The big question at hand. Whether you have a vehicle that may be a few years old or just recently purchased a new one, it needs to be protected. So, should you have it ceramic coated, a paint protection film installed, or maybe even both? This is a common topic that we discuss all the time with many of our clients. While both options are fantastic forms of protection for your vehicle’s paint, each has a different purpose for the types of damage they were made to protect against.
Ceramic Coatings
A Ceramic coating offers your vehicle a few different benefits such as enhanced gloss and hydrophobic self cleaning properties, but most importantly, protection for your vehicle’s clear coat. Your vehicle is put through some of the harshest conditions everyday, not only while you are driving it but while it’s parked as well. Rain, mineral water, bug splatter, bird droppings and UV damage are some of the elements that damage your vehicle’s paint on a daily basis. These are the things that ceramic coatings were developed to withstand and protect against. The chance of any of the above stated issues damaging your vehicle’s paint are drastically reduced once it is ceramic coated. It provides an invisible barrier between all the outside elements and stops them from leaving the damage in your clear coat that they normally would.
Paint Protection Film
Paint Protection Film on the other hand was made and designed to stop impact damage from harming your vehicle’s paint. Rock and stone chips, scratches and scuffs are all issues that damage your paint and can leave permanent marks behind. When a paint protection film is installed to your vehicle, it stops all of those issues from happening. A paint protection film can still be damaged if impacted hard enough by a larger stone, or scuffed hard enough by something hitting it, at which point the film can easily be removed and replaced while the panel underneath will be unharmed.
Drive Protected
So which one is right for you? Ceramic coatings are a great fit for everyone due to the fact that every vehicle is open to being damaged from harmful weathering conditions, while paint protection films are more common for vehicles that have lower front ends, as well as vehicles that do more highway driving in order to stop rock chip damage from occurring. As the price of newer vehicles increases yearly, having both a ceramic coating and paint protection installed seems to be becoming more common for the daily driver.