|
I got the Jeep ceramic coated several months ago. So far so good. The vehicle is triple black (paint, wheels, interior) and after having several other black cars over the year, I was interested in trying out some options as opposed to just speculating on the value of something. IMO, I would know real quickly how effective ceramic coating is since even small imperfections are so visible on a black vehicle.
The caveat of sorts here is that since I realize that ceramic coating don't do much of anything against hardcore threats to paint, like rocks that get kicked up in the normal course of driving, I got the whole front of the Jeep PPF'd. The PPF and rest of the jeep also received a ceramic coating. My rationale for the ceramic coating was to put something on the jeep which will last several years to keep the paint looking fairly clean and resist (obviously not completely prevent) light scratches and provide a barrier for things like sap and bird droppings. And making the vehicle easy to clean is also a consideration.
I realize that ceramics are a temporary coating that is designed to sacrifice itself for things like road grime, bird droppings, etc. Obviously, if I felt the car was going to get pelted with these things, I probably would have just PPF'd the whole vehicle, but IMO, the occasional bird dropping or sap is just what this stuff protects from. I haven't really had sap or bird droppings to test out the durability with however---so I guess that's good. I have noticed that there are far far fewer microswirls after washing the car than I've seen over a similar time period with other black vehicles I've owned. We'll see how it goes.
Now, the BMW hasn't received nearly the same level of treatment since the paint was in worse shape than the Jeep. However, the BMW is garaged almost 100% of the time and isn't exposed to sun for very long. I have found that in this environment, the old school Menzerna FMJ works very well. Last time I applied this was several years ago and the car still beads up. I'm not someone who just buys products because they're new---so once I'm done with FMJ, I'll move up to something that's from the 21st century, lol. But for now, it does a great job.
The Jeep gets stored outside and the BMW gets the garage spot. Neither is daily driven, since I don't drive daily (or really ever for work), so it will be interesting to see if the ceramic lasts as long as I've been told (4-5 yrs if "we cared for").
|