New car detail recommended? How have your delivery Evoques looked?

Boring background...

Two years ago we took delivery of a Phantom Black A5. It was December, weather was terrible, and the 100 delivery miles (we lease our cars) meant we couldn't inspect the car properly. A week later and after a good clean, we found some real horrors in the paint. There was what can only be described as a 'nipple'(!) in the paint on the rear quarter (which was later polished out) and down both rear flanks lots and lots of faint scratch lines in the paint. I was later told by a professional detailer that at some stage along the transporting process the cars had plastic cellophane on some of the panels, and to remove they rip off, dip a industrial style brush in a bucket, then scrub the side of the car with it. Yikes!

These marks have never gone from the A5 which is a shame. Dealing with Audi was a real pain, made worse admittedly as I was dealing with a dealer who didn't supply the car, but now we know it's going back, I want to make sure the Evoque is perfect on arrival.

My question is how happy have people been with the state of the car on delivery. I read of 'unveilings' in the showrooms. Do LR give you a pristine car with a nice layer of wax on or does it depend? Have many people seen much in the way of delivery imperfections/swirls?

I'm tempted to get an independent new car detail. £200 for someone who's passionate about cleaning cars to run a machine polisher over the car and make it look better than when it rolled off the factory. After all it will have travelled a long way in mixed conditions and i'm a bit sceptical about who has done what to it in the weeks between build and getting to the showroom. I have all the polishes/waxes/glazes but don't have a machine polisher, and actually think i'd just rather pay someone to do it who does this sort of thing for a living...

Comments appreciated.

The standard seems ok, but I will be stripping off the wax tomorrow and detailing mine to the highest level. I spotted a tub of Autoglym and Autosmart today in the valet bay, not my choice of wax or polish.

Mine and several others have been detailed properly (I don't consider the dealer ripoff protection products to be a detail). On the whole the paint has been very good however the week point is the gloss black plastics (pillars and mirrors if you have a dynamic) they are VERY soft and marr if you look at them wrong let alone touch them!

A good detailer applying a quality product is well worth the money - I went for Gtechniq and I've seen very good results with CQuartz. I'd suggest doing some research on detailingworld.com.

By the way - I asked my dealer to do the bare minimum to my car but it had been prepared when I picked it up - they had actually done a reasonable job surprisingly (except the aforementioned pillars)

Despite the cost and in the back of my mind feeling that detailing is not absolutely necessary, I think I will go ahead when my car arrives, the primary reason being that an expert will check it over and let me know of any problems an untrained eye may have missed.

(20-01-2012 10:46pm)LDT Wrote:  Despite the cost and in the back of my mind feeling that detailing is not absolutely necessary, I think I will go ahead when my car arrives, the primary reason being that an expert will check it over and let me know of any problems an untrained eye may have missed.

Good point, we have rejected ours as a result of getting it detailed.

Mine was a bit grubby - but that's because I asked for it not to be polished, so that I could clean & protect it with AG Lifeshine.

I couldn't find any defects or blemishes at all, and reckon the build quality - paint, gaps etc - is fantastic.

1/2 a day spent DIY detailing was well worth it, and an excellent way to inspect & learn the car.

The bodywork's ok but the 18" alloys are sod to polish

(20-01-2012 10:39pm)xxxx5 Wrote:  The standard seems ok, but I will be stripping off the wax tomorrow and detailing mine to the highest level. I spotted a tub of Autoglym and Autosmart today in the valet bay, not my choice of wax or polish.

What is wrong with Autoglym? It is very nice stuff for general use. I have used it since the early 90's. Autoglym Hi-Definition Wax is excellent value.

(20-01-2012 10:51pm)2011Evoque Wrote:  Good point, we have rejected ours as a result of getting it detailed.

Interesting. Did the detailer inspect it at the dealer, or were you able to reject it afterwards? Was yours the one that I've read somewhere having had a potential respray?

I think detailing is well worth the money, as long as you use someone reputable and knows what they're doing. There are a lot of cowboys thinking they can charge £200 for a days work yet actually do more harm than good. Buffer trails for example on a black car looks horrendous. I've seen a brand new dark blue 5 series which looked horrendous in the light.

I'm leaning towards getting it done properly, it's just one of those jobs I'd actually enjoy doing myself! A light cutting polish, then a durable wax on top should last up to 12 months with minimum maintenance in between.

Oh and Autoglym products not too bad (Super Resin Polish a good performer), just a bit 'highstreet'. Much better specialist stuff out there for the money though. Funny you mention the Autosmart too which seems to used heavily in the trade. I bought a TT with light leather and they tried using the Autosmart 'conditioner' to clean the leather prior to me agreeing to purchase. Useless. I then bought a £6 bottle of liquid leather cleaner (cannot recommend highly enough) and the seats were looking like new again...

(20-01-2012 11:16pm)MrHooky Wrote:  Interesting. Did the detailer inspect it at the dealer, or were you able to reject it afterwards? Was yours the one that I've read somewhere having had a potential respray?

We'd had it about 2 months, it was the paint but poor finish as opposed to respray. New one should arrive in May. Dealers been great about it really.

I guess it depends on the relationship with your dealer.

The last thing you want is for them to handover the car unprepped take it to a detailed who finds an issue then take it back and the dealer says well we didn't do that.

So maybe get the dealer to prep it and then whip it round to your detailer. If there's any issues you can then take it back to LR under warranty anyway.

£200 does sound very cheap for a full body machine polish. But then I do live back in rip off Thames Valley South now. Everything motoring was cheaper in the Midlands!