It is not for the popular reasons you may think!  The popular narrative is to get it protected right away, which I believe has merit.  Terminology like ‘new car prep’ is in vogue.  But there are other reasons to see a detailer for cosmetic services immediately that are often overlooked.  One of the most common compliments received from detailing clients of reputable providers is, “it looks better than new.”  But how is that possible, since it is a brand new car?  The plot thickens!

Your car is not totally new upon transport and storage.  The transportation and storage of your vehicle allows for invisible contamination to embed itself into your paint.  There are also people frequently touching your car.  To make matters worse, they run it through the automatic (scratch and micro defect making) brush wash.  That is their detailing process, often before you even purchase a car from them.  This is likely even the process in their infamous dealer protection plan, which I will go more into that plan later.  In short, there is no such thing as a detailing that takes 15 minutes.  That is ridiculous.  The grime and volume of micro scratches, that you may not see, take away from the appearance of the paint.

I have worked on vehicles that the dealership prep team attempted to do more, often leading to more problems.  Not that anything is inherently wrong with it, but sometimes the paint is covered with a make-up type product (glaze) that provides temporary appeal to your paint.  This could wear off or wash off within a month or often within that week.  You may think your car looks good or acceptable, to experience ultimately significant disappointment. Several vehicles in my recent memory, I have worked on finding paint defects covered up by a glaze the customers were not aware of.

The Dealership protection plan is rarely what it is advertised to be and often a underwhelming experience.  Many of the claims levied by the service manager are not true.  It is fiction spoken by dealership staff members who likely know little about the products who are reading from the manufacturer’s script, applied by people who are not trained to actually detail.  Not that some detailing business owners are much better either.  A modest level detail from a trusted high-end professional is likely going to look much better and provide far superior protection than any dealership plan.  No, you can’t set your car on fire or scratch it because a magic potion allegedly has been applied in 15 minutes or less.  Neglect will lead to consequences.  Which leads me to the last reason.

A detailer can set you up for success, educating you with better habits and a easier to clean car with real protection.  A relationship with your trusted detailer helps you in the short but more importantly long run, even if you are not going to use that service again.  I have had clients message me questions about cleaning which I am happy to respond to.