Coating a new car
Correct first, at least lightly. A coating is a hard layer over whatever is underneath, rated for years. Sealing marring in and looking at it for five years is the wrong outcome.
Often a one-step is plenty on a new car.
Often, yes — more often than people expect. A new car is not a perfect car. Between the factory, transport, storage and the dealer's own wash before handover, most new vehicles pick up light swirling and wash marring before the buyer ever sees them.
Whether you should correct depends on what you are doing next. If you are putting on a ceramic coating, correct first: a coating locks in whatever is underneath for years. If you are not coating, a new car with light marring is a perfectly reasonable candidate for doing nothing yet.
Look at the paint under a torch at night before you decide. That thirty-second check is more useful than anything a salesperson or a detailer tells you.
The journey from paint booth to your driveway involves a lot of hands and a lot of dust.
Transport. Cars travel on open trucks and in ships, often for weeks, exposed to airborne contamination and covered in protective film that is then peeled off.
Storage. Vehicles sit in lots — sometimes for months — collecting fallout, rail dust and bird droppings. Some are washed while sitting there, which is where a lot of marring comes from.
Dealer prep. This is the big one. The pre-delivery wash is frequently done quickly, with whatever is on hand, often in direct sun. A single careless wash on dusty paint is enough to put visible swirling into a brand new panel.
Lot walkarounds. Sales staff, potential buyers and cleaning cloths, repeatedly, on the same car.
None of this is unusual or scandalous. It is just what happens, and it is why detailers see so many cars with 200 miles on them and visible marring. The paint is new; the surface has already been handled.
Correct first, at least lightly. A coating is a hard layer over whatever is underneath, rated for years. Sealing marring in and looking at it for five years is the wrong outcome.
Often a one-step is plenty on a new car.
Same logic, shorter horizon. A 12-month sealant is a year of looking at it, which is still long enough that a light correction is usually worth it.
Then there is no urgency. Correction spends clear coat, and a new car has its whole life ahead of it. Wash it properly and reassess in a year.
This is a real recommendation, not a hedge.
Generally not worth correcting. You are spending clear coat on a car you will not own. Keep it clean and protected instead.
See the leased car guide.
Correct and coat early. Protecting a factory finish before contamination bonds into it is the best position a car ever gets to be in.
Then do not correct it. Some cars really do arrive clean, particularly ones collected before the dealer washed them.
Decontaminate and protect instead.
Correction is optional on a new car. Decontamination is not, and it is the step people skip.
Everything that landed on the car during those weeks of transport and storage — rail dust, industrial fallout, iron particles from brake dust in the lot — is bonded into the clear coat by the time you take delivery. It does not wash off. It keeps corroding. And it prevents anything you apply on top from bonding properly.
So the sensible order for a new car is: wash, decontaminate with an iron remover and a clay bar, correct only if the paint warrants it, then protect. Every ceramic coating package we sell already includes the full decontamination process and a complete interior and exterior detail, which is why the price covers more than the coating alone.
The interior of a new car is worth a thought too. Protecting a light leather interior before the first pair of new jeans gets in is far easier than removing dye transfer later, and UV protection on a dashboard matters most in the years before the plastic has started to dry out.
Every package below includes the full interior and exterior detail and the complete decontamination process, not just the product. Prices shown are sedan, with no correction.
| Package | Sedan, no correction | With one-step correction |
|---|---|---|
| 12-Month Sealant | $399 | $649 |
| 2-Year Sealant | $549 | $799 |
| 5-Year Gtechniq Coating | $649 | $899 |
| 5-Year Plus | $849 | $1,099 |
Midsize SUVs and large SUVs or trucks are higher — the full matrix is on the ceramic coating page. Every one of these is quoted rather than booked online.
If you are collecting a new car, asking them not to wash it before handover genuinely helps. It is the single most likely source of the marring you would otherwise be paying to remove.
Either way, look at the paint under a torch before deciding anything. We will do the same when we quote, and we will tell you if the honest answer is that it does not need correcting.
More short answers live on the FAQ.
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Decontaminate it, correct it if it needs it, and put something on top before the city gets to it.