NEW Gold Class, first impressions

JustinR32

New member
I'll preface by saying that my car doesn't NEED to be waxed, it looked great before GC, so any impressions about appearance are useless.



However...



New GC smells the same as old GC, which to me is a good thing. I like the cherry-vanilla smell.



I applied the product using a G-100 (PC) with a finishing pad. Right now is the wait to remove, letting the product set up. This product is MUCH easier to get a thin coat than the old GC. I wish I had a bottle of old GC to compare! This product goes on and sets up VERY MUCH the same way NXT does, which if you think about it, makes sense; apply what you've learned from developing the new product to make the old product better.



The new GC seems to me to be much less of a cleaner-wax than old GC. This is more the "slight" cleaners that Mike refers to in the NXT.



While we're waiting, I'll post a quick pic to show what "thin coat" means, for new Auropians who might wonder:



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And here is the "swipe test":



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Which means, it's time to get out the mf bonnet and report back in a half hour or so...





OK, here's my take.



What it looks like is, Meguiar's has matched GC's appearance chemicals to NXT's delivery and protection chemicals. When applying and removing it, I could almost FEEL the similarities between the products. As I buffed GC off, the products did the same thing. First the excess product came off, then the remaining film polished out. That was a very reassuring thing to see. That film, if it's the NXT film, is a real son of a gun, it sticks around a while.



The OLD GC, for me, was a bit of a pain to use. It had a tendency to cake and stick to the paint; it was hard to get off. It was a product that came off best using the "constant creep" method. New GC is wipe on, haze, wipe off. It's slick. It's easy. At least in useage, this is a VERY different product from the old GC. I'd go so far as to say the only similarity I can tell is the smell.



It looks good; it has that "handsome" look to it. I know that I said appearance impressions are useless, but this is the classic Meguiar's look, very natural and balanced. It went on over a month-old coat of Stuf, which looked nice; Stuf is a quality high-end liquid carnauba. This is darker and redder.



My impression is, no swirl-hiding capability ala NXT. Yeah, I got 'em, like everyone else. you can see them a little on the trunk shot coming up. These pics are for the heck of it; all my pics look the same.



Hood; notice the Meguiar's box from my last order:



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Trunk:



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The big question is, "How long will GC last?" I don't know, of course. Heck, it'll last at least half an hour; how's that? If I can get control of the Malibu I'll wax it up tomorrow... that'll have to last until April, so we'll get a real test.









Tom
 
Nice review Tom!



Do you feel the GC might have removed a bit of the Stuf due to you applying by machine and you also noted the slight cleaning capabilities?
 
I'm of the opinion that almost any product removes whatever it was applied over. I'd hypothesize that a little of the previous product probably remains, but not much, especially since I used the PC.



The cleaning is far less than the previous GC. If you consider that property within the Meguiar's belief that a little cleaning with each wax is a good thing, then it makes sense. I've come from wanting ALL my waxes to be non-cleaning to accepting that it's not really that big a deal, especially since I've rejected the general validity of combining different products to produce different looks. In my experience that symbiosis is rare. I won't dispute anyone who thinks they've got something special, but my experience tells me that most of it is in the perfect swirl free finish.



The thing that really impressed me about this product is the tremendous strides made in making it easier to use. For the average GC user, the most important thing is going to be ease of use, plus how long it lasts. That's a question best answered by our more long term analytical brothers here, and professionals who see the same cars regularly and can judge better how what they're doing is holding up; I'll have some other new wax on my car before Christmas.





Tom
 
Your car always looks so good, Tom. That red paint looks a mile deep!



I am very interested in hearing how the durability is. My main gripe with GC is the lack of durability.
 
MattZ28 said:
Tarzhay....I had to search google to see what that meant, lol. I'm assuming it's Target? :p



Just making it sound more upscale! I really like Target, even without a snooty French sounding pronounciation!
 
I think that "Tar-zhay" thing is where you heard something somewhere and don't know where. We've always jokingly done that with car names at work; Cavaliers are "Cavali-yays", Corsicas are "Corseeseeyas", Luminas "Lumeeneeyas", stuff like that.



Tom
 
The car looks awesome as always.



Thanks for trying this and posting your impressions. It sounds like GC may be worth taking another look at.
 
Very nice. I had noticed the new bottle of GC on the shelf at Pep Boys. Thats a throwback to back in the day, I used to use Gold Class before I found "the way" ;)
 
GoodnClean said:
Thats a throwback to back in the day, I used to use Gold Class before I found "the way" ;)



I agree it's throwback, and I used to use it also! but I'm "still trying to find my way" :rolleyes: :D





Mosca nice review!
 
Also, yesterday I drove around for quite some time in a downpour. It seems that this product "beads and runs" rather than beads, or sheets, water.





Tom
 
looks good. nice review. how can you tell if it's the new GC or not? is the packaging new or something?



*edit: i just checked out meguiar's website and see the packaging is new*
 
I'm not saying run out and buy it. I bought it on impulse. It's definitely advanced from the old GC, though. I didn't care for that product, but this one's OK. In the world of worthwhile consumer products, if this one is durable it'll be worth getting.





Tom
 
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