Although A-Glaze is a paint protection system, and therefore a product most suited to a long term review, we thought we’d share our first impressions.

We also thought it was an excuse to show more photos of our MINI Cooper S, but that’s beside the point really.

A-Glaze is a paint sealant product that several UK MINI dealers are starting to offer to their customers on collection, and can also be bought directly from the company (A-Glaze), which, according to their marketing material, offer “The Most Advanced Surface Protection Systems Available”. So when offered a chance to try the product on our new S for review on MINI2, and possibly claw back some of our weekends spent peeling grime of the car and waxing it all up, we jumped at the chance.

Previously we’ve always been big fans of the Meguiars “Gold Class” range of washes and waxes. We (quite possibly like you, if you’re a MINI owner already) have spent hours cleaning our MINIs, which despite their relatively diminutive size manage to splat more bugs at the front, and suck up more grit and dirt at the back than your average JCB digger and long distance lorry combined.

“A-Glaze Plus”, the product which is applied to vehicles (rather than their similar products used and approved by Boeing, British Aerospace, and on executive yachts!) carries a five year guarantee when applied to vehicles under six months old, and apparently will protect our MINI against UV rays, acid rain, colour fading, ionisation, snow, ice and salt, bird acid, an will give us a continuous “show room shine”. If it does half of that I’ll be pleased enough really. But time will tell.

The application process isn’t complicated, and you can “DIY” this job with a range of products purchased directly from the A-Glaze website. The car has to be clean, which is why it’s better on new vehicles, and even then the entire surface was prepared, meticulously, with a surface preparation which is a polishing compound and cleaner. Matthew, who was brave (or crazy) enough to stay outside in the biting cold weather for hours, with only a few cups of tea to keep him going, spent what seemed like an age just to prepare the car for the A-Glaze treatment.

The A-Glaze was then applied to the bodywork, slowly and methodically (at least twice over), to ensure a really good cover. Rather disconcertingly Matthew demonstrated how you could get A-Glaze onto the black plastic trim, chrome and such without it discolouring the material, or leaving any marks (unlike most Wax finishes). Fortunately it’s very true, not a mark was left, and there was no need to jump for the magic peanut butter to get out any nasty white stains from the black trim.

While the application was taking place, I asked about the maintenance and after care of the MINI now it had A-Glaze applied to it. Despite rumours that you’ll never need to wash your car again, it turns out that really it’s pretty much business as usual. For a clean all you really need is a good detergent and a decent sponge/mitt, and then chamois the car the dry. However, if you want to wax and care for the car as obsessively as you may already do, then that’s no problem, the A-Glaze wont interfere with other waxes, and can be considered like a protective base layer. It seems in terms of appearance that A-Glaze acts like a very good wax that doesn’t need re-applying every few months. It should also make cleaning easier because bugs and such should stick less to the protected paintwork. Roll on the spring time to start testing that theory!

When the application was complete, I took the car out for some photos in the fading daylight. The appearance was really no more than a well washed and waxed car, and a new car at that, but it did look lovely. After I’d driven the car a while in pretty dreadful road conditions (standing rain water and mud, lots of mud) the following day I decided to give the car a quick clean, before taking some more photos while it was still fresh.

I have to say that cleaning the car was, as you might expect, a breeze. And the finish was very much like a very well waxed car would be. It did indeed have a “showroom shine”, but then again, it’s not long been out of the showroom. Maybe in our 2000 or 3000 mile report we’ll have a little more to say on the long term benefit of A-Glaze, but so far so good, and we’ll keep you posted.