I am collecting my brand new car at the end of next week, and a week later I am driving to France in it.
Now normally before a large drive like that (especially in the summer) I would apply lashings of wax to the front of car and polish it up to make it as "smooth" as possible to minimise the amount of dead insects.
However, with the car being brand new, I assume it will have sat somewhere encased in a layer of wax waiting to be sold. In which case, is there any point in me spending time applying more to the front or will that be a total waste of effort?
Or, as with all other cost-cutting that is going on now, will the car preparation be done to a very minimal budget?
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Cars are covered in something to protect them as they sit waiting to be sold. This is always stripped off as they valet your car before you pick it up. I know that sounds vague but its some type of wax that they use on the underside of the paper like panels they usually place on the bonnet and sides of the car. Once transported they are removed and the valeters will shampoo and wax your car.
That should be enough really but i did wax my car with Meguirs 2 weeks from new and the protection was better so its not a top class job but is sufficient.
On an un-related subject, if you are going to france with less than 1000 miles on the clock i recommend you vary your engine speeds by at least 5mph. Having a new engine sit at the same speed for long periods of time is no good at all, cruise control is a big nono.
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Some car handbooks have warnings about washing, waxing and car washes within the first ?? months of ownership. Something to do with time required for water based paints to harden I believe.
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New cars usually do come covered in some stuff, but I'm not sure what it is exactly. If you want to wax it, it's probably best to do a light/gentle polish first to remove their 'stuff'. Like Armitage said though, I'd probably leave it for a few months.
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Some new cars come with no special protection, others come with a 'shipping wax' which is a fairly thick soft wax coating that they wash off with strong degreaser (TFR type stuff). Often the dealers employ outside contract valeters to do this and they can be a bit heavy handed (hence seeing cars with swirl marks).
Prep also includes other things sometimes (e.g. removing shipping blocks from suspension, plugging electrical connectors together) - all the PDI stuff basically.
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ive had 6 new cars in a row now and at least 3 of them havent been prepared at all well.
my last one in may i drove off the forcourt and smelled burning. i lifted the bonnet to find charred paper that was some sort of assembly paperwork stuffed down near the exhaust outlet
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Somebody, maybe the salesman. sits at his desk and puts ticks in 150 boxes in 5 minutes on a Pre Delivery Inspection report and then puts it in the Service Record to make you feel good about the state of your mulit-thousand £ purchase.
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My brand new Passat 1.8T in May 2000 needed a new turbo as soon as I got it. I was going on holiday in two days time (flying luckily). As soon as you drove it you knew there was something wrong - sounded like a small jet plane taking off! Fixed with new turbo (and unnecessary gearbox) when I got back. Luckily the gearbox and turbo were available the next day once I'd taken it back - but what does that tell you about VW parts having them to hand to quickly?
My brand new Golf GTI 1.8T in August 1999 needed a new gearbox (and locks) when I picked it up. Driveable but made a "grating" type noise sometimes getting into first. New gearbox fitted a few weeks later. Delay due to shipping a gearbox from Germany.
So my advice is also make sure the car is roadworthy. I have had two cars that were not and got through "preparation". Don't drive too far like on holiday before you know all is well.
Sorry to be negative... My Mondeo in Oct 2003 was fine though. Just needed new clutch and two EGR valves and some suspension bushes since. And the rear doors are rusting at the bottom ;-)
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Some new cars come with no special protection others come with a 'shipping wax' which is a fairly thick soft wax coating that they wash off with strong degreaser (TFR type stuff). Often the dealers employ outside contract valeters to do this and they can be a bit heavy handed (hence seeing cars with swirl marks).
I was behind an '07 reg car (a Fox) a while ago, and the swirl marks on the bumper (body coloured bumper) stood out really badly, even from inside my car. It looked like somebody had been over it with sand paper. Can you ask them not to valet a new car, and can you reject them if they have really bad swirl marks like the Fox I saw? I really couldn't believe the Fox I saw it really looked terrible.
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OldSkool, thats an interesting point. This is my first car with cruise control and living near Glasgow and knowing that there are many speed traps on M74 / M6 as well as in France, I was fully expecting to be using my cruise control constantly.
Maybe I will but keep altering the speed!
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Maybe I will but keep altering the speed!
Or the gear you're in. :o)
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I think they stopped using the wax some years ago, because of enviromental issues (oil down drains)
Now they use car rap (plastic film)
Lethal if it comes off the car on the motorway
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Where I worked the new cars arrived covered in fall out and with no protection film on at all.
To treat them they were given a jet wash and then had some cheap polish rubbed over the paintwork. Suffice to say, a lot of the new cars that we handed over had terrible paintwork.
If the car had really bad fallout then it would be machine polished or given an acid bath (basically means pouring alloy wheel acid cleaner all over the car and then jet washing it off, and no, I'm not kidding)
To be honest, the best ones that we handed over were ones that arrived in such a state that they had to be machine polished, the guy that did the machine polishing was spot on and always left the paintwork immaculate.
There should be no problem with polishing or waxing a new car, if you want my advice I would clay bar it first though to remove any fallout that may be left on the paint, this will leave the paint very smooth and in a perfect state to be polished.
Blue
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Blue, you were supposed to reassure me and make me feel good about my new car! :(
Seriously though, I asked for the truth and got it!
The saleswoman is an old work mate of mine so I will be stressing to her how important it is that the car gets a good finish. I have already told her I want the alloys all to be waxed and polished.
I remember when I bought my Skoda as a 1 year old car and I stressed to the salesman about how important the presentation was to me, I wanted the alloys waxed, thick layers around the bonnet area. I had twice to call in unannounced before collecting the car to hand over insurance etc and both times I saw someone working away on my car polishing it. When I collected it they also left me a couple of cans of Supaguard wheel preparation stuff in the boot!
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I bought my Skoda
I stressed to the salesman about how important the presentation was to me
Aren't these two statements a bit contradictory :)
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When I cleaned cars for Rover dealership, new cars got the full valet including a full body polish.
Since the cars were built in th UK, they didnt need any protection wax and just came with some plastic covers in a couple of places but generally, were unprotected.
Very rare for a car to arrive with damage.
Contract valeters who replaced the employed valeters just gave them a quick wash and hoover - now the dealer sells Citroens, so perhaps the make now matches the valeting style as Rover customers are generally very fussy.
The paint SHOULD be fine on delivery - unless your car is a factory order, it should have been sitting around for a few weeks atleast so the paint will hardly be fresh.
Basically, if you make it clear you will go over the car with a fine tooth comb, they will know to do a good job, so as before, just make alotta noise about the prep and the salesperson will lean on the valeters.
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Collect my car tomorrow but had to take insurance certificate in today. Saw my car in the workshop getting the TomTOM installed (SEAT).
Speaking to the guy who was doing it and before I said anything about it he told me, "don't worry we have been warned that this one is to get the extra wax treatment".
So far so good.....
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