paige331•1mo agoProlific Poster

Question about whether those expensive car detailing kits are actually a scam

So last month I dropped $120 on one of those all-in-one ceramic coating kits for my car. The box had all these fancy terms and promised a mirror finish that would last years. Well I followed the instructions to the letter and after three washes the coating is already patchy and water is beading weird. A buddy of mine said he just uses a $15 bottle of wax from the auto parts store and his truck looks better than mine. Kinda feeling like I threw that money straight into a hole. Has anyone else tried those kits and actually got them to work right?

3 comments

3 Comments

wadew511mo ago

That money went straight into a hole" sounds about right. Those ceramic kits are mostly hype.

the_mary1mo ago

Can't believe you'd drop $90 on a ceramic kit and still have it fail. That's brutal. I spent $45 on mine and it's holding up okay but I spent like two hours just doing the prep work. You must've been kicking yourself when it started beading up wrong after a month. Did you try reaching out to the company for a refund or did you just eat the loss?

elliot_gibson271mo ago

Those ceramic kits are picky about prep work. You gotta clay bar the paint first and wipe it down with alcohol before applying the coating. I tried a $90 kit last summer and it failed the same way because I skipped the surface prep step. The $15 wax trick works fine for a few weeks but the ceramic should hold up longer if you get the paint perfectly clean beforehand.