Hi all — hoping to get some guidance here from the community.
This is a brand new 2025 X5 M60 that was shipped directly from the dealer to the PPF installer. The plan has been to do full XPEL Stealth PPF. Earlier today, the installer called to flag some scratches on the gloss black trim at the front of the car — specifically the lower piece around the bumper area — which they discovered during disassembly. You can see it clearly in the video when the light hits it just right:
View post on imgur.com
View post on imgur.com
At first glance, the trim doesn’t look terrible, but he confirmed over the phone that the entire piece is covered in fine scratches — they just aren’t visible unless the light hits it directly. He also told me that the window trim (piano black finish) and the rear diffuser are in a similar condition — all scratched up. I haven’t received video of those areas yet.
I’m still not totally sure how this happened. My gut tells me it’s likely from a poor detail or prep job when the car first arrived at the dealership — since that’s typically the only time a new car gets wiped down before going to a customer. That said, I have no way of knowing if this was a factory issue, dealer mistake, or something that happened during transport.
As for options, the installer gave me two:
1.Polish only (no film) – This is what they usually do in full stealth conversions. They’d polish the trim to remove the swirl marks and leave it unwrapped to preserve contrast.
2.Polish + clear gloss PPF – This would prevent future damage, but it adds cost since the original job only included matte film and didn’t plan to wrap those areas. He quoted ~$300 for the front trim piece if we go this route.
I’m leaning toward just doing the front trim (if anything), but not wrapping the window trim or diffuser — that feels like overkill to me. But I’m open to feedback. Curious what others would do in this situation, and whether the extra cost for the gloss PPF sounds reasonable.
Thanks in advance — really appreciate any input!