Help me decide - to wrap or not to wrap?

[DJ 240V]

First let me start by saying , im not a car guy. I never splurged on the car - until now. Buying a model S was more of supporting the idea of a clean planet and Mr Musk's initiatives in general. I love the car and everything it stands for. Now my dilemma - should I wrap the damn car ? I do plan to keep it for a long time. My last car was a lexus IS250 , it was black , i kept it for 9 years , it has some rock chips , light scrapes and one ding. Overall still looks "new" and well kept. The pain imperfections gives it character and doesn't bother me. Now with model S , all the talk about soft paint and it being so expensive , what should I do. Please take the poll and give me any advice you might have.

 

[virtualsmack]

everyone has their own opinion and really depends on what you value. for me, i'd rather spend the money on something for my house or family or if car related, rims or a sound system that would be really notable.

couple of other factors for me:

- if i had a really exotic car or was going to keep this car forever, then i'd do it. i'm not keeping this for eternity so didn't see the value.

- also, plan on keeping it a while and no rock chips vs some rock chips for a 6+ year old car won't make that huge a diff, imo. other things will impact resale value more.

- finally, i was told that w the film you will still see the chips. some will self heal with heat applied but some won't. the benefit is that the paint underneath would not be damaged. i figured that it wasn't worth it for me to still see it and then have to re-wrap to continue to protect down the road. like, no point wrapping it and then no wrapping it in the future.

you can spend days reading all the opinions on the board and you won't get a conclusive answer. ultimately comes down to how much money you have, what other expenditures you have, and how much you prioritize those over seeing rock chips. that's pretty personal.

i did spend on a paint coating so that it had a wet look and water beads off. figured that would help me keep it looking cleaner.

congrats and good luck!

 

[steve841]

My last S the nose area took all the hits.

My new S got the full bra treatment including the lights/fog lights <= very important.

 

[davidc18]

Where did you have it wrapped and how much did it cost? Looking at the red MS wondering if I should wrap it.

 

[stevem]

It might depend on how you drive it. I commute on a major highway, 40 miles each way. And that seems to tend to lead to people following more closely and at high speeds and with many lanes all going the same way I have gotten a LOT of stuff thrown up into my car. I'm glad I have wrapped mine.

The guy I carpool with has a mazda and you can see where the damage is done.

If you just drive around town or on 2 lane roads normally, then maybe not. But 80% of my driving is highway commuting, and I think that's tougher on the paint than other driving.

I did the front, and I'm glad I did.

 

[NewJerseyMS]

I got full wrap. I know I will keep the car a long time.

 

[NewJerseyMS]

Happy to answer any questions you have.

 

[steve841]

Where did you have it wrapped and how much did it cost? Looking at the red MS wondering if I should wrap it.

They did mine "bra" style ... $900+ tax with lifetime warranty
Protective Solutions,
(954) 654-1092

Its also the company the SC refers to for the work...

 

[davidc18]

thanks, I will give them a call

 

[DDD4EV]

I wrapped my 90D with Xpel. My installer is headquartered out of town and came to my home to install the film. If that is the case, you must insure that your garage is very well lit and very clean.

When dinted by rocks, Xpel repairs itself when exposed to any degree of heat (like sunlight). I wrapped the entire front end, the body panel between the windshield and the side doors, the threshold of each door and the threshold of the back hatch. When looking at the car, you have difficulty knowing it is wrapped. BUT, there is one small problem. In surfaces with extreme curves, such as the rearview mirrors, the end of the film has buckled. The buckle is VERY small but present in the same spot on both mirrors. I bet my installer could eliminate the problem but the buckles are tiny and not worth his return. Over time, no more buckles have appeared and the tiny ones did not enlarge. I probably could remove them with a razor blade but have not done so at this time.

 

[johnbarkwell]

With the new Facelift I couldn't imagine not having it protected.

 

[Cascadian]

First let me start by saying , im not a car guy. I never splurged on the car - until now. Buying a model S was more of supporting the idea of a clean planet and Mr Musk's initiatives in general. I love the car and everything it stands for. Now my dilemma - should I wrap the damn car ? I do plan to keep it for a long time. My last car was a lexus IS250 , it was black , i kept it for 9 years , it has some rock chips , light scrapes and one ding. Overall still looks "new" and well kept. The pain imperfections gives it character and doesn't bother me. Now with model S , all the talk about soft paint and it being so expensive , what should I do. Please take the poll and give me any advice you might have.

I'm with you... not a car gal, we never really splurged on our vehicle purchases, but I support Elon Musk and his dreams all the way. Once we decided to spend that much money to get a Model S, spending a bit extra for "peace of mind" on a full wrap wasn't a difficult choice. We even had it Opti-Coated! Talk about going all the way! Well, more than a year-and-a-half later, it's still in perfect condition. We just let it sit in the rain in the driveway for some time before pulling it into the garage, and the next day when I looked at it, it appeared to have been washed. The dirt mostly just runs off. Mostly.

No matter if you do a partial wrap or a full wrap, make sure that the edges of the wrap are turned under, not left on the surface where dirt seems to collect and is then visible. Glad we knew about that when we had our wrap done.

That said, Dear Hubby isn't going to bother with a wrap when he gets his Model 3. He's going to revert back to it being "just a car" that takes him from Point A to Point B. HAH! "Just a car." LOL

Elon Musk and Company definitely gave us an "Intergalactic Spaceboat of Light and Wonder" and as such, it deserves to be protected and looking good. And that's a wrap.

 

[Wshowell]

I think it also depends on where you live, how you drive and how much you drive. When I lived in Denver (late 1990's) in the winter they used crushed granite on the roads. I commuted 20 miles each way and the worst possible time. This means that when on the freeway my car was getting sand blasted for 4 months a year. My new Audi's Windshields were pitted, cracked and bumpers became matte in 3 winters. In CO back then it would at least help minimize the damage and preserve the appearance.

When we moved to Tx and bought my wife a new van, the problem was eliminated but traffic was bad and so we were often behind another car on the freeways and we did get a stone chip that forced us to replace our wind screen. In 80K on that new car I dont think we picked up but 1 stone chip on the paint. A wrap would have done little to protect the finish except for the rare ice storms when they dumped gravel on the roads 2-3 times in a season. When that happened we didn't go out anyway.

When we moved to California and a sleepy little coastal town where we don't have much in the way of traffic or road debris a wrap is pretty much a waste of money. I'd rather take the family on a vacation with the money than spend the funds on a wrap that is PROBABLY not protecting from any actual threat to the appearance. I do however see many Tesla's wrapped around this state so clearly not everyone prescribes to my logic.

 

[khalkhin]

I got my S fully Xpel wrapped and can't say enough about how happy I am that I did it. The Tesla's paint is soft due to CA air pollution requirements and when I closed my garage door on my S, it was nice to be protected. Then there was the time somebody opened their car door into my side panel... I can't tell you how many dings and scratches have been absorbed by my wrap.

The only downside is expense - maybe $4-5K for a typical job. That means you probably shouldn't do it if you're leasing and plan to turn in the car, or if you're driving a Yugo.

I found out after I did it that there are typically two types of installs, one that uses precut patterns from the factory, and hand-cut. Most installers use precut patterns, but many places I went to told me that they could not wrap the S liftback without using two pieces, and that would leave a seam. My installer, on the other hand, was hand-cut, and was kind enough to wrap around the edges and could do the lift back in one piece... If you're in LA get Benjamin from Bemaro Films. He was a true master and I've posted extensively about him - you won't regret it.

 

[DJ 240V]

@khalkhin how long back did you get your MS wrapped ?

 

[Rahul]

Although the paint protection from rock chips is great, I like even more that I don't have to stress about swirl marks from dusting / washing.

 

[Shock-On-T]

Don't wrap.
When you are searching for used cars things like model year, mileage, spec matter much more than a few rock chips.
Eg. would you rather 2014 model with no chips or 2015 model with chips
AP1 with no chips, AP2 with chips.
90D with chips, 70D no chips.
Save the money for your next trade-in.

 

[Footer]

I got Opticoat Pro on my S85. $800. After 27,000 miles there was only a very tiny chip on the hood. Washing the car was really easy. Paint looked new when I traded it in.

I got Opticoat Pro plus on my 90D. $1400. The finish is even smoother. Hopefully washing is even easier.

 

[DJ 240V]

@Footer where did you get it done ?

 

[DJ 240V]

Stealing the car is probably not a concern, since they can track/disable it. Driving accidents is the biggest deal - that might work against tesla .