Does my new car need paint protection?

At most dealerships, when you buy a new car they are going to try to get you to purchase something called "paint protection" or perhaps they'll call it "clear coat protection" as well. They will usually ask for about $300 to $400 for this service and it's absolutely not worth it! They claim that it will be good for the lifetime of the vehicle, but this simply is not true. There is no magic coating that they can put on your paint which will protect it for that long, the best you can hope for is six months protection and even that is extremely optimistic. All you are getting for your hundreds of dollars is one single coat of some sort of polymer sealant, which you can buy yourself for $20 or so and put it on yourself. One bottle of that stuff would do about 10-15 cars or more, and only take about an hour of your time, so you can see what a huge moneymaker this is for new car dealers! But your best bet is to just buy the product yourself, apply it to your paint every 3 months, and your paint will stay nice and shiny for many years to come!