How much did you pay for PPF and did you regret it? (1 Viewer)

[mattyokan]

I'm curious what kind of ranges y'all recently paid for paint protection film on your 200 series. I'm seriously considering upgrading to one this year, and ideally want to budget PPF into my purchasing calculation. I have off-street but uncovered parking which is unfortunately under a tree. I end up with tree sap and debris all over my car, and even washing it every week it gets kind of messy. When I upgrade, I'm likely going to be going for a low-mileage, one-owner 2019-2021, so I would ideally like to get the entire vehicle wrapped in PPF to help keep the paint in good long-term shape while I have it in a parking situation like this for a few years (plus, being able to go through automatic washes will save me a ton of time and headache).

The only quote I got (for reference, in San Francisco) was in the $5500-8000 range for a full PPF wrap. That sounded a fair bit high, so I'm curious what any owners here who have had their entire vehicle wrapped in PPF paid. I'm very aware that the labor costs will be much higher here which will lead to a higher rate, and that this is a very large vehicle which means it will take a long time for paint prep and wrapping. With that being said, I would like to try and find some recent comparison points to better judge how much I should be prepared to shell out. Additionally, I'm curious to hear opinions from those who have had their vehicle wrapped as to whether it's been "worth it".

 

[Sandroad]

In addition to cost, I think it would good to get input on which PPF to consider. I say that because after 8 years the Toyota OEM PPF on the front facing surfaces of my ‘17 is looking very ragged. It’s got permanent marks where large bugs splattered and partly dissolved the plastic and the PPF no longer polishes well. I’d like to take it off. I think in my case, a good waxing regularly is better than PPF because the paint next to the PPF still looks new.

 

[mattyokan]

In addition to cost, I think it would good to get input on which PPF to consider. I say that because after 8 years the Toyota OEM PPF on the front facing surfaces of my ‘17 is looking very ragged. It’s got permanent marks where large bugs splattered and partly dissolved the plastic and the PPF no longer polishes well. I’d like to take it off. I think in my case, a good waxing regularly is better than PPF because the paint next to the PPF still looks new.

That’s too bad. I’ve heard that the port-installed PPF is low quality from a few threads now and hopefully some of the other materials are better. The place I got a quote from uses Ceramic Pro KAVACA which apparently has a 12 year warranty. I haven’t done any research on the product but curious to hear if anyone here has used that over Xpel and has had a negative experience.

 

[Artie]

We had our 2021 HE done along with a bunch of custom cut pieces for the snorkel and dissent bumpers. You will also want to do a full paint correction before you wrap it and we also ceramic coating. All in for all that was $10k. Hella expensive. Based on the pin striping my camper has and the utter lack of it on the cruiser it has done its job. We went with the Xpel ultimate stuff, it’s thick but if done well it’s unnoticeable, this is aided by the fact that the 200 series has all the precut panels so be sure to find a installer that can print those out. The areas where you can see seams on mine are the custom cut pieces on the bumpers and fabulous fabrication snorkel. Apparently, tight turns, radius, weird square corners cutouts like on the dissent front bumper are more difficult.

 

[HSTexan]

If I remember correctly it was about $5K for 90% of the vehicle from an Xpel store (their own not an authorized vendor), though $600ish of that was for a paint correction to get some deep pinstripes and another $800ish was to upgrade from the standard 6mil thick film to the 10mil thick film. I didn't have the roof, hatch, tailgate, or bumper done--everything else is covered. Now that all the bumpers are on I will probably go back and at least have the hatch and tailgate done, but roof and what's left of the rear bumper plastic aren't a very big concern for me.

I'd do it again in a heartbeat--at some point I know the car will get scratched up, but I personally would like to delay the inevitable as long as possible

 

[goodnightnyc]

I did Xpel PPF on the front bumper and mirrors of my ‘21 HE. Cost around $700 I think. Not sure I’d do it again but it wasn’t a huge expense.

I had a ‘22 Sequioa TRD Pro in Lunar Rock that I went all out with PPF. I got full coverage in Xpel Stealth which cost around $10K. Frankly it was a total waste. The matte color looked cool but I basically traded one set of problems for another - dealing with rock chips, minor scratches versus maintaining the Xpel film.

I had a minor incident where a body panel was damaged and required repainting. Turned out to be double the work to remove the Xpel and try to match the underlying paint to the rest of the vehicle which was still wrapped. The body shop struggled to get a good paint match.

Ultimately I traded the truck (during crazy pandemic pricing) for a high price and I’m glad I don’t have to deal with the full Xpel wrap anymore.

Unless you have a real use case that requires a lot of PPF, I’d avoid it altogether or just do the bare minimum. Invest that money in an S&P index fund and touch up your car when needed.

 

[Moby]

I did the whole truck in xpel. Too much but no regret. Still looks great 4.5 years later.