First of all, whether you are still deciding on the options before placing the custom order, or you are preparing to pick up the new vehicle later today. I want to congratulate you on the new vehicle! Please feel free to ask me any and all questions regarding this process; detailing, finance (my college background), or anything else about the new vehicle delivery process. Im pretty familiar with all of it.
That said, during my years of detailing cars since 2017, I’ve been told many mistruths, myths, and flat-out lies that my customers were told by a dealership. The biggest lie of all: that your car is coming to you the same way the factory painted it. Unfortunately for us, there’s a lot of potential for damage between the assembly line and the first time you see your new car at the dealership.
Using my experience from 2019, having custom ordered and purchased one of my dream cars, a 2020 Subaru WRX STI. I'll show you what happens to a “new” car and how to limit the potential defects on your car.
Extra tips as you go through this process:
Please take a look at my pages on proper car washing and paint protection options so that, this way, your new vehicle can continue to look brand new for literally years to come.
I also heavily recommend you maintain a google doc "pilots log" of your vehicle, with important information like the vin, dates, mileage, location, and mechanical work (like tire changes, oil, long road trips, etc.) through the cars life. When you go to sell it, this will be a massive bonus.
Paint
One of the first steps in the assembly process is painting the car, which now dries much faster than older cars would have taken, due to the reduction of solvents and the addition of chemical hardeners… To finish off the paint drying process, the car is baked in a curing oven. That means my STI’s metallic pearl white paint was fully dried before it even left the Kiryu-Kougyo factory in Japan.
Although my particular example was special ordered and therefore shipped right after completion, many new builds could spend weeks (or even months) sitting in general inventory reserves outside the factory. That perfect paint and clear coat, applied hours before… Is now being exposed to industrial fallout that has been contaminating the paint since literally before you even knew the vehicle existed (in the case of non-custom ordered vehicles).
The STI's tracking number started out as the cars VON (vehicle order number), and once the car was painted, the tracking number upgraded to the cars VIN. So, when watching the build progress online, I knew the exact day the car was painted.
Dealership
Even with your new vehicle safely at the dealership, the vehicle is far from safe. Having briefly worked with a couple luxury and exotic dealerships as one of their detailers, I have seen first hand how easily a lot of damage can occur here! I’m sure there are exceptions, but I know from experience that many dealership detailers are untrained general operational helpers, which leads to them unknowingly causing significant damage to the cars they “clean up” in the final steps of the PDI (pre delivery inspection) before you see the vehicle.
In the case of my STI, I literally would not order the car from the dealer unless their general manager signed a contract, guaranteeing that the car would not be touched by anyone else. Or they would give me a considerable discount on the car.
Protection
After the vehicle is professionally detailed by, I can tint the windows, apply clear bra to protect the paint from rock chips and ceramic coat the paint, all before you ever even see the vehicle for the first time. Taking away the hassle of having to get this work done sometime later on, and maximizing the effectiveness of the paint protection.
In the case of the STI, I used about 3 rolls of painters tape on the front of the car to protect it from rock chips as I drove it home, to have the paint protection installed in my garage.
Also, in the case of ceramic coating, if I get to maintain the vehicle from its first second off the trailer, there is naturally less risk of the paint being damaged. This means you will get a MASSIVE discount on ceramic coating costs, as paint correction is about half the entire job. It is literally cheaper to have me take delivery of the vehicle for you.
If you can't have a detailer unwrap the car for you, try to consult with one over the phone to help make sure you don't cause damage while unwrapping it.
On your way to pickup the car from the dealer, grab about 5 rolls of painters tape, and mask off the new car before you drive it home, as to protect it from possible rock chips. Until you can get the car properly protected in clear bra, keep painters tape over high impact areas. This will preserve your paint until you can have it professionally protected.
Once the car is clean, start masking from the back and work forward, this will layer the tape facing away from the direction of wind. You need to mask all high impact areas, which include: The front bumper, Headlights, Hood, Mirrors, A-Pillars, Front-facing part of the roof, Fenders, Side skirts, and behind the wheels. As shown in blue on these pictures.
