911sanantone

I am looking forward to the delivery of my 991 in late January. I enjoy detailing my cars and like many of you, I strive to maintain the best possible paint finish.

I have read some advice on older threads about asking the dealer to not touch the paint on a new car initial prep (leave plastic in place etc...). The dealer's paint prep (wash etc...) can actually do more harm then good.

I am considering asking my dealer to not do anything to the exterior.

Thoughts ?

Has anyone gone this route and if so what did you do to inspect the outside of the vehicle for paint/finish issues before leaving the dealership.

stealthboy

I would advise against the Dealer-Installed Swirl Option. Tell them to neither wash nor detail it. I've seen how my dealer "washes" the cars on the lot and it wasn't pretty.

Since I was getting my car at the dealer state-side after factory collection in Germany, my protective wrappings were long gone for the journey across the sea. I had some nice old bird droppings on my car that made me rather mad, but nothing a little dual-action buffer and some light polishing compound didn't fix. I told my dealer not to wash it. Every time I take my car in for any service I also make sure to tell them not to wash it.

Hammer911

I would ask them not to touch it. As long as you get to the car before the lot crew, I don't think you'll find any flaws.

j080808

From a thread here: http://www.planet-9.com/981-chat/739...tml#post663751

This is what I did when I took delivery of my 981:
I had my dealer take it from the transport truck and park it in their garage until I arrived. I then unwrapped it myself like a Christmas present. After doing so, they filled it with gas and I was off.

I did my unwrapping in an empty service bay in peace and quiet (Saturday) and took several hours doing so, going over every nook and cranny. I brought a bottle of quick detailer and some microfibers. They left me a trash can for all the plastic and said to come and get them when I was done, or if I had any issues the service guy was working a few bays down and he could answer any of my questions.

IMO-That is how to take delivery of a car. After the factory, I was the first to touch the paint and sit in the uncovered seat, not some prep guy with a dirty sponge and leaving dirty fingerprints in the leather. Just my 2 cents. The best part? They paid me to do it...when I was done, they said they knocked 150.00 off the price because thats about what it costs them to prep it, I was shocked!

Keep in mind, my situation is/was unique. I bought my car 10 hours from home, my next "stop" was literally going to be a filling station ~300 miles away from the dealer, with my ending point back home 650 miles away that night.

My reasoning for doing this was, the car is only perfect once. Once the protection comes off, its all downhill, it doesnt get any better. I dont want any nitrogen in or tire goo on my tires, I dont want anything buffed, just the car the way it was built, period. If I have to remove some tape residue, Im fine with that. I also brought my own tire gauge...that was a unique experience explaining to the TSA guy the night before when I flew in to the city to get the car.

I spent hours checking everything, syncing my phone, starting it/stopping it, setting my radio stations, doing my bluetooth adapter, etc, and I did it in private, not the delivery fishbowl in the showroom.

I have my seat covers, steering wheel cover and the soft-top cover as well, I just threw them in the frunk as I took them off, I will then send them on with the car when I sell it. I also have a German shipping doc as well that was just lying on the floor, I saved everything so that it can be passed on to the next owner.

Its a unique experience (not as good as euro delivery of course) that allowed me to check everything on the car in my sweet time, I highly recommend it, you wont regret it! I learned from forums like this that many people do just as I, so Im not taking credit for the idea.

The irony of this experience...we have two Porsche dealers in my city. One is within a tee-shot of my house, and I'm not a good golfer. If I had to, I could literally crawl to the place its that close.

Bacura

Wow. That is a unique experience. When I picked up mine it was perfectly prepped. I could not have done better so I was happy. Maybe if I was younger I would have done it all myself. My biggest worry is that I would bring it home and prep it myself and then find some damage. Would it still be covered or would the dealer blame me? I guess I'm too lazy but it sounds like you had a great time!

Jerry991

Just go to your dealership and look at the cars that they have on the showroom floor and determine the quality of the preparation. We are dealing with Porsches and most, but not all, of them know how to detail the cars.

chuck911

This is the way to do it.

j080808

One would think so, but this was not the case for this dealership. The dealership is one of the largest in the US, and Premier as well. The 3 previous cars I purchased from them all had fine scratches. It doesn't take much to scratch the paint on these cars, I wasn't going to have it happen a 4th time to me.

YMMV, but all the dealer does to 'prep' the car is unwrap, remove the shock protectors, wash it and throw some stuff on the tires. One could easily do what I did in less than 20 minutes and them give it a proper bath at home. Wish I could have done the same for my 991, but it was a stock car.

chuck911

If you can be satisfied with that approach Jerry then go for it. You won't be alone. Lots of people are perfectly satisfied with normal dealer prep. But then lots of people are perfectly satisfied driving their Porsche through a car wash and calling it good. The OP however says, "I enjoy detailing my cars and like many of you, I strive to maintain the best possible paint finish." In that respect j080808 is right. The dealer is just going to unwrap, wash and smear some tire goo on. Achieving "the best possible possible paint finish" is not only not on their radar, they typically don't even have anyone on staff who would know how to go about it if they wanted to. Except to the standards of the car wash customer, that is.

But here's an idea- for you, the OP and anyone else. Rather than try and judge by the condition of the cars in the dealers dimly lit showroom- you know, the one with lots of spot lights designed to throw sparkles off the cars rather than uniform bright fluorescent lighting that will show flaws- try walking around the lot or the service bay looking for evidence they know what they're doing: lots of clean, folded microfiber towels, for example, and NO cotton-polyester blend fabric anywhere. Ask to see what the lot boy uses, or where they keep the stuff they use to prep their cars. If you're right and they "know how to detail the cars" then they will have nothing but nice clean soft microfiber, quality car wash, detail spray and clay. Doesn't mean they know how to use them, but its a sign.

stealthboy

In my dealer's showroom, all of the cars have severe swirls. I can't believe someone would buy one of those right from the showroom floor. The lights they have in the place aren't helping, either... The fine scratches just jump right out.

mi650

I haven't seen what products my dealership uses. What I do know, because I asked, is my car gets hand washed there. Only because the wheels are too wide to go thru their car wash.

BlackBeauty

Menzerna can help!

chuck911

Yes, well hand washing is responsible for the vast majority of swirly scratches in the world today. Unless they're using the right equipment the right way a hand wash can do more damage than a machine wash.

carrerapete

Get the car away from the dealership before the cleaning crew has a chance to get their soiled rags on it. There's a proper way to wash these cars and the detail crew at the dealership surely isn't going to spend the time going through all the proper steps.

mi650

Somehow, I knew you'd say that. Actually, I have no idea what they do or use. I haven't seen them washing it. I do know that whatever they use on the glass sucks. It took me about a dozen tries to get my windows clean.