4 Rules For Keeping A Matte Car Looking Good

Last Updated April 10, 2025

Keeping a matte finish car looking consistently good requires two things: protection and regular cleaning. 

It’s not because matte finishes are more prone to getting dirty. There are two main reasons why matte finishes are hard to keep looking good.

1. Matte Finishes Show Smudges, Stains & Scratches Easily: The reflections in glossy paint create enough visual noise that stains and scratches can be hidden more easily. Because matte finishes don’t reflect, it’s easier to notice smudges and scratches interrupting the paint color’s visual consistency. 
2. Matte Finishes Are Sensitive to Stain & Scratch Removal: When matte finishes do get stained or scratched, your options for fixing the issues are limited. You can’t rub a matte finish hard to remove a stain without rubbing in a gloss, so you need to use chemical means to break it down instead. You also can’t polish a matte finish without adding a gloss, so you need to make sure your paint can’t easily be scratched. 

In this article, I’ll share four must-follow rules for keeping a matte finish in beautiful condition so you can avoid damaging the paint. 

Rule 1: Protect the Finish Early

When you first acquire a matte car, immediate protection is crucial for two reasons:

1. To ensure stains don’t bond to the paint and require abrasion to remove.
2. To make the paint slick enough that scratches are harder to inflict. 

Start by washing the car thoroughly using a pH-balanced soap specifically formulated for matte surfaces. Conventional car wash shampoos may contain wax or gloss-enhancing agents that can fill in the texture that produces the matte finish.

If the car was left to sit on a dealership lot for long periods of time, you may want to consider decontaminating the paint while you wash to remove embedded environmental fallout that can make it harder for protection to bond with the paint. 

Once the paint is as clean as possible, apply a ceramic coating that’s designed to preserve a matte appearance. Some ceramic coatings fill in imperfections to produce a more brilliant gloss, so always be sure to use a ceramic coating formulated for matte finishes.

Once the ceramic coating is applied you’ll have a much easier time washing the paint or spot cleaning isolated stains. That way you won’t need to rub hard to get things off the paint.

If you want to go the extra mile, consider protecting the paint with a paint protection film (PPF) that has a matte finish. This will go beyond a ceramic coating in protection, offering a physical barrier against scratches and rock chips. 

Just make sure to apply a ceramic coating to the PPF, as they often don’t have the same hydrophobic or contaminant resistant properties as a ceramic coating. 

Rule 2: Wash Regularly

You can’t keep a daily-driven car clean without washing it regularly, and that’s equally true for matte finishes. This will also help to maintain the protection on your matte finish, ensuring the ceramic coating continues to resist contamination. If you don’t keep the protection clear of contamination, it can make it easier for gunk to stick in the future. 

Like I mentioned in the first rule, however, you want to be sure you’re using a soap that’s formulated for matte finishes. Using conventional car wash soaps made with wax or silicone can fill in the textured clear coat over time, turning the matte finish to a sickly semi-gloss. 

Rule 3: Remove Stains and Bonded Contamination ASAP

A big part of keeping a matte finish in beautiful condition is promptly removing stains and bonded contaminants like bird droppings or insect remains before they can stick to the paint. Protecting the paint with a ceramic coating will make it take longer for these types of stains to bond with the surface, but you still need to remove them quickly to ensure this doesn’t happen. 

I like to recommend keeping a matte spot remover and matte detail spray in the trunk or glove compartment at all times, along with some clean microfiber towels. That way, if you do notice a stain, you can remove it quickly on-the-go. 

Rule 4: Be Careful Where You Park

In a perfect world, you’d be able to keep your matte car in an environmentally-controlled enclosed space at all times when not in use.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world, and if your matte car is a daily driver, you will probably need to park outside on a regular basis. 

Here are some things you should avoid when selecting a parking spot:

• Trees: While they can provide some shade to keep your car from heating up inside, trees often leave behind sap, leaves, berries and other contaminants behind on your paint that can bond to the finish. 
• Sprinklers: Sprinklers typically use tap water, which is typically mineral-rich. If a sprinkler goes off and that tap water hits your matte finish, they’ll leave behind white mineral deposits after evaporating. These can be hard to remove.
• Construction Zones: One of the biggest concerns about parking near a construction site is cement overspray. If concrete gets on your paint, it will dry into an incredibly-hard-to-remove bonded stain.

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If all this seems like common sense, that’s because it is. Just about every tip here applies to glossy cars, too. The only difference is how easy it is to hide grime and scratches and how forgiving the paint will be when you need to remove them. 

Remember: matte finishes are not “sensitive” or “difficult”. They just have a textured clear coat that needs to stay textured in order to look matte. If you can maintain that texture, you’ll maintain a beautiful matte finish.