readthebook

Boy, did life get in the way of dealing with this...

Anyway... @no ma'am yes, all windows.

@Tintguy1980 I'm so sorry I didn't leave a pic, there's one there now.

That's just off my phone so I don't think sunglasses are the issue here.

The only thing I see with polarized sunglasses that I don't see without them is some vertical striping, about 1.5-2" apart, which I can only assume is from the product being rolled.

16 hours ago, no ma'am said:

Do you sit closer to the glass in this vehicle vs previous cars? 911 instead of an f-350 or something.

No. We have actually owned 6 different VWs in the last decade in our household, Golfs/GTIs/GolfR/R32. 
 

Golf R that just got this tint is the only one to experience this issue IMO. 

Have had many vehicles tinted and have used various films from Suntek, 3M, Solargard and Xpel over the years. This is the first time having Llumar IRX or any Llumar branded film. 
 

Only 48 hours in but I never recall seeing the amount of haze I’m seeing with this stuff. Also noticing very intense uniform vertical bands when looking through the window with my sunglasses, like the roll of film was creased? I don’t know. The whole thing seems a little off. 

Looking for any advice and experiences with this film. 

Thanks

10 hours ago, DynamicATL said:

If you have been happy with Suntek and feel comfortable with the installer, go that route. CXP (Carbon XP) is the same film as Carbon just with more heat rejection. If you want more heat rejection than CXP, they also have a Ceramic called CIR. 3M Crystalline and Huper Ceramic are probably the best deals since those prices are low for CA...shops I know in CA are closer to the $1000 range for those films. The absolute worst deal is F1 Pinnacle being that is higher than 3M/Huper and is nowhere near as much heat rejection. They do have a Stratos line which is what I would expect in that price range. Suntek/Llumar/F1 is a traditional charcoal appearance, Crystalline will have a brownish hue, Huper Ceramic will have a slight reflective appearance.

Thanks so much for your response/pics. The F1 sounded way high to me too. Wished I could find someone more reasonable with that film around here because that's kind of what I thought I might go with.

Both the Crystalline and Huper are offered by the same shop and I have no reason not to trust them. A car nut co-worker has had a number of cars tinted there since the 90's and the work is great. They've been in business since the 80s. He has also used the guy I have used before a few times and was happy with him too. Choosing between the films from them, I'd go with the Crystalline.

I am familiar with the CIR from SunTek as I considered it previously, but reviews said it had quite a blue hue from inside the vehicle, which I'm not all that crazy about. I think my installer was at around $450-500 out the door for that iirc.

Now, the real question is, is the 3m Crystalline really worth just over 2x the price of the SunTek CXP I've been happy with? Are the benefits really 2x worth it?

Nothing good to say about the SolarGard option? Thanks again.

We picked up a 2019 AllTrack. Great Falls Green with VW's black "v-tex" leatherette.

Car will not be garaged almost ever. For all films listed below I'm leaning toward 35-40% range and have listed TSER accordingly.

Heat reduction is important with the black leatherette interior, but so is clarity and not having weird coloration.

I am not planning to do the windshield at this time.

I can get the following films for around $325-400 out the door here in the Bay Area:

Llumar ATR: TSER 41-44

SolarGard Ultra Performance: TSER 40-53

SolarGard Charcoal: TSER 50-53

SunTek CXP: TSER 50-53 

Now, I've seen SunTek trashed on this board, but have had it on 3 cars (also VWs) for 9 combined years with only one issue. The passenger window on a car that had SunTek Carbon (not CXP) began to get a lot of wavy distortion after 4.5 years, but no issues I've seen reported here (scratching/de-lamination) on any car. I also trust the installer very very much as he has done three of my cars and 4-5 of my friends cars, all with SunTek. He's a very good guy with a very clean shop and has re-done two windows for me free of charge without first setting that expectation when our cars have been broken into twice in the last 7 years. He's been tinting for over 20 years, but he only does SunTek.

For $525 out the door:

SolarGard Vortex IR: TSER 53

Llumar CTX: TSER 47-48

For $675 out the door:

3m Crystalline: TSER 60 (40%)

Huper Optik: TSER 53 (40%) and TSER 60 (30%, though I'm not sure I want to go that dark)

For $700 out the door

Pinnacle F1: TSER 53-55

Pretty wide price range with similar TSER's across many of the films and some of the brands all owned by the same parent company, Eastman. Just confused as to what direction I should really go. As you can see I've been a SunTek guy for a few years but, I'm thinking it's time for a change.

Thanks!