite. I know a second later if I swapped the whole windshield, I'd get another hit.

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