Autoglym car care products - review

[evoke]

Always one to experiment, I tried out a series of Autoglym products on my Boxster yesterday and was very impressed with the results. I realise that the true car cleaning afficiandos will always go for products like Swissol or Zymol. I would imagine that the Autoglym products do not perform nearly as well but they are eminently more affordable. So, for 27 quid you could arm yourself with:

- Autoglym Bodywork Shampoo Conditioner

- Autoglym Super Resin Polish

- Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection

The shampoo is quite unusual in that water beads off the paintwork after the car has been washed with it. It also cleans the paintwork very well. There's not much foaming and is easy to rinse off. Total time taken to wash and dry the car: 40 minutes.

The polish is fairly easy to apply and buff to a good shine. There are no swirl marks or smearing. Time taken to polish the car: 40 minutes.

The Extra Gloss Protection is very similar to the Porsche Tequipment Hardwax. It is a very runny, clear liquid that stinks of solvent. I applied it to the whole car in under 10 minutes. The gloss is a semi-permanent coating and needs to be applied to very clean paintwork. The instructions then suggest that you should leave this for 30-60 minutes. I left it for 45 minutes. It was very easy to buff to a deep gloss finish using a dry cotton cloth. It required a bit more elbow grease than the Porsche Tequipment Hardwax but the results were far superior. Total time taken to gloss the paintwork: 1 hour 30 minutes (included 45 minutes of waiting for the gloss coating to dry).

The results are a deep, gloss shine that resembles glass. Not bad for around 3 hours work. There is also enough left for at least another two treatments. All in all, very good value for money.

One day I will move up to the Swissol/Zymol league but for now these products are replacing the Porsche ones.

Taz

 

[ianbanneville]

At last - someone that agrees with me about Autoglym! []

Seems to work long term too - I used to get a lot of people surprised at the condition of my four year old Boxster, and it was my daily driver.

 

[Guest]

I agree the autoglym products are all great.

I have used them on my bright red z3 and then also my gun metal grey Z4.

I have to say the autoglym looked stuning on the z4.


I currently have a lapis blue and looking for a dry weekend to do the glym treatment.

I have loads if autoglym stuff and feel loath to spend 100 on a tub of wax from zymol when I get a whole kit from autoglym.

Raj

 

[JCB..]

I always use Autoglym on all our cars.

I also use TurtleWax as they don't have their own wax once or twice a year.

I don't see the point in spending megabucks on all these fancy products. If a pot of Halfords 'special' can make a Fiesta sparkle why should Porsche be any different?

JCB..

 

[Kevin Cooke]

Totally agree, have only used Autoglym for years.

Interior products even better than the exterior stuff.

 

[evoke]

It's been a couple of days since the Autoglym treatment and the car has been exposed to residue from building works down my road, early morning frost and rain (I don't have a garage). The deep gloss shine is still evident and the car looks 'just washed'.

Tried the Autoglym Car Glass Polish today. Very good at sparkling the windows and windscreen. It does produce a slight powdery residue as you have to apply it and leave it on until it dries, then buff to a shine. I also noticed it does a good job at repelling moisture on the windows.

For those with plastic rear screens, Autglym do a polish called Autoglym Fast Glass that you may want to consider.

I'm going to try the Autoglym Metal Polish on the exhaust tip tomorrow to see if it can change the colour from a rusty brown to silver!

I hope this doesn't sound like an advert for Autoglym products! It's not meant to be - it's just that i've always thought that Porsche is best and i've only ever used Porsche cleaning products until now.

Taz

 

[Guest]

I too feel that I can come out of the Autoglym closet!!! Thanks Rumba for bringing this out into the open. I have the full kit and can vouch for all the products. The polishes are great and long lasting, as you have already mentioned, and the glass polish works wounders. Especially on my other car which the dog insists on smearing the windscreen with his snotty nose. The leather cleaner is always handy. You don't realise how dirty it gets until you clean it. It leaves your interior looking as new. The wheel cleaner and tyre dressing spray is also good and it gives your car that out of the showroom look. Just for the record, with using the wheel cleaner. As yet, I do not have rusty nuts!!!

Final statement........
Can't belive you can get all of this for less than the cost of a Zymbol starter pack.

Ads.

 

[evoke]

As promised, i've just tried the Autoglym Metal Polish on the exhaust tip. It's removed all the brown staining completely and restored a shiny, satin finish in under 5 minutes. Cost: around a fiver. Enough left for a couple of years of polishing the exhaust tip.

 

[Rodney Naghar]

I bought a whole Autoglym pack from the recent car show. Brilliant stuff.Brilliant shine. Unfortunately I applied some Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection on the car, forgot to wipe it over the car, came back an hour later to polish it, and it was stuck like concrete. Its been over 1 month and 2 car washes later, the stuff is still on the car looking like toothpaste. I've tried scraping it off gently with a credit card, but there is still some left! I'm just lazy. But it goes to show how incredibly resilient the stuff is, it just wont come off!

 

[jleo]

Have to agree with everything said so far on the subject of autoglym! Have used it for many years to great effect on a handful of different cars. The exhaust tip thing was one I hadn't tried but sounds promising. After reading positive comments on this forum and in mags about Zymol I actually bought the titanium wax pack a couple of weeks ago. Very curious to see how it compares...but getting the feeling it wont be sooo impressive

 

[evoke]

ORIGINAL: Rodney Naghar

I bought a whole Autoglym pack from the recent car show. Brilliant stuff.Brilliant shine. Unfortunately I applied some Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection on the car, forgot to wipe it over the car, came back an hour later to polish it, and it was stuck like concrete. Its been over 1 month and 2 car washes later, the stuff is still on the car looking like toothpaste. I've tried scraping it off gently with a credit card, but there is still some left! I'm just lazy. But it goes to show how incredibly resilient the stuff is, it just wont come off!

Rodney, this sounds a bit strange. The instructions for the Extra Gloss Protection say you need to apply the 'minimum amount' and leave for 30-60 minutes. It comes off very easily. Did you apply it to non-painted parts (eg. glass, plastic)? If so, then these need to be cleaned immediately as the coating is semi-permanent as you are now discovering

I forget to buff the door sills (the paintwork under the doors) and did these 24 hours later after applying the polish and this produced a deep gloos finish with no extra effort!

I think you may have applied too much. It should not appear like toothpaste at all. Also, you need to vigourously shake the container before applying so that the solvent can mix with the polish. If you didn't shake the container then this may have caused the problem.

jc: the exhaust tip looks fab! It's a standard MY03 2.7 tip and these look horrible when delivered. I've tried cleaning it over the months with car shampoo but this had no effect. The Metal Cleaner sorted it in five minutes. I'll try and put some pictures up so you can judge for yourself.

 

[Rodney Naghar]

Hi Rumba,

The problem is that I doused the car correctly and sparingly with the Extra Gloss Protection, but forgot to then immediately wipe it over the bodywork with a cloth, I just left the running streaks of liquid on the car for an hour before I returned to buff. This left a thick layer of the wax coating streaks on the car, which was then impossible to buff. I now have a streaky Boxster! Nice

 

[evoke]

Rodney,

You didn't squirt the gloss onto your paintwork did you??? If so, this may be the cause of your woes.

I used a soft cotton cloth and squirted a tiny amount of gloss onto the cloth to apply it to the paintwork (on a panel-by-panel) basis.

It sounds as if you may have gone and squirted the gloss directly from the bottle onto the paintwork. If so, this is why you have the streaks.

You can get a cleaner that will remove this coating from Halfords - it's one from the Autoglym range.

Taz

 

[jleo]

Rodney - Have to say what you're describing sounds really strange. Think the product Rumba is suggesting to take it off is Autoglym Paint Renovator. It's slightly abrasive but should do the trick without damage. Follow with the resin polish afterwards. Try with just the resin polish first as it may do the trick. Reckon you could usually leave the gloss pro on the car un-buffed for a few days without problems, I know I've 'missed a bit before' with no ill effect. Suggest you send the s gloss protection back to where you bought it!

 

[Rodney Naghar]

Thanks Taz and JC for the tips. A friend of mine did try some of that abrasive stuff and it did work on my car, but I'm just concerned about its effect on the paintwork, seeing as this stuff is usually used to buff out scratches from a car. I should have applied the Gloss onto a cloth first, not directly on to the car.

 

[Mark_Bennett]

Rodney,
HAve you tried putting more of the stuff on a cloth, and using that to remove the excess you had? The slovent on the new would presumably help remove the old?

 

[Rodney Naghar]

Good idea Mark, I'll give that a shot, thanks!