black car maintenance is a part time job!!!
 

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a few things i've noticed

orange peel occurs when the car gets painted, no amount of wrap, ceramic coat or ppf is going to correct it.

the paint on these cars is terrible. id say it is the softest and least durable paint in automotive history. the wrong brand of microfiber towel will scratch it.

the black cars look amazing when ceramic coated but maintaining a ceramic coat is a job in and of itself. you must first hope that whoever coats the car cares enough to find & properly correct the blemishes in the paint. water spots are real as is water spot etching and very noticeable on a black car. something as simple as using hard water when washing is a battle. it is my experience that no matter the coat, the touchless foam cannon & power washer approach does not work for more than about 2 months.

if you are genuinely trying to preserve the paint, buy another car and let that one sit. otherwise, i think your next option is a wrap or ppf. a friend of mine had his entire black car clear PPFd, it was around $10k. the only issue - we had to strip the car down, removing all trim, bumpers, head lights, taillights, vents out of the hood etc. it was a lot of work and tbh i felt bad doing it to a new car because there were some trim casualties. the car looks candy coated in the sun and (naturally) i don't think it looks as good as my ceramic coated black car. it seems to protect the paint well. nothing will 100% preserve the paint, especially given how sensitive it is.

having the car wrapped is an option but i can't see it popping like a ceramic coated car does. is probably the cheapest of the options (long term) and would offer a fair amount of protection.

my personal view about the paint: i coated my car early, a few months after it was born. i will freshen the coating every couple years and ultimately have the car repainted. by the time i realized the lower quarter was getting sandblasted, it was too late to do anything. a quality paint job will only make the car look that much better and last that much longer.

I bought my 2017 SS used about 6 months ago. It is black. It has a good bit of rock chips on the rear panels in front of the rear wheels and on the front. Otherwise the paint is in pretty good condition.

PPF is not a bad idea and if you can do the entire car it is not a bad idea.

For keeping the paint looking great, I find that Meguair's Waterless Carwash works great. Easy to clean, won't scratch anything and the only thing that touches the clearcoat is microfiber towels.

I have been using the Meguair's for the last couple of years on both my cars and it keeps them cleaner longer, water just beads right off, it saves a lot of time, and my cars look great the majority of the time.

Beyond that, I would not agonize too much over it. If you drive the car, it will get dirty and it will get imperfections in the paint.

It's rough with black...Even the new ceramic waxes made water spots more noticeable so I ended up going back to a regular wax...Be prepared to babysit no matter which route you take...You wanted black so...

Can you recommend a microfiber towel?
I am agonizing very much over it. :D

I bought a 6-pack of these a couple of years ago: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BQYCKE8...icrofiber&th=1

They are much bigger and thicker than the microfiber towels you can buy at Walmart or Autozone (although those are not bad). Two of these large towels are enough for doing one car with the Meguair's Waterless Carwash.

In regards to microfiber towels, to get the most out of them, you should wash and dry them by themselves otherwise they will get lint stuck in them. It keeps them working effectively much longer.

That you're used car was paint abused won't translate to your new car in paint care. I've have two black cars and I didn't have a problems or lengthy or involved paint care to keep them near pristine.

The issue with most people that get their cars ceramic coated is that they do not use the refresher for that specific brand of ceramic after each and every wash. I've been keeping up with my ceramic coat for a year now by the foam cannon, blow dry and refresher. It still beads nicely. BUT, this car is garage kept, Ceramic on an outdoor car is almost pointless.