Ceramic Coatings Cost and Questions

C

Caled4

New member
Hello there,

I recently got my car ceramic coated with IGL Kenzo product, overall I am pleased with the finished product. The product is rated for 4 years with semi annual maintenance required. My question for those who`ve either gotten their car ceramic coated with a comparable product; what is the typical cost on a ceramic coating? and is a "better" coating better in the long run for your car?

My reason for asking, my friends also got their cars ceramic coated with a 3 year coating (not sure the exact brand) for around $300, mine cost around $1100. I will post the product my friends got ceramic coated with on this thread

Regards
 
I`m not sure you`re making a true like-to-like comparison.

The total costs you`re mentioning are probably the detailer`s cost to you and your friend. That includes the detailer`s overhead costs and everything they factor into running their buisness and how much work they put into both jobs. You would really need to know the actual material cost of both coatings to start any form of comparison. You`re coating might actually be cheaper than your friends, but the person who worked on your car might have done more work and/or charges more per job.

"Typical costs" when hiring someone to do the work and use a pro-only product will have a lot of variables. Location, market conditions, size/reputation of the shop, client base income levels, etc will vary widely.

Something to think about also is the durability claims. Those are simply estimates which may/may not be accurate based on environment. Weather and how it`s cared for go a long way to a coating living up to those claims.
 
Your friends that got the $300 job, what else went into it? I’m guessing not much in the ways of paint correction, where yours sounds like the installer did some correction and polish?
 
I`d be curious what `coating` your friends got. The materials themselves might eat up 30% of that $300 if a true coating and not a `squirt-bottle-ceramic-coating`.
 
BudgetPlan1 said:
I`d be curious what `coating` your friends got. The materials themselves might eat up 30% of that $300 if a true coating and not a `squirt-bottle-ceramic-coating`.
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That`s only for you high-rollers who buy the fancy stuff with Japanese names I can`t pronounce!

For us frugal...ummm, cheap...folks a 30ml bottle of CQuartz is only 20% of that cost. It does seem to be an outlier these days as many new coatings only come in 50ml bottles and cost $80~$100.

Fully understand the pro-grade stuff not sold to the public may cost a lot more.
 
Desertnate said:
I`m not sure you`re making a true like-to-like comparison.

The total costs you`re mentioning are probably the detailer`s cost to you and your friend. That includes the detailer`s overhead costs and everything they factor into running their buisness and how much work they put into both jobs. You would really need to know the actual material cost of both coatings to start any form of comparison. You`re coating might actually be cheaper than your friends, but the person who worked on your car might have done more work and/or charges more per job.

"Typical costs" when hiring someone to do the work and use a pro-only product will have a lot of variables. Location, market conditions, size/reputation of the shop, client base income levels, etc will vary widely.

Something to think about also is the durability claims. Those are simply estimates which may/may not be accurate based on environment. Weather and how it`s cared for go a long way to a coating living up to those claims.
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True, the got a chemical guys ceramic coating. I`m not too interested in the price as I feel satisfied in the amount given the quality of the product and paint correction/touch up as well as the extras included at no charge with the package. I am more interested in the comparison of a cheaper (not necessarily "worse") product in terms of keeping up the paint and overall exterior of your car. My car received paint correction/touchup and then the entire car including trim coated.
 
Just looked up the Chemical Guys web site. The only coating they list is their Hydrocharge High Gloss SiO2 Ceramic Coating which they list for $39.99 for a bottle and it`s durability is described as 12 months. Is that the same product as what was used on your friends vehicle? Sounds like a product similar to Carpro`s Cquartz Lite and maybe a little more durable than Gyeon Can Coat. Jet Seal is a regular sealant similar to a lot of the other sealants discussed here.

A quality, pro-grade, or even reputable consumer-grade coating will always offer better protection than a sealant like Jet Seal and will last longer than a spray coating. Quality isn`t always based on price. The best coatings I`ve used, CQuartz UK, is more expensive per volume than any sealant or spray coating, but it protects very well for a long time. However, it`s also one of the cheaper coatings out there right now and still holds it`s own against some coatings which cost far more.
 
Desertnate said:
That`s only for you high-rollers who buy the fancy stuff with Japanese names I can`t pronounce!

For us frugal...ummm, cheap...folks a 30ml bottle of CQuartz is only 20% of that cost. It does seem to be an outlier these days as many new coatings only come in 50ml bottles and cost $80~$100.

Fully understand the pro-grade stuff not sold to the public may cost a lot more.
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I just figure $100 for coating, applicators, towels, prep wipe etc and such. Throw in my questionable math acumen and 30% seemed `about right`
 
Desertnate said:
Just looked up the Chemical Guys web site. The only coating they list is their Hydrocharge High Gloss SiO2 Ceramic Coating which they list for $39.99 for a bottle and it`s durability is described as 12 months. Is that the same product as what was used on your friends vehicle? Sounds like a product similar to Carpro`s Cquartz Lite and maybe a little more durable than Gyeon Can Coat. Jet Seal is a regular sealant similar to a lot of the other sealants discussed here.

A quality, pro-grade, or even reputable consumer-grade coating will always offer better protection than a sealant like Jet Seal and will last longer than a spray coating. Quality isn`t always based on price. The best coatings I`ve used, CQuartz UK, is more expensive per volume than any sealant or spray coating, but it protects very well for a long time. However, it`s also one of the cheaper coatings out there right now and still holds it`s own against some coatings which cost far more.
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That is true, I`ve watched a lot of videos by Scott H on YouTube who does a lot of tests on the longevity of car products. CQuartz, Kenzo, and a select few hold their own over time without maintenance in natural elements. It`s interesting how many brands fail to correctly show the timeline of their products
 
For a decent installer, the vast amount of time and effort to install a ceramic coating properly, doesn’t involve touching the coating. They will have washed, decontaminated and machine polished your paint to a high standard, then made sure that when the time to apply the coating came, it would both look it’s best and last. This all takes probably 90% of the time. Applying the coating is the easy bit really, but in order to get to that stage, there’s a lot of work.

Chemical Guys don’t have a full blown coating and what they have won’t last a year, let alone 3. I’d feel ripped off paying 300, if I was told baloney like that.
 
Desertnate said:
Just looked up the Chemical Guys web site. The only coating they list is their Hydrocharge High Gloss SiO2 Ceramic Coating which they list for $39.99 for a bottle and it`s durability is described as 12 months. Is that the same product as what was used on your friends vehicle? Sounds like a product similar to Carpro`s Cquartz Lite and maybe a little more durable than Gyeon Can Coat. Jet Seal is a regular sealant similar to a lot of the other sealants discussed here.
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I’ve not used HydroCharge but I very highly doubt it compares in any way to CanCoat or CQ Lite. I believe it’s a typical ceramic maintenance spray, probably protecting for a few (2-3?) months for a daily driver.
 
acuRAS82 said:
I’ve not used HydroCharge but I very highly doubt it compares in any way to CanCoat or CQ Lite. I believe it’s a typical ceramic maintenance spray, probably protecting for a few (2-3?) months for a daily driver.
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It is marketed as up to one year and has instructions similar to cancoat and car pro’s lite.

Not a chemical guys user but this is definitely their version of a Coating Lite. Good reviews bit no idea how it stands up to other coating lites.

Know a little about it because i was looking into their Hydroslick product


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Coatings=crack said:
It is marketed as up to one year and has instructions similar to cancoat and car pro’s lite.

Not a chemical guys user but this is definitely their version of a Coating Lite. Good reviews bit no idea how it stands up to other coating lites.

Know a little about it because i was looking into their Hydroslick product
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Thanks for the correction. And Hydroslick is what I was thinking about.
 
I have the Chemical Guys Hydroslick ceramic hyper wax. It was $40. After two stage corrections on my Mustang GT, Audi S5 and my mom’s Z3 I applied two coats, leaving 24 hours between each coat and I’ve found it usually fails after one non-contact wash. Really easy to apply if you follow the directions. Thin light coat, leave it for a minute and wipe off. Looks great. But it’s failed pretty quickly on every car I’ve tried it on while only using their honeydew snow foam and v07 spray in conjunction with it, hoping staying in the product line would help preserve it. Nope. Your friends probably got what they paid for.
 
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