[Hondamx693]

I am wondering how everyone plans to protect their paint. I have always waxed my own cars in the past, but want to start this one off right. Am looking into ceramic, paint protection film, both, or just wax/sealants.

[OneCleanBMW]

Without knowing why people are voting for what they vote for, it's not worth wondering who's doing what. Your use case isn't their use case.

- how long will you keep the car?
- did you buy it or lease it?
- do you live in Arizona or Chicago?
- are you going with real ceramic or shitty spray stuff?
- are you going with Xpel ultimate or shitty ppf?

BMW dealers will ppf the front of these cars for most buyers. "You'll be protected against those nasty rocks and your payment will go up by just $10/month" "OMG OK!"

The BMW dealers (same owner) in my city have started ppf'ing cars as soon as they come in, so you don't have a choice about paying for it because they're not gonna peel it off for you and eat the cost. This probably doesn't apply to cars you order because that should be at your discretion entirely.

[pcai]

Leasing? Forget about it. Buying? Partial PPF at least. Bought frozen paint? PPF whole car.

[35mphgolf]

Originally Posted by pcai

Leasing? Forget about it. Buying? Partial PPF at least. Bought frozen paint? PPF whole car.

intrigued.

what makes you say ppf an entire frozen car?

got my first frozen on order...

[pcai]

Originally Posted by 35mphgolf

intrigued.

what makes you say ppf an entire frozen car?

got my first frozen on order...

Assuming it's not a lease and you are at least a bit OCD about your car's paint like me: frozen paint can't be polished like normal glossy paint can to remove those clear coat scratches that inevitably get on any car over time. So unlike glossy paint where you can polish out some imperfections over time, you can't on matte paint. And the last thing you wanna do is respray matte paint cause it's basically impossible to seamlessly color match to the rest of your car.

Also, after you get rock chips (which is inevitable on any car), a simple touch-up pen won't hide the dimple from the chip on the paint-you're basically coloring in a hole, but the hole is still there and applying PPF over rock chips only amplify them to your eye. To get rock chips properly dealt with requires wet sanding and a lot of detailing work, and I can't even begin imagining what detailers will charge for that. The "normal" paint correction they do before applying PPF won't cover your chips.

Hence, if you want PPF, you should go straight from dealer to detailer. If you drive your car for awhile and then choose to get a PPF, it's gonna be substantially more money that you could've saved cuz of all the stuff they need to fix and paint correct. So for a glossy paint, you can just partial PPF the areas prone to road rash (rock chips etc) and leave the rest of the car to polish, but you can't polish matte paint so you would ideally get matte PPF for the whole car but that's expensive so some people just get regular paint and matte PPF whole car and you basically get a frozen finish and the whole car is PPfed at the same time, and you save the matte paint cost.

[35mphgolf]

Originally Posted by pcai

Assuming it's not a lease and you are at least a bit OCD about your car's paint like me: frozen paint can't be polished like normal glossy paint can to remove those clear coat scratches that inevitably get on any car over time. So unlike glossy paint where you can polish out some imperfections over time, you can't on matte paint. And the last thing you wanna do is respray matte paint cause it's basically impossible to seamlessly color match to the rest of your car.

Also, after you get rock chips (which is inevitable on any car), a simple touch-up pen won't hide the dimple from the chip on the paint-you're basically coloring in a hole, but the hole is still there and applying PPF over rock chips only amplify them to your eye. To get rock chips properly dealt with requires wet sanding and a lot of detailing work, and I can't even begin imagining what detailers will charge for that. The "normal" paint correction they do before applying PPF won't cover your chips.

Hence, if you want PPF, you should go straight from dealer to detailer. If you drive your car for awhile and then choose to get a PPF, it's gonna be substantially more money that you could've saved cuz of all the stuff they need to fix and paint correct. So for a glossy paint, you can just partial PPF the areas prone to road rash (rock chips etc) and leave the rest of the car to polish, but you can't polish matte paint so you would ideally get matte PPF for the whole car but that's expensive so some people just get regular paint and matte PPF whole car and you basically get a frozen finish and the whole car is PPfed at the same time, and you save the matte paint cost.

Wellll that sucks haha. I’m definitely OCD about my vehicles. And I am driving from dealer to detailer. Thanks for the heads up. Gonna do some more research into care and cleaning.

[Nettles]

I’m sorry but you’re a special breed if you’re “raw doggin” it.

[pcai]

Originally Posted by Nettles

I’m sorry but you’re a special breed if you’re “raw doggin” it.

I mean, ceramic coating, which most ppl go for, won't protect you against scratches, road rash, basically anything physical. It's just for chemical protection, some water spot protection, and water beading properties aka easier cleaning. If you look at the big picture, that's not hugely different from not applying anything to the paint. And this is a M3, not an exotic. It's a daily, not something you need to protect and keep hidden away. A lot of ppl are leasing, in which case it makes no sense to spend a few grand to protect the paint on the bank's car. And at the end of the day, remember it's a M3-it's meant to be enjoyed and driven and it's a car where you don't necessarily need to be fussy about the condition of the paint.

[Nettles]

Originally Posted by pcai

I mean, ceramic coating, which most ppl go for, won't protect you against scratches, road rash, basically anything physical. It's just for chemical protection, some water spot protection, and water beading properties aka easier cleaning.
Absolutely agree. No arguments there.
If you look at the big picture, that's not hugely different from not applying anything to the paint.
Disagree. We've all seen clear coat failure. How does that happen? Don't throw the "it's a lease" argument in here. You're openly admitting you won't' take care of something you're dropping ~$1k/month on and will let the next guy deal with the beat up paint. To each his own if you want to be that person.A corrected, coated, and well maintained car will always be noticeably different from the one who has been "raw dogged". Remember this debate is regarding that specific comment. All verus nothing.
And this is a M3, not an exotic. It's a daily, not something you need to protect and keep hidden away. A lot of ppl are leasing, in which case it makes no sense to spend a few grand to protect the paint on the bank's car.
I commend you on reaching a financial status where a $80k-$100k purchase doesn't seem worthy of protection and upkeep. Most aren't as successful as you so again for the broad majority, I disagree. Detailing industry wouldn't exist or have exponentially grown to this point if there weren't people who treated their M3's as good if not better than exotics.You can learn to do it yourself on various levels of the detailing spectrum or have someone do it for you. You can have a well maintained car without having to drop even $100's of dollars.

And at the end of the day, remember it's a M3-it's meant to be enjoyed and driven and it's a car where you don't necessarily need to be fussy about the condition of the paint.
I agree. Enjoy the crap out of it. Everyone has a choice on how they care for their car. To do nothing (remember "raw doggin") is much different than enjoying it. Many at least go to some length to keep it clean and protect it. The rest is up to time/effort/passion.

Cheers. No hate just presenting my perspective. Remember what we are specifically talking about here. I'm not debating 10%/20%/30%/etc. effort into detailing. All versus nothing is what is in question.