SupaGard

Well aware of previous discussions, I went for the Life shine, mainly because I have ivory interior panels on my 3 week old Havana/tan Evoque and simply took a punt, in the hope that it will offer some long term protection. My dealer did show me a three year old RRS which had been treated new with Lifeshine. I was very impressed by the condition inside and out. I know that this could be due to the previous owners carefulness, but thought it a small additional outlay of 1% total purchase price might be at least partially recouped when selling on?

sorry

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[quote='50dwill' pid='63018' dateline='1342900541']
sorry
My time is easy to use up but i did it my self because i know what i did and i found out all about the car( new toy) and the money i saved i can put to some other toys for Evie as we call her

I have a dealer purchased, 3rd party applied Gardex system on mine and was very sceptical about the benefits. However the winter weather brought home the benefit of a quality system as the car looked fantastic after only a hosing off and was very easy to get shiny again. It is way better trhan the Autogleam coating that was applied to a car I owned years ago, however to keep the coating tiptop I do have a pack of detergent and finishers that should be applied every 6 months. I found out that the local car valeting company are the Gardex agents in Stirling and found that their going rate on a new car the size of an Evoque is £199 which is a lot less than some dealers are looking for for similar systems. I'm very pleased with the performance of the Gardex system so far, especially because my car sits outside in all weathers and is under the flypast of the local rookery who's occupants use the car for diving bombing and target practice at every oportunity and I yet to find hardened on bird poo on any of the horizonal panels. The Gardex Glass treatment has also been very successful on the side and rear glass of my car and water still, after a year since application, just beads and falls off.

The Autoglym Lifeshine is a good product I must say but to be honest that most of these type of products are much the same, it is generally the terms and conditions along with the length of warranty that differ. I valeted a customers car recently who had had the Gaurd X applied as he showed me a bottle which I then sniffed & it smelt the same as Diamondbrite to me.

All said and done, these products are only any good if they are applied properly in the first place & take around 2.5 Hours to do on a preppared standard sized car (fully cleaned) which is generally unlikely to be the case at most dealers & I know it is not the case at many dealers! regardless of brand.

An example being the dealer that supplied my Evoque. When I was there prepping my car their valeter drove a 60 plate Freelander into the wash bay, foamed & washed it with a yard brush - OK it was a soft special brush but they are meant for busses, wagons etc. It was then moved into he barn where I was & had the Lifeshine applied to the whole car (allegedly) in the time it took me to do 1/3rd of mine with the Hi-Definition Wax!

Spent the morning in a Nissan garage helping a friend pickup a new car, she had chosen lifeshine haggled for 120 quid and got the full pack of autoglym products, for her it was ideal at that price, but looking round at the quality of thier stock and show cars I didnt rate thier car care skills much.

But her car looked great and at least its been done as not something she'd be doing.

For these strange people who don't like washing & waxing there vehicles these dealer applied treatments are piece of mind. Who better to treat there new car, than the main dealer & costing £500 it must be better than anything else on the Market is what Jo public thinks & for them any treatment good or bad is better than none.
But if any new members are reading this tread, the clear message is shop around. If your dealer is offering you paint treatment for under £200 that he should charge £500 for alarm bells should be ringing ! Ring around a few local detailing companies your get a better job cheaper. Your dealer may even let them in to there workshop to treat your car before hand over.

(22-07-2012 08:58am)doug Wrote:  For these strange people who don't like washing & waxing there vehicles these dealer applied treatments are piece of mind. Who better to treat there new car, than the main dealer & costing £500 it must be better than anything else on the Market is what Jo public thinks & for them any treatment good or bad is better than none.
But if any new members are reading this tread, the clear message is shop around. If your dealer is offering you paint treatment for under £200 that he should charge £500 for alarm bells should be ringing ! Ring around a few local detailing companies your get a better job cheaper. Your dealer may even let them in to there workshop to treat your car before hand over.

I think if I was quoted around £200-250 I would have added it onto the purchase price. If I took up the offer he would have thrown in the mats for free....still not interested as the mats costs around £85 I think it still didn't seem like a great deal to me. I was also told If i changed my mind give him a call.

An aquaintance of mine worked for various main dealers and told me that these "miracle treatments" cost the dealers about £40, are applied by the work experience kid and quite often they would manage to do 2 cars with one pack. To my mind to charge upwards of £300 for these treatments is bordering on criminal.
Also most of them need a top up during the year. A good wax or Gtechniq type product applied twice per year will give better results, plus you get the satisfaction of doing it yourself and not getting ripped off. Its amazing what you learn about a car whilst detailing it

(23-07-2012 08:49am)speary Wrote:  An aquaintance of mine worked for various main dealers and told me that these "miracle treatments" cost the dealers about £40, are applied by the work experience kid and quite often they would manage to do 2 cars with one pack. To my mind to charge upwards of £300 for these treatments is bordering on criminal.
Also most of them need a top up during the year. A good wax or Gtechniq type product applied twice per year will give better results, plus you get the satisfaction of doing it yourself and not getting ripped off. Its amazing what you learn about a car whilst detailing it

Very true Speary. I found 3 bubbles in the paint on varous panels, doubt I would of ever noticed them in a general wash and dry.

(23-07-2012 08:49am)speary Wrote:  An aquaintance of mine worked for various main dealers and told me that these "miracle treatments" cost the dealers about £40, are applied by the work experience kid and quite often they would manage to do 2 cars with one pack. To my mind to charge upwards of £300 for these treatments is bordering on criminal.
Also most of them need a top up during the year. A good wax or Gtechniq type product applied twice per year will give better results, plus you get the satisfaction of doing it yourself and not getting ripped off. Its amazing what you learn about a car whilst detailing it

That's exactly why its the one thing dealers will usually discount - many will charge £500!!

Funnily enough there was a Groupon a while ago offering one of these - I think it was supaguard or was it supergard or maybe superguard for £26!!!