Coating only, Gtechniq Crystal Serum Ultra on a coupe or sedan, starts at $1,500. From there the number moves with the size of the car, the condition it arrives in, and whether you add wheels, glass, interior or film. Most of the spread between quotes is labour, not product.
Why nobody can price it properly over the phone
You ring three shops, describe the same car, and get three numbers that are nowhere near each other. That is not because two of them are ripping you off. It is because none of you have agreed what the job actually is.
A ceramic coating quote is not a product price. It is a labour estimate with a product on the end of it. Until someone has seen the paint under proper lighting, they are guessing at the part that costs the most.
The four things that move the number
The grade of coating. Not everything sold as ceramic is the same chemistry. A genuinely hard, long life coating like Gtechniq Crystal Serum Ultra is expensive to buy, and the difference between it and a cheap consumer product is real, not marketing. Two quotes can both say ceramic coating and mean completely different things.
Hours of preparation. This is the biggest variable and the one you cannot see on the invoice. Decontamination, then machine polishing to take out the marks that are already in the paint. A coating seals the surface exactly as it is, so those hours are not optional if you want the result to be worth having.
The size of the car. Obvious, but worth saying. A dual cab or a large SUV is a lot more panel area than a hatchback, and that is more product and more hours.
What condition it arrives in. A brand new car straight from the dealer needs less correction than one that has done three years of highway kilometres and been through a tunnel wash every fortnight. New cars are cheaper to coat, and they are also the best candidates.
Where the number usually goes up
In our experience it is rarely the coating itself that surprises people. It is the extras they had not priced in.
Wheels, glass and interior. Wheel faces, the windscreen and the cabin can all be coated, and most people who ask about a coating end up wanting at least one of them once they understand what it does.
Adding paint protection film. This is the big one. Someone rings about a coating, then wants film on the front end as well, and film is a different order of cost. It is worth it, but it is not a small add on.
None of that is upselling. It is that the coating answers one question and people usually arrive with three.
Can you quote over the phone
For a brand new car, yes. New paint is predictable enough that the model and the coverage you want is genuinely all we need, which is why our coating pricing starts at a fixed figure rather than a range.
For a car that has been on the road a while it is different, because the amount of correction it needs is the thing that moves the price and nobody can assess that down a phone line.
What a cheap quote is actually cheaper at
When one quote is half another, the saving has to come from somewhere, and there are only really two places it can come from.
A cheaper coating, sold under the same word. Or fewer hours before it goes on. Usually both.
The second one is what does the damage, because you cannot see it. The car looks superb on collection day either way, since it is clean and it is new. The difference shows up in year two, when one car still beads and cleans easily and the other behaves like it was never protected.
The most expensive version of this is paying premium money and getting neither. We regularly see cars where a dealership charged around $2,500 for the coating alone and the work underneath it was rushed. That is not a cheap quote, and it still bought very little.
What you should be getting for the money
Whatever you pay, these are the things that should be included, and it is fair to ask before you book.
A full decontamination, not just a wash. Machine polishing appropriate to the condition of the paint, with paint depth taken into account. A named coating you can look up. The coating registered with the manufacturer in your name, so the warranty actually exists. And the car with them long enough to do all of that, which is days rather than an afternoon.
If a quote does not include correction, it is not really a coating job. It is a coating being applied over whatever is already there.
Coating on its own, or as part of a package
Most new car buyers do not end up coating alone. They take a package that covers film on the impact areas, the coating over the body, ceramic tint on the glass and interior protection, because each one solves a problem the others do not.
That usually works out better value than buying the same things separately later, and it means the car is protected from the day you pick it up rather than after the first stone chip.
Our current package pricing is on the new car protection page, and the coating itself is explained on the ceramic coating page. If you want a number for your specific car, tell us the model and how it is used and we will give you one.
Is it worth what it costs
That is a different question and we have answered it separately, including the case where we tell people not to spend the money at all. The short version is that it is worth it if you are going to maintain the car, and it is not if you are not.
Read is ceramic coating worth it for the honest version, and is dealership paint protection worth it if someone has already quoted you at handover.
How much does ceramic coating cost in Brisbane?
Coating only, Gtechniq Crystal Serum Ultra on a coupe or sedan, starts at $1,500. From there it moves with the size of the car, the condition it arrives in, and whether you add wheels, glass, interior or film. Most of the spread between quotes is labour rather than product.
Why are ceramic coating quotes so different?
Because a quote is a labour estimate with a product attached, and shops are not quoting the same amount of work. A much cheaper quote usually means a cheaper coating, fewer hours of preparation, or both.
Is a cheap ceramic coating worth it?
Usually not. The car looks good on collection day regardless because it is clean and new. The difference appears in year two, when a properly prepared car still performs and a rushed one behaves as though it was never protected.
Does the size of the car change the price?
Yes. A large SUV or dual cab has far more panel area than a hatchback, so it uses more product and takes more hours to prepare and coat.
Is it cheaper to coat a brand new car?
Generally yes. New paint needs less correction than paint that has done years of kilometres, so there are fewer hours in the job. It is also the point at which the paint is in the best condition it will ever be in.
Want a number for your car?
Tell us the model, how it is used and what condition it is in. We will give you a real figure rather than a range.