Exige S3 - Full PPF cost

[Dicko_4]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping to pull the trigger on an Exige 350 sport soon and the chances are it may be a brand new one or nearly new one. I like the idea of putting full paint protection film on the car (preferable self healing) to help preserve the paint from the usual stone chips and to prevent swirl marks in the paint.

I understand its about £4k for a normal sized car but I'm assuming its considerably cheaper on the small Lotus. Does anyone know any recent prices for full coverage and any recommendations for PPF companies to use in the North West?

Thanks in advance

John

[Spindoctor]

I collected mine last month and got the dealer to throw in PPF on the front clam and splitter at no cost. You may not get the whole car done for nothing but certainly worth asking.

[ecain63]

Depends what quality of PPF you want, but £4k I'd say was about right for a whole car using decent film. I had all the important bits (front end, mirrors, skirts, rear wings and arches, rear bumper, rear trailing edges, carbon) of my car done with Xpel PPF and it was £2400+vat.

[Dicko_4]

Spindoctor said:

I collected mine last month and got the dealer to throw in PPF on the front clam and splitter at no cost. You may not get the whole car done for nothing but certainly worth asking.

Thats a great idea. I am getting quite a decent discount on the main car I'm interested in so its doubtful but its worth a try. Thank you

[Dicko_4]

ecain63 said:

Depends what quality of PPF you want, but £4k I'd say was about right for a whole car using decent film. I had all the important bits (front end, mirrors, skirts, rear wings and arches, rear bumper, rear trailing edges, carbon) of my car done with Xpel PPF and it was £2400+vat.

Thank you for your reply. I was hoping it would be cheaper with the car being smaller than the usual sports cars but I suppose the shape of the car makes it more difficult to apply thw PPF. Suppose it begs the question if its better to save the circa £4k outlay, have no PPF and just get it ceramic coated when collected and then detailed once a year?

My biggest problem is that I unfortunately (due to a busy lifestyle) have to rely mainly on the usual local hand car wash places to clean the car. I know this is terrible for paint with swirl marks etc but its my only option really. Hence the reason i want to have a self healing PPF if possible.

Thanks

John

Edited by Dicko_4 on Saturday 23 January 00:53

[ecain63]

Are you tracking the car?

I do a lot of track days which makes the PPF a no brainer.

[CTE]

Go to a decent hand car wash, they do exist...

You only need worry about the most prone areas (if you are worried that is) as listed above.

[Dicko_4]

ecain63 said:

Are you tracking the car?

I do a lot of track days which makes the PPF a no brainer.

No i wouldn't be tracking the car. Just for piece of mind against swirl marks and the odd few stone chips really.

Thanks

John

[Dicko_4]

CTE said:

Go to a decent hand car wash, they do exist...

You only need worry about the most prone areas (if you are worried that is) as listed above.

Yes thats a fair point. I may just have to look for a new (decent) car wash place as the one i currently used cleaned my Range Rover (which I've had from new) over the past 3 years and it had quite a lot of swirl marks. I used them because they were 20 seconds drive from my house. I'll try a different place this time.

I had the Range Rover detailed recently which got most of the swirl marks out. Is there a limit to how many times you can have a car detailed? Does it take away a layer or two of paint each time? Like I said in my original post I could potnetial get the car ceramic coated and detailed once a year.

Thanks

John

[CeramicMX5ND2]

If the car needs any form off cutting compounds to remove swirl/scratches, then it will remove some of the topcoat lacquer..
Paint depth is measured in thickness microns and can be checked prior to any compounds being used.

[Tin Hat]

Wow, I hadn’t realised how expensive this film is, I would personally be inclined to enjoy the paint and get it made good after a few years.

I just had a ceramic coating put on my Exige, 5 years and 15 k miles in, it seems to have shrugged off a lot of damage in that time, whereas my Elise looks like a shotgun has peppered the front, despite ( or perhaps because(?)) having been resprayed about 10 years ago. They have had very similar use, perhaps Lotus has more sophisticated paint these days?

[GTRene]

4k... sounds like a lot of money, I guess for that kind of money you also could wrap a car in another colour :-)

do those PPF protection folie also protect against those swirls? or do those fade after a while and you see the swirls in that PPF wrap when the sun shines at a certain angle on the car.

[ecain63]

GTRene said:

4k... sounds like a lot of money, I guess for that kind of money you also could wrap a car in another colour :-)

do those PPF protection folie also protect against those swirls? or do those fade after a while and you see the swirls in that PPF wrap when the sun shines at a certain angle on the car.

A good detailer / PPF fitter will usually detail and polish the paint before PPF is fitted. That way the paint stays perfect under the PPF. The PPF can be polished in much the same way as the paint so any swirls from washing can be easily removed. Another bonus is that with PPF you can remove scratches with hot water or a heat gun. I'd recommend getting a detailer / PPF fitter to do this but it's really very good.

The self healing thing is a bit of a myth. People seem to think it's going to reform if it tears or gets punctured by a larger stone on the road. It'll heal scratches with heat, as above. It'll reduce the damage to paint by taking the impact of larger stones. My PPF has a few marks in it now, but none of those bigger impacts have damaged the paint yet. That's where it's doing its job.

[TonyG2003]

I had the front clam and wheel arches done on my Elise (I do a few track days - when we were allowed to that is!). Not much point having the whole car covered in my view. It still looks fine, well having said that, bought in July ‘19 it’s still only got <2k on it!

[Actus Reus]

I’d just pay for a detailer to perform maintenance washes - you’ll avoid the swirls and save an absolute fortune.

[jdmave]

Just waiting to collect my new Sport 350 from the dealers and will be heading straight to have its PPF coat and Ceramic buff so will update on prices with some pics within the next 3 weeks....

[_Leg_]

I have all my modern cars (and am about to have one of my classics done after a full body off rest) covered in PPF. One in Xpel (as it was the first I did in 2012) and the rest have Suntec.

This includes my track car, my Exige S3 EX460. It's had full PPF since new in February 2017. Around 10000 miles in, all but a small amount of which has been on track, and it still looks spanking new. It cost £3700 in 2017 and was done by the now gone Paintshield. I've been using Vinyl Image up here in Yorkshire since 2018 though and they're superb.

For me PPF is a no brainer. I tour my Fezzas round Europe annually and they still look spanking new 5 and 6 years after new. Makes cleaning easier too.

Ceramic and other coatings are absolutely useless by comparison (although I have had the front of the Exige Ceramic coated on top of the PPF as it helps with removing rubber after a track day) as I have my classics ceramic coated (they do less miles and are driven more gently) so have experienced both across multiple cars.

Hope that helps. Shiny, shiny but driven hard..... :-)

[Dicko_4]

Thank you for your replies everyone. Very much appreciated. Ive got a few options to explore with regards to PPF.

One of the dealers I'm in talks with about a new 350 sport got a quote from a local firm (who has done other customer cars) who said they would charge £2000 to PPF the full car. Obviously I would look into their reputation and have a detailed chat to the company before using them about the type of film used etc but this seems rather cheap in comparison to some of the other quotes people have mentioned. Im assuming this would be a lower grade PPF used? Or have others had this sort of price?

[ecain63]

Dicko_4 said:

Thank you for your replies everyone. Very much appreciated. Ive got a few options to explore with regards to PPF.

One of the dealers I'm in talks with about a new 350 sport got a quote from a local firm (who has done other customer cars) who said they would charge £2000 to PPF the full car. Obviously I would look into their reputation and have a detailed chat to the company before using them about the type of film used etc but this seems rather cheap in comparison to some of the other quotes people have mentioned. Im assuming this would be a lower grade PPF used? Or have others had this sort of price?

The price will depend on the film, and companies like Xpel will set the prices and allow only authorised outlets to fit it. £2000 sounds incredibly cheap.

[jdmave]

Finally collected and straight for its beauty treatment