A new wax product from Turtle Wax tested on our TotallyMotor Alfa Romeo 146 for a pre-winter shine-up

On test: Turtle Wax Protect & Shine Creme Wax

Tuesday, 11 September 2012 2:07 PM

Alfa Romeo 146

Sitting shiny and pretty in the September sun. Our Alfa Romeo 146 gets her pre-winter Turtle Wax-ing. If cars could purr!

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Here’s a new product from car care specialist Turtle Wax and I’ve been out in the sunshine over the weekend giving our cheeky little TotallyMotor Alfa Romeo a pre-winter waxing treat, before the cold and mucky weather hits the UK. This is the prefect time to wax your ride ready for the harsh contaminant attacks that come every winter; mainly road grit, but also tree sap, bird droppings, UV rays and driving rain, and what better way to enjoy this September sun than spending a few hours detailing your favourite paint?

So, what’s the deal with this new Turtle Wax Protect & Shine Creme Wax? Well, for a start, it’s presented in a tub (£9.99 for 250g) rather than a bottle, and I initially wondered about this. But, it works well. You have to pick up a bottle every time you want more polish, but here you just leave the tub open in an easy-to-reach spot and dip your applicator in as and when you need it. Over a full wax of a car this will save you time and hassle. It’s also easy to see how much product you have left.

This new wax (for new or older cars) comes with a small foam applicator pad, but I find these too fiddly and prefer to use a damp microfibre cloth – as also recommended by the clear and concise on-pack instructions. The damp cloth helps you spread the wax out quickly and evenly, in circular motions, and you’re looking for a thin layer of wax. The product will last longer for more waxes and will buff off the paint far easier when dry and ready to remove. Don’t make the mistake of laying it on too thick – you’ll be there all day buffing it off!

With my quick-dip method in full swing and my damp cloth nicely impregnated with the Turtle’s wax, I covered a panel at a time – for example; the roof – and then let the wax quickly dry before buffing if off with a fresh, clean and dry microfibre cloth.

It was an easy wax-on, wax-off process – you still need some elbow grease with any waxing job – but the end result was a deep and lasting-looking shine that made our sweet-silver Alfa truly gleam. She’s been a good little motor all year and this was her treat. If cars could purr!

Ingredients are important with a wax, and at £9.99, this new Turtle Wax Protect & Shine Creme Wax is at the inexpensive-to-middle end of the waxing range, but still gets mild polishing agents to clean the paintwork, improve the appearance of micro scratches and remove ingrained grime, as well as Carnauba wax to protect and shine. You just don’t need to pay more than the tenner, in my opinion. And looking at the plenty I had left at the end of this first wax job, I think there are lots more waxing jobs to come out of the red tub.

All in all, a good product that’s easy to use and quicker to work with than a standard squeezy bottle, and one that’s backed up by so much Turtle Wax car care experience.

You can spot the full new range of Turtle Wax products easily as they’re all bright red, and you’ll find them at Halfords for starters.


Easy to dip in to tub cuts the waxing time, and shows clearly how much product is left

By Daniel Anslow

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