CCClarke

Ten years ago, I was searching for decent car care products that would last longer than the two-week shine I was getting out of wax. The corvette forums were raving about Zaino products, and I bought a starter kit. There was a little bit of prep work involved, removing the old wax by washing the car with Dawn, rinsing it off, washing it again with Zaino's detergent, and claying the paint to remove all contamination before laying the first coat of Zaino Show Car Polish. Several coats later, the shine was much improved over any previously-used product. Several months later, the shine was still evident. If I need to wash the car, a quick wipe-down of their Glass Enhancer spray brings it right back. Instead of washing and waxing my cars monthly, (or bi-weekly sometimes) I applied Zaino twice a year, and I've been doing it ever since.
Zaino isn't a wax, it's a polymer-based polish that adds increased depth with each layer applied. My starter kit lasted six years! It costs a little more, but a little goes a long way and it becomes economical in the long run. The time saved by only having to spend two afternoons a year shining cleaning and applying a few coats makes it my product of choice. Great stuff and smells great. Unlike wax, there's no residue to deal with and the effort to remove the polish is minimal.
Last weekend, a friend's new car had paint splotches (from recent highway lane stripping) all over the driver's door and he couldn't get it off. He was told he would need a new paint job and was none-too-happy about it. I went over to his house and applied a little of Zaino's glass polish (this stuff works magic on sun-baked mineral spots that won't come off glass with traditional glass cleaners) for all of five minutes to gently remove the paint spots. He was truly amazed. Since he had lots of gratitude and beer to bestow upon me, I ended up spending a few hours applying Zaino to his freshly-washed car, and now he 's a True Believer. He placed an order for a starter polish kit that very night.
Their interior products for leather, plastic and rubber seals work equally well. I'll never use ArmorAll again. The Zaino plastic and rubber product is non-greasy, doesn't sling off the tires, leaves no sheen on the dash, and lasts longer. Zaino is one of those rare companies whose products really do measure up to the hype.
As for Griot's Garage, I used to live near their flagship store in Tacoma, and make a pilgrimage there whenever I'm in town. It's an excellent place with a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They have a nice, wide assortment of car care tools and accessories; my garage is full of them, but their day-to-day shining products have always left me disappointed. (Their heavy-duty swirl-removers and orbital polishers are very good though.)
When I drove my (Zaino-polished) XLR over there once, the guys behind the counter came out to take a look at it, and commented on the depth of the shine. Since I had just loaded up on towels and cleaning supplies, they assumed I had used their polishing products. When I told them I used Zaino, they both smiled and looked at their shoes. I'm sure they've hear it before.
Meguire's has a polymer-based polish that gets a lot of good online comments too.
The bottom line, wax is old school. Polymer-based polishes are the modern way to keep your car looking great, --no matter what mother nature throws at it.
CC