I think it was Xviper that mentioned Zaino portions their products so only one or two items run out at a time, forcing you to either discard the remaining products, or buy the 2 items to keep up.

Well, I ran out of Z-7, Zaino's show car soap (it came with the starter kit). I did like the stuff; foamed up nice, rinsed clean, grabbed the dirt (yada yada), all the things a soap should do. It also (and this is clutch) didn't strip the coats of Zaino I had built up off the car.

So, what's so special about it?

Ok, more to the point, are there other, over the counter soaps that could do the same job, and not strip off the Zaino coats off my paint? I ask this as I'm too lazy to place another Zaino order just for soap, and really would like to wash my car this weekend (shipping from Zaino-land would delay me until mid next week).

 

Zaino marketing at its finest.

I brought back a Maguiar's detailing kit from the S2Ki.com HQ meet last year. In it was a huge bottle of their carwash soap. I've been using it on my wife's PT Cruiser, which has also been Zainoed on a regular basis. The Maguiar's stuff works just as well as the Zaino soap does on my S. Once I finish off the Zaino soap, I have no intention of continuing to buy it. I believe any quality dedicated carwash soap you buy in the auto store will perform just as well with other Zaino products or with other non-Zaino products.

If you believe what Zaino tells you, nothing but alcohol (and time and weather) will take off Zaino polish.

 

I use Zaino shampoo. I still haven't discovered any difference from it and the 3M, Zymol, Mothers or Meguiars available at autosupply stores. They're all pretty mild. Zymol smells the best.

 

I use meguiars NXT car shampoo, used to use Z-7 but got to expensive. No difference from what I can tell, and I use z-2 all the time. Nxt smells nicer, foams up better, and has water softeners so they wont leave nasty water marks if you dont dry the car quick enough. Check it out.

 

great answers above...
mine is the same-
zaino is not the only product out there. in fact, i love z2 but dont use any other zaino products on a regular basis.
there are lotsa great car shampoos and they all work great with zaino.

my opinion is try one that sounds good to you, and post up your thoughts about it. what i look for in a car shampoo is :
sudsing action (lots suds so that dirt is lifted off of the car)- imo the most important
slippery- i like slime- makes the wash process go quicker and you dont want the car to dry before you are ready.
smell- never hurts to have a nice smell

there are so many great car shampoos that i wouldnt even try to name them all... easier to name the ones i dont like (but i am not in that mood!)- very very few.

the main point is that you dont have to stick with any one product line- i never have and never will (p21s is the closest that i have come, but i am a long way from using mainly their products- but as long as i got off on this tangent i can say that i do like their shampoo!!)

 

I kinda figured there wasn't anything special about the Z-7 soap, but ya never know. I ended up going with Meguiar's shampoo (a friend had got the detailing basic kit as a Xmas gift, eh, it works).

I also am now an official member of the two bucket society. Worked wonders for getting off 2 weeks of road salt.

I like your idea about giving soaps ratings wannabe, and I'd like to add a category: Rinse Factor - How easily does it rinse off your car? I've had soap that you had to direct a stream of water onto every surface to dislodge the soap. If you didn't (just let the water roll over a surface), minutes later, you could spray the same area, and suds would appear.



One shampoo I'm nervous to use on my S is the Mr.Clean car wash system thingie. I use it all the time on my wife's Ford Escape, and it seems to do the job. I use the actual unit to wash my S, but I only use the water jet and rinse settings (never the soap it uses). I have to say the soap (when I do use it on the Ford) is so/so.

Suds - Very few. There is just enough bubbles to let you know you aren't using plain water. But honestly, it's so few bubbles, you have a tough time realizing you are running out of the soap juice.

Slippery - This is where the soap excels. Once applied, the vehicle is slick, taking less effort to actually wipe the car down.

Smell - Eh. It's car soap. Nothing memorable. Not skunkish either.

Rinse Factor - Rinses clean and easy, and here is where the Mr.Clean system excels. Not only does it have the normal water jet which easily removes any and all soap on the car, the spray gun thingie also has a 'rinse' setting on it. This rinse setting sends your rinse water through a Brita filter and mists it onto your car. Using that setting, I've never seen a water spot on the car. I usually blast all the soap off the car with the bulk setting, and effectively rinse the rinse water off the car using the filter setting. Beautiful results.

 

I had the Mr. Clean Autodry system. I HATED it so I gave it to my friend who isn't really into car care. The worst part was being locked into buying their filters & soap solution. I tried another company's soap in the Mr. Clean gun and it didn't work anywhere near as well.

On another note, I've tried many many car wash soaps over the years and as Wannabe said there are probably less that I didn't like than ones that I did like. Currently, I am HIGHLY recommending Poorboy's Super Slick & Suds. I've been using it the last few months and find it surpasses every other soap I've used in the areas named by Wannabe (slickness, sudsing, etc.). I've tried Zymol, Eagle One, Meguiar's, Mother's, and many more. Currently the Poorboy's is my favorite.

 

My favorite car wash is SONAX Gloss Shampoo, a product made in Germany but available in the US. Rinses clean and leaves a great shine.

GeneB

 

good reviews mrmorphandle (and i agree to adding rinseability to the factors- sometimes the more slippery the harder it is to rinse, for example if they use more oils than others),
mikec,
and geneb!!