What do dealers use????

[tims04gto]

OK heres my dilemma, my friend bought a used car and the paint looked good with very few defects. After a wash (2bm changing water half way) a lot of scratches appeared. Is their something they use like a glaze that hides them till you wash it? Thanks for you input .Feed back please

[JonMiles]

At a dealership I used to work at we did a lot of used car detailing and normally did a compound followed by some glaze that really shined the paint. We were told to only use IPA on new cars and I think that was to avoid pulling the glaze off the used cars and showing the scratches. Whatever we used was full of fillers and looked good for about 3 weeks but the dealership sold maintenance programs to keep people coming back to put new glaze on before it washed away. It was a cheap way to make a little more money.

The new cars were always polished with a foam pad and very light cleaner. Then sealed up with carnauba to give them shine. My detailing manager told me that new cars don't need clay...this guy was a time is money type of guy and now I know he was wrong.

Dealerships tend to be all about economical shine and not true shine in my experience. I was told once that a detailer isn't supposed to fix the problems, he is supposed to hide them long enough to sell the car. I guess thats why we each had a can of black spray paint to use on wheel wells rather than properly cleaning and dressing them.

This is the reason when I go to pick up a car I always bring a bottle of IPA and a microfiber, I also bring a plastic bag to feel if the paint is perfect. I want to know the true condition before I put any money into a vehicle.

[rwright]

I worked at a dealership cleanup shop and witnessed several things like this. One time there was a deep scratch on the bumper of a brand new Camry, to hide it the salesman back the car up as close as possible to the wall to keep the customer from walking around the car. Another event that I will never forget, the sales manager and a salesman were passing a football in the showroom and the salesman missed the ball and hit a brand new RAV4 on the hood. They walked over to the parts department and grabbed a bugshield to cover it up. The RAV was sold that day without the huge dent being fixed, only covered up.

I remember having a Ford Harley-Davidson Edition fresh from the body shop and to help blend the areas that were buffed, we had to apply a glaze to the whole truck. There are so many more stories to tell, but to answer your question...dealers use any means to hide defects until the vehicle is off their lot, then it's no longer their responsibility.

[JonMiles]

My best story was from a 2003 M3 that had the bumper hanging down, it was black. The dealership used zip ties to pull the bumper back up into place, and spray painted the scratched areas from the bottom of the front fascia from bottoming out. It looked great in the shade, where they parked it to avoid a customer seeing the spray paint. A customer paid 25k for it and i'll guarantee those zip ties broke and the spray paint cracked within a month. That was a week before I left and started doing my own detailing the right way. If i can't get rid of something now, I'm not going to spray paint it or cover it with glaze, I just tell the customer what the problem is and give them a reference to someone who can fix it. Dealerships get away with that kind of crap everyday...and the average person doesn't know what to look for to catch them.

[tims04gto]

thanks for the quick replies. its amazing what dealers will do. I guess i will be busy this weekend :)

[Harleyguy]

And on the other side of that there are at least if not more dealers that do the opposite.Working in the automotive field for over thirty years i never worked at a dealership that ever tried to hide someone Else's screw ups.If we do damage to a customers car the first thing we do is call the customers and explain what has happened and if they are in a loaner car they stay in that car until these is fixed correctly.These days the way things are in the automotive industry it is to easy to loose a good customer and even harder to regain there business

[Larry A]

I work part time for Toyota dealership . We try to do the right thing. Used cars are clayed and buffed with Megs 151. New cars are just spray waxed unless they have scratches on them, then they may be buffed. We have 2 soft cloth car washes . People that bring there cars in for service get a free car wash. I run my car thru the car wash twice a week all winter long and I have yet to see any scratches or any marring of any kind on my car, and believe me I check. All in all I think are dealership does a good job on cars.

[ScottB]

I think the waxes they use in general are AIO's and likely offer some filling ability. Maybe not to intentionally hide, but cheap and effective for a short period of time till sold.