Experience with ceramic coating: Does it work? Will I opt for it again?

It's like a light protective layer over your paint but I think it makes sense only for high-end cars.

BHPian thirdmainroad recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Having had ceramic coating done on my WRV over 4 years ago at a Ceramic Pro outlet, I can attest ceramic coats do work, but are a total waste, in my opinion.

I was an early customer of Ceramic pro, and they offered me the service at Rs 25,000 (in Jan 2019) with one year / 4 services. I bargained and said I’d take the 4 services over the course of 2 years and not one. Having the car come in every 2/3 months for a coat made no sense to me. They agreed.

Ceramic coating does keep your coat of paint in top shape. If you have any “glitter” finish, it enhances it. Think of it as a light protective layer over your paint. It does not do much to prevent scratches nor does the water-repellent qualities last more than an initial couple of weeks. It does make it easy to pick up swirl marks while cleaning.

If you can keep your car scratch free, and get a top-up coat every 6 months or so, ceramic coating is going to keep your car looking brand new for years. So this means after 4 free top-ups, you have to “re-subscribe” to the service by paying 30k or so again every year or two years depending on when your 4 services end.

And so - does it work? Yes! Can keep the exteriors in showroom condition for a long time!

Will I do it ever again? No! Makes sense to get the car repainted rather than getting the coat done.

Considering our driving conditions where small accidents and scratches are bound to happen, I do think ceramic coating and PPF are totally unnecessary and a total waste of money!

I do suppose it makes sense on high-end cars! So if I ever get a Ferrari or Rolls Royce, this will be one of the first services I get for sure. But will I get this done on my brand new Taigun 1.5 GT? Nope!

Here's what BHPian AJ56 had to say about the matter:

Whatever they were applying to your paint, rest assured it wasn’t a ceramic coating, as even entry-level consumer-grade coatings last well past 3 months, even paint sealants last longer than 3 months. Makes no sense to me why any shop would apply a coating, only to have it reapplied every few months, defeats the entire point of going for ceramic-based protection.

I don’t understand how a coating makes getting swirls easier, if anything it reduces the risk of swirls by slightly bumping up the surface hardness.

You don’t need to pay anywhere near 30k or reapply the coating every 2 years, and one shouldn’t be polishing paint every 6 months even if cost is no object, it’s not healthy and reduces clearcoat thickness unnecessarily. I feel you were misled and not informed about the safe washing techniques by the guys who installed the coating.

Interestingly many folks would argue these rough traffic conditions are precisely the reason why one should get a PPF, to prevent the factory paint from being scratched and requiring a repaint.

If you wash and compare a coated vs uncoated car maybe you wouldn’t have that opinion, makes a night and day difference in ease of maintenance when you have a healthy coating on the paint, reduces time and effort by at least 50%.

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