Whats your favorite car wash or wax?

I’ve been using this stuff on my past 3 cars and love it, Optimum No Rinse Wash & Shine. I spray it on , wipe it down to get the grunge up then just chamois it dry, leaves a super slick Teflon like finish and it only takes me 15 minutes.

My bottle is almost empty and am always open to trying something new, what’s your “go to” car wash?

That doesn't introduce any fine scratches? I use a regular car wash, a 3 bucket method and wax. Old fashion but works. I might try some P&S bead maker next time. I heard it's a pretty good sealant.

It does but my car isn’t garaged, I don’t really baby it cosmetically, when I was it I want it done fast.

I bounce between a few products depending on how much time I have available.

Meguiars Xpress spray wax for a wax as you dry product. Gives me a solid week or two of protection. Doesn’t stain trim or plastics. Easy and quick.

Collinite 845 for a quick handwax application. This is a conventional Industrial style wax and has great durability. Around 4-6 months generally.

When I have a lot of time I’ll layer Jescar first and then collinite over it. The polymers tend to bond well with this combination resulting in an incredible luster with tons of durability.

I’ve recently been playing with Meguiars new Ceramic Wax Hybrid spray. I’m really enjoying how easy it is to apply and how insanely durable it is. I will probably tend to use this the most going forward.

My Miata has a true ceramic coating applied to it. I am a professional detailer and own my own company. I use my Miata as a test bed for products and applied a new ceramic coating early this year 2019. I use a ceramic reboost product when I do washes but that’s it. The ceramic coating is good for 5 years. I most just don’t think about it and nothing stains for micro-abrades it. It’s amazing stuff.

I use ONR for summer washes, black vehicles, and mobile washes. It’s great stuff but it definitely has its shortcomings as well. I would never use it on a heavily soiled car or a vehicle that hasn’t been washed in some time. This is more of a maintenance wash product in my kit. The ONR with wax isn’t really enough to protect a vehicle. You’re kidding yourself if you think it is. You should be applying a dedicated sealant or wax for true protection after you finish your wash. They do add some polymers to the ONR wash in order to call it a “wash and wax” but even their own documentation states you should follow up with a true protection product every few washes outside of maintenance washing. Same with car soaps with wax in them. Honestly not good enough. A wax as you dry product is bare minimum in my book.

Torque

Zaino!

After many dollars and years of washing cars the easiest on & off I have found is...

You realize that dish soap does an effective job of removing wax coatings? It's generally not preferred, as it strips the protective coating off the clear.

I have used Zaino, it's pretty good. Sonax makes some great products as well. They are my go-to for most of the fleet.

Meanwhile, on my automotive outlier, I find Dawn plus WD-40 works great. I saw the comment above and had to chime in. .

^^WD-40! Perfect for your stainless-steel car! LOL

I like Meguire's car wash and Eagle One Wax-As-U-Dry for routine clean-ups and old school Mothers wax a couple of times per year. Although I have to admit I don't do as much washing and waxing now, after 9.5 years of ownership and 175K miles of driving. I spend more time now thinking about getting a new MKVIII GTI in a couple of years, but maybe I'll do the delete and tune thing for giggles.

AllieJetta said:

You realize that dish soap does an effective job of removing wax coatings? It's generally not preferred, as it strips the protective coating off the clear.

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That would explain the stunning streak free shine!



I have never waxed any vehicle I've owned, not once.

I just got the Top Coat F11. I have been seeing it a lot on social media. I said screw it and bought a kit. It applied really easy. The car got rained on about 3 hours after I applied it. The water beaded up really well and sheeted off the car with no issues.

crashtested said:

After many dollars and years of washing cars the easiest on & off I have found is...

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I came to the same conclusion, although I use a different brand (the one Walmart sells as antibacterial). I do, however, wax the car once a year with a car wax that was also the result of many years of trial and error - 3M hard wax, part# 39526. You can see the image of the can in the photos section under the tab "Technical Items". I tried Turtle Wax, Maguair's, Zymol and all the other crap sold at Walmart, but their protective effect was gone in 3-6 months, tops, and then water began forming continuous film on the paint. Then I bought a can of the Scotch stuff and my search for the best wax was over. Yes, it is expensive at about $20 per can, but since you will be waxing the car only once per year, it is effectively wash with the $5 a can Walmart junk, of which you will use 3-4 times as much. When the diesel gate exploded in the fall of 2015, I decided to test how long this wax would last past the 1-year mark. So, I washed the car, dried it and waxed with the 3M wax. After that, I only washed the car with the dishwashing liquid when it got really dirty. Every time I did that, the beading effect was right back. I washed the car for the last time in June of 2018, about a month before returning it back to VW, and the water was still beading on the paint after almost 3 years. None of the waxes I used in the past came anywhere near the longevity of this product. So, if you hate waxing (and, most of all, polishing) your car, this wax will make you happy.

BleachedBora said:

WD-40 works great.

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Thanks, this made my day.

cleaning products

what is the go to list for cleaning products both exterior and interior for
a VW Jetta Sportwagen.
thanks in advance Mike

Rejex Pro RX

My current favorite is the McKees extreme foam. I use it with my pressure washer foam cannon.

I was using Adams Polishes H2O for a sealant but recently started buffing, polishing, and have added Mother’s CMX ceramic on top. The soot coming out my tailpipe just hoses off. It’s awesome!!!

I used some ceramic sealant from Amazon a few weeks ago and it produced a super slick finish, my car is an outside kept car and 3 weeks later the finish is still really slick. It was just the cheapest stuff I could find at $12.99, made by surf city garage, comes off really easy without much buffing, I’m super sold on this stuff!

If Your going to clean and wax the paint then Yes You can use sunlight or any dishwashing soap. again Only if your planing on cleaning preping paint for wax any other time proper car soap is the right stuff to use.