Polish Mega-test

March 2008

FEW valeting tasks provide you with the sense of satisfaction you get after polishing your car. Not only can you take pride in your gleaming bodywork, but you will also have helped slow the steady drop in the vehicle’s resale price by adding protection to the paint.

You have to graft for it, though – and let’s be honest, this is a big job. With very few exceptions, you need to go over the entire car at least twice, applying and buffing the polish. With some products, there will even be three stages to be worked through. And don’t forget, before you can even consider starting to polish, you will have to go to all the effort of washing and then drying the bodywork.

All this energy – not to mention the time it takes to complete the job – means it is essential that you are using the best products around. In our polish mega test, we put 30 top names through their paces to find out which is right for your car...

YOU’LL want the effect to last more than a few days, so we focused on stamina. Our scrapyard bonnet was divided into sections, with one polish applied to each. The products were exposed to the worst of the winter weather for four weeks, and we looked for beading to see if they were still working.

We also considered ease of use and price, although the latter isn’t crucial – given the effort involved, performance is the key factor.

Verdict

THERE could only be one winner, as the Collinite’s beading was way ahead of the rest. Liquid polish fans should go for Meguiar’s Cleaner Wax, while the CarPlan EcoCar is the green choice.

Top 3

1. Collinite No476S
2. Meguiar’s Cleaner Wax
3. CarPlan EcoCar Polish

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