What is your direct experience . I keep the car garaged at all times around 2 to 3k miles a year. I know the manufacturers say 8 years but I have to think thats for daily drivers. Since the factories went to this 3mil thick water based crap you have to cover everything.

 

So far 9 months on garage kept vehicle. 3k miles driven. No exposure to harsh weather. Still looks new except for a few tiny chips.

 

I'm currently thinking about the same thing with my car. My ppf was installed almost 8 years ago before my car ever left the dealer floor (August 2013). It currently has 31K miles on the car which has been in a covered garage its entire life. The film and shine still looks like it did on day one other than the edges getting a little dirty in a few places against a brightly colored car, but no one else even notices this but me. Im wondering if I should be replacing it soon despite still looking fine with no signs of cracking or drying out?

 

Mine is on going on 3 years. I was planning on 5 years and then a replacement. Even if it looks ok, I think I would like a full correction, new PPF film which are going through some impressive improvements, and a new ceramic coat.

 

My PPF is probably 5 years old (done by the previous owner) and there are some slight chips on the front bumper and in some places, the edges are a bit dark. There's also some swirls in a couple areas, but I believe that's swirls on top of the coating and not on the PPF itself.

I'm likely to get PPF redone next year.

 

I recently took the PPF off my car, which was on there for about 2 years. The edges were lifting and visible. The clarity of the film itself looked fine when on the paint but when removed and crumpled into a ball it was distinctly yellow.

 

I have full PPF, going on 3 years now. My plan is replacement in the 5-7 year timeframe (maybe around 2-4 years from now), with a possible paint correction which I didn't do the first time.

 

Another data point, fwiw:

• 2018 911 in a dark color (which really shows the damage)
• Daily driven with 22,000+ miles and a lot of back-road running
• Full front end + rockers PPF
• Was hoping for 3-5 years
• Looks pretty good @ 3 years (but has done its job in protecting the paint)
• One nasty chip/tear in hood (otherwise looks great)
• Scratch in bumper plus a couple of small chip/tears (one of which looks like it got through to the paint)
• Rear fender PPF peppered
• Front fenders' PPF still looks near new
• Mirrors PPF still looks new
• No discoloration I can see, and unlike my GT4, I don't see dirt under the edges (very dark green vs bright red may help, but I think Mooty's guy did a better application)

Considering replacing the hood + bumper + rockers > paint correction > ceramic coat, but may wait a bit yet. We'll see. Peppering on the rear fenders is probably the worst/most visible thing.

 

i'm in the exact same boat and thought about replacing it a while back. 2013 C2S with PPF installed before it ever got delivered. same exact light, difficult to detect blemishes around a few edges. mine still looks great for the most part so i decided to pass. especially after the shop i would have had it done at said the same. was told it's a bit harder to remove older PPF but is nothing an experienced installer can't accomplish. if/when it gets to the point of not looking good, that's when i'll replace it. until then, if it ain't broken, i'm not messing with it.

 

I just had the original PPF replaced on mine a few weeks ago. The PPF was installed in late-2012, so it was just about 9 years old. It was never maintained well, you could tell one of the previous owners liked to go through automatic car washes like a peasant.

The shop that removed it did comment a few areas were difficult to remove, but more so because of the edge bonding adhesive that was used by the original installer.

PPF has come a long way in 9 years. The new film is Stek Dynoshield. It's hydrophobic, rendering ceramic coating on top of the PPF unnecessary. It's self-healing, and has significantly more clarity than the older films. My car looks basically brand new again

 

I had two 8 year old ppfs which i replaced in 2017 (2010 MY in red) and 2016 (2008 MY in black), and it was definitely yellowing and starting to become less shiny. The black car was a bit worse than the red car, probably due to the heat. They had a tough time removing it after 8 years (XPEL and 3M). Another car has new ppf since 2017 (STEK), and it now has a hint of yellow after 4 years on a white car but it's still very shiny. It has 10 year warranty, the installer ask me to go claim warranty after another couple of years as it's not so bad yet. Another car I had (white gt3) was terribly yellow and marred after 2 years in 2018 (xpel), and I think that car was constantly left outdoors in NY. All my cars see 2-3k miles of canyon driving each year, and is always garaged and covered. So I would say 6 years would be the max. for a white car due to the yellowing, and 7-9 years max for other colors due to the yellowing, wrinkling (unable to self heal) and lack of shine. They still protect the car after that of course, just looks bad cosmetic wise.
With that said, film technology "supposedly" have come a long way and so the old films (2008-2009) might not hold up as well as the modern ones. But the new film i installed in 2017 (STEK) already yellowed a bit....so maybe they are not that improved in terms of yellowing, but perhaps better in self healing, shine, clarity etc. I have suntek, xpel plus and stek for the replacements, will see how they compare in the long term

 

is there any chance that an old PPF 8 years + could lift the paint when removed?

 

there are some horror stories regarding that, but I think that's on cars that's repainted and not cured properly, or could be on paint that's already getting thin from age (or overly corrected car that's 30-40 years old), or a heavily pitted paint with a lot of exposed primers
in my case, the tear off from a 2010 458 and 2007 f430 was fine after 8-9 years. The glue was pretty hard to remove on my 07, that's why you have to steam heat the film moderately or do a paint correction after. But the paint was perfectly ok in my case, and the ****ty italians arent known for their paint
If your car comes with thin paint due to weight reduction, or is comprised of lightly painted carbon fiber panels, i would be extra careful (like a scuderia with 1/2 paint thickness or something like a murcielago or eb110 etc.)
my feeling is most well cared for cars will be fine, always test it with a paint gauge to see how much material is left before ppf?

 

I don't know for sure, but I recall seeing a guy either here on RL or in a FB group post a picture where the removal of the clear PPF stone guard on the rear fender cause a massive area of paint to lift. Following that it was discovered that the part of the car had been in an accident and the part that lifted paint was actually repainted. So there's always that possibility I suppose if it's not factory paint. I haven't heard of it happening on factory paint though.

 

I sold 2 cars that had PPF on them for 14 years each. These were daily drivers and garaged. No issues. Now if someone tried to remove this, who knows. But covering factory paint and then steaming carefully should be ok when trying to remove. How long do you plan on keeping your car?