Hi all

I decided to go for the Autoglym lifetime treatment, mainly for the upholstery part as it sounds like a no brainer to me on my new vRS with my young family. The demo the Salesman gave was quite convincing.

A mate of mine said the paintwork protection wasn't worth it but was undecided about the upholstery treatment.....and this has got me second guessing my 'no brainer' decision.

Has anyone has his done? Is it worth it?

How much are they charging?

You can buy a new autoglym life shine kit off ebay for under £25.

Personally as someone who likes to take care of there car and abit anal with it, i wouldn't touch lifeshine. Dont get me wrong autoglym is good stuff for short term.

Im not sure how much your paying for it. But a professional detailer may charge £350-£450 to give your car a machine polish to remove light imperfections and protect your cars interior and exterior using protectants that will last such as Gtechniq or CarPro.

Im having Gtechniq C1 + EXO on exterior of my car and Gtechniq on the Inside also, but a pro detailer would guide you down the best route.

Rob

I went through this dilemma some months back and concluded there were much more cost effective ways of looking after my car (after feedback from Briskoda members).

I have a new car on order for November. Again, I shall not be buying the treatment when offered by the dealer.

For the interior I bought some Scotchgard off of the bay and stain protected my interior myself !

Sod paying someone else to do the same at inflated prices !

I've been offered 'ceramic coat' by the dealer which apparently comes with a 5 year guarantee - anyone had it done?

I'll be trying to make sure it is thrown in the deal.

Dealer is charging me £249 for upholstery and exterior protection + plus a case (read about 15 bottles) of various Autoglym products.

10 year guarantee on the interior upholstery protection where (apparently) Autoglym will replace whatever their products failed to protect.

I bought it for the upholstery part after a demo.

http://www.lifeshine.com

I've been offered 'ceramic coat' by the dealer which apparently comes with a 5 year guarantee - anyone had it done?

I'll be trying to make sure it is thrown in the deal.

Ceramic coating is what you want, find out who is applying it though. If you take a look on Detailing World forum you'll find loads of information regarding this type of stuff.

Iv heard dealers don't apply ceramic correctly. At £250 id seriously consider speaking to a detailer who is on the above forum and speak to them as a new car detail maybe cheaper.

Hope this has helped you.

Rob

Nothing wrong with Life Shine as a 'package' however, its downfall is its overpriced by the dealer, and generally its poorly applied to the car.

 

I know that to make it bond to the car properly in an ideal world the car would be fully decontaminated, i.e. good wash, then clay to remove bonded contaminants, tar removal, glue removed etc etc etc that all takes time, instead they chuck a bucket of shampoo (which has been sat in a large bin for however long) over the car, then pop the stuff on, in as short a time as possible!  And they charge a **** load for the privilige, also, not sure if I am right but isnt one of the conditions of warranty that you have to apply one of the products in the after care pack once a month to 'top things up'??  If that is the case then thats no different to applying a wax or something once a month!

 

For me, I wouldnt pay he amount they charge, as you can buy a bottle of stain protector and apply every 6 months, I use Gtech I1 and apply every 6 months, takes 10 minutes to do and a bottle is about £8, but you could use Scotchgard etc whatever suits you.

 

As for the outside, do you normally do that yourself, or do you see the local hand car wash place, if you do it yourself, for about £50-£70 you could get everything you need to keep yoru car in great condition, if you usually use the local hand car wash place then the LifeShine would end up removed very quickly with teh strong TFR's they use!

 

But, you pay your money you take your choice, for me, its not something I buy, but for others maybe they like it, personally I think the dealers play on people spending a lot of money on a brand new car and they sell them the product to keep it looking great, but, in reality, its not the product that is poor, is the application and the upkeep which defines the longevity of the product.

If this stuff really made any difference to interior/exterior durability, it would already be standard on every car. As with galvanisation, once one manufacturer dipped their steel chassis in to it and proved it's value, everyone else had to follow.

 

The only way to reliably prevent kids from staining your seats is to keep them away from your car. Most stains can be washed out with a bit off effort. I remember when my daughter rubbed a pot of Sudocrem into my back seat, it took a lot a lot of effort and a warm bucket of fairy infused water, but I got it all out in the end. If you are really worried about it, go for leather option (posh Skoda plastic) .

Edited 29 September, 201312 yr by Orville

I've worked in many dealers as a valeter & I've got to say, it's the biggest waste of money going. I can't remember ever applying the interior protection. The exterior protection isn't the greatest neither, Simply down to gaffers constantly telling us just to get the cars out the door & not to waste time on brand new cars.

I'd always avoid

G

.

Edited 29 September, 201312 yr by Timoctav

The best detailer's never ever use machine polish. They use Klay-bar to remove minor imperfections and this is a skilled technique as it is way to damage the paintwork if the detailer does not know what he is doing. That's why lesser skilled so-called professional detailer's use a machine.

 

Two different tools, two different purposes.  Clay bar is a pure out and out decontaminant - it removes engrained fallout and other such like from the paint surface.  It does nothing to actually remove paint imperfections - this is where machine polishing comes in.  Claying should always be a pre-cursor to machine polishing though.

I repeat, a proper detailer never ever uses a machine to polish.

Edited 29 September, 201312 yr by Timoctav

And Autoglym Lifeshine is a complete waste of money. It is only good for the garage as the margins on selling it are huge, that's why they push it so hard. Sparshatts who sold me my Octavia even automatically included it on the sales invoice, cheeky sods.

If you read the instructions, Autoglym tel you to re wax it regularly. So you might as well save a ton of money and wax the car yourself!

???

I repeat, a proper detailer never ever uses a machine to polish.

if its just the interior fabric you want to protect why not get this:

 

http://www.3mdirect.co.uk/p-955-scotchgard-protector-for-leather-clothing-soft-furnishings-fabrics-upholstery-400ml.aspx

 

£16.17 for 3 tins and free P&P! Sorted

 

I got quoted £399 to have the Lifeshine applied.....i didn't have to say anything and the salesman knew from my look i wasn't interested for that price! i, personally, can not see what £400 gives you!

Clay bar does not remove imperfections, clay bar remove contaminants. A machine polisher will remove the imperfections such as light swirls or scratches.

I only suggested a detailer as i presumed by you having the dealer do it you wasn't prepared to do it yourself. Otherwise like said above do it yourself and save the £30 an hour fee

I repeat, a proper detailer never ever uses a machine to polish.

What a load of tosh!!!

When I bought my fabia and myself and the dealer reached stalemate and wouldn't budge on the last few hundred £ of bargaining, they gave me life shine as a freebie.

The guys above hit the nail on the head. It is only any good if applied properly. I had mine applied 2 weeks after picking my car up - I booked it in to make sure it was done (otherwise how do you know). It took a valeter about 4.5 hours to do. I will say they actually done a brilliant job. It definitely added an extra shine to the paintwork. The interior protection is good. You can simply wipe clean your interior as the water beads off the fabric. Ok its not waterproof, obviously, but it does help cleaning.

I know lifeshine does not have a good reputation. it is actually quite good. Yes, if you pay for it then it is overpriced. As a freebie its a win win.

Just enjoy your new car and enjoy the holdall of autoglym products you get, which is a nice kit actually. The aqua wax is brilliant

I repeat, a proper detailer never ever uses a machine to polish.

Rubbish!

I've been offered 'ceramic coat' by the dealer which apparently comes with a 5 year guarantee - anyone had it done?

I'll be trying to make sure it is thrown in the deal.

what a load of *******s

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4

Look at it differently, you're not paying for some poorly applied and not very good protection, you're paying for a guarantee. If Autoglym turn round and say we're not paying out for that damage as the product wasn't applied properly and is now useless, you can turn on your dealer for not doing a proper job in the first place. I still wouldn't buy it out of principle.

 

I repeat, a proper detailer never ever uses a machine to polish.

 

What? (*disbelief*)

No I mean, really, what?

EVERY professional detailer I know or have seen work uses a machine polisher. Every single one. Unless we're taking what you've written in the wrong context and you're referring to hand polishing as a specific step of a detail.

I repeat, a proper detailer never ever uses a machine to polish.

Absolute rubbish

Where, in the name of God, did you get this idea from??