Pete from Stratmosphere / Stage Car Care was generous enough to send me a full size bottle of the new Stage 1 Pre-wash for review. Over the past two weeks I’ve had the opportunity to use the pre-wash on a couple vehicles a handful of times. Both of these cars are silver, a 2002 VW GTI 337 and a 2001 Mercedes E320 Wagon.
The pre-wash comes in a nicely shaped spray bottle with an excellent spray head with a great mist. The labels applied to the bottles have a brief set of instructions telling you how to use the product; It’s really a spray on, soak and spray off sort of product. Being the bizarre detailer that I am I love to sniff products as I get them to see what they smell like. The Stage 1 pre-wash really doesn’t have much of an odor so it’s neither pleasant nor unpleasant in nature although being neutral is never a bad thing.
Now, I will forewarn you that seeing dirt on a silver car (especially ones that are kept clean) is hard to gauge when rinsing. I sprayed the pre-wash on the rear hatch of my 337, (as you all know, hatchbacks like to suck dirt up and stick it to the rear) I also sprayed down the lower body panels of the car – using it primarily on the dirtiest panels. I let the product soak for about a minute - perhaps a little more (the label suggests not letting it sit very long and gave a recommendation at a minute). I then rinsed the car, but couldn’t really see if the pre-wash did anything “extra” that rinsing the car would have done. I then washed my car as normal, nothing special for me using it the first time; I felt a bit disappointed.
Over the course of the last two weeks and using the product with every wash I began to realize that my rinse water (I use one bucket for clean soapy water, one for mitt rinsing) wasn’t as full of dirt and debris as I was used to seeing. Could this be a coincidence? I thought perhaps so since my car is usually pretty clean but then I washed my mothers poorly kept, filthy as can be Mercedes wagon. This thing gets a wash maybe 4 times a year unless I get to it first. It was filthy! It had been through rainstorms and driven through huge puddles of muddy water sat out in the sun baking the dirt and water onto the car.
Again I did the same routine. Sprayed the car down liberally with Stage 1 pre-wash and let it soak while I filled my wash buckets and got my supplies ready. Again, I rinsed the vehicle and went to work washing the car. This time I could DEFINITELY tell there was less dirt in the bucket than I was used to seeing on a vehicle in this condition. Needless to say I am impressed.
In closing, I believe the Stage 1 pre-wash does what it’s advertised to do. I was using about 2-3 ounces of product per application (more for a dirtier car) and it was rinsing cleaner than it would have with plain water. This may not have been the most scientific approach to my testing methodology; but I wash my car and friends cars often enough to know what my rinse bucket usually looks like on a filthy car.
I would like to thank Pete at Stage Car Care for the opportunity to review this product. I will keep everyone posted as I use this product throughout the life of the bottle and continually post my findings.
Thank you for reading, I apologize if my review seems scatter-brained. Feel free to ask me any questions!
-Ryan
Bare in mind, I'm by no way a professional detailer, reviewer.. so this review might seem slighted or retarded but it was really my first review of a product I recieved freely
Product Linky:
http://www.stagecarcare.com/stagecarcare.asp
As we all know, this is just some sort of surfactant, probably a lot like QEW in nature. But from my non scientific methods of testing it does seem to do SOMETHING.
Thanks for the interesting read Ryan!
Keep us apprised, you've at least piqued my curiosity a bit more.
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