How did Simoniz get its start and what helped drive your success?

Our Simoniz® brand celebrated its 100 year anniversary in 2011, so for over 100 years we have been making appearance care products for the auto industry. We are involved nationally and internationally in the Car Wash industry, Reconditioning and Detail Market, Janitorial, Infomercial, and Big Box Retail. So it was a natural progression and a great fit for us to offer a program for the F&I industry under the Simoniz® brand.

Tell us about the products that you offer and how they work.

We offer two programs. Our GlassCoat® program is our Appearance Care program. GlassCoat® provides warranty coverage to the paint and interior of automobiles against items not covered by the new vehicle manufacturer warranty. It covers the paint from environmental fallout such as acid rain, tree sap, bird waste, decaying insects, and road de-icing materials. The interior is covered against staining from any consumable food product, bodily fluids, crayons, ink, food dyes, and dye transfer from jeans. We even include rental coverage for up to 10 days at $50 dollars a day.

Our second program is called MaxGuard®. MaxGuard® is a Resale Appearance Program® that provides physical damage coverage to a vehicle’s exterior and interior. We cover the exterior from dings, dents, and creases to the sheet metal. And interior coverage of rips, tears, burns, scratches and punctures to the interior cabins seats, carpet, steering wheel, armrests, door panels, center consoles, headliner, and cargo areas. This program is properly filed across the U.S. keeping our distribution partners compliant and safe. Our MaxGuard® program is administered in conjunction with Dent Wizard® who we are proud to call our partner.

How does your product offering differ from other appearance protection providers?

Our chemistry greatly differs from other appearance protection providers. Of all of the things we try to do well, a very important one is the actual chemistry applied to the customer’s vehicle. Our paint protection product is not a wax, polish, or sealant, it is an actual permanent coating. Just the way clearcoat permanently protects the paint, we permanently protect the clear coat. In chemical terms GlassCoat is a Polysilazane. In more generic terms it is a ceramic resin that when applied and exposed to oxygen and hydrogen, forms glass on the clearcoat, thus the name GlassCoat®. Glass is a natural defense against acidic items that can attack paint, such as acid rain, tree sap, bird waste, decaying insects etc. As a plus, our interior fabric product is made exclusively for us by DuPont and is Teflon based. Offering our distribution partners another great brand.

Our MaxGuard® program is our twist to your typical PDR program. By adding interior coverage to our PDR program it creates more features and benefits which means a lot more coverage for the F&I manager to offer the customer.

Who are your target markets, how do you deliver your products to them and what message would you like to give them?

We deliver our programs through the best F&I companies and General Agents in the country. As for a message? For our current partners thank you for your hard work and focus on our programs. To the others who are not our partner yet, give us a look!

Looking back over the past five years, how has the appearance protection industry changed and how do you see it changing in the future?

The industry has changed a lot, and for the better. There are some great companies out there that we compete against…we keep them on their toes and they keep us on ours. The end results are programs that are far better managed than those of the past. Products like ours really are the future of F&I. The ancillary product marketplace is filling in the void of products that are going away…and keeping F&I menus filled with great choices for the consumer.

What technology or services do you believe will drive your future success?

We work every day to satisfy five critical areas.

1. Offer the best branding in the marketplace.

2. Offer the most secure insurance backing.

3. Offer the best chemical technology.

4. Provide the best warranty coverage.

5. Develop and implement continuous, focused, real world training.

These five things as in our past will drive our future success.