How Much of the Car to Cover

A car still looks fine after a few years. Only when you stand in front of the bonnet and look against the light do you notice its leading edge is finely pitted. The bumper too. The headlight covers are a shade duller than the rest of the car. None of it shows at a normal glance, but you know it's there and that it will only add up. That's usually when people start thinking about paint protection film.

And then they run into a question that turns out harder than expected: how much of the car to actually wrap.

The expensive decision isn't which film to pick

The lines differ in thickness and in the manufacturer's warranty length, and that's covered in our overview of the films we install. Price, though, is driven far more by coverage. Between the smallest package and the largest, the difference runs roughly eightfold. So if you spend ages weighing up the line and then take "the middle package, just to be safe," you've settled a few percent of the price and made the big decision along the way, almost without noticing.

What each coverage actually protects

Basic PPF covers the headlights and the front bonnet — whatever takes the first hit from a stone.

Front-end coverage goes further, usually up to the A-pillar, the pillar between the windscreen and the front doors. It covers the bonnet, wings, bumper and headlights.

Full coverage is film on every part of the car that can be wrapped.

Each coverage comes with a service plan. It isn't a subscription or an add-on line item — it's the schedule of checks you bring the car in for under warranty. With basic coverage it looks the same every time, because the same panels are wrapped. With full coverage we put it together based on exactly what's under the film on your car, which is why we call it an individual plan there.

Where an ordinary car wears first

The order is usually the same across cars. First the leading edge of the bonnet, the bumper and the headlights, where stone chips off the motorway land. Only after that come the scraped sills and boot edge — and that's not stones, that's shoes, bags and kerbs.

The rest of the body — roof, doors, boot lid — takes noticeably less over the same stretch of time.

What to decide by

Where the car drives. Motorways and country roads mean stone chips from the front. City driving and parking garages mean scrapes on the sides and sills instead.

How long you'll keep it. On a car you'll hand back off a lease or sell in two or three years, mostly the front end has time to show it. The closer you get to ten years, the more likely the sides and rear pick up wear too, simply because there's been time for it.

What actually bothers you today. If it's one specific spot, you don't need to weigh coverage levels at all — a single panel can be wrapped on its own, and that's partial protection.

For an ordinary family car that drives the motorway and parks in a garage, these three questions most often point to basic coverage. It protects the spots stones actually reach, at a fraction of what full coverage costs.

What else comes up along the way

Film seals the paint in whatever condition it's in when it goes on. Whatever's there today stays there underneath. If the car needs paint correction, you don't have to spot that yourself or book it in advance — we'll look the paint over when you bring the car in, and paint diagnostics will tell us whether there's anything to level out. Only then do you know whether this is going to be part of your job at all.

Prices for each coverage are on the PPF film page. Not sure which one is yours? Tell us how the car is driven and how long you plan to keep it. You can also call +420 739 374 074.

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