Hi everyone,
I'm the Cooper owner that "supposedly switched back to Zaino", and I'm here to set the record straight. Whoever you heard that from, you might as well tell them that you heard it from the actual owner that they need to get their facts straight. When I was first introduced to NXT, the reasons for switching were obvious. My Indi Blue paint looked deeper and darker after 1 coat. Of course, me being a newbie to detailing, I just thought it had that same slick feeling as Zaino and was quite a bit less expensive (not to mention smelling better). It took me several months of being immersed into the detailing world, and participating in several full detailing sessions where I began to really appreciate what NXT can do for paint. I'll be the first to admit, when I got my Cooper back in September, I didn't know the first thing to properly take care of my paint. I did all the typical things (i.e. mistakes) that beginners do. I didn't know how important good micro fiber towels were, and couldn't understand why I kept seeing scratches in my clear coat everytime I dried my car. Heck, I didn't even know how to tell the difference from a scratch in the clear coat and something deeper. I'd never seen it before. Zaino was highly touted on the MINI forums as the product to get (I spent $80+ for the kit). My car--only 11 days old, but 4,551 miles (I drove it from Memphis to Los Angeles) had seen everything--big ugly sticky hard bugs in Alabama, to locusts, to crazy huge yellow explosive insects that plastered my windshield minutes after washing it clean. My car was a mess, so I clay barred it, and spent 2 full weekends applying 12 coats on my car. I thought it looked pretty darn good--of course I worked hard to make it look that way. It had that new shiny car gloss again, and laying a terry towel on the bonnet, just slid right off. Neat, so I thought.
Fast forward to 2 months later. I'm at my first Meguiars Detailing clinic, and I get introduced to the PC DA and NXT. Wow, not only is it fun, it's a heck of a lot less work, and my paint looks even better. Better yet, that was 1 coat of NXT! So 5 months later, I'm still using NXT, I got my own DA, and I buy 32OZ bottles of Quik Detailer every few weeks cause I like that shiny new car look--requires me to wipe off my car every day, not to mention using it on my white wheels--to get off the brake dust.
Do I worry about durability? If I had known what I know now about my paint, I would have started with NXT from day one, and would be DAing every month--though I know I don't need to. Layering Zaino seems like a good idea, but I also know every coat I do, which Zaino needs, I risk putting scratches in my paint. I'd much rather reduce the risk, us a DA and NXT once. Anyone who knows me personally knows I like keeping my Cooper shiny--they always walk up to my car to feel it. Plain and simple, NXT lets me keep it that way and not worry about it from day to day.
Richard
Intermezzo said:
BTW, that Blue cooper owner has since switched back to Zaino (or so I've heard) because he was too dissatisfied with NXT's durability. Don't quote me on that though.... I'm just restating what I've heard through the Zealot-vine........
