For most people who plan to keep their car a few years, yes, a ceramic coating is worth it. It won't stop rock chips or hide scratches. Around Saratoga the payoff is mostly in winter, when salt film and brake dust come off a coated car with a lot less scrubbing.
Whether it's worth it on your car comes down to how long you're keeping it and how it gets washed.
What you're paying for
A coating goes on as a liquid, cures hard and bonds to the clear coat, so it doesn't wash off in a few months like wax. Water beads up and runs off the panel rather than drying into spots.
Most of the money is prep, though. We wash the car, chemically decon it for embedded iron, mechanically decon it for the tar and rail dust the chemicals leave behind, take paint depth readings, and then correct the paint. The coating is only microns thick and follows the surface under it exactly, so any swirl marks underneath stay there, sealed in and glossy. That's why correction comes before the coating on almost every car we do. If yours genuinely doesn't need it, we'll tell you.
Where it pays off in an upstate winter
Road salt is most of the case for it around here. On bare paint the salt film hangs on and people scrub harder to get it off, and from what we see, washing is where most swirl marks come from, brush-type automatic washes especially. On a coated car the salt, bug splatter and brake dust sit on top of the coating and come off in fewer passes with the mitt.
A coated car still has depth in the paint in March. Salt gets into the cabin too, and our post on detailing a car interior yourself covers getting it out of the carpets.
Our coatings are warranty-backed and the job goes on the vehicle's CARFAX history, so the record stays with the car when you sell it or trade it in.
What a coating won't do
Stone chips go straight through it. A coating has no real thickness to absorb a stone kicked up off a truck on the Northway, which is what paint protection film is for, and plenty of people film the front end and coat the rest. If you do both, the film goes on first, straight onto the paint.
Deep scratches don't go away either. If one catches your fingernail it's through the clear coat, and correction can usually make it catch the light less but can't take it all out without removing more clear coat than is safe. We point those out before we start.
When we'd tell you to skip it
If the car's getting traded in within the year and you don't much care about the paint until then, spend the money somewhere else. Same if it lives in a brush-type automatic wash and that isn't going to change, because the brushes scratch a coating the same way they scratch paint.
The other one is thin clear coat. A car that has been machine polished a few times before may not have much left, and clear coat doesn't grow back. We find that out with the depth gauge before anything touches the paint, and if a panel has had enough we leave it alone and tell you.
Why coatings get done at the shop
This is one of the few jobs we won't do in a driveway. Washes, interiors, extraction and sealant all travel fine in the van. A coating needs dust, temperature and humidity under control while it flashes and cures, and outside you get none of that, so for a coating the car comes to the shop at 40 North Street in Saratoga Springs and cures indoors there. If you're in Clifton Park or up in Glens Falls, plan on a drop-off.
Looking after a coated car
Hand wash it with a pH-neutral shampoo and stay out of the brush washes. Through the salt months that mostly means washing it more often. We tell you when it's safe to wash after the coating cures and go over the specifics for your car at pickup, and if something comes up in February, call us.
Common questions
How long does a ceramic coating last?
It depends on which coating goes on and how the car is kept. When we quote a specific coating we give you its expected life.
Should I coat a brand new car?
Yes, and before its first winter is a good time. We still check the paint first, since a new car isn't always as clean as it looks on the lot, and if it doesn't need correcting we'll say so.
Does a ceramic coating replace wax?
Pretty much. Wax wears off in a few months. A cured coating stays bonded to the clear coat, with protection measured in years.
How we quote a coating for your car is on our ceramic coating page.