Matrix Black Ceramic Coating Review

Gary bought this car in April 2020 and applied Matrix Black ceramic coating the same month. This video, filmed two and a half years later, is not a glossy showroom review -- it is Gary at a jet wash with a dirty car, showing you exactly what the cleaning routine actually looks like on a daily driver that is not coddled.

The cleaning routine

The car is dirty. Gary jets it off first -- as he does, you can see the hydrophobic properties working: around 80% of the dirt rinses away under the jet alone, and the water sheets off rather than sitting on the paint. He notes that heavy dust can temporarily break the water tension on the surface, so he goes around with a soft brush to lift the remaining dirt, which brings the beading back immediately. Then he dries it. Six minutes to wash, two minutes to dry. Eight minutes total, wheels included.

He also cleans it about half as often as he would without a coating -- because the surface is so slick that dirt has little to bond to, and rain will often rinse the car cleaner on its own. The less time you spend cleaning your car, as Gary would say, the more time you have for other things.

Why a daily driver is a better test than a show car

A ceramic coating on a car that lives in a garage and gets hand-washed with a two-bucket method every fortnight will look good for years -- but that tells you nothing useful. Gary's car parks outside, gets jet-washed, and is driven every day. After two and a half years it still looks the way it does in this video. That is the more honest test, and it is why we filmed it.

If you want to see the car shortly after the coating was first applied, we have another video showing it with a fresh Matrix Recharge top-up. And if the self-cleaning effect in the jet wash section catches your eye, this video shows what happens to a coated car in the rain.