So these are the reasons to consider PPF.
Repainted panels damage the value of your vehicle for several reasons.
They never match the OEM color 100%.
They usually have to be blended and feathered into other panels.
Cheap paint isn't good paint. many will boast, "I can get my car painted for $7000" - sure you can - and it will look like absolute
GARBAGE. I will bet my entire business bank account on it. Bring me a car that has OEM paint, and then bring me a car that has aftermarket paint, and the aftermarket "insurance" paint will suck. Every. Single. Time. Do you know why? A machine paints your car at the factory. A machine that follows a specific set of parameters that cannot change. A human has to "repaint" the vehicle. Guess which one makes more errors?
Documented paint and bodywork on your vehicle history report immediately damages the value of your vehicle.
When was the last time you heard "Oh yeah, I had it painted" and didn't immediately think that the vehicle had been in an accident now you've put the quality of that vehicle into question. It diminishes buyer/seller trust.
The cost to replace PPF on the hood of a lucid is somewhere in the neighborhood of $600-$800. You can get a really bad partial repaint for about that price where they skip on the prep or pay about $1200-$1400 for it to be completely resprayed properly. 9/10 times You're going to get the crap feathered paint.
Source: I install PPF on cars for a living - the notion that "repainting the car" is a better alternative than PPF is strictly based upon a dollar value. What about the value of your time? If you need to spend all the time dealing with insurance, getting a rental, waiting for parts, waiting to get on the schedule, being without the car, then dealing with quality issues back and forth after the work is done... then put a dollar value on your time... I know the opportunity cost is several thousand dollars an hour in my business. So if I need to spend 4-5 hours dealing with this kind of stuff, VS what could be one or two hours of pick up and drop off time - how much money have I saved? If you put a value on your time or, better yet, time spent with your family that you lose - now all of a sudden, the cost of these services make more sense spread across the time you plan to own the vehicle.
In addition - factory-applied PPF is generally garbage. Rivian is attempting to partner with XPEL to offer this. Do you know what you get? Unwrapped, standard installations. That's because Rivian/XPEL doesn't pay installers enough. PPF isn't something that is easy to install, which is why you cant hire anyone to do it. It takes a long time and a lot of money to get good at it. None of the XPEL installers or shops support that movement, and neither do I. They want to pay us pennies for these services. It's not worth it whatsoever for any of us to care.
It is for those reasons PPF is worth it.
