Is the guarantee on a ceramic coating transferable?
Quick answer: Because we stand behind our prep and application, not marketing claims. Manufacturer warranties can be inconsistent, tied to paperwork and product registration, and brands change. Our own warranty is simple, recorded against your registration, transferable, and any issues are handled directly by us.
This will depend on the specific manufacturer's warranty. This is one of the reasons why we offer our own warranty on a ceramic coating, which is transferable. You don't need to inform us or fill out any forms, just keep the paperwork with the car.
Even if you lose the paperwork, don't worry -- we have all the details of the car logged on our system. All we need is the car's registration number.
What "transferable" actually means in practice
A transferable warranty is one that moves with the car, not the person who originally paid for it. So if you sell your car twelve months after having a ceramic coating applied, the new owner inherits whatever is left of the warranty period. They can bring the car to us, quote the registration, and we'll check the record. No admin fee, no re-registration form, no requirement for the original invoice to be physically present.
This matters more than it sounds. A coating that is in good condition genuinely adds a small but real element of value at point of sale. Buyers researching a used car will sometimes ask whether any paint protection has been applied. Being able to say "yes, applied by a workshop, warranty still runs until [date]" is a cleaner answer than "the dealer said something about a coating when I bought it new." The paperwork -- or failing that, the entry on our system -- backs the claim up.
The transfer is passive. There is no handshake required between us and the new keeper. When a new owner contacts us we simply update the name on the record. The warranty terms themselves don't reset; the end date stays as it was set on the day of application.
Why manufacturer warranties are often harder to transfer
Most coating brands offer some form of warranty to the end consumer, but the conditions attached to it vary considerably from brand to brand, and the process for transfer is rarely simple. Some require the original owner to notify the manufacturer within a set window of the sale. Some require the new keeper to re-register the product. A handful tie the warranty to the original invoice holder permanently, meaning it cannot transfer at all.
There is also the question of brand continuity. Ceramic coating suppliers change, merge, and occasionally stop trading. A warranty issued in the name of a brand that no longer exists in the same form is difficult to enforce. The registration portal may be offline. The customer service team may have changed hands. If you're a buyer looking at a used car with a "lifetime ceramic coating warranty" from a brand you've never heard of, there's often no straightforward way to check what you're actually inheriting.
None of this is specific to any one brand; it's a structural reality of how product warranties work in a fragmented market. Our view is that the most reliable warranty is one issued and serviced by the workshop that applied the coating -- because we're accountable for the prep work and the application in a way that a remote manufacturer simply isn't.
What our warranty covers -- and what it doesn't
Our warranty covers defects in the coating itself: adhesion failure, delamination, or significant loss of hydrophobic performance within the warranty period, where that failure is attributable to the application or the prep work. If the coating was applied correctly and something goes wrong with it, we deal with it.
What it doesn't cover is damage caused after application. A ceramic coating is hard and chemically resistant, but it isn't impervious. Stone chips still chip. Scratches from a badly aimed key still scratch. Chemical etching from bird droppings or tree sap left to dwell for days will still etch. These aren't warranty situations; they're wear and maintenance situations. A coating protects against a defined set of things -- it doesn't turn the paintwork into armour plate.
We also distinguish between the coating failing and the coating degrading faster than expected due to neglect. A coating that has been washed with abrasive brushes at a drive-through, or treated with wax-based products that have contaminated the surface, won't behave the way it should. That's not a manufacturing defect and it's not covered. The care instructions we provide at handover exist for exactly this reason -- the coating needs a certain standard of maintenance to perform across its intended service life.
The registration number as the single source of truth
We log every coating job against the vehicle registration number at the time of application. The record includes the date, the product applied, the prep stages completed, and the warranty end date. This means the history stays with the car regardless of how many times it changes hands, and regardless of whether any paperwork survives.
Tom, our operations manager, had a case recently where a customer brought in a car they'd bought privately and wanted to know whether the coating they'd been told about was genuine and still active. We ran the registration, found a job from two years earlier applied by us, and were able to confirm the product, the condition it was in based on a quick visual check, and how much of the warranty period remained. The new owner left knowing exactly what they had. That's the kind of conversation that's only possible when the record exists and is accessible.
It also gives us a quality audit trail. If someone contacts us about a problem with a coating we applied, we can pull the original job record, check which product was used, check who carried out the prep, and make an informed judgement about whether what they're describing is consistent with a genuine defect or with something that happened after the car left us.
If you're selling a car with a coating
The simplest thing to do is hand over the original certificate with the car. If you've lost it, let us know before the sale and we'll reprint one. Include it in the service history folder alongside the main service record; buyers who care about paintwork condition will notice it and appreciate it.
It's worth being accurate about what you tell a buyer, though. A ceramic coating is not a permanent, maintenance-free shield. It will have aged over the years you've owned the car; the hydrophobic performance will have softened somewhat compared to the day it left us. That's normal. A good coating at three years old still offers meaningful protection and is far better than bare paint, but a buyer expecting it to perform like a fresh application will be disappointed if that's how it was described. Set accurate expectations and the warranty becomes a genuine positive rather than a potential dispute waiting to happen.
If the car has been maintained well -- regular maintenance washes, no abrasive products, no automatic car washes with brushes -- the coating will still be in good shape and that will be visible during any inspection. We're happy to carry out a condition check before a sale if you want a written assessment to go with the car.
If you're buying a car with a coating
Ask for the application certificate or, at minimum, the name of the workshop that applied it. A named, traceable workshop is a meaningful reassurance; an unnamed "dealer-applied ceramic" with a glossy brochure is usually a quick spray-on sealant that will be gone within six months. These are genuinely different products applied by genuinely different processes, and it's worth understanding which you're looking at.
If the coating was applied by us, contact us with the registration number and we'll confirm everything. If it was applied elsewhere, the transferability will depend on that workshop's own terms. Some workshops operate the same policy we do; others don't keep records in the same way. The paperwork matters more when the applying business is not the one you're talking to.
A coating that is still active and has been properly maintained can also be a useful negotiating point -- it's one less thing that needs spending money on in the near term. How long a coating lasts depends on the product applied and how it's been cared for, so knowing both of those things helps you assess what's actually left in it.