Mrs. Meaneyedcatz & myself just bought a new 2016 Malibu. Super sharp car in blue metallic.
We finally have a car that we SHOULD baby.
What car wax do you guys use? Mothers, Meguiar’s or…?
Isn’t there also a wax that does not leave white residual on the black textured plastic?
This is one of subjects that is purely personal favorites and has no real answer because any name brand is good. But you can go to the Auto Geek web site and gather more info than the average person needs.
The meguire seems to be pretty fine overall, though I am not a regular wax kind of guy. And there is special stuff for the plastic, just pulled it out of the car today, though it did not seem to have much staying power. Mothers back to black, maybeI should put it back in the ca if I get bord on vacation
I usually use turtle wax paste
I’ve also used nufinish
no complaints with either
I like Turtle Wax Ice, no white residue.
I don’t listen to the ‘gotta use the super expensive brand’ guys. I’ve heard good things about Mothers, Meguires, Turtle Wax, and Nufinish. I bet there are others.
Long ago I used to use Turtle pastewax. There weren’t many good options back then. Then for years I used NuFinish. It worked great. This past year or two I’ve used Maguire’s with carnauba wax. It seems to make the finish “pop” more. At my age, fewer and fewer of my things “pop”, so I need the help. 
Truth is, any brand name wax is good as long as it’s used. Congratulations on your new ride. May you and the Mrs. have many shiny, fun years with it. Wax it with the brand name wax of your choice and you’ll greatly improve your odds of doing so.
I use Meguires wax, polishing compound, glaze etc. But I use the Gold stuff not the higher end silicone (I think). All the stuff I use is listed as body shop safe. I do use Mothers clay bar and detailer before waxing and 3M Perfectit rubbing compound if that is ever needed. For a new car though, give it a month for the paint to harden and just wax. Then before winter you can hit it with the clay bar and wax. After that you may need to clay, polish, then maybe glaze, and wax, but not when its just out of the factory.
The new synthetic crosslinked polymer waxes are far superior to the older carnauba waxes. They shine better and last far longer. I currently use the Meguires Ultra Wax, but the Mothers is just as good, maybe better, but harder to find.
My gf uses Turtle Wax or Nu Finish and gets very good results with both of those. The Nu Finish is a little easier to remove, but both are quite easy to apply and easy enough to remove. I use a product called Rain Dance mostly b/c I’ve been using it for years and bought a big supply one time when it was on sale. It seems very similar to Nu Finish. Rain Dance does leave a white residue when applied on the plastic parts, especially if they have any surface roughness. That eventually disappears, so it is no worry to me with 20 and 40 + year old vehicles. But with a new car it might be annoying.
I’m curious. Are there many here who do not wax their cars?
After always waxing my cars religiously, I stopped 28 years ago and never felt the worse for it.
There’s one or two. We had a thread on the subject just recently. One poster claimed it doesn’t really help, but I believe it does. Makes the ice and snow easier to remove in the winter too. In NH the law requires that snow & ice be removed from the roof so it doesn’t fly off and smash the windshield of the car behind you… and yes, that really does happen.
I don’t wax: no snow or salt here, cars are in garages 99% of the time they aren’t on the road. Sell them every 10-15 years, have had no problems with paint.
Another vote for Meguiars Ultra here. I waxed my MR2 with it at the beginning of last summer and it was still just-waxed shiny when I put it away for the winter.
I use Blackfire WetDiamond. For me it lasts around 4-5 months provides a very glossy shine. It’s not the cheapest stuff in the world. But I really haven’t found anything that can touch it for the combination of durability and gloss.
I wax my cars regularly. Used to use Turtle wax paste because I was broke and Walmart had them for $3 but it is a pain to get off esp if you are doing a bigger car. I have tried the Turtle wax ice and it is very easy to apply but seems not to last long.
The middle of the line Mcguires is around $10 at WM and has been a decent compromise for me. Not breaking the bank but not also spending an hour rubbing the car. If you get it on black plastic trim, it could leave a white residue so watch out.
I had stopped waxing my vehicles until I got the Subaru. Its got some new paint that I thought was just the same old stuff with a new trade name. It seems to be far less resistant to bug bodies than the other cars I’ve had and they eat right through. So to protect the car, I do wax this one.
When I was in the Navy, my last ship was the JFK. It was a show boat, always had VIPs where ever we went. Because of that, we got a new type of wax for the floors, a crosslinked polymer. It was so far superior to the standard Navy wax that when I saw that the Meguires Ultra Wax uses it, I decided to try it.
It really is much more durable. The fact that it even shines better is just a plus but it was the durability that I was after. Mothers also has a crosslinked polymer wax and I would trust it as I do like Mothers products as well.
@kieth, the Mguires product uses the same polymer that the product used by the Navy does?
At @shadowfax 's recommendation, I use Turtle Wax Ice on my cars with plastic trim. You can spray it on the black stuff and it doesn’t white up. It doesn’t last a long time but its super easy to spray on and wipe off. Gives a nice shine that beads water and repels dirt and bird droppings. I’ve used Zymol and NuFinish both with longer lives but the extra time to apply, even with a machine, generally isn’t worth it by comparison.
The last time that I waxed my Outback (~two years ago) , I used Meguires Nexwax 2.0, and I found it to be both very easy to use and very durable.
Between the fact that my car is garaged ~80% of the time, and that on my occasional visits to the car wash I opt for their spray wax, rain still “beads up” on the car’s surface, and the paint still looks very good. If I have time this summer, I will wax it again, even though there doesn’t appear to be a pressing need for that to be done.