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Very true, me Mother has the lifeshine on her A1 and frankly, it's a load of rubbish. A year old and there's no telling it's been applied.

Any wax or sealant is going to cost less to apply and last just as long...

Andy Beats wrote:I think the paint protection is a rip off and I'll never buy it.
It's cheap for them to buy, there's no guarantee they're applying it properly.
In my opinion, better off spraying your clean car with Gtechniq C2V3 paint sealant once or twice a year for around £12 per bottle and 1/2 an hour work.

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Andy Beats wrote: Thu Nov 15, 2018 4:48 pm I think the paint protection is a rip off and I'll never buy it.
It's cheap for them to buy, there's no guarantee they're applying it properly.
In my opinion, better off spraying your clean car with Gtechniq C2V3 paint sealant once or twice a year for around £12 per bottle and 1/2 an hour work.

It is a complete rip off and it’s an almost dead cert the paintwork won’t be prepared correctly before they apply it.

Off topic as far as GAP insurance is concerned but relevant to paint protection - If you’re looking to invest £400 on paintwork protection, get a professional detailer to do it. For similar money, a professional detailer will undertake a full decontamination of the paintwork, an ‘enhancement’ machine polish, apply a good quality protection product and dress the trim/tyres, clean the glass. The overall process is likely to take, as a minimum, between 1-2 days. If you pay for the VW dealer’s paintwork protection, they’re likely to skip the prep stages completely and spend no more than a couple of hours for the £400 or whatever they charge. I wouldn’t even let them do it to my car if they offered it for free!

I’m a bit of a DIY detailing enthusiast, so haven’t had my car professionally detailed, but I know it takes me 2-3 days to do a thorough wash, decontamination, machine polish, and wax or sealant application (plus cleaning the glass, dressing the plastic trim parts and tyres, and cleaning the interior). IMO it’s not possible to do a proper job in the couple of hours the VW dealer is likely to spend applying the Autoglym Lifeshine product - preparation is key to effective longevity of any paintwork protection product, and if the prep stage is skipped or skimped on, it pretty much a waste of time and money having the Lifeshine (or similar) product applied.

Oh, and if you value your paintwork, never ever let the dealer do a complementary service wash on your car when it’s in for servicing or warranty work. It’s likely to end up looking like they cleaned it with a scouring pad!

Agree

Gap insurance is always over priced and usually added to your quote along with just about every other extra - paint protection, wheel and tyre insurance and smart repair so don’t buy any of these except gap and only if the dealer can match the prices offered by companies like ALA or Gapinsurance. My local dealer added all of these at a cost of £1999 when I said no, but understandably they ignored my request. What was a real eye opener was after taking them off the quote it reduced the monthly payments by approximately £60 per month over 3 years!

As others have said don’t bother with paint protection so either find a local detailer or buy some decent products and look after the car yourself.

Still looking
Have very little time to search these things
I was hoping for a search engine like confused or go compare where I could pick the best deal and pay monthly
However doesn’t seem to be happening like that 🥺

Hi,

Not sure there is a site so suggest the following.

https://totallossgap.co.uk/

https://www.ala.co.uk/. Use code HJ18 to obtain 12% discount

https://www.directgap.co.uk/


I have used ala and total loss and both are very good with excellent cover and customer service. As the policies are almost identical, it’s personal preference which one you choose.

As I’ve said before, don’t get hooked by the smooth taking sales person who will go out of their way to scare you about other gap polices not being as good as the dealer offering. Complete rubbish.

Aube wrote: Tue Nov 20, 2018 6:40 pm Hi,

Not sure there is a site so suggest the following.

https://totallossgap.co.uk/

https://www.ala.co.uk/. Use code HJ18 to obtain 12% discount

https://www.directgap.co.uk/

I have used ala and total loss and both are very good with excellent cover and customer service. As the policies are almost identical, it’s personal preference which one you choose.

As I’ve said before, don’t get hooked by the smooth taking sales person who will go out of their way to scare you about other gap polices not being as good as the dealer offering. Complete rubbish.

Totally agree; the VW sales person will have only one thing in mind when going for the hard sell on GAP insurance, or any other of the poor value ‘extras’ they try to sell you; their commission on the sale. There are other ALA discount codes available; Discount code VP10 gives a 10% discount, but I wouldn’t use that discount code as MSE25 should get you a 25% discount off ALA’s standard prices.

Kittycat wrote: Tue Nov 20, 2018 6:21 pm Still looking
Have very little time to search these things
I was hoping for a search engine like confused or go compare where I could pick the best deal and pay monthly
However doesn’t seem to be happening like that 🥺

ALA offer a monthly premium payment option so I’d expect other GAP insurers to also accept monthly payment. However, other charges (credit charges or admin fees) may apply if you pay monthly.

Going on the AlA website and it’s not giving me the option to put in any discount codes

Kittycat wrote: Tue Nov 20, 2018 8:21 pm Going on the AlA website and it’s not giving me the option to put in any discount codes

You're better off with the cheapest discounted quote from another supplier and then ring ALA to get them to beat it by 20% as per their price promise - If the other supplier is cheaper than ALA's flat price.

Kittycat wrote: Tue Nov 20, 2018 8:21 pm Going on the AlA website and it’s not giving me the option to put in any discount codes

Discount codes go in the ‘Promotional Code’ box; right hand side of screen under the premium you’ve been quoted. Input the code and the quoted premium will reduce.

Hi,

Agree.

What ever you do, the message is clear. Don’t buy products such as gap, paint protection and the like from the dealer. The worry is even with regulations about selling these products, my dealer still flouted these.

Just wanted to say thank you
Purchased Gap insurance today through ALA
Had been putting it off, until my husband was involved in a non fault this morning
Made me realise I need to get it organised just incase

Aube wrote: Wed Nov 21, 2018 9:03 am Hi,

Agree.

What ever you do, the message is clear. Don’t buy products such as gap, paint protection and the like from the dealer. The worry is even with regulations about selling these products, my dealer still flouted these.

My GAP was as cheap from the dealer as anywhere else.
Sure their first offer was daft, but their second offer was competitive.