NXT: My initial reactions....

SLD, good to see you posting again.



Yes, this place has turned into a total meguiars love-in. We have the best of both worlds here on autopia, meguiars products and turtle wax detailing technique.



Bill.
 
Thanks for the review SLD, and welcome back.



I like to hear negative and positive reviews on products, supplies, tools, etc. Even if it is a product I use and love. I figured different opinions generally lead to the best solution, technique, product, etc.



I just received a shipment of NXT today, and I'll be detailing on Sunday, and I will post my review also.



AJ:xyxthumbs
 
I think this is an excellent example of a member who hasn't been exposed to crazy product hype (or at least it seems this way - Shiny Lil Detlr didn't post for a while) and the different reactions from it. This allows you to get a feel of the product without hearing what everyone else said before using it.
 
Man, this sucks. I was looking forward to trying the almighty, but hadn't picked it up yet. Now I'm not so sure I will. When several seasoned Autopians report their less than satisfactory results, I'm not as quick to drop $15 on another bottle of wax/sealant/whatever. Thanks for sharing your impressions, SLD. It's hard to tell what's really going on with the NXT reporting.
 
I would seriously take any reviews you see at this point with a grain of salt. As people have pointed out these are just first impressions. The final product has only been available for about a month and only publicly available for maybe a week. Few people have had any serious time to do a thorough review of the product and considering the weather where most of us are how can you do a fair review? Could we be seeing anti-hype or hype lashback :D
 
I wouldnt' let this stop me from trying it. For a single step product it is pretty darn good. I just checked on a customers car I did two weeks ago with NXT and he says it beaded wax in the storm yesterday so it's still holding in there.



I love trying out waxes and probably won't keep NXT on my car for long. It has it's place in my arsenal of products. I've only used the wax and so far I've been pleased with the results from every car i've done. It has a shine that is nearly as good as Klasse, but a little bit different all together. I think S100 is easier to buff off and gives a deeper shine. These are my thoughts thus far. I will be keeping an eye on the cars I've done and still play with it a little. Just something to keep an obsessed person like me busy...
 
Gotta disagree a little, there Bob... I *think* what happened was that a big amount of hype was injected into the NXT product from a fairly limited source of information (the manufacturer). Many read the hype, looked at the photos, and eventually started to believe the hype as reality.



The problem with excess hype is that it can develop higher expectations. After seeing 5 or 6 cars that look spectacular "thanks to NXT," the bar is effectively raised to a surreal level. Now, as people get their hands on the product and start to play with it, an interesting mixture of results are coming in.



Some are reporting great results, others mediocre, and some are disappointed. Yet the hype-based-facts are still looming, and as a result, less than stellar results are qualified with all sorts of explanations and/or excuses.



What does that mean? Well, here's an example:



On my box of NXT, the label reads: "This is now the long-lasting [sic] car wax we make." Yet when some have reported spotty durability, the crowds respond with, "Well, that's ok, I don't care about durability anyway."



Don't get me wrong - from my initial tests, it does look like a decent product. I've noted a mild cleaning action and a fairly decent initial appearance. I'm still up in the air about its durability and long-term performance (I did some accelerated durability testing and am now testing it "real world" to confirm)...



You nailed it when you said "I would seriously take any reviews you see at this point with a grain of salt." That's so very true, but unfortunately many haven't taken that grain of salt and have bought the product based entirely on the initial, pre-production hype. The salt has to season both camps - the hype and the reality. :)
 
Steve,



The hype comments were meant to be humorous :)



I agree with you 100% about the hype and have said before that I thought it was going to hurt the product in the end.



Not sure most Autopians though need hype to induce them to purchase a new product. Aren't we all searching for that elusive perfect shine? I have tried just about everything under the sun and probably have enough products to supply every detail shop within 50 miles :) The hype did though raise expectations to a point where letdown for some people was inevitable.



I have had it on my Mustang for 3 weeks now and am more than pleased with it and am only waiting now to see how it holds up as far as durability.
 
Cool - this thread has an eery tendency to drive people to misconstrue comments that were intended to be humorous. :) I think we're all on the same page, but we're speaking in different dialects. ;)
 
NozeBleedSpeed said:
I think its the Megs version of UPP. Just my take.
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I can agree with that. NXT seems to darken the paint slightly compared to UPP, other than that, the appearance is pretty close. I've also noticed it takes a few hours for NXT to look it's best. I think it is a good comprimise between the typical characteristics of synthetics and carnaubas and it is available off the shelf.



What is important is that I am happy with the look and so are my customers. Durability still remains to be seen since I've only had it about 3 weeks now.
 
geekysteve said:
Cool - this thread has an eery tendency to drive people to misconstrue comments that were intended to be humorous. :) I think we're all on the same page, but we're speaking in different dialects. ;)
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I speek fluent jiberish :D
 
Originally posted by geekysteve

The problem with excess hype is that it can develop higher expectations. After seeing 5 or 6 cars that look spectacular "thanks to NXT," the bar is effectively raised to a surreal level
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That is why I feel when I post pics, it is important to also let people know what kind of prep was done. No product looks its best if the paint isn't in good condition.



With most quality waxes and sealants, if the prep work is done properly, you are looking at only about 5% appearance improvement one way or the other depending on your last step product.
 
When I first saw the reviews of NXT by Mike at Meguiars, I noticed that he spent alot of time describing the prep for the car. IIRC, on some of the examples, he used a rotary or PC to remove swirls, etc. long before he applied the NXT. Naturally, the cars came out looking great.



That is where I believe the hype came from. Of course his cars looked great, he took the time to properly prepare them. Odds are, if he had used any other Meguiars product, the cars would have looked just as good. If people are just slapping a coat of NXT onto their cars, I'm not surprised that they are less than thrilled with the product. Paint prep is the key to good looks.



That said, I haven't tried NXT (yet). I suspect it is a good product, since my experience with companies like Meguiars and Mothers is that they make good products. I have certain properties that I look for in a wax/sealant, and if NXT meets my expectations, then I will continue to use it. If not, doesn't mean it is a crappy product, just not my cup of tea.



Dom
 
stanger99 said:
Man, this sucks. I was looking forward to trying the almighty, but hadn't picked it up yet. Now I'm not so sure I will. When several seasoned Autopians report their less than satisfactory results, I'm not as quick to drop $15 on another bottle of wax/sealant/whatever. Thanks for sharing your impressions, SLD. It's hard to tell what's really going on with the NXT reporting.
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The misconception was that NXT was the finish in the bottle that everybody had been hoping for. This is especially misleading when Mike Phillips posted pictures where NXT did a better than average job of covering swirl marks with lab sample "d." If somebody said that NXT is the best sealant they have used, then they need to try a few more products. If somebody says it is the worst, they need to try NXT again. It's not that it's a horrible product, it is just that it cannot live up to the expectations that may have been overboosted by all the excitement of having a "sealant" available at Walmart. If I was in a store and had to pick out a wax, I would probably take NXT over anything there. If I was online and got to pick a product, there are a few other products I would take over it.



It's not a "one-step" product by any means. When you use it as a one-step, you're not going to get great results. Infact, it probably won't look much better than meguiars cleaner-wax. The pictures that Mike posted were mainly prepped. To this, NXT will look great. When you put "Look at these pictures of CowsLuvitWax, they look so spectacular on my Chevette" it creates the allusion that the end, putting on the wax, caused the finish to be good. Then you get the posts, "CowsLuvItWax is the best thing, first I clayed, then I polished, I then went to a lighter polish, and then I applied the wax."



Many people overlook the prepping as much of the cause of the reflective/deep paint. This is poor logic because the finish should already look reasonably good before you put any protection on it. It may boost the shine and depth (much like glass does on a mirror). Maybe Meguiars needs to make a NXT Polish and package that with it. If you read my post, I put much of the blame on me not doing a full detail before. I'm not done with it, but I'm most certainly am not going to sit around waiting while people on here say things that I found to not be true from my own experience.



It's not back-lash, it's criticism. If that's all this board offered was positive feedback, then what would be the point in reading posts? I made posts last year saying that Blackfire was overhyped, but I think it's a great product now. Who knows, I may find out I like NXT. Do I think both of them are great products? No, and I never said that. NXT is good, not great.



This is Autopia, not Autozone. Good products get shelved and you always look for better, but you always go back to the good products when you find a horrible product. Such as the time I decided I wasn't going to use Blackfire, and used Eagle One cleaner/wax. :o



I could go on and on. I'm sorry I'm rambling, heh.
 
rjstaaf said:
I would seriously take any reviews you see at this point with a grain of salt. As people have pointed out these are just first impressions. The final product has only been available for about a month and only publicly available for maybe a week. Few people have had any serious time to do a thorough review of the product and considering the weather where most of us are how can you do a fair review? Could we be seeing anti-hype or hype lashback :D
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ditto. :cool:



I personally did not and do not buy detailing products because of hype. I love trying new detailing things and see if they fit into my search for the ultimate shine. Being fiscally secure most of these items do not effect my life-style or outlook on the commercial elements of our culture if these new products are a disappointment initially. I have tested many products that at first usage completely under-whelmed me but with further testing and procedural alterations they find their place in the mix on one of my vehicles.

I like NXT on my pampered vehicle and I enjoy the Spray Wax. Will I ever know if NXT has a durability equivalent to my Zaino on one of my vehicles, EX on another or UPP on another. Probably not. I detail all my driven vehicles at least every 2 -3 weeks and for the garage queens durability is completely irrelevant.

I enjoy detailing so trial and errors are just part of the game I chose to play. Some habits are hard to break and having clean detailed vehicles is one of them for me.

There are many ways to view the value of a product and in terms of NXT no claims that I can recall were made about durability. Please correct me if I'm mistaken but Mike P's discussion about this product has always been about appearance. And as we all know, that can be very, very subjective and extremely dependent of Prep and skill of detailing.

Has anyone ever notice that no matter what products ScottWax uses his vehicle look great? Speaks volumes of the importance of Prep and Skill. JMHO



This is not intended as a knock on anyone's detailing skills or prep procedure. Just a statement of their importance :wavey
 
OK - let me re-iterate, again, that these are very preliminary, and I did not do a full detail in order to test the product, I merely cleaned my car up as well as I could given the environment, and applied a coat of product. I got about the results I was expecting from the wax itself, I doubt I saw its full potential. I do know that the results were not quite as nice as I would get from Zaino, or S100; the spray wax was another story. I would not expect a "maintenance" product to streak and haze quite like this, especially if it would not buff out.



I did hear a very small portion of the hype; but I've never put much stock in hype. The product must be able to speak for itself, regardless if the marketing has been all positives.
 
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