My Favorite Car Detailing Products

We’ve just survived Christmas, New Year’s is next week – holy cow, 2025 – and we did our financial end-of-year ideas in our prior post, so let’s do something fun for our final post of 2024.

Before we dig in. Thank you to those who have read and commented and thank you to my friends and golf buddies who have been unwitting subjects.

I have no idea how many people read my posts. Metrics are sketchy and it is tough to tell what is a bot crawling my site (sounds sketchy and gross, doesn’t it?) and what numbers are real readers. Given that, I would appreciate a note or comment to let me know your thoughts, or to just say hi.

Cars

As you can tell from many of my posts, I am a car guy. I’m one of the rare few who actually do recreational car shopping. Sometimes I’ll stop in to see what’s on the lot and maybe take a test drive. This also hones my deflecting skills for my next car purchase experience.

Here was one of my favorites. It’s a 2001 Honda S2000. 6 Speed manual with red leather interior. It redlined at 9,000 RPM. I owned this from around 2003 – 2007. I miss it.

I like a nicely detailed vehicle. I’m often asked what products I use and why my car looks so clean, so I thought I’d put some of what I’ve learned in a post. Please add comments and suggestions. I’m always looking for new things to try.

Ceramic

Ceramic has created quite a buzz in the car detailing world. Kinda like AI has taken over everything in the rest of our lives. I have had 2 experiences with ceramic.

Dealer/Professional Ceramic

In 2014, my wife bought a lightly used 2013 BMW 328i convertible. It’s a very cool car. The coolest part is that it stayed clean for years. It was amazing. I could hose it off rather than wash it. And if you’ve ever owned a German car, you know what a pain brake dust can be. You constantly need to wash the wheels. This car never gathered brake dust!

It’s now been 10 years since we purchased the car and it still holds its shine and repels dirt and water. I was planning to wax it in the fall, but after a quick wash, it looked freshly waxed. I don’t know who did the ceramic on this, but it is amazing.

Do-It-Yourself Ceramic

All the kids were doing it, so I tried do-it-yourself ceramic in 2020 (ish). After some research, I chose Avalon King ceramic coating. It cost about $50 for a bottle and I got $25 back from a Youtube promotion. Professional ceramic was over $1,000 so sign me up for do-it-yourself.

Unlike in college, I did all the required pre-work. I washed the car, used iron remover, cleaned with rubbing alcohol…it was quite a production. I then worked small sections at a time, applying the ceramic, letting it dry and buffing it off. It took about 3 hours.

Then into the garage for a week to cure. No driving.

It looked great afterwards. However, I’m not likely to do ceramic again. It took a lot of time, I hated leaving it in the garage all week, and in the end, I don’t think it is noticeably better than some of the other great products we’ll talk about.

My Big AHA Moment

With my current car, a 2021 BMW 528, I have struggled with water spots. I clean it, it looks great for an hour, and then the spots start to appear. I tried different washes and spray coatings, and even tried a hard-water spot remover but it seemed like hours after a wash, they were back.

2 things solved the problem for me. I haven’t washed my car in over a month and it still looks great, even after a couple of snow days.

Wax

Good old fashioned wax. I spent a couple of hours researching and then chose an interesting wax. I tried Chemical Guys Butter Wet Wax because I like chemical Guys, it had good reviews and it smells like banana. OK, mostly the banana smell.

I also watched their video where they glom the stuff on. Maybe they do this to sell us more wax, but the results were amazing.

Cordless Polisher

For the past 61 years, It has seemed to me that I am perfectly capable of wiping off wax. It turns out I am not. Whether it is real wax or spray wax, the cordless polisher does a far better job than I. Worx makes some really cool and creative tools. Here’s the polisher.

Assessment

First some background. My 528i was a BMW loaner vehicle. It was in great shape and looked nice and shiny when I bought it. But it wasn’t long before I noticed the constant spotting. My guess is that every time the vehicle was returned, it was washed but never waxed. Once I waxed it, I have not seen a spot. Wish I had figured that out a year ago.

A good coat of protectant is a must. Whether it is ceramic or a real wax, something needs to go on to keep the contaminants out. And if you are like me and lean towards laziness, a good cordless polisher will make a world of difference.

A Note About Products

No one pays me. Very few people out there other than my few readers know I exist.

I have had good experience with Worx tools, and car products from Chemical Guys, Car Guys, Griot’s Garage, and Maguire’s. I’m sure there are other great brands out there, but I’ve had good experience with these, they’re reasonably priced (the ones I’ve used – and yes I compare before buying) and they have videos on their website or youtube that are incredibly helpful.

A Note on Car Color

For years, I only drove black cars. I love a freshly washed and waxed black car. Nothing looks better to me. Here’s my 2007 BMW 335i.

As most of us know, dark colors, especially black, don’t hide dirt well, so we wash them frequently. My wife favors silver. Silver hides dirt.

Regardless of the color, I tend to use the same products, but the results are much more dramatic on a darker car.

Back to Our Show

Car Wash

I have read quite a bit and tested a few and I can confidently say that it doesn’t much matter. But, there are a couple of golden rules.

Never ever ever ever use dish soap or kitchen floor soap. Dish soap is too strong – how do you think it gets all that crap off the plates after you’ve left them on the counter over-nite? Huh?

Floor soap is also too strong and it is meant to remove wax. We don’t want to do that.

Spend a few bucks and get some soap made for vehicles. I’ve tried soaps from Chemical Guys, Griot’s, Maguires, Mothers…and all have worked equally well. Avoid the cheapies. I tried some Armor All from Ocean State Joblot and it created no suds unless I used half a bottle.

Maguire’s Gold Class is usually the one I choose. Reasonable price, good suds, nice result. I continue to try new ones – mostly because of a cool smell – but remember, we’re washing a car. How dirty is it? If it has tar or bug goo on it, we probably need a special product to remove it, but general dirt, salt and grime comes off equally well with any of the soaps I’ve used.

Spray Wax

I use a spray wax after every wash. It adds a layer of protection and allows me to go much longer between waxes. I’ve gone through long periods where I’ve only used spray wax – no real wax. The new formula’s are pretty amazing.

My favorite is Car Guys Hybrid Wax. I’m not sure what they put in, but it is magic. I used this alone on my wife’s silver SUV for several years. The SUV is pretty big and we’ve already established that I lean towards lazy. It’s also silver, which is nice for the guy who is responsible for cleaning.

Anyway, even in winter, water beads off after several months with no washing or re-applying.

I also like Griot’s Garage 3-in-1 ceramic wax. It has ceramic in the name so it must be good, right? I find it to be equally as good as the Car Guys’ product, but the folks at Griot’s know something special about water repelling. I can’t say for sure about repelling dirt, but the water just shoots off. I’ve also used their speed shine and it is amazing.

With spray wax you can be thorough and wipe down the car and then work it in, or you can be lazy and spray it on then the car is wet and give it a quick wipe all-around. Guess which I do?

Though I often now pull out the cordless polisher. Now I don’t even need to do the whole circular motion thing.

Clay

Run your finger over the paint after washing your vehicle. Does it feel rough/sandy? If so, you need clay. My wife’s convertible developed this and after 20 minutes with clay, it was smooth as new.

Clay bars are a bit of a pain. It’s a bar made of clay (Duh!) and you lubricate the car surface and rub the clay gently across it. Work in small areas, and be sure to lubricate well. The manufacturers recommend using their lubricant, which is pricey, I often use a bucket with clean water and a drop or 2 of car soap. It works just as well. Whichever you use, use lots.

If you want to save some time, try synthetic clay. It’s a small re-usable pad that you use in place of a clay bar. I have one I’ve been using for 5 years. Still works. No mess and when you drop it you can rinse it and not worry about small rocks and gravel getting into your clay and scratching the car. Try synthetic. And use lots of lubricant.

Wrap-Up

That’s enough for now. Those are the biggees to get you started. We’ll move to the inside of the car at some point in 2025.

I love cars, I love when they look shiny. I enjoy detailing, but with 3 cars in the fleet currently, I want the detailing to go pretty quickly.

I’ve had good luck with the products and brands I’ve mentioned and I highly recommend a cordless polisher. I wish I’d thought about this years ago. I also think with the excitement over ceramic, we’ve lost sight of what a great job wax does. Wax is much easier to apply than in the old days and the results are impressive.

And don’t put wax over ceramic. It makes no sense. Ceramic is (much) harder than wax and will repel water and dirt far better. Putting wax on top, ads a softer coating that will hold more dirt.

Touch up your ceramic with a nice SIO2 spray. Turtle Wax is the cheapest and has done a great job on my wife’s convertible. It is silver, so I can’t comment on how it works on a more challenging dark car.

Got any suggestions? I’d love to try.

ps. I drove the red Ferrari around Boston. No, I don’t own it. It was a Groupon experience that my wife got for me years ago. Very cool.