What I am saying is we'd have to lie about it lasting for 5 years without having to do anything other than wash the car. What the huge markup really is all about is a uneeded warranty on paint protection. Let's be honest, the average person who wastes their money on a $1500 Simonize job is going to run their car through the local tunnel wash and isn't going to notice that over 5 years, his finish slowly degrades. Modern clearcoats will remain intact and have some gloss during that timeframe regardless of waxing habits provided you wash it regularly.
The service is a complete rip-off. Instead, what we can do is educate our customers about the importance of proper and regular polishing and waxing 4 times a year. For argument's sake, let's put the cost of a straight wax job at $65 for the average sized car and polish/wax at $100. We'd wax a customer's car in the winter and summer and do the polish/wax in the spring and fall. Total cost per year? $330. Over 5 years? $1650. For the extra $150 spread out over 5 years (actually since it isn't rolled into financing it'd probably end up costing less!) the customer has their car properly waxed and polished during that time and their car will still look at least as good as it did when they bought it. They would be able to park it next to the exact same car (color included) that had the dealer Simonize treatment and easily see a huge difference in appearance.