Do You Need Fabric Protection For Your New Car?

When a car deal is being finalized in the sales office, the dealer salesperson involved will often offer the customer the opportunity to purchase "extras" such as paint protection and fabric protection. Therefore, it is important to know that these services are not needed and that they do have very high profit mark-ups which can greatly inflate your new car price.

Some car dealers even attempt to add these extras as part of the final car price. However, some great new car buying advice is to instead buy "ScotchGuard" or a similar product and spray the seats yourself. By choosing this route, you do not have to pay the $100 or more for the fabric protection and instead pay the minimal five dollars or so per can for the fabric guard. Additionally, by spraying the fabric yourself, you know that all the fabric was properly covered with the spray. Conversely, if this service was completed at a dealership's garage, you would have no way of knowing if all of the fabric was properly covered. Additionally, the fabric guard offered by car dealers may actually stain your car seats and it is extremely likely that the car warranty will not provide financial compensation for this damage. (Please visit WarrantyDirect.com for further information on car warranties). However, if you were to apply the fabric protection spray on yourself, you can always test a small area of the fabric to determine if it would stain the material. Of course, if you do not have fabric covered seats, there are also other alternatives that you can also do on your own. For example, for leather seats, you can protect them with a product called Leatherique or Lexol. Thus, paying the extra money for fabric protection does not make economic sense.

Do You Need Paint Protection For Your New Car?

Along similar lines, paint protection is not worth the approximate $300 that some car dealers will charge you when you are finalizing your car price. Car paint, in general, is protected with coatings in the factory where the vehicle is made. Thus, you do not need this extra protection. If you would like extra protection and that extra sheen on your vehicle, you can just as easily wax your vehicle for a similar effect at a much lower cost. To be more specific, a great wax to purchase and use on your vehicle is a wax called carnauba wax. Carnauba wax is a natural wax that will not damage or react with the paint on your vehicle in any way. The wax, itself, is an extremely hard wax and thus, will provide adequate protection from the harsh elements. Therefore, the paint protection that is offered by the car dealership is not something that your car needs as most cars do come with a clear coating direct from the factory and a package of carnauba wax can easily make your car shine at great savings to you, the consumer.

Visit Edmunds.com for pricing on paint protection and other options.