Clear Coat scratches are the swirl marks you normally see if you use the drive through washes, you will see them in sunshine or at an angle. If you run your finger on them you might not feel them depending on if your car has soft paint or hard paint (mostly german cars). Minor flows which can be fixed with one step polish/shine.
I understand, ceramic coat or ppf is not for everyone its a significant investment, unless your DIYer like me and i do my own Ceramic and PPF.
Paying for CC or PPF is generally a waste of money.
PPF has gotten insanely expensive with a lot of bad work but luckily our dealer contracts a vendor that does it for a reasonable price.
To each their own, but I can see the value for most people at under $1000 for ceramic on a lease. Keeps the car looking nice and easy to clean. PPF does not make sense for most but I beat on my cars (it was a rough 18000 miles on the M4), so that helps if I want to buy it out at the end. If not, the next owner gets a nice car and I don’t have to worry about excess wear damage.
I love the cheap rate for the unlimited car wash. I pay $23, and it relieves me of any rain/mud/puddle anxiety. No worry, I’ll just stop back tomorrow.
I used to do the brown bear too, until this winter with snow and sand, i ran the landrover through drive though and boy oh boy! it scratched the heck out of clear coat, that i am buffing one panel a day between my meetings. Cancelled it right away. Its personal preference. Not all of us cares for our cars the same way, and its ok!, what ever works for us.
It really depends on how you want to up keep your car. PPF might be over kill unless you are on free way and gravel roads. Ceramic, it just makes it easy to maintain and dont have to wax every 3 months if you want the ride to look nice! or just don’t do anything.
Ceramic is $50-100 worth of product that anyone can apply themselves.
Paying someone $1,000 to do it is madness.
Besides, the detail industry is always churning out a new holy grail product.
Some people still swear by Carnuba
Some people still swear by Duragloss
Some people still swear by Collinite
Some people still swear by Swissvax
Then there was SiO2
There is more to it like paint correction, prep work, and high/low spots. My first attempt with ceramic resulted in a few high spots and it took about 6 hours to do 3 coats. It is the labor and knowledge you are paying for, not cost of the product itself. But it is doable for a non-professional with some practice.
I totally agree.
It’s a complete ripoff/gimmick for folks to pay $1-$2k to have someone apply a ceramic coating to your car.
You can buy a quality ceramic product on Amazon for $50-$100 and apply it yourself. If you can apply wax to your car, you can apply a ceramic coat on your paint.
You can use ceramic sprays in between washes, and the car will gleam.
Ceramic is great, but there are still some carnauba waxes that will make your car pop.
Im over here thinking should i wash my car after 2 months of getting it 
My dad said as long as you’re not doing drugs. 
win win.
Yeah I wanted a single step way to clean and wax when I first started. I have no idea how much I spent at this point. I swore I’d never buy a pressure washer and did. But I’m really putting my foot down on the buffing machines. And if I would only do that once for the lease and not know how to do it well and also if I don’t want to spend so much time doing a decontamination/ clay bar I would be ok spending to have someone else do it as part of the cc process
I don’t even protect our financed cars.
Our MX’s front bumper practically resembles a golf ball (hyperbole) after ~40K high speed highway miles (which may be good for aerodynamics if mythbusters is to be trusted)
I protect my leased cars to a degree I won’t get dinged on return. Otherwise they are not treated any differently than they would have if I owned them. Never had a nice enough car worth spending $$$$ just to avoid a minor scratch or water/mud marks. Polish makes them look great but lasts only a short while so I rarely do it. Otherwise. they are kept clean, parked in closed garages when available and driven carefully.
Nice cars. I do whole car ppf.
Avoids rock chips. Jack 4sses that lean on the car. Careless kids etc. I skip the ceramic since with ppf I can foam cannon and spray wax it quickly
Daily driver. Front ppf. Foam cannon and spray wax. Teslas paint is crap. Not worth doing much more.
Wife’s cars. Yearly dealer car wash with service. Or windshield is so dirty wiper fluid can’t clean it.
Next on the list is the leaf blower. Make a bunch of noise but saves a lot of drying towels
Also gets out a lot of water from mirrors and panels.
There’s a market. Tiny one. But a good full car paint correction and detail in and out can run those prices. Just depend on what service is being given for the price.
back up a second - what the hell is “inside” ceramic coating?
The only thing I use on my interiors and the only thing you’ll ever need fyi
You’re welcome
[nextzett 92470515 Cockpit Premium Interior and Dashboard Cleaner, 16.9 fl oz https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002Z2MZ4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_Y8N0679JBDHY3QBTB631](nextzett 92470515 Cockpit Premium Interior and Dashboard Cleaner, 16.9 fl oz https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002Z2MZ4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_Y8N0679JBDHY3QBTB631)
they have new products (auto cleaning products are getting outdated quick) to do ceramic coating on leather and on the interiors. I just did on leather this weekend, feels great. Especially if you have light color seats