My Prius came with Permaplate Solar Plate window tint from the dealer (35). I am thinking of getting 3M Crystalline, but I was told the 3M only comes in a 40. My tint guy said if the Permaplate is a garbage tint, he can remove it and retint with 3m (superior heat protection, plus he will do the windshield with 70 or 90). Otherwise, he can tint over the permaplate stuff with the 3m, making it overall darker, which I like. The question is this: Permaplate Solar Plate tint... any good? garbage? Does anyone know? I tried searching around on the web, but to no avail.
It's probably no different from any non-ceramic films. Get the 3M only if you want better heat rejection, but there are darker ceramic tint out there like the Formula 1 Pinnacle which goes as low as 5%.
I'm all about the heat rejection. If the solar plate stuff was a decent quality film, I would keep that on and put the 3m stuff over it.
I have Formula 1 Pinnacle ceramic tint in 35% and it has good heat rejection. I also have a WGM Prius with gray interior FWIW. Personally, I wouldn't put tint over tint, because you are paying a premium price if you go with ceramic tint, which usually comes with lifetime warranty. However, the warranty would be void if the tint under it fails for any reason.
3M crysaline is good. there are other options for the most advanced solar rejection - huper optik, solar gard's ultrashield, formula 1 pinnacle (as mentioned above). they list their visible light transmission % and heat rejection %. but i wonder how much of this psuedoscience marketing one can believe. but my tinter has me put a hand under a heat lamp that was covered with a glass cover with a good noncermanic brand. i felt heat. then he swapped it with a huper optik covered lens cover that was visibly lighter, less opaque than the noncermanic lens. it was night and day. Or maybe it was a good magic trick.
Yeah, my tinter did the heat lamp thing also. Very persuasive... and close to the actual freakish heat that exists in Vegas.
