Doesn't the small print mean the guarantee is worthless?
Quick answer: No - the small print is mostly there to prevent abuse, and reputable coating brands honour genuine claims. We also give our own transferable guarantee, so if we sell you a 5-year product, we mean it.
"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away."
The bold, headline promise gives you something attractive, but the fine print quietly adds conditions, exclusions or fees that reduce or cancel that benefit. In other words, the big type sells the dream, the small type sets the limits. It’s a reminder to read the terms carefully so a “deal” doesn’t turn out to be less than it first appears. There can be a lot of small print in ceramic coating warrantees, saying you can't do this, or must do that. There's a good chance you did or failed to do something that rendered your warranty void!
However, the various coating companies guard their reputations jealously, and they very much want you to be satisfied with their products.
Over the last 30 years, we have done guarantee work for a number of major suppliers. When they received a complaint, which was almost always due to incorrect application, then their approach was just to get the car to us and ensure the customer got what they paid for.
In other words, they would honour the guarantee, with no quibbles. For the most part, they rarely even asked us what we thought had gone wrong. (Generally, we found that no sealant had ever been applied, probably because there had been a mix-up at the dealership and the wrong car had been done).
As for all the small print, that is there because there are bad people in the world. We are sure this doesn't apply to you, dear reader, but there are people who will look for, and exploit, any weakness in the guarantee. Plenty of that small print will exist through bitter experience.
Some of you may remember, many years ago, Jasper Carrot did a sketch about Australian insurance claims. I was never sure they were genuine, but having seen some real insurance claims, and excuses offered to lease companies, it would not surprise me.
And so some of the small print is there in order to deal with the person who thought washing their car by driving it into the sea and scrubbing it with a wire brush was a good idea.
We offer our own guarantee, as we have complete confidence in these products, and because we know that very few people ever bother to send off and register the manufacturer's warranty, and because we believe in transferable guarantees so that the guarantee stays with the car, not the owner. So you don't actually have to worry about the small print. If we sell you a 5-year product, we mean it.
Written by Danny Argent. Last updated 31/10/2025 14:29