You know, this is really getting silly. Was there hype? I'm sure, Mike Phillips is a Meguiar's zealot, PLUS he works there. There are plenty of zealots on here, Zaino, Klasse, NXT.
There are plenty of people here who have less than optimal experiences with ALL products, SOME of the time. For example, I have an old car, and bought some new products...I wanted to try them out. I taped off a couple of squares on my hood, about a foot square. I think I had used some GC that I was trying to use up on the hood, but it wasn't too fresh.
So I prepped both squares by hand, one with Poorboy's PP followed by EX-P, and the other AIO followed by SGx2. The Poorboy's square was initially much better than the Klasse, all spiderwebbing removed, slicker, etc. You could actually see the Pb's square after the tape was removed. After some rain in a couple of days, the EX-P slickness was gone. I still had the expectation that my little square of Klasse would be beading and apparent in the rain...but after less than a month...my test squares were exactly the same as the rest of the hood.
Do I think Klasse sucks? No. Do I think there is hype and conspiracy here on Autopia about Klasse? No. This isn't controlled laboratory testing. If I tell you that I did my AIO prep correctly, how do you know if I did it the same way as you? That I used the same amount of product, pressed as hard, etc.?
A couple of final thoughts...if any of you expect Mike Phillips, or any other factory rep to be just "one of the guys" when he's in here forget that. Maybe some of you folks that have been here longer than I will disagree, but I have never heard Mike Phillips recommend anything other than Meguiar's...even if Meg's doesn't make a product in the class you are looking for. And I don't blame him; if I was on the internet sending people to another polish company I don't think my boss would look on it too kindly. And lastly, as Bill D. says...it's only wax and polish! Do you guys get your shorts in a bunch when Coke says it's better than Pepsi? Sheesh.