[sterlingsilver]

A close friend of mine was planning to detail his brand new, to-be-delivered car (PPF/Ceramic Coating etc) - a Hyundai Venue - when he reached out to me for advice and help.

Now, I usually detail my cars at The Detailing Mafia (TDM) at Anna Nagar. Vineet at this place (knowledgeable and friendly) gives the right suggestions and I have had good experiences with him and all my cars have turned out well (an Elite i20, Innova, MG Hector and BMW 3 series).

While Iam no expert, I usually know the right questions to ask and can articulate what Iam looking for. When I suggested TDM to my friend, he wanted to explore a few other options before going with TDM. I was also interested as I was also keen to check out who is doing what these days!

My friend and I like to keep our cars as stock as possible. We like to live with what the OEM provides, and generally avoid accessories (freebies or otherwise). This time around, my friend picked up a brand new Hyundai Venue in Black - To stand out in the crowd and gives a luxurious appeal - despite my heads-up on the difficulty of maintaining one.

My friend was particular that he wanted to protect the OE paint job of the car and keep it looking new for the next five years, atleast! I had told him that detailing is only half of the job and proper, regular cleaning and maintenance (right products, right methods) is vital for long lasting results.

We decided to do explore Ceramic Coating, Graphene Coating and PPF. We also wanted to explore "Clarity Coating" (Same Color) that is new in the market. However, I was skeptical since there were no takes yet on the results.

PPF: Considering the characteristics of a PPF, my friend was too tempted towards it. Unfortunately, the cost was beyond his budget, for the right quality and brand.

Ceramic Coating: My friend was confused with the fact that online reading materials for Ceramic Coating stated that it had no self-healing capabilities,but a few places were offering self-healing Ceramic products. Not wanting to take a chance, my friend decided to drop this also.

The only option remaining was Graphene Coating. So that's how it came to be!

Choice of Detailer:

My friend and I scouted around for quotes from vendors in Annanagar, ECR and OMR areas and were weighing on all the shortlisted ones.

One afternoon we happened to drive through Adyar for a client meeting when we noticed a new detailing place – ‘A Square Car Detailing (ACD)’. It was inside a shopping complex. We stepped in for a general inquiry and was greeted well by the ACD team.

The communication skills, body language etc., of the whole ACD team was very positive. We team slowly and patiently listened to us and made us spell out our requirements.

We were asked which car was this for, age of the car etc. We were given a full run-down on PPF, Ceramic, Graphene and their pros and cons, properties, ageing factors, maintenance etc. They were clear and upfront with the info. Nowhere did the ACD team attempted to cross sell any of their services.

We were explained that ACD uses Expel V and Saint Gobain materials and their quote for PPF for Hyundai Venue was approx Rs 1.8 Lakhs. One of ACD’s partners – Mr. Deepak also advised against spending too much money for a PPF stating “Why do you want to spend so much for a 17 lac MUV?”. Made sense. So we took the Graphene Coating, for which the quote was about Rs 50 thousand.

At this stage, we were comfortable with ACD but were unsure as ACD was opened only a few months ago. There were no Google customer reviews of ACD with regards to Graphene Coating, but it had all round good reviews and feedback. ACD's Interior detailing and car wash services had 5 star reviews.

We decided to take a leap of faith and happy to report that it paid off. The car was dropped off at ACD straight after taking delivery from the showroom.

From the time the car was dropped off, they continuously shared photos / videos of the stage by stage process on Whatsapp. We were happy to see the step by step process images / videos of the activities performed on the car with the rationale on why each step is essential. The whole process of Graphene coating took about 2.5 days, including the curing time.

Finally, on the day of delivery, my friend was super excited to see his car glittering and decked. He was shown the hydro-phobic effect across panels. He was also advised on how to check this and bring it back for correction if the hydrophobic effect weakens. We were given a detailed write-up on maintenance and a review scheduled within a week.

Definitely a Quality place I would recommend - Knowledgeable and Sincere with a fair price tag.

[hserus]

I have had both my cars washed / waxed etc at ACD over the past few months as I'm just down the road from them. Deepak Sekar from ACD is knowledgeable and proactive, uses good quality detailing products.

This is a small place with capacity to work on just one car at a time, so call for an appointment before you go.

Deepak Sekar - +91 93630 21997

[rkv_2401]

I got my car detailed (stage 3, the highest one they had) here too sometime in May. Results were decent and the price was affordable, although they could have paid a bit more attention to detail wrt the finishing touches.
They were happy to sort them out once I pointed them out, though.

You should set up an appointment before you go, as mentioned earlier.