What It's Like Caring For Our Kia EV9's Matte Paint

When we bought our long-term Kia EV9, a trendy matte-finish paint job was not high on our must-have options list (actually, I don’t think it was on our list at all). However, the EV9 we ended up purchasing was finished in Ocean Blue Matte, a striking extra-cost, low-gloss color, and we quickly realized that maintaining the unconventional paint would be yet another facet of the EV9 ownership experience that we could test. We’ve never owned a long-term vehicle with matte-finish paint before, and we were curious to see what it might entail. What kind of cleaning and special care does a matte paint job require? How will the finish hold up over time? Does the paint’s “cool factor” outweigh any hassles it brings? We’re now seven months into our EV9 ownership, and we have some answers.

Silky, Satiny Smooth

Matte paint jobs have long been fashionable in the world of hot rods, custom cars and other modified machines, and several luxury automakers have picked up on the trend over the last 15 years or so. Alfa Romeo, Audi, BMW, Genesis, Jaguar, Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz all offer matte finishes, though some of them are extremely pricey, and some are offered only through special-order programs. Kia and its parent-company Hyundai are the only mainstream brands that currently offer matte-finish colors as a regular-production option on select vehicles. Ocean Blue Matte is one of two low-gloss colors available on the EV9 for $995 extra (the other is Ivory Silver Matte).

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None of these factory matte paints are as sheen-free as, say, a chalkboard. Most have a satinlike finish that reflects light in a softer, more diffused way than traditional gloss paint, and most are not solid colors; they have subtle metallic or pearl pigments that create a distinctive soft-glow effect in various light conditions. The look is certainly not for everyone, but these finishes highlight crisp lines and sculpted shapes on a vehicle’s bodywork in a way that the harsher reflections of a gloss finish can’t. The effect is especially striking on the EV9, with its distinctive body proportions and avant-garde exterior styling details.

Just What the Dr. (Beasley) Ordered

Properly cleaning and protecting matte-finish paint typically takes more work than keeping up a regular gloss finish. Matte paint can’t be rubbed or waxed, as this will wear away the low-gloss finish and create shiny spots. Likewise, automatic car washes with brushes, and even high-pressure washing hoses, may cause damage. Instead, Kia and Hyundai recommend a special matte-finish care system made by Dr. Beasley’s, a company that produces a variety of high-end car-care products. We ended up ordering the complete Dr. Beasley’s Matte Paint Prescription kit directly from the company, which cost us $238.10 (including tax and free shipping). It might be worth asking your Kia or Hyundai dealer if they’ll throw in this care kit gratis when you purchase a matte-finish vehicle.

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The complete kit comes with two microfiber towels, two lambswool-like wash mitts, two foam applicator pads and a five-gallon bucket with a “grit-guard” grate insert (to keep the mitt from picking up the gunk that sinks to the bottom of the bucket as you wash). The core set consists of four bottles: 12 ounces each of Matte Body Wash, Matte Paint Cleanser and Matte Final Finish, as well as 4 ounces of Matte Paint Coating.

Touching Things Up

I recently washed our EV9 using the full Dr. Beasley’s kit. Since we had let the vehicle go for a while without a thorough wash, I had to get rid of some bird droppings and bug guts before the overall wash job. The Matte Paint Cleanser and Matte Final Finish come in spray bottles and are intended for this kind of spot cleaning. The cleanser is for tough-to-remove detritus like tar, sap and insect remains, while the Final Finish is for quick touch-ups on dust, fingerprints and the like.

Both products are intended to be sprayed on and wiped off with a microfiber towel, though the cleanser needs to dwell on the surface for a minute or two so it can break down the contaminants before being wiped off. Both sprays worked OK for me, though I did have to circle back and use the cleanser on a couple spots of dried-on bird doo that the Final Finish spray didn’t remove. The instruction manual cautions against scrubbing or using unnecessary pressure when using the cleanser; I let it sit a while to do its thing, but some insect remains on the EV9’s nose required a second application since the liquid cleanser is prone to trickle down vertical surfaces instead of staying solely on the spot that needs cleaning.

The Full Wash

With the individual problem areas taken care of, I moved on to washing the whole vehicle with the Matte Body Wash. It’s a shampoolike gel that you add to the empty wash bucket and dilute — with two capfuls of soap per gallon of water. I filled the bucket close to full with at least 4 gallons of water and used pretty much all of the soapy solution on the EV9; you might be able to get by with less when washing a smaller vehicle.

After rinsing the EV9 with a sprayer on my garden hose, I used the included wash mitt and began washing the vehicle from top to bottom, returning the mitt to the bucket frequently to rinse off the dirt it was picking up. Once I was finished, I used my garden-hose sprayer to rinse the soap off the vehicle, but I didn’t dry the vehicle. The next step was applying the Matte Paint Coating, which the manual says should only be applied to a wet surface.

The Matte Paint Coating is a highly concentrated product. Its bottle has a twist-top cap like a school-glue bottle’s, and the foam applicator pad used to apply the liquid is just over 4 inches in diameter. A little goes a long way; the instructions say to work one panel of the vehicle at a time, applying 8-10 drops on a clean applicator pad to start and 4-5 drops for each panel after that, then immediately wipe down the panel with a microfiber towel. The product seems to “self-dilute” as it’s applied, picking up the water droplets left on the vehicle from the washing process.

I was worried that applying the coating would be a slow, tedious process, but it went a little quicker than I expected. Unlike the old-school car waxes I remember using back in the day, there is no laborious rubbing involved. The dampened applicator pad glides across the paint pretty easily, as does the microfiber towel as it picks up the remaining droplets. Start to finish, the process of washing the vehicle and applying the coating took me about an hour and a half. I could probably shave several minutes off that time now that I am familiar with the process — especially if I stayed on top of things between washes by regularly using the cleanser and Final Finish sprays to remove bugs and bird droppings shortly after they are “acquired.”

Is It Worth It?

Even with a helper or two to speed things up, 45 minutes to an hour is a big chunk of time for a typical busy family, and the Dr. Beasley’s set is specialized enough that I’m not too confident my preteen sons would use it carefully and correctly — at least not without supervision. And, the instruction manual recommends hand-washing on a regular basis — at least twice per month — and reapplying the coating every six to nine months or as-needed. I’m a big fan of matte finishes in general, and I’d be on board with that care regimen for a special-interest collector vehicle, but for a family truckster? Ugh. If I’m being honest, I’d much rather swing by the automated car wash on the way home from soccer practice and be done with it.

Also, a matte finish naturally isn’t as slick or smooth as gloss paint; simply running your fingertips across a clean hood or roof makes it clear that matte paint has more “surface tension” than a gloss finish. That means bird doo, bug guts and everyday dust seem to stick a little more tenaciously to matte paint and are at least a little harder to remove.

That said, the Ocean Blue Matte paint still looks great (when it’s clean) and is a frequent conversation starter — it’s received thumbs-up and compliments at drive-thrus and such on several occasions. We’ll see how it holds up to more washes and regular use, as well as the rigors of a Chicagoland winter, in the months ahead.

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