Paint Guards

[Marc.]

This might not be the most appropriate place for this thread, but I'm counting on the knowledge of some of the people in here.

The old man is buying a new car soon, and has been getting prices for Seat Leon FR's. Now, I happened to notice on a sheet of paper where he'd written the prices for the car that it included some sort of "Paint Guard" at £299.

Now, I know Renault do something similar. I have a couple of queries regarding this stuff though, and thought some of you could offer some insight:

1. What exactly is this stuff that car manufacturers add?
2. Could I save my Dad some money by offering to fully protect his car in the standard way, by regularly sealing with wax? And would this achieve more or less the same results? If so, what sort of products would replicate it in the closest way - waxes or sealants?

Cheers in advance guys!

 

[Kane.]

It's only a sealant I think. Waste of money/rip off, just do it yourself.

 

[Yellow Dave]

a friend took out the autoglym lifeshine for 299 on his leon.
http://www.autoglym.com/engb/lifeshine.asp
They do inside and out and guarantee against any stains / marks ( 1001 terms and conditions apply) tried to talk him out of it and just do it himself but wouldn't listen. Doesn't seem to shine, sheet or wash down any easier than a standard car finish

 

[JD]

Don't. Remove it from the list.

 

[Gally]

Still at it I see.

It's actual fraud because when the product fails usually on an older persons car do you really think they will notice or phone up the company after 4/5 months and say "my protection isn't on the car anymore"?

They'll just assume it's still there, they don't know what beading is! 90% of people will never chase up the guarantee. We re-apply it at work sometimes to painted panels that have had diamondbrite ect... on them.

£49 for the kit and I reckon at a push you could do around 10 whole cars with it. They'll make a bigger % of profit on that than they will from the sale of the car!

 

[Marc.]

Thanks for the replies people. I was sure it was going to be dodgy in some way, but thought I'd check just in case. I also got in touch with the Old Man, and he had written it down whilst getting a quote, he had no intention of doing it anyway!