lovemyGSFS

I'm wondering if anyone has the clear bra on the there ES I've only had my ES on the highway twice and already one small paint chip on the front bumper I can see this being a issues. Going to get some pricing tomorrow it's pretty expensive my dealer wanted $1,000 I think I can get it done cheaper than that

carsareus

I doubt you can get it done much cheaper. I wouldn't even consider doing it yourself. I have XPEL self healing film protection on my Corvette and I've already got quotes for my incoming ES350. I doubt you could get anything for under $750 and that's for cheaper film and only maybe doing half your hood and front bumper. Make sure you get self healing film if possible. I'm doing a partial film protection with everything being done in the front, Ceramic pro paint protection on the whole car and XPEL Prime XR Plus tint and its costing me almost $3900. If you want Quality products with a good installer you are going to have to pay.

lesz

I agree 100% with the above quote. If someone is quoting you $1000, they would likely be covering only the front of the hood and the bumper with film. And there are plenty of other areas that could benefit from protection against stones and other debris. I can almost guarantee that, if you only protect the bumper and the front part of the hood, it won't be long before you wish that you had covered more areas with the film.

I would consider the minimum for a package with good protection would be film covering the full hood, the full front fenders, the full front bumper, and the mirrors. Many also choose to cover more areas, such as the A pillars, the front portion of the roof, the door handle cups, and the door edges.

For future reference, a good time to get a complete paint protection film package for a decent price is by negotiating it into the price of the car. The way to do it is to leave the paint protection film as the last item in the negotiations before you are willing to agree to a deal. The dealership is not going to risk losing a sale over the paint protection film, and they will be likely to sell you the paint protection film at or near their cost. By doing so, when I bought my 2017 ES, I was able to get a paint protection film with the best grade of Xpel film with a 10 year warranty for less than half of what the dealer's advertised price would have been. The coverage that I got included the full hood, the full front fenders, the full bumper, the mirrors, the door handle cups, and the door edges. And there was the added benefit of having the car protected before I drove it out of the dealer's lot the first time and risked getting and stone nicks before I even got home.

TechNut

I also agree with the above comments. I had mine done by the dealer (they convinced me it was done in-house and by a quality installer - unlike a previous car) and they restored my faith in their shop. They charged $1499 for the full front of the car, including headlights, back of mirrors, A pillars and the roof of the car up to the sunroof. They used the highest grade (Platinum) Llumar product. Keep in mind, each brand has multiple grades. For example, the premium grade Xpel product is the Ultimate line. This is where you will see a great deal of price/warranty variation when getting quotes so make sure you are also comparing equal grades and not simply the bottom dollar. The best products today will include a 10 year warranty.

As you can tell, I highly recommend Paint Protection Film (AKA Clear Bra) and would never buy a new car today without it.

burnik

If your willing to do the work yourself.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F264015538712

jpreslee

Although I agree with the above discussion, I have one thing to add. Most certainly get a clear bra of some kind. Personally, I did it on the hood, bumper, headlights, and mirrors. I live in the Oklahoma City Oklahoma area and HERE the Lexus dealer themselves do not install the clear bra as they outsource it with the same place that tints, pinstripes, and many other things. So, why negotiate the price of the added clear bra with the dealer when they are marking up every installation? My advice is to find out where the clear bras are installed in your area and go directly there. Eliminate the middle man entirely. I would be willing to bet wherever you live you could make 3 phone calls and ask "do you install the clear bras for the Lexus dealer" in your area and you will have saved money. Put the clearbra on a credit card if you have to rather than adding finance charges at the dealer on top of their markup. Hope this helps.

lesz

The reason why it still makes sense to get the paint protection film done through the dealer at the time you are purchasing the car is because, even if the dealer is subcontracting the installation of the paint protection film, which is, more often than not the case, what the the dealer is paying to the subcontractor is a significantly discounted price that is much lower than what you would have to pay if you were dealing directly with the subcontractor. And, if you leave the paint protection film as the last item in the negotiations with the dealer before agreeing to the deal and the dealer knows that whether or not you buy the car is contingent on getting a good price for the paint protection film, the dealer is not going to risk losing the sale by marking up the price for the paint protection film. Instead, the dealer, therefore, will be likely to sell you the paint protection film for the same price that it pays the subcontractor without any "middleman" markup. I know that, when I bought my 2017 ES, the dealer sold me the paint protection film package for less than 50% of what I would have paid had I had the work done at any of shops in the area that do that kind of work. And, as I said in an earlier post, there was the added benefit of knowing that my car was protected before I drove it off of the dealer's lot and before there was any potential for damage to the finish.