GM Five Year Sealant I&O?

P

putertopia

New member
My friend bought a 2009 Chevy Cobalt SS 4Door a few months ago. I was talking to him today, asking if he had it at least waxed yet, and he said he's taking it to the dealership. When he had asked them why his brand new car already had swirls in the paint and asked if they could fix it, they told him that they have a five-year guaranteed sealant service that protects the entire inside and outside of the vehicle. Price tag was $435. What in the world do you think this all includes, and what kind of products do they use? Anyone familiar with this service?
 
It's a scam, don't do it!! It's just a polymer sealant, nothing special. Doesn't include anything but a paint warranty. But new car paints do not need a warranty.
 
It's nothing more than a lesser product than what most people around here purchase for <$50, and are using in their driveway on the weekends- with some free Vaseline thrown in for good measure.



Stuff like this, as well as pinstriping, tint, undercoating, etc., are HUGE profit drivers for dealerships. They're paying some guy $7/hr to install/apply what most of the time is less than $10 worth of product cost, and tagging on a several thousand percent markup.
 
First off GM does not have a paint sealant. They use an aftermarket company which offers the product and warranty (differs from dealership to dealership). From my experience the product cost is around $20 and the warranty is $15.



Some products are good, but in no way last 5 years. Some fine print a 6 month reapplication process. Most warranties only cover the cost of reapplication of product unless it can be proved the the paint was damaged by one of the few environmental elements that is covered.



You are buying the warranty, and this is still dealer stacked.



Any decent dealership will through in such a service without the warranty to sell the car. Workmanship is another story.



Tell your friend to save his money, he could buy a PC, some pads and polishes and some fine sealants for about half that price.
 
Pure scam 100%. Don't do it because he'll feel stupid as h*ll afterwards. When I used to work for dealerships most of the time we would just grab the exact same wax off the shelf as we did for anything else and call it a * $800 5 year paint sealant* when in reality it was never anything more than a 30 day wax/ or sealant we just had lying around on the shelf. There is no such thing as a 5 year sealant. Anyone who beleives otherwise are the ones that loose their money.
 
Jakerooni said:
Pure scam 100%. Don't do it because he'll feel stupid as h*ll afterwards. When I used to work for dealerships most of the time we would just grab the exact same wax off the shelf as we did for anything else and call it a * $800 5 year paint sealant* when in reality it was never anything more than a 30 day wax/ or sealant we just had lying around on the shelf. There is no such thing as a 5 year sealant. Anyone who beleives otherwise are the ones that loose their money.
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The important parts are in large, bold type.
 
$435 for 5 years worth of reapplication doesn't sound like a bad deal. As long as they have a professional outfit doing the work(unlikely) it could be a good deal if there's no extra charge for reapplication. I'd show up every 3 months and complain about the beading so I could get a freshening up.



Did you friend say what protection brand this dealer used?
 
David Fermani said:
$435 for 5 years worth of reapplication doesn't sound like a bad deal. As long as they have a professional outfit doing the work(unlikely) it could be a good deal if there's no extra charge for reapplication. I'd show up every 3 months and complain about the beading so I could get a freshening up.



Did you friend say what protection brand this dealer used?
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David, usually they do the *initial* application exactly as Jake said, then they hand you a few "maintenance" bottles, and you are expected to do the maintenance applications yourself.
 
Out of the systems I've studied, most of them get reapplied at the place of inception. I can't imagine enforcing a warranty when the user is responsible for the reapplication. Dupont, R-2000, Toyo Guard, Vesco, Tefco, Simonize, Zeibart, Auto Armor, Valugard are some of the ones I'm familar with.



There's usually a rapplication charge or a service fee where they try upselling you on interior cleaning, polishing or claying at that sme time.
 
Contact ValuGard and buy their sealant, which is what the majority of dealers use....either directly or private labeled from someone selling the ValuGard sealants.
 
scam; infiniti sold my dad some similar concept. I warned him, but did he listen - nope. Oh well, guess who was correcting and waxing his paint 8mths later :heelclick
 
David Fermani said:
Out of the systems I've studied, most of them get reapplied at the place of inception. I can't imagine enforcing a warranty when the user is responsible for the reapplication. Dupont, R-2000, Toyo Guard, Vesco, Tefco, Simonize, Zeibart, Auto Armor, Valugard are some of the ones I'm familar with.



There's usually a rapplication charge or a service fee where they try upselling you on interior cleaning, polishing or claying at that sme time.
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Master Shield, Lustre Glaze and Diamond Kote are a few others. Some have a 6 month reapplication schedule and some don't. I have read the fine print on quite a few and they are not customer friendly.



To the OP, I have access to the ValuGard sealant. I could sell you one for cost + shipping and save you a lot of money. If I recall they rate it at 3 years with no reapplication schedule.
 
Thats great...



"...It will last 5 yrs if you reapply every 6 months..."



Tell your friend to skip it and detail the car himself or get it done somewhere at a fraction of the price.
 
A fraction of the price? How much will it cost to seal a car 10 times ( 5 years X 2 per year). Assuming that the $435 the OP paid included free reapplications.
 
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