More soap testing today, the Jaguar and Wildtrak the test subjects.
First up, a quick wash of the Jaguar, the soap chosen here being Autoglym Foaming Car Wash.
After a quick sniff of this soap, I was reminded of the cherry scented Gtechniq G-Wash. However, where G-Wash is a thoroughly competent soap, this stuff is so thoroughly disappointing! These shots taken literally seconds after application...................
I'm sorry, but if you are going to label a product as a "foaming car wash", it bloody well better do just that! I was as generous with my dose rate as I normally am, as in more is better, I even added more after using it to clean the wheels to no improvement. I think its obvious in those images that is soapy water and not "foam". Sure, its decently slick but I just can't get past it not foaming despite its claim. This soap joins a line of thoroughly average to downright horrible Autoglym products that I have used.
Unlike US and AUS tastes, the UK market seems fixated on having separate soaps for pre-washing and bucket washing. I could understand that if the products actually did what they intended to do, but apart from the likes of Bilt Hamber, I have yet to see a true benefit to this approach.
Looking at the Autoglym website, they actually offer five different soaps with far too much product overlap. Polar Blast is supposed to be their pre-wash option, but being pH neutral, I don't see how this stuff would do squat! They then have a Polar Wash, which bizarrely is NOT pH neutral. I don't get! And I suspect their typical customer base doesn't either, which in turn means they just keep buying this stuff.
Considering Foaming Car Wash doesn't
actually foam, I don't see why it exists alongside the also truly awful Bodywork Shampoo Conditioner, or the Polar Blast/Wash duo. I don't think I will even use this to clean the bins, it will go straight in there, bottle and all. Autoglym would be best off starting from scratch and putting their resources into making two great soaps rather than five thoroughly average ones; an alkaline pre-wash soap that foams, and a pH neutral wash soap that ALSO foams.
Next up, ArmorAll Car Wash for a quick exterior wash on the Wildtrak.
This was the very first car soap I used, way back in the early 2000's washing my parent's cars in the driveway. So much has changed since then, but this stuff is remarkable for being exactly same as it was when I was a teenager with no clue what I was doing. Same colour, same bottle, almost the same label, same scent, pretty much the same price too.
As you can see, this stuff actually foams, it also hangs on throughout the wash rather than breaking down, which may or may not be seen as a positive. Rinsing afterwards seemed pretty good too. However, ArmorAll suggests a very rich dose rate on this soap, so the lack of concentration means you use waaaaay more per vehicle. It also has very little lubrication.
And so, this is where your money goes when buying a mid to high end soap, a more concentrated formulation and a superior user experience. For the $7.00 I paid for this stuff, I guess complaining about those two aspects is redundant. However, it has provided me a valuable insight into the difference between a $7.00 soap and a $45.00 soap of the same quantity.
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www.meguiars.com.au
