You’ve got your dream car, now what?

So you’ve worked with our fantastic team and secured the keys to your dream car, now what?

Well you go and enjoy it of course!

BUT, before you go off-roading in your new Range Rover (yeah, right…) or hit the highway in your new Lamborghini, you need to protect it!

We have listed below our favourite options to help protect your new car, and your investment, with many options available to ensure your car will look as beautiful at the end of your agreement as it does at the start.

Immobilisers and Trackers

Unfortunately, some people just want to live life above the law, so having an immobiliser and tracker fitted to your car can be a great, even sometimes necessary deterrent. The odds of finding a stolen car without the above are very small, so having an immobiliser is the first step in stopping them from even getting off the drive.

Immobilisers can be programmed in so the car requires a sequence of button presses to be able to start. The combination can be as simple or as complicated as you would like it to be, and thieves are extremely less likely to persist if they cannot start the car in the first place. In the world of cloning keys and RFID hacking, this can be vital, as even with the key, they cannot move that car without knowing the sequence you have chosen! The real bonus is that this is a completely invisible install, the immobiliser is installed and programmed into your car by professionals, so there is absolutely no visual evidence you even have one.

Trackers on the other hand mean you can find your car, no matter where it is, and also allow the tracker company to notify you if the car has been moved without you knowing. With cars of around £80,000 and up and those with notably high theft rates, it can be required to have a tracker fitted for some insurers and finance lenders. Most manufacturers will now fit them as standard, with tracker plans payable as a subscription throughout the duration of your ownership – a very worthwhile investment.

Paint correction

Believe it or not, the majority of cars will come from the factory with minor defects in paintwork, surface scratches from the delivery process and sometimes even worse. 

This is where a detailer comes in, paint correction can make your car look better than it ever did coming from the dealer. Hours upon hours of meticulous polishing and care are taken to give your paint a glass-like finish. Even the tiniest of imperfections that you wouldn’t ever be able to see with the naked eye are removed, grit, dust, and anything that adds to the impurity of the paint is corrected, to leave a perfect finish. This process can even improve the colour of your car, making reds redder, blues bluer and well, you get the picture.

This isn’t just a service for new cars, classics benefit from paint correction also, removing years of dust and grit that have been stuck in the paintwork, and restoring cars to their former glory.

Ceramic Coating

This may be an option that your dealer probably offered to you when buying your car already, ceramic coating provides that extra layer of protection, sealing in that beautiful paintwork with a glass-like finish. 

Paired perfectly with paint correction (most of the time done by the same people), this can give your car a look that is even better than new! Paint correction will remove minuscule layers of imperfect lacquer, removing layers slowly (safely of course), then the ceramic coating acts as a sealer of sorts, locking in that freshly worked paint with a beautiful shine.

As a bonus, ceramic actually makes cleaning your car easier with water-repellant properties that last for years. In theory, a quick spritz with the hose pipe should move most dirt for you without much work. As long as you look after it like you would with the standard paint, for example, if your friendly neighbourhood seagull poops on your bonnet, you clean it off quickly so it doesn’t burn through into your paint, and you’re golden!

PPF (Paint Protection Film)

Coming from working in a dealership that sells sports and supercars, I’m very familiar with PPF. Most, if not all luxury cars come equipped with it in some form or another from the factory now, whether that be basic shark fins on the rear quarters, to the option to add full coverage when you spec it up online. This isn’t just a blahzay option however, those beautiful curves supercars come with can actually be a detriment to their own paint! That classic coke bottle shape that is so pleasing to the eye just invites stone chips, PPF significantly reduces the chance that those chips get through your paint and cause some very expensive damage. The standard-fit stuff is great, but it’s exactly what it says it is, standard.

Choose a reputable PPF company, that uses good quality, branded products like XPEL and you will have a car that actually heals itself…It’s something that you won’t believe until you see it, but the scratches can literally disappear in front of your eyes with the self-healing properties that PPF now possesses.

A lot of time and investment has gone into the development of PPF over the past decade or so, and new products are constantly being developed and improved. XPEL has an option now that turns your paint from gloss into satin, saving £1000s over actual satin paintwork, and you can wash it without worrying about scratching that paint!

Wrapping

So this is a controversial one because some would go towards something that’s not exactly subtle (chrome-wrapped car owners, we’re looking at you). But wrapping does help protect your paint, as well as allow you to customise your car to suit your taste. From as little as a de-chroming to a full car wrap, the options are endless, all you have to do is chat with the company and discuss your design. 

We have seen some spectacular wraps before, including our very own Head of Prestige’s Tesla Model X, which has been wrapped in a beautiful flat grey. Tesla doesn’t offer a huge amount of colour options, so this was the perfect way to get a car that he wanted, and that stands out at every opportunity! 

The protection with a wrap will not be as comprehensive as PPF would be, but as long as it is applied by a professional company, you will have a full car coverage that gives an extra layer to protect from tree sap, bird droppings and all those little things that can ruin your paintwork very quickly. The wrap still needs to be cleaned, and looked after so you get your 5/sometimes even 10 years’ worth of value from it!

Specialist Insurance

This is the most important part of owning a car because it’s the law to insure your car for one, and because no matter what, there will always be that tiny chance that something unfortunate happens and you will want to be covered. You want to be with an insurer that understands how special your car is. Not every insurer is equipped to handle the specialist and prestige side of the car market. Someone who is handling Ford Fiestas, for example, may not be able to support you with your Ferrari.

Insurance is such a key part, so you need to know you are with someone who knows the prestige world and how it works. Specialist insurers will work with customers like yourself, with prestige and rare cars, like yours, daily. They know the industry inside out, and may even have recommendations for the processes we recommended above that they trust, tying everything into a neat little package.

So there you go…

We’ve covered pretty much every base here, inside and out, there are so many ways to protect your shiny new metal. Not only are these here to help maintain the value of your new car, but to the right people, some of them can add value. Compare your fully prepared, perfectly buffed car, with one of the same spec but no additional protection, now which would you rather have? Exactly…

To read more of our articles click here, if you’re looking to try financing another car click here, and if you need help working out the settlement for your current agreement, click here.