High end detailing products at your local Advanced Auto
 

I was surprised to see Griot's Garage line prominently displayed at Advanced Auto. I'm not really a fanboy of particular brands, as far as the higher end brands, they all do a fairly similar job. The big exceptions being Finish Kare's #425 spray (something proprietary in that formulation) and 1Z leather cleaner. Admittedly I don't buy many over the counter products from the auto stores and Wal-Mart because they're a little too diluted and the prices aren't that much lower these days.

That being said I was using Meguiar's car wash spray $17 for 1 liter bottle and was running low when I came across the Griots display. They had a similar product with a much nicer spray bottle for a similar price. This is a product used to wash your car without a hose. Just spray and wipe down, easier on the paint than bucket and hose. The Griots display also had 3 liter bottles of their products. This got my attention as I hate paying to ship one little bottle, OTOH offering a big bottle locally saves the shipping expense altogether. They also had a the highly unusual packaging of a healthy sized claybar without the detail spray, which always seems like a ploy to get you to spend more than you need to by adding the cost of the quick detail spray. In my experience clay bar will work with soapy water fine, no need to buy a spray just for this. The Griots clay is first rate and its a higher quantity of clay in an airtight jar. I also tried the tire shine which actually works well on interior black plastic, sort reminds me of the Klasse VLRP which was my go to product before they changed the formula. Leaves a dark matte shine.

....well before I know it on subsequent trips I'm picking up additional items (speed shine spray, spray wax, interior cleaner(works on carpet too) and interior proctectant, drying towel, show car wax). And now I look like a fanboy afterall. Having tried a product or two in the past I plainly see that its high quality, enthusiast grade product but saving me the hassle of ordering by mail (always seems to arrive after the weekend I have time to detail has past). Clever marketing by Griots.

It's about time, the prices aren't too awful except the can of paste wax. Griots has nice stuff and in general ludicrous pricing. Best thing to do with a griots catalog is pick what you want and if possible make your own knock off product. Even their wash buckets were stupid priced.

Good to know. I like their products as well so it will be nice not to have to wait and pay for shipping. Thanks for the heads up.

Don't forget that if you can order online at Advance and pick up in store, you can easily get discounts from 20 to 40% depending on your order. Discount doesn't work for oil but seems to work for about everything else.

YMMV but discount is working on Griot products

$10 off $30 Coupon Code: A123 = 33% off

$15 off $40 Coupon Code: BIG1540= 37.5% off

$20 off $50 Coupon Code: A123 = 40% off

$30 off $75 Coupon Code: BIG30 = 40% off

$35 off $85 Coupon Code: RAF7JA1102 = 41% off

$40 off $100 Coupon Code: CCABIN = 40% off

$50 off $150 Coupon Code: VISA = 33% off

$15 off 50 plus $25 off your next $50 Coupon Code: AAP15

^ oh boy that would have saved me a tank of gas easy...

next time. I plan to do a lot more detailing. I was starting to get lazy.
Although that's by enthusiast standards.

As far as pricing, I think Griots aren't the cheapest but its pretty obvious they have higher standards than nearly all the over the counter products. I'm not sure if its just the way retail works but I find the mass market names to be expensive for what you get. I can pick a few items into my kart and it adds up quickly for what I find to be "car wash" detailing quality, well not really the quality of the ingredients but more so the concentrations. Stuff you buy over the counter just requires more elbow grease to get the same effect and level of shine. I guess this is to keep newbies from polishing their canvas tops with paint sealant. But with YouTube now its a lot harder for newbies to mess up their cars.

By the way, the Griots towels are pricey ($4 per towel on average) but as pointed out above they offer great discounts and from the few I've tried they are well above the janitorial quality you find in most auto stores, ($1-2 per towel on average) you'll wreck soft German paint easily with those. I keep a Griots drying towel in the car now in the event I have to go to a hand car wash or one of those coing operated places in a pinch.

I haven't tried Griots products yet but will as my current stuff runs out. Biggest project right now is trying to get a shine out of the original paint on my 84 Alfa Spider. The red is looking real tired right now...

just a quick update on the Griots tire shine. I applied to all the black plastic interior trim like door sill and after a week it's still holding up very well. Great product.

The interior cleaning spray also get the thumbs up. Very versatile product...great spot cleaner for the carpet and matts, cleans the leather and dash.