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Simple question... or am I too cynical that the dealers are not competent at preparing a car properly

So, the question is, before I collect my new car; instead of wasting £500 on their "lifeshine" treatments etc, would you instead pay a couple of hundred quid for a professional detailer to visit the dealer on your behalf and prep the car and give it a high-quality wax etc? or, would you leave it to the dealer to wax it?

its your buying a high end car then definately! I've seen the crap my local BMW dealers use to prep a car and its as cheap as you can get. Like wise use a good detailer like Off Your Marks or Polished Bliss. There alot of detailers around and not many are any good. Anyone can remove swirls but alot dont refinish the laquer properly, it will be a better job than the dealers but if you've seen a quality detail the difference between detailers work can be night and day.

I would have it detailed Steve. Years ago I bought a brand new Audi and told the dealer to just wash the protective wax off.

Detailed it myself and when I sold it, there wasn't a swirl in sight and it was black!

Forgot to mention I had mine done a while ago. Very pleased with the results.

http://rs246.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB ... ic&t=69771

I had a new porsche detailed by an independant a few years back and they removed all of the orange peel in the paint as part of the process too. Definately a case of better than factory finish afterwards!

Would certainly not spend the £500 dealers charge for them to apply their Life or Supagard polish. If done properly, which is unlikely, by their bucket and sponge jockey it does no better than a decent polish and wax by yourself.

I have Supagard on my Kawasaki that's in the back garden at the moment (got a couple of sachets of the stuff and the owner kit they give you so thought I would try it out). I did a proper paintwork polish with my UDM, 3M pads, Poorboys SSR polish then applied the stuff from Supagard over the top. Its lasted about 2 weeks sat still in my garden and there is no beading or anything at all, just cannot tell it was ever done. Compared to my other bike which is used daily and covered in Collinite 476 (the princely sum of about £15 a tub) and still beading off that water months later and it just got a Clearkote Vanilla Glaze before hand, no machine work at all.
The car is wearing Dodo Juice Light Fantastic at the mo and that has lasted approx a month again driven daily. Was prep'd with dodo lime prime by hand.

£300ish to a pro-detailer gets you it done properly, why let the dealer do it for twice that half arsed?

Well... Decided to get a detailer to visit the dealer and prep my car.

Dealer was partly offended and partly impressed. He couldn't disagree that the finish will be much better than a dealer could do for significantly less money.

SteveH wrote:Simple question... or am I too cynical that the dealers are not competent at preparing a car properly

So, the question is, before I collect my new car; instead of wasting £500 on their "lifeshine" treatments etc, would you instead pay a couple of hundred quid for a professional detailer to visit the dealer on your behalf and prep the car and give it a high-quality wax etc? or, would you leave it to the dealer to wax it?

You're not cynical or mad or alone.

I used to know a bloke who treated himself to a new Aston every so often in the pre-Ford days when they were still hand built. His first job was to strip off all he could without invalidating his warranty and cleaning and improving everything and making his missus think he was mad. His cars looked fantastic.

Visited the dealer having had car detailed today in readiness for my collection on Monday, must say am really chuffed I decided to do this as it looked truly stunning!!

Many Thanks to Shineman

No problem Steve glad to be of assistant.

Testament to Shinemans work... Gave the car a quick clean (good 'ol Johnsons Baby Bath) and took some photo's:...