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That was my frustration when promoting/selling ceramic coating. A lot of people were brainwashed into thinking a coating WILL stop rock chips, scuffs, scratches, whatever. It was because of all those videos they would see online of people throwing anything and everything but the kitchen sink at their vehicle, saying "Protected with ceramic coating!!!" My job as a business owner and professional detailer is setting the expectations about ceramic coating. I would always ask: "Why do you want to get your vehicle coated?" Once they responded, that would give me an idea if they were a strong candidate for CC, PPF, or both. Near the end of my time as a business owner, I ended up only recommending either a one year coating, or at most, a three year coating. I would be honest and straightforward with my clients, and simply tell them "Ceramic coating is basically wax on steroids. Don't expect any protection to your paint, and if the coating does help prevent minor scratches and swirls, great! That's an added bonus." But I would never let any of my clients leave my shop with a coated vehicle thinking it's some magic blanket over their vehicle. I pride myself on being honest, and when I opened my shop, my goal was to remove the anxiety and fear people would have walking into a cosmetic store, garage or dealership. We all know that feeling of "How bad am I going to get ripped off today?" when going into a dealership. I wanted to remove that feeling, and I believe I was able to accomplish that by being honest and setting the expectations. IMHO, an annual decontamination, single stage correction, sealant and wax would yield better results and save money than a five year coating with an "annual inspection", which basically is a wipe down with a si02 based product.

It really depends on how much you value the appearance of your vehicle. Let's use XPEL Ultimate Plus for example, from factory, it already has a hydrophobic top coat to add some beading effect when water hits it. If you know basic detailing skills, or have a "can do" attitude, I would recommend you buying a high end retail ceramic coating, and then applying it yourself. I would personally recommend Gyeon, as their products are very user friendly, and forgiving in case of any mistakes (high spots for example). What I've done on my personal vehicle is the following: - installed PPF on the entire front end and rockers right after possession (XPEL Ultimate Plus) - did a light single stage correction - applied a one year coating (in this case, Gyeon Pure) - every time I hand wash my vehicle, I spray a product called "Gyeon WetCoat", this is basically watered down ceramic coating, and you apply it to a clean, BUT, wet surface, then you rinse off and dry - then once a month, or whenever I'm bored, I'll manually wipe down my vehicle with Gyeon Cure, which is like WetCoat, but a bit more concentrated, and takes a bit more time as you are applying by hand with a clean MF towel Following this method, it has given me the results of a five year coating but at a fraction of the cost. As long as you maintain your coating with any product that contains SI02 (the main ingredient in ceramic coatings), you'll never need to re-apply your coating. YMMV, but this method and combination has worked well for my personal and families vehicles.

So to your point, I owned my own professional detailing studio for about eight years, and then sold it to an interested buyer, and now am a PPF installer/area manager for a large auto group. When I had my retail shop, we used only XPEL for our PPF and tint needs. Lucky, I sold the business before the "all in or nothing" business model came about. I can't speak for the USA, but in Canada, there wasn't MAP pricing... yet. I would say there was an un-written rule between cities and larger shops to try and stay within a range. Now if XPEL found out one of their buyers was undercutting the market at a stupid amount, their rep would go pay them a visit. I've heard of two situations where an install shop was charging almost 30% less then the market, and XPEL did cut them off. I like XPEL, but I would say the last couple years, they've become too corporate for my liking. When they told me I couldn't install anything BUT their brand of ceramic coating, or else they wouldn't honor my warranties, I knew it was the end of my relationship with them. At the end of the day, I would say PPF brands don't really affect the end consumer, it's more-so for the installer. I noticed a huge difference between 3M, XPEL, Suntek and STEK when it came to installing. But as long as you stick to their top tier sub-brand of films (3M Pro series, XPEL Ultimate Plus, Suntek Ultra C), you as the consumer won't really notice a difference. It always boils down to the installer. Hopefully that answered some of your questions, my apologies for my essay lol.