It's really tough to get any swirl removal action because of the spoke shapes...difficult to apply any pressure, etc. I tried some felt bobs in a drill on mine and couldn't make a dent in the swirls...I brought this up before (maybe even started a thread about it), I'm not sure how GM does the high polish wheels, but it's possible that if they didn't do a good polishing job before the clear, that you would be able to see swirls that are actually in the metal, through the clear. At least that's the way it seemed to me when I polished and polished and they didn't budge. It did seem (and I think Accumulator has pointed this out) that the wheel coatings seem to be thicker and perhaps different (harder? softer? for more chip resistance?) than what is used on the rest of the car. My car had been through a number of dealer washes (test drive car) before I bought it, so I figured the wheel swirls were brush marks from that, but after trying to polish them I really :nixweiss
