Since buying our new RDX we have resisted the urge to spend extra on the accessories, but what do you guys say about the Paintguard / Fiberguard / Leatherguard scheme offered by Acura. They offered us for $699 which is warranted for 5 years. Is it worth it? Has anyone used it? Thanks in advance.

 

I'm not familiar with this exact product, but most of these dealer surface coatings are sealers/polymers/scotchguard products that you can do on your own. 'Warranted for 5 years' for what? Most people who buy this will notice the nice finish on the car but then the car ages and what does the warranty get you? 5 years of cleaning and polishing? I honestly don't know, but who is going to go back for warranty on these surface products.

I wouldn't buy it myself. But I will say I once owned a brand new BMW that the dealer completely scratched the $hi! out of the 2nd week I owned it with the worst car wash in the history of cars. To unscrew me from the ceiling they offered me a nice loaner while they brought in a guy to polish the car and apply one of these protectants/sealants. It did look new and I never had a problem with it, but I never once went back to that dealer for service.

There are some really good products now on the market that are better than these dealer applied options.

On my next new car I will polish it and Opti-coat 2.0 it the first weekend I bring it home. I have it on my car and it is a nice product but requires some prep work before you apply it.

Opti-coat 2.0 is not the only such surface treatment for cars. It is more like a chemically bonded clear coat. It is not a permanent finish but it is much longer lasting than a traditional wax or even these polymer coatings that the dealer installs. If you are handy with a polisher you can do it yourself at a much lower cost. But to pay someone else for it you are probably in the same price range but you'll be happier with the results.

 

Thanks for the info. I myself did a little online research and found that mostly it is a money making scam run by dealers. The product is called permaplate. Anyway I'll look into the opticoat or more likely leave it as it is. Thanks again.

 

Scams. Don't buy those. The "warranty" would say something like we'll replace it if we can't fix it. Well, they will only fix it to their standard, not yours. Plus there are like a million other conditions you'll have to meet in order to get something replaced. Not worth it.

Use good leather cleaner and conditioner for your interior.

Hand wash the car often and wax it once a year or every 2 years, you'll be fine.

 

Correct. All a ploy to make money. I'll provide more info later tonight.

 

Clay bar once a year, good wax job, you should be fine.

 

Those $700 "protection packages" cost them about $25. They are not offered by Acura but are offered by the dealership to suck money out of your wallet. They are marketed to dealers as "profit packages" and are worthless.

Why are they worthless? Aside from the product being a glorified glaze that you can buy at PepBoys, the problem is that there is no proper prep and the glaze is just added over swirls, glue residue and rail dust - sealing the crud between the paint and the glaze.

A new car is quite dirty. They strip off the plastic protectant but the glue residue stays along the edges, the dealer car washes induce swirls and rail dust is imbedded into the paint from whatever transport mechanism is used.

Prior to using any permanent sealant (OptiCoat for example) you need to use adhesive remover to get rid of the glue residue, use Iron-X to remove the rail dust and polish the car to get rid of the swirls.

You can figure that an experienced detailer will take a day to prep the car and another half day for properly applying the OptiCoat.

Dealers run the car through their carwash, use a dirty rag to wipe it down then and then use an equally dirty rag to wipe on the glaze. The car looks great for a few weeks until the glaze wears off.

They use the same process with the "permaplate" except it doesn't wear off quite so quickly. The guarantee doesn't apply to swirls.

A note on Permaplate. I bought a bottle of that stuff at the Boston Auto Show in the early '90s. It didn't work well then and it sold for $9.95 for a couple of bottles, a prep wash and a synthetic chamois.

I saw the same stuff for sale at the DC Auto Show earlier this year. I probably still have some of the stuff in the garage. I last used it to protect my mailbox before the winter. It was OK for that.

 

+1 ^^^^ Nice info ^^^^^

 

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Why in the world would you pay $700 for paint/leather protection? How many time in 5 years have you ever noticed the paint or leather went bad enough to warrant a replacement? And if you do need replacement, it would not be covered because it would be 'wear and tear' item. Ask me why I know this ~ I paid for it once too many time.

 

Thanks guys. We were skeptical of the offer anyway. We declined and are not considering anything at all...except routine washing and waxing "by my hand of course".

 

If you really want to get into car care there are a few good forums you can look at. I like this one... http://www.autogeekonline.net/ but there are other. But it is really about ones own personality and the right tools. I'll never own a black car, even as much as I like the look, I just know I'm not going to put the effort into keep it looking good for so many years. But I do have a nice DA polisher, pads, several levels of polishes, and once a year or so I'll really clean up the car. Even with a little effort you can get the car looking better than new with the right tools. It is always about the right tools, no matter the job.

If you don't want to spend the money on a nice DA polisher, Harbor Freight now carries one that people seem to like at 1/3 the price of a name brand DA polisher.

 

In my case it was a scam. I paid $450 for it when I bought my rdx at a dealership in Memphis and when I picked it up there was still plastic on the roof and some on the body where the car had been shipped! I don't trust those guys for this type of thing anymore. I just did it myself.

 

3M's 303 for your soft interior surfaces and their 303 for hard black plastic items (including tires) to resist sun aging.

 

303 is not made by 3M. It is manufactured by Gold Eagle.

Aerospace 303 is a fine product and will protect interior bits without adding cheap shine. I've found it works even better when mixed 50/50 with water. I'm not a fan of putting anything on tires.

 

I live in Florida and like other areas of the country, we have love bugs. If one does not clean them off within a few days, the paint will pit. I decided to go to a location that uses a paintguard that is like a plastic film on the front of the vehicle to protect against that and other light chips from rocks ect. It was around $900 to have it done, but redoing the paint on the front would cost more. I really did not want to spend the money, but now glad I did.

 

That is the clearbra that we often speak about here. You'll still need to remove the lovebugs as they'll damage the film but it won't hurt the paint.

 

So, what I am hearing is I should wash my new car first thing I get it app kept opti-coat and wax? I'm getting one in grey which almost as bad as black. What is clay.

 

Could you re-write your first sentence in something that resembles English?

You're right, darker colors are harder to keep looking nice.

Think of clay kind of like the tape that you've used in the past to remove lint from clothing, except that the clay will remove crud embedded in your paint.

 

I speak good! Yeah, I was having the iPad wrangled from me by my 3 year old and didn't have time to edit before I hit submit. So here goes: Should I wash my car when I take possession of it, make sure I remove all the glue residue, etc, then give it a good wax (or use the clay?) or it really doesn't matter? Would that help keep it cleaner or should I hose it once a week?

 

Simple steps for a clean shiny car:

1. Wash well
2. Use IronX to remove raildust
3. Use 3M adhesive remover (carefully as it can craze plastic) to remove glue residue
4. Use a clay bar to remove other contaminants
5. Polish (using a random orbital machine like the Porter Cable with the least aggressive pad and a mild polish)
6. Protect (using a good quality wax or something like OptiCoat)
7. Admire

The dealer will wash and pour glaze on. It will look great for a few weeks.

 

Easy as pie! I am assuming I can get all of the above supplies from Autozone....do I really need the Porter Cable or can I just use good old elbow grease with a microfiber rug? Running the car through the carwash sounds simpler at this point from where I am sitting...

 

The steps the CEB listed above are good. Most of that you can buy at Autozone. If you want better choice and quality of products there are several on-line stores. I like ...

http://www.autodetailingsolutions.net/

You won't be able to buy Opti-coat at Autozone but you can get it at the link above. You need to have that on hand because you don't want to spend a full day on the prep and not have the Opti-coat or you wasted all that prep.

You don't need a Porter Cable per se but to hand polish a car to prep it for Opticoat is way more elbow grease than you think. You can get by with this polisher from Harbor Freight. You can easily find 20% coupon. But buy some good Lake Country pad and a backing plate. Usually most cost effective to buy those as a set.

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-in-va...her-69924.html

If you don't care to remove scrathes or spider webs or holograms or prep for Opticoat... sure you could hand polish. But it is a lot more work than you probably want.

 

Oh, this place too. You can often find coupons for them if you look in their forum.

http://www.autogeek.net/

 

If you actually have swirls or holograms, then you'll need more than elbow grease to remove them. OptiCoat is really nothing a beginning detailer should try to apply.

My recommendation is to ask in your regional forums about a recommended detailer and have them do the heavy lifting to prep and opti-coat. Thereafter, a quick run through a completely touchless carwash will have your car looking sharp.

I haven't washed my TSX in several weeks and it was in two major downpours in the last week. I don't think it looks too shabby - even with a low-res blackberry as a camera.

 

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