What bugs me the most is that a protective coating is not applied at the factory. Even if I had to pay an extra few hundred for the premium interior on a $60,000 car.
This is a common complaint that I hear often from new car buyers. The answer is that manufacturers do everything they can to keep their prices down, and if they don't see a profit potential from an additional service/product/option, they're simply not going to do it.
Also, car dealerships have pressed manufacturers to leave these kind of simple "add-ons" for them to sell and apply to help boost their profits. The argument here is that only people that are willing to pay for the option are paying for it.
The problem with this is that dealerships are notorious snakes and will flat-out lie to your face about what their coating can do for you. They require no ethics because:
a) their turnover is so high that by the time you realize their coating is worthless and not performing the way he promised you, he's already gone and working for another dealership somewhere.
b) they hide behind their warranty which is worthless if you actually read it (which no one ever does)
c) failure of the coating will require a Herculean effort on your part to hassle them and continue to follow up until they approve your claim. They all use the effective tactic of deny every claim first, then when pressed on the issue just ghost your ass until you go away.
d) dealerships are not affected by negative online reviews because they have what you want, and it can be very difficult to choose an alternative dealership for the same car you're wanting to buy.
(Of course these dealership arguments don't apply to Tesla for obvious reasons, but I wanted to provide information on the entire industry).
On the other hand, small independant ceramic coating installers are
heavily affected by online reviews and the opinion of their repeat customers. They cannot get away with (nor do they want to) the dealership's tactics because they rely on repeat customers and their online reputation to stay in business.
So back to manufacturers applying ceramic coatings; imagine this scenario...
A car manufacturer is trying to justify their car being priced $3,000 more than their competition, and the only reason it's $3,000 more is because it has ceramic coating on the leather, exterior glass, and exterior paint. Now they have to educate the public on the values of these items; but educating the public is VERY expensive, and for the manufacturers the cost of that education just isn't worth the payback.
However the cost of me educating each client that comes through my door is pretty cheap because it only involves a conversation, a demonstration, and a guarantee on my part that the coating will perform as I've promised. I don't need thousands of customers buying my product/service like the manufacturers need.
