I gassed up the Lexus this morning for the first time. It wasn’t as bad as I thought. With slightly less than a quarter tank left, I filled up with Chevron Premium for a total of $41.17. It’s too bad that 3/4 of the tank got me under 300 miles. While waiting for my car to drink up, I took a paper towel around to places that had those little yellow dots of bird poop. With the slippery new clearcoat on the car, those poop chips just fell right off. I didn’t even have to dissolve them. Goal: keep wax job up so it’d always be like that.

Speaking of car wax, my bailiff brought in a Consumer Reports article to let me compare waxes. There are liquid wax (good for restoring high-gloss finishes, but kind of a pain to use), paste wax (decent gloss but not as good for cleaning as liquid wax, but fairly easy to use), and spray wax (new thing in a spray bottle, quick and easy, but shine doesn’t last long and not good for cleaning. Decent for maintenance). Turns out that the 2 best liquids are Black Magic Wet Shine Liquid Wax and Turtle Wax Carnauba Car Wax T-6, each for $7, excellent gloss, durability, cleaning, compatibility w/plastic, good on ease of use, and lack of scratching/hazing (i.e., not so abrasive as to mess up your paint during application/removal). Meguiar’s Gold Class Clear Coat Wax ranked somewhere in the upper middle, mostly because of less durability. Plus it’s $15 a pop. Nu Finish $8 ranked the highest in paste, and Eagle One Wax-As-U-Dry $6 ranked the highest in spray. In terms of overall score, the 2 liquids scored 84/100, the Nu Finish paste scored 71, the Eagle One spray scored 54. Just in case you guys are in the market for car wax. =)
(“Car Wax: Quality Shine for Less”, pg. 47-49, Consumer Reports, July 2006. Or, check http://www.ConsumerReports.org)

Mr. W and I went to CarMax yesterday after work to get an estimate on his truck. I have to say that my [interruption here, Mr. W just called me on the phone, brb] Okay. Now that it’s 2 hours later, I’m back. Anyway, we went to CarMax and my experience there was very impressive. If you want to sell or buy a used car, that’s the way to go! They’re thorough, haggle-free, nice people. None of the stereotypical sleazy car salespeople stuff.