This is to all the people who, like me, have been using Turtle Wax for years.
First off, I've never used any other wax products so please don't respond to me by saying "have you tried this wax" or "have you tried that wax" ... I'm what you call a loyal consumer, mostly because my Dad used it for years and I guess I inherited the same affliction.
Keep in mind that I live in the Canadian East Coast where our winters are absolutely BRUTAL so waxing your car is a necessity, not a luxury. Out here, if you don't wax your car, the extreme cold coupled with the salt and calcium they throw on the roads will do your car in in less than 3 years.
I waxed my spanking new 2005 Nissan Altima 3 times at 3-month intervals using :
- Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell Car Wax
- Turtle Wax Carnauba Car Wax
- Platinum Series Ultra Gloss Car Wax
Here are my personal results:
Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell Car Wax
Very good wax for the price (still under 5.00 out here). Good shine, very good protection (protection out here counts more than shine). You have to respect this wax because it's been around forever, in fact, according to the Globe and Mail, this wax is still Turtle's #1 cash cow. After 3 months, the car was still beeding and was smooth to the touch.
Now I've heard stories about people saying that if they used this wax on "re-painted" areas of the car, the paint would peel right off. Well, I re-painted my 1987 Sentra twice and never once did I have this problem .... I had the car re-painted at the Nissan dealership ... could it be that original factory paint is better than your average Joe Shmoe body shop paint ?? Who knows ... just wanted to say that I never had this problem on my re-painted cars.
Platinum Series Ultra Gloss Car Wax
Useless out here.
If you want a glossy shine, then you could buy this wax but it failed miserable in the durability test. This wax was engineered to give a showroom shine. That's it. If you're a person who owns a car dealership like Nissan or Ford and you want to show off your new cars in your showroom, then this is the wax for you. If you want protection and durability, then look the other way my friend. After two months, the paint felt rough and the beeding stopped in less than a month.
Let me just say this. The difference in shine between Platinum Series Ultra Gloss Car Wax and Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell Car Wax was hardly noticeable. In fact, unless you had a specific level of lighting, I found NO difference. Hardly worth the extra money for a 1% increase in shine.
Turtle Wax Carnauba Car Wax
Excellent wax. I give the thumbs up for both protection and shine. I actually called Turtle and they told me that the Turtle Carnauba Car Wax formula is based on the Super Hard Shell. All they did was mix in Carnauba agents. This would explain why it's such a good wax .. they took the original Super Hard Shell and added the Brazilian carnauba.
After 3 months, smooth to the touch and beeding was still pretty strong. As for the gloss, it looked noticeably shinier than the Super Hard Shell.
Final Recommendation:
# 1 : Turtle Wax Carnauba Car Wax # 2 : Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell Car Wax # 3 : Platinum Series Ultra Gloss Car Wax
So that's my two cents ... thanks for reading.
Jim.
I have a spanking new 2005 Nissan Altima and in the interest of getting the best shine and durability for the buck, I tried
For years I've been using the old favorite "Turtle Super Hard Shell". In fact, according to the Globe and Mail, this wax is still Turtle's #1 cash cow