I’ve been lucky that all the cars I’ve purchased have never had auto dealership advertising on them except for the license plate frames which are easily removed. How easy is it to remove the metal dealership names that are often placed on cars? How about the painted on Carmax name that I see everywhere?
Those things usually come off fairly well with the patient use of a hair dryer and some Goo Gone, but if they’ve been on the car for long, and the car’s been out in the sun for long, there may be a noticeable after-image of the logo as the rest of the otherwise unprotected paint has faded.
If it is an objectionable plastic ‘sign’ it is held on with double sided sticky foam stuff.
You shoule be able to get a piece of dental floss behind it (or fishing line) and work it back and forth to remove the sign. You will leave some of the foam behind which can be cleared up with goo-gone. Be sure to wax the area you use goo gone on since you will be stripping any wax that was on there before.
If it is a plastic decal, warm it up with a hair dryer and use a credit card to carefully scrape it off.
The Carmax logo is not painted on. Simply a decal. Use the credit card method.
If it’s painted on, analyse it carefully to see if you can be creative with it. Here in the valley of the sun for a while, it was a fad for those who had cars sold by ‘The Culliver Team’ to have the paint decal creatively exised to read ‘liver tea’. Plus lots of pickups that read ‘TOY TA’ or just ‘TOY’ across the tailgate.
I’d like to know why the dealership is not required to ask permission before putting them on to begin with. The labels are not there when I went for the test drive (presumably because this dealership might send it, unsold, to a different dealership). They put them on during the final cleanup while I’m signing the paperwork. But I only wanted the car, not this label!
How about this idea: Before taking the car off the lot, insist that the guys who put it on without asking, they should take it off before I take the car home. Why should I have to do the work and risk damaging the paint?
You can do even better than that, if you make enough noise about it. Years ago, I had a boss who insisted that the dealership not put any sort of stickers, decals, signs or whatnot on the car in the first place, and they would dutifully order a vehicle in the desired color and honor his wish. As far as I know, he never drove a vehicle with the dealer name on it.
Another one for the dental floss and Goo Gone. And some patience.
Another vote for “yes”…I’ve removed decals that had been in place for six years with no problems. (That particular decal was on a light-color, clear-coated finish.) After removing the decal, you may want to wash and wax the area too. If the car has been detailed often, wax may have built up around the decal, leaving an outline that’s nearly invisible until the car gets wet.
I’ve heard of dealerships putting new labels on cars brought in for repair. The cars, of course, were sold by that dealer, but the car owner didn’t authorize it.