How Long Does Ceramic Coating Last in Illinois?

The honest range: professional coatings last 2–7+ years, and where your car lives inside that range depends mostly on exposure and washing habits. Illinois sets the difficulty level.

Winter is what Oak Park does to cars. Months of salt and liquid brine spray coat the lower third of every vehicle, plow trucks throw gravel at windshield height, and freeze-thaw cycles pry at every chip in the paint until it blooms into rust. Illinois summers then swing hot enough to bake all of it in — a genuinely punishing cycle for unprotected vehicles.

What shortens coating life here

• Heavy winter road salt and brine
• Gravel and cinders thrown by plows
• Freeze-thaw cycles that stress every surface
• Hard summer sun people underestimate
• Automatic tunnel washes with abrasive brushes (the #1 coating killer everywhere)
• Harsh alkaline soaps and hard-water spotting left to bake in

What extends it

Garage or shaded parking, two-bucket hand washes with pH-neutral soap, drying with clean microfiber, and an annual professional inspection. That inspection matters more than people think: the shop decontaminates the surface, measures the coating's condition, and tops up thin areas — it's how lifetime-tier warranties like ULTRASHIELD STORM's stay honest (and CARFAX-registered) instead of being marketing numbers.