I am shopping for a new car, and every dealer I visit adds “paint sealant” at a cost of about $700. Is this just a way for the dealer to add profit for itself, or is it something worth paying for?
Let Me Ask You, Do You Pay Around $450 For A Haircut ?
CSA
Your hunch was correct. Their motivation is solely for added dealer profit. No long term benefit to you or the paint.
A complete waste of your good money. You do not need any dealer options such as paint sealant or undercoating.
Refuse it, worth $30, maybe. If it’s on already, offer them $30 for it.
You can buy a bottle of top notch wax for $20 that’s do ten cars. Next time just ask them what’s wrong with the factory paint that it needs sealing? Is that paint that bad and did they scrimp in other places on the car? Undercoat also can cause more rust problems than it solves by trapping the salt and water. Interior Scotchgard can be done with a couple cans yourself for $20. The chip prevention film is not so bad but you’ll still always see the seam on the front end so I never do it. Of course winter mats are important. I used to sell so I am quite comfortable just saying no, no, no, to everything when they want to get you to say yes yes yes. Its tough out there and everyone is trying to make a buck however they can.
It’s nothing more than really good wax. Decline it and wax the vehicle yourself, with really good wax.
It’s a profit enhancer only. Quite a few years back I had the dubious honor of applying a product like this to a few new cars. The company was running behind and asked for a few volunteer mechanics to knock out a few cars that would normally have been done by the washroom guys.
We were offered an hour a car flat rate and hustle would get it done in 20 minutes…
This product was around 5 or 6 bucks a bottle and it was nothing but a very thin wax that went on easily and the quick flash was removed equally easy. No doubt one good thunderstorm or trip through the car wash removed it all right on the spot…
The dealer at the time, and keeping in mind this was 20ish years ago, charged the new owners 250 dollars a car for this. Same worthless product and sales pitch; the only change is the price.
Just for grins, you should put the salesman on the spot by asking why in the world you would ever consider buying a car that comes from the factory with inferior paint to begin with… 
Good retort @ok.
One deal enhancer I heard years ago by a good friend was to tentatively agree on a price, let the dealer prep all the paperwork which is time and money commitment to him, then, just before signing, continue to negotiate AFTER the dealer had done all that preping. Including add on items is a lot easier to do at that time. I used to think it was unethical until my friend reminded me how " unethical " was the price on the window that was suddenly inflated by hundreds of dollars before you even opened your mouth to negotiate or worse added o you at signing. But, my friend was an English major and felt at ease letting the salesman read more into his comments then what he actually said.
I agree with the others
In addition, here’s other things I recommend you to absolutely refuse from any dealer
under body coating (pure BS, pure profit)
mudflaps (believe me, the dealer is installing $50 mudflaps and adding 100s to the price
Lojack (you can have this added on yourself at a later time for less money)
Aftermarket alarm system (the factory alarm system is usually sufficient)
extended warranty (numerous studies have shown you’re actually losing money on this, UNLESS you need to have an engine or transmission replaced, and even then, it may not be worth it)
paid maintenance (ESPECIALLY if you drive few miles)
Fat rims and tires (the dealer will way overcharge you for these things, and you may not even want them anyways)
Aftermarket chrome exhaust tips (you’re being overcharged, and you can have these put on at any decent muffler shop for a reasonable price, if you really want them)
Some of you guys may laugh at my list of stuff, but there are plenty of unscrupulous dealers who equip all of their cars with such things, and thereby increase their profit margins immensely.
And in general, refuse EVERYTHING they offer/try to force on you at closing. It is guaranteed to be 100% - 1,000% overpriced.
@db4690, I’m would never laugh at your list of tack ons.
Back in the 80s the same dealer I mentioned used to run a thin strip of pinstripe tape along the fender and upper door lines and add on 250 for that.
The worst thing I can think of was the add-on whitewalls. Back then they were popular on some models and as an option they were priced extra.
This dealer had some guy come around and he would add whitewalls out in the parking lot. He had a small machine that would spin the tire as each one was raised off the ground and it would notch a shallow groove in the sidewall. A stick on white tape much like a tire patch was then used to fill in the groove and buyers thought they were getting real deal white sidewalls.
The dealer was charged a whopping 20 bucks per car to do this and the whitewalls were a hundred or so extra.
The thought of shaving rubber out of the sidewall never appealed to me and thankfully none of us in the service department had our names attached to a debacle like this. We did hear of a few complaints now and then of a several years old tire losing all or part of its white sidewall at a car wash… 
“there are plenty of unscrupulous dealers who equip all of their cars with such things, and thereby increase their profit margins immensely.”
+1
Some years back, when I was shopping for cars, I discovered that there are some dealerships where EVERY new car had an additional window sticker detailing the extra, overpriced, poor-quality items that the dealership had added to these cars. This junk included paint sealant, fabric protectant, wheel rim moldings, mud flaps, and pimp roofs (aftermarket gaudy vinyl roofs).
So, I learned to ask the following question when entering one of these showrooms:
Are your cars available without a “dealer pack”?
If the answer was, “no”, I pivoted on my heel, and exited immediately.
If I was told that it was possible to buy a car without these ridiculous “enhancements”, I would stick around at least long enough to try to negotiate a price. However, what I found was that the dealerships that put a “dealer pack” on cars (unless asked not to do so) were the worst when it came to reaching a realistic sale price on their cars.
When I would politely inform the salesmen at these places that their competitor(s) had given me firm prices ranging from $700 to $1200 less than the quoted price at the “dealer pack” dealership, I would get additional BS, including lines like, “Those prices are below dealer cost, and they couldn’t possibly sell you a car for that price”. Unfortunately for these shiny-suited thieves, I have bought cars for those so-called impossible prices on more than one occasion. But, I’m sure that they do get gullible folks to fall for their BS one way or another. Either they sell them overpriced aftermarket equipment that looks like s**t 2 years later, or they charge higher than normal prices for unadorned cars.
So, the reality that I discovered is that these dealerships were going to extract an extra pound of flesh from their customers in one way or another. If a customer didn’t want a “dealer pack”, then the cost of an unadorned car would inevitably be several hundred dollars more than the prices at dealerships that didn’t push “dealer packs”.
My advice is to avoid dealerships where you see those extra price stickers on car windows.
Dealer applied “paint sealant” does only one thing; it moves money from your account to the dealers. I’ll wax your car for only $500 if you’d like. Or you could do it yourself for under $20…for the GOOD wax!
I have a reputation for keeping my cars looking shiny and new year after year. When my cars get older, I’m often asked how. My response is that “I’ve discovered a coating that you can apply to the paint that prevents it from drying out and keeps it looking new.” People’s eyes light up and they say “Really? What is it”. My response is “car wax”. The reality is alway a surprise to them. But it works. The trick is to develop a regular routine, say perhaps three times a year. It needs to be waxed BEFORE water stops beading up on it, not after. Once water stops beading, the damage has already begun.
You have to see the movie Fargo.
Then you’ll know that the “TrueCoat” is applied at the factory!