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Am I getting caught up in the hype of PPF
- Thread starter JulesVerne
- Start date
Paid $600 to respray the entire hood & front bumper of my '07 Corvette about 5 years ago.. and that was only after an accident. To each their own... but it's amazing to me that people will buy a brand new $50-60K vehicle.. and then proceed to instantly spend almost $5000 in protection for some cases. IMO unless you factually know road debris will completely wear down your vehicle and cause damage to it that will dramatically affect its resale value.. it's probably going to be a serious waste of money.
Granted I live in the DC area and we just don't have beast winters or gravel roads or such around here. But the PPF's, ceramic coatings, and custom wraps are as popular here as they are everywhere else. I did get the rear door PPF kit from Tesla and put the splash guard (mudflaps) from RPM around all 4 wheels as cheap insurance. Also bought a $14 bottle of Turtle Wax Hybrid Ceramic wax which does an excellent job keeping anything from sticking to the paint.. But that's about the most I'm willing to throw at it.
Even if I do get my share of rock chips in the 3-5 years of ownership I expect to keep this car.. I'll grab a bottle of touch up paint and I seriously doubt if I will lose even a dime in resale value when I eventually go to sell/trade it for whatever vehicle is next.
Granted I live in the DC area and we just don't have beast winters or gravel roads or such around here. But the PPF's, ceramic coatings, and custom wraps are as popular here as they are everywhere else. I did get the rear door PPF kit from Tesla and put the splash guard (mudflaps) from RPM around all 4 wheels as cheap insurance. Also bought a $14 bottle of Turtle Wax Hybrid Ceramic wax which does an excellent job keeping anything from sticking to the paint.. But that's about the most I'm willing to throw at it.
Even if I do get my share of rock chips in the 3-5 years of ownership I expect to keep this car.. I'll grab a bottle of touch up paint and I seriously doubt if I will lose even a dime in resale value when I eventually go to sell/trade it for whatever vehicle is next.
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Yes. On my test drive last week, the Y had flaps, and rear door ppf. What seemed odd, there was about 1 inch of door paint below the ppf!
Sounds like they screwed up the installation. It is supposed to be at the bottom of the door.
Do you have pictures of the rear doors?
Keith
I highly doubt that PPF is a net win from a financial perspective, as people expect used cars to have minor paint chips and damage. With that being said, I put film on the hood, front bumper, side view mirrors, and door cups on my Miata and have no regrets. I'm anal and plan on keeping that car for a really long time. I would never pay for a full wrap, however, as that's just too much money, and if you turn over cars often, PPF can be a really expensive habit.
LionelHutz
Member
In my opinion, sectional rear door PPF is 100% required on these cars, especially the MYP (wider front offset). After ~100 miles on nice SoCal roads, my MYP already had over a dozen chips in that area (Tesla was good about a courtesy professional respray). There are users on here who have driven worse roads and had their rear doors sandblasted down to primer. The mud flaps help but aren't going to prevent everything.
Front bumper and hood are YMMY. They're expensive ($1000-2000 compared to $40 for DIY rear doors) and while that area will get chips over time without PPF it isn't the constant strike zone that the rear doors are.
Front bumper and hood are YMMY. They're expensive ($1000-2000 compared to $40 for DIY rear doors) and while that area will get chips over time without PPF it isn't the constant strike zone that the rear doors are.
No. It was o
I have one pic of a silver model with flaps and PPF on the door, parked, but my picture only shows the top line of the PPF, and just blends in at the bottom.
No, it was on my wife's Test Drive car.
I have one pic of a silver model with flaps and PPF on the door, parked, but my picture only shows the top line of the PPF, and just blends in at the bottom.
What area exactly are you seeing on the rear doors? I am leaning toward PPF mostly because of my wife's desire to be too close to trucks in front of her. We have another car that the PPF saved a ton of chips on. At least until she hit something and we had to remove the PPF. In 10k miles, the front end looked like it had been blasted with buckshot repeatedly. I love my wife more than the car so I just kept my mouth shut.
On this Tesla, it will be my car until the MS comes in, then it will be her car. I figure just PPF the front and high impact areas and it will reduce the amount of stress in the area. I found a shop that will do the full fenders, bumpers, hood, headlights, foglights, mirrors and the 'A' pillars to the roofline for about $1800 with xPel. I just need to throw in any other high-impact areas while at it. The guy does great work and the 10 year warranty may be handy since it is national and we might relocate later this year.
Given the intended use of the MY and the likelihood of reducing conflict in our marriage, I figure it is a small price to pay. The owner of the shop has his MYP fully wrapped in satin PPF and will be the first one to say it is overkill but he went for the look. I probably wouldn't have gone for a full front, but I'd did just a partial on a previous white car and the edge of the PPF over time made a little band across the hood and fenders. On a blue car we had, you could hardly tell but the white it looked like I had drawn across the hood with a black sharpie.
Yep, that package that you're looking at is usually the ideal PPF plan for a vehicle you want to protect, but also think it's kinda stupid to spend the money. That should cover almost all your areas that will get messed up with rock chips and stuff (and hopefully keep the headlights nice and clear for a long time so they don't fog over or get sandblasted with time). The lower rocker panels might be the only other area to ask about, for me it only added a couple hundred bucks total, if that. It should be a very easy install and is usually just a three to four inch wide run of PPF from the front wheel to rear wheel.
To me $1800 isn't "a lot" to keep an expensive car looking near new for years to come. It's not about resale for me, it's about it looking like a $60k car for the next five years and not a car that has 60,000 miles on it.
(Also, it's 3% of the car, you pay more in tax buying the car...)
LionelHutz
Member
The Tesla PPF kit for the rear doors does a good job of covering the strike area.
@acarney - are you suggesting doing the rocker panel and about 4 inches up the door?
I'd rather not have my car looking totally beat up either. One of the reasons I went with white is some of this should show up less and it tends to survive better in intense sun, like where I live in Florida.
It looks like the looks like the Tesla PPF kit is out of stock in the store.
I'd rather not have my car looking totally beat up either. One of the reasons I went with white is some of this should show up less and it tends to survive better in intense sun, like where I live in Florida.
It looks like the looks like the Tesla PPF kit is out of stock in the store.
They're pre-cut kits from Xpel and they're about 4 inches or so "tall." The pre-cut kits from Xpel are like ~$350, but I had my installer do it because I'm lazy, he's someone I can take it back to if it peels or bubbles, and the total extra cost he quoted me was hardly more than my full front end. Honestly I think it was about $300 to $400 more to have him do it, they probably get the film at a big discount compared to what Xpel sells it retail.
That's sort of an example of what I mean. My installer used the line of the body panel to try and hide the cut, which for me on blue was almost invisible. If you have white... well, it might show up over time, but that body line will still help some to hide it. The area that seems to get "sandblasted" is actually in front of the rear tire.
Hi JulesVerne,
Congrats on your upcoming Model Y delivery! If you're curious to learn more, we offer a partial-front PPF wrap. This covers the full front bumper, half of the hood & fenders, and sidemirrors. We also do a Stealth PPF wrap that turns gloss into matte with a satin-like feel to the touch while still providing the protection PPF is known for - we treat a lot of Tesla vehicles in Stealth. Good luck and safe travels!
Tha_Ape
Active Member
My understanding is that Tesla paint is more "fragile" than other cars. I ended up getting PPF on mine because I keep my cars >5yrs (thats really the only time buying a car is worth it, otherwise you should just lease).
I have a 2010 Prius (getting replaced by the Y), its front bumper looks like it was sandblasted. I guess in a way it was over the years. When I got a 2yr old Prius Prime, originally inteded to replace the 2010... just ended up not having equivalent cargo room., I ended up putting PPF on it myself with the help of a friend who did a couple of his cars. I spent $300 on the film, did the front of the car (only 1/3 of the hood) and the side mirrors. Absolutely no regrets other than a few places someone with skill would have made it look better.
The thing is, when I got that Prime with ~13,000mi on it the paint was still practically flawless. I picked up my MYLR with ~1500mi (demo car) and it has a couple of VERY small chips in the hood (like mm size). I ended up having a professional put PPF on the front it since its a 50k car, not a 25k car. He said they see a lot of Teslas and almost all of them have some amount of chipping, even when driven straight from the delivery to the customer. I'll probably do the doors myself, its pretty easy to do relatively flat surfaces.
I'm now about to sell my 2010 Prius (which believe it or not came with Level 2 autonomy, and auto-parking). I have no doubt I'm going to take a hit on resale value due to the front end looking like it drove through a warzone. The rest of the car is fine for an 11yr old car. I'm hoping the rarity of lane keeping and radar cruise on it will counteract some of that.
TL;DR I think PPF is worth it if you're going to keep the car awhile.
I have a 2010 Prius (getting replaced by the Y), its front bumper looks like it was sandblasted. I guess in a way it was over the years. When I got a 2yr old Prius Prime, originally inteded to replace the 2010... just ended up not having equivalent cargo room., I ended up putting PPF on it myself with the help of a friend who did a couple of his cars. I spent $300 on the film, did the front of the car (only 1/3 of the hood) and the side mirrors. Absolutely no regrets other than a few places someone with skill would have made it look better.
The thing is, when I got that Prime with ~13,000mi on it the paint was still practically flawless. I picked up my MYLR with ~1500mi (demo car) and it has a couple of VERY small chips in the hood (like mm size). I ended up having a professional put PPF on the front it since its a 50k car, not a 25k car. He said they see a lot of Teslas and almost all of them have some amount of chipping, even when driven straight from the delivery to the customer. I'll probably do the doors myself, its pretty easy to do relatively flat surfaces.
I'm now about to sell my 2010 Prius (which believe it or not came with Level 2 autonomy, and auto-parking). I have no doubt I'm going to take a hit on resale value due to the front end looking like it drove through a warzone. The rest of the car is fine for an 11yr old car. I'm hoping the rarity of lane keeping and radar cruise on it will counteract some of that.
TL;DR I think PPF is worth it if you're going to keep the car awhile.
yes. 100% worth it. I cant stand getting rock chips. even driving during the summer and getting rocks kicked up on the highway is a pain. it depends on you though. for me a small scratch or paint chip will hurt my feelings for a few weeks. and i'll always know it's there
loanchau2k
Member
After owning Tesla for 6months, yah, I have some small rock chips at the front. I don't have PPF, but it would help the front for sure. Tesla does not have a grill, so you have a huge pain front ready to absorb all the debris on the road. I did not have PPF because I calculated ROI (return of investment), but I would do if it was cheap, but unfortunately, it wasn't
eleven24
Member
If a dealership tried selling me on a protection package that they claimed was necessary that was 10-15% of the MSRP of the vehicle, I'd immediately walk out.
If you ask me, the notion of *needing* PPF is a product of internet marketing campaigns on new car buyers who have never stepped into the realm of a car over $40-50k. For many it's their first big purchase, and as such they want to keep it pristine. To that end, and perhaps with the benefit of a bit more life experience, I'll take delivery of the the car, decontaminate the paint, clay bar, polish, and seal with something like Adams Graphene coating. It will cost me a couple hundred bucks and a Saturday afternoon.
Sure, there are intrinsic values to be had. Would stone chips bother me? Of course. But not as much as dings in the door from parking lots, or a good curb rashing of a wheel or two. They're all accepted wear and tear on a car & I'll deal with each of them on a case by case basis if they bother me enough.
What I'm certain of is the cost to wrap the car in XPEL will never justify itself in terms of a higher resale value. Not even remotely close.
Besides, full PPF in my area runs $7250. That's a week on a Caribbean island somewhere.
Give me the mai tai, leave the PPF.
loanchau2k
Member
It all comes down to personal's preference. For some people they like to keep their cars in pristine condition, then yah, get PPF. For people who just look like an investment, then No, don't get PPF since your resale value will have ZERO impact. To me, if you like your MY so much and plan to keep it forever, then PPF makes sense. But if you plan to sell in few years, then it's a waste of money to me.
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