My Groit's Garage FRS Review

[coastertrav]

I used a combination of coupons at Advance Auto Parts today and got all this for about $42. Significantly better than the $100 retail price and made the Groit's Garage products fall into the "still kind of expensive, but I guess you get what you pay for" category. Now I haven't seen anything about these products on here, but I've always looked at them and wondered if their price was worth it. In the past I've used Mothers Gold Class Car Was, Mothers Cleaner Wax and Mothers Spray Detailer with some cheap grab bag microfiber towels.

I've looked into ordering some of the Adam's polishes, but will probably try to work in a Porter Cable and some of their products for my birthday, and damn if it isn't easy to just go up the road a mile and pick this stuff up.



First is their microfiber towels. Holy crap, $16.99 for a three pack?! Firstly, it's nice that these are color coded for which product they go with (although I guess it doesn't really matter), and more importantly, these are softer, thicker and more absorbent than my bath towels. Really, one of these is thicker than all ten of the cheap bag of scrap microfiber $4.99 stacked on top of each other.

Now I've always been skeptical of the spray on car washes, but I've been reading nothing but positive things about them. Something about dragging a dirty towel across your nice paint always rubs me the wrong way, but I was wrong. My car was pretty dirty, with bugs on the bumper, road dirt and grime, and general dirtiness that comes with driving the car for a week. I wouldn't have attempted to use a spray detailer on it, that's certain. The directions say to apply liberally, do one section at a time, constantly turn and fold the towels and use more than one for the car. I used 2 and one side of the last on my car and got all the jams, trunk and underhood. The car was is super slick and left no swirls or scratches, even on the low sections behind the wheels, where most of the dirt was. I wouldn't have even attempted this with the cheap pack of towels and they were downgraded to wheel and windshield duty. Another surprise with the spray on car wash was the bugs. I'm not sure what they put in this stuff to make it smell so good, feel silky and soft on your hands, but then absolutely devastate bug carcasses. I've never wiped off love bugs easier.

The spray on wax says to be used on after drying but while the car is still a little damp. I just gave a new towel a little spray with the car wash spray and figured that was close enough. It's easy, just goes on like spray detailer, wipe around, flip over towel, buff/dry off.

Overall, the car looks better than when I last did a normal bucket wash, and not by a small margin. The spray wash and wax took less than 45 minutes, and that includes talking to one of my neighbors for about 15 of those because he thought the car was looking great. I think this will probably take over my weekly wash.

I wish I had before pictures of the car. It wasn't terrible, but the shine was gone and their were black dirt marks behind the wheels, on the rear bumper and on the front bumper, as well as plenty of sacrificial bugs. Regardless, after pics...

[Clembo]

I've been using their Speed Shine for years along with the thick blue microfibers. Both have always been great, keeps the cars clean with no scratches or swirls and actually enhances the shine. In fact, I don't even wash much - in most cases it's just light dirt and the Speed Shine and microfiber (using a lot of each) works just like a waterless car wash. I think the spray-on car wash is something new so I haven't tried that. I'm pretty happy with my usual Speed Shine 'car wash'!

Just saw it at Advance myself and stocked up, got some great deals and enough to last me the rest of the year.

If you clay, try the Griot's clay too - didn't see it at Advance but it's worth the extra cost even if you have to order it. Uses Speed Shine as a lubricant also and does an incredible job.

BTW, your car looks great!