We just bought a new car. The seats are fake leather (not cloth). The dealer is trying to sell us a car seat/paint protector. The product is named Xzilon and they want to charge us $400 for this. (It seems that this Xzilon stuff is Mink Oil for the leather seats, and other products for the carpets and point.)
Whenever I hear a car dealer trying to add something on, I think of Jerry Lundegaard in the movie Fargo trying to sell the customer the Trucoat.
A quick Google search shows people saying “buy it for $50 and do it yourself.”
Has anyone ever applied one of these things? Is it worth it? Should I have the dealer do it? I noticed that Xzilon has Molecular Adhesion, should I look for a product with Atomic Adhesion instead?
P.S. We have two kids ages 7 3/4 and 4 1/2 so there is no doubt that the car will quickly become a mess.
Not a bad price for what appears to be silicone for the paint and Scothgard for the interior. Poking around, I’ve seen people saying they were quoted anywhere from $390 to $1150 for the stuff. Sounds like your dealer is getting hungry.
The only “paint protection” I’d personally consider is a Clear Bra-type product that actually protects against scratches and chips. For the rest of it, just washing and waxing is more than plenty protection. If the dealer is telling you it’s not, I’d be questioning him carefully about what he’s saying about the quality of his cars’ paint. A proper modern car paint job should not need additional “protection.”
As for the other stuff, I dunno. You say it’s fake leather, which I assume is vinyl (that’s what most of the “leatherette,” etc. materials are). A leather product doesn’t seem like it would be good for vinyl. I have real leather in both of my cars, and I use Lexol products to clean and condition them. One of my cars is over ten years old and the leather looks great. I didn’t pay for any additional protection from the dealer.
No no, you need to hold out for something with Quantum Adhesion.
I checked out their site and still have no idea what they’re selling. Google shows lots of testimonials from the people who sell it, but no details about wtf it does.
The “molecular adhesion” bit is used by a lot of companies selling polyurethane sealants, usually with a 5 year warranty, like xzilon’s, which is also riddled with fine print and enough wiggle room for them to get out of anything.
I worked at a body shop that specialized in high end sports cars. They were on the forefront of every advancement that came out from paint manufacturers and other companies like 3M that sold- no invented- new paint technologies, and I never saw a car with polyurethane sealants or heard a word about them while working there. If it was a good thing, the paint companies or car manufacturers would be doing it themselves.
The dealer didn’t tell me “Mink Oil”, I read that at the Xzilon website. I see that for vinyl interiors they have other products. I assume that the dealer would use the vinyl product.
Regardless, the consensus is, don’t bother. I’ll have to go read up on car waxing to see how often it is recommended. I’ve never bothered doing a car wax on any of my cars because I don’t care about the paint that much, but my wife seems to.
There’s a slight problem with that level of adhesion–you can’t tell whether or not your kid dropped his until you look. Very bad to take your eyes off the road that long; someone’s pet kitty may run into the road.
Depending on where you are and your budget, it might be worth looking into having a professional detailer do it every so often. They can probably do it faster and better than you can. If nothing else, they have tools that make doing it well easier. Most of the detailers I’ve gone to have a range of services, and the basic wash/wax price is often fairly reasonable (considering the quality of the service).