dealer prep

[monkeyhanger]

Different dealerships do different things. I've had a basic wash but no wax at Benfield. My last car bought from Pulman had a basic application of wax which looked fine, but i'd personally put something better on there. Not going to pay a detailer to do mine - I like to get all that done myself. Polish, wax, application of a stainguard spray on the carpets and upholstery in the car. If you're patient and dilligent you can save yourself a canny bit of money. I'd conider a detailer to rejuvenate a car when it's time to change, if I was selling privately, but when the car is new "out of the box" i'll do it all myself.

[dubber36]

Bill, from what you have said I would guess that you have had a car dealer cleaned before and been perfectly happy with it. Some of us however would probably notice damage that may have been incurred during their slap dash washing techniques.

Look at virtually every car on the road in bright sunlight and you'll see swirls, marring and cobwebbing in the paintwork. This is mainly caused by careless washing. By letting the dealer clean the car, the first wash it gets could be the very start of inflicting these paint defects.

[Bill_the_Bear]

Bill, from what you have said I would guess that you have had a car dealer cleaned before and been perfectly happy with it.

Yes, exactly right.  But I am sure that I don't know what to look for.  That said, as long as they don't make a complete hash of it (which I would notice) then it sounds like I'm going to be happy with it.

As long as they don't scratch it they can't permanently screw anything up right?  Apologies if I'm asking stupid questions, I'm a noob on this!

[Gryzor]

In all honesty, as long as the car is mechanically sound and clean, that's good enough for me.  I've had several cars from new, never had an issue with prep.  Got far more important stuff to worry about that a few potential minor swirls in paint that will inevitably get some combination of chipped, scratched, dented, shat on, and all manner of abuse during its life!  I do look after my cars, but I don't nanny them.

[monkeyhanger]

If you've never worried about it before then why start now. For most an initial polish/seal and then proper waxing 4 times a year will be sufficient. There will be some who will buy £60 tubes of wax etc and wax every other weeknd. Some people can get ultra obsessive with car cleaning. A lad on the Scirocconet forum was so into orbital polishing his car he'd worn through the lacquer layer and was well on the way to wearing through his DBP layer on a few car panels. Had to get an extensive respray. I've found that waxing every 3 months, washing every week or 2 and doing everything by hand with microfibre cloths that you can get cheaply in bulk from Costco is more than enough for me.

[JoeGTI]

Agreed... you can over think this in a big way. I love having my car's paintwork in tip top condition, but there's a limit to it and some people go way over the top. The car is brand new. The dealer has a load of shiney cars in his showroom that were prepared by the same guys that will PDI yours and the ones in the showroom tend to look ok. Don't over think it!

Anyone see or remember that thread that was doing the rounds a few years ago with the lad and his Astra? He wouldn't let the dealer touch it either and photographed every stage of his "detailing" regime before he even drove the blooming thing. He was even contemplating rejecting the car because he discovered a tiny imperfection with his microscope 

[Gryzor]

Yup, makes me wonder how some people even get the courage to actually drive their cars in case a leaf falls on it...  I know they are expensive and often our pride-and-joy, but I have my limits and priorities!  Like monkeyhanger, I wash it when needed with microfibre cloths and they do the job just fine.  It's like parents who try and guard their kids from every possible germ, fall and hazard...life isn't rosy like that I'm afraid!

[baza]

As I sat telling my dealer, between 2 dark new vw cars, about not prepping my car, he asked why. Without getting out of my seat I could point out damage caused by p*ss poor washing, scratches all over it, not including the swirls. These are very obvious in bright sunshine or under a garage forecourt at night. I would be gutted if I picked a new car up in that condition. My job is inspection, maybe I'm pickier than most but a new car to me should be perfect.

[Bill_the_Bear]

As I sat telling my dealer, between 2 dark new vw cars, about not prepping my car, he asked why. Without getting out of my seat I could point out damage caused by p*ss poor washing, scratches all over it, not including the swirls. These are very obvious in bright sunshine or under a garage forecourt at night. I would be gutted if I picked a new car up in that condition. My job is inspection, maybe I'm pickier than most but a new car to me should be perfect.

If only my dealer was local I could pop in and see the quality of their handiwork.  Unfortunately they are not local.

[p3asa]

Bill would you be happy for your prep to be done by someone on minimal wage using a sponge and not really bothering if they drop the sponge on the ground and then just continue?
Thats obviously worse case scenario but I know one of my local dealers lets their young boys loose on the cars with a dirty sponge!!

Some of them also use a glaze which covers up the swirls so all looks great until a few washes later and the glaze wears off!! But again that's worse case scenario but probably why most folk in the know would be happier to do it themselves.

With your car being white you won't notice the swirls apart from in ideal conditions.

Black really shows it up. Most black TOA taxis are really bad for it.