Our packages run $1,500 to $1,900.
Most people assume the money is going into the bottle. It is not, and it is not close. The majority of what you are paying for is the polishing step, which happens before any coating touches the vehicle. Understanding that one fact explains almost everything else about pricing in this industry, including why the cheap quotes cannot be real.
Most of the Labor Is Polishing
Every vehicle is different, and brand new does not mean we skip steps.
A brand new car may have sat on a dealer lot for months. In that time it accumulated contaminants, and it picked up swirls from improper and frequent washing. New off the truck is not the same as flawless, which is the same thing I run into with dealer installed coatings.
So for most vehicles, the polishing is where the hours go. Decontamination and claying take real time too. The coating application itself is typically the shortest part of the whole job.
Shortest does not mean easiest. It is actually the least forgiving step of the process. A high spot, meaning coating that flashed unevenly, means bringing the polisher back out and doing that section again. There is no wiping it off and starting over once it has cured.
What Actually Changes the Price
Three things, in order.
Size, by far. This is the biggest single factor. A Super Duty is not a Miata. More panels, more square footage, more of every step.
Condition. How much correcting the paint needs before it is ready to be sealed under a coating for seven years.
Color. Black paint is considerably more finicky, especially from some manufacturers. GM and Porsche black are the two that come to mind. Black can add multiple hours to what looked like a routine job when it rolled in, because it hides absolutely nothing and every pass has to be right.
How Much Correction Do You Actually Need?
This is another area I leave up to the customer, but here is the honest framework so you can decide.
One step correction is included in every package. The floor is a minimum of 50% defect correction. That is a floor, not a target. Plenty of vehicles come out of a one step at 90% or better.
Two step correction is the $400 add-on. It raises that floor to roughly 75%, and again, most vehicles land at 90% or better.
What determines where a specific vehicle lands is paint hardness, how deep the defects are, and what type they are. Etching, swirls, and scratches all behave differently.
As a general rule: new vehicles are almost always fine with one step. Once a vehicle is two or more years old, that is when a second step is at least worth discussing.
If a customer wants more correction, I will do it. But I want people to understand the tradeoff, because nobody else seems to bring it up. Every step of correction removes more clear coat. There is no sense in a perfectly flawless finish if we have shaved off all the clear coat you had left. Clear coat is finite. You cannot put it back.
That is a real conversation I would rather have with you before the polisher comes out than after. It also affects how long the finish holds up, which I got into in how long a coating actually lasts.
The Math on a $500 Coating
This is a touchy subject and I want to be careful with it, because I am not trying to rag on the guys doing this. Most of them are not being dishonest. They are simply uneducated about what the work costs.
So let us actually run the numbers on a $500 coating.
- The coating we use runs roughly $250 per bottle. He is now at $250.
- Soaps, clay bars, polishing pads, and towels. Pads are disposable. The towels get thrown away. Call it another $50. He is closer to $200.
- That is before his polisher, before insurance, before anything else. And it is fair to ask whether he has insurance at all, on your $80,000 truck.
Now the time.
If he is skipping a lot of steps, maybe he knocks it out in an afternoon. I would be concerned about that vehicle.
If he skips nothing and does it properly, it takes one to two full days. At $200 for two days of work, he has made less than minimum wage. He will not last long doing that.
That is the real problem with the cheap quote, and it is not about the money. It is about what happens when you need warranty work. A coating warranty is only worth what the shop behind it is worth, and a shop losing money on every job is not going to be there in year three.
The cheap guys usually make it work one of two ways. Either they cheap out on materials, using a spray product or a no-name coating that will not last. Or they skip steps: proper decontamination, polishing, insurance.
Everyone starts somewhere, and I have no interest in beating anyone up over it. But it matters when the vehicle in question is new and expensive.
If $1,500 Is Not in the Budget Right Now
Then do not spend it. There is a reasonable middle.
A good sealant will buy you a few months while you save up. Be clear about what it is: a sealant does not provide the same benefits as a coating, not in durability and not in performance. But it is significantly better than the old school waxes we all used years ago, and it is real protection in the meantime.
We can do that for you, or you can buy an Armour Detail Supply ceramic sealant and apply it at home yourself. I am not going to pretend that second option does not exist just because it does not involve me.
Financing through Affirm and Afterpay is available too, if spreading it out is what makes it work.
Where We Sit in This Market
Honestly, the only people surprised by our pricing are the ones who have either never heard of ceramic coating before, or who have already been quoted $500 by somebody on Facebook.
We are not the most expensive shop in the area. There are shops in Baldwin County charging more than we do, and some of them do excellent work. We are also not the cheapest, and we are not trying to be. There is a real market here between the Facebook quote and the high end, and that is where we have chosen to sit.
What you are actually buying at $1,500 is two to three days of labor, the majority of it spent correcting your paint before anything gets sealed on top of it, done indoors, by the owner, with a warranty from a shop that intends to still be here in seven years. If that math works for you, here is what each package includes, whether you are in Foley, Daphne, or anywhere in between.
And if it does not work for you right now, say so. I would rather point you at a sealant and see you in a year than sell you something that does not fit. Tell me about your vehicle and we will figure out which one it is.
Randy Matthews
Owner of Diamond Auto Care in Foley, Alabama. Applying ceramic coatings professionally since 2017, and personally installing every coating that leaves the shop. 4.9 stars across 98 Google reviews.
