Car Care: Waxstation.com for all your needs

To put it bluntly, Waxstation.com:

• Is a great small business run by great people
• Are experts in all things car care related - interior, exterior, newer cars, older cars, show cars; scratches, washing, waxing, painting, etc. etc.
• Sells only the highest quality products from the industry leader in car care products - that would be Mothers.

Many folks are loyal to Meguiar's and I can understand that. Some folks prefer Turtle Wax, which I think is more of a trendy company, but nonetheless, there's lots of quality products to be had at Auto Zone or Napa. Where you strike out in a franchise store is the personal touch offered by Waxstation.com and the fact that they won't sell abrasive cloths, brushes, or applicators.

Here's where Waxstation.com fits in: if they sold Meguiars products, they'd still sell a great assortment of non-abrasive snow & upholstery brushes, wheel waxes, and other products that allow for great car care. They don't just stock bottles of waxes and polishes and call it a day; they can advise you on how to take care of your vehicle based on make, paint type, age, condition, and your particular wants & needs. As a result, I have no choice but to plug them here after years of dealing with them. The first time I had a question and was referred on a Benz board to Waxstation.com for proper vehicle care, the manager/owner asked me to call him rather than discuss over email. That was back in 2004. He spent a half hour with me on the phone and I wrote down notes that I still have on car care. When David W. took over, he kept the personal touch and I didn't miss a beat in terms of which microfibre cloths to mate to my great Mothers products. Even for something as small as a wheel spoke brush, David spent the time to help me pick the right one; or which detergent to use with microfibre cloths.

They truly are a great American small business and I am proud to be a customer of their business. If you have any car care needs, do yourself a favor and email their sales dept (sales at waxstation dot com, or mail at waxstation dot com). Even if you're nervous about changing brands to Mothers, simply buying microfibre cloths & the proper brushes for your vehicle to apply your other brand will impress you in terms of the order process, the ease of use of their site, the great descriptions of products, and the responsiveness of their sales team.

Another reason to hate Honda: The S2000 says goodbye

Honda lets yet another great product slip through the cracks, unreplaced by something, let alone a half-decent vehicle in the same segment:

Sayonara, S2000 [Road & Track, April 2009]

The S2000 was a great racing-inspired roadster, and the only Honda-branded product with rear wheel drive at the time. The Acura NSX was the only other rear-wheel drive car Honda/Acura made during those years, and that has been replaced with...nothing. Simply phased out, like this car, with no plans for a replacement.

With a new CEO joining Honda's ranks a few years ago (link is provided to show how well Fukui worked out for Honda - he's being replaced soon too), the second-generation Acura TL was one of the most popular cars in its segment, the Honda Accord had actually outsold the Camry for a year, and the new 2006 Civic was taking over the compact car segment. A new - and first - all wheel drive system for Acura could only mean good things going forward, right? Wrong.

While the Civic continues to impress, the overall vehicle market has dropped significantly in terms of sales, just like every other industry lately. The new Acura TL is designed oddly, to say the least; the RL gets no love from anyone and is lagging behind its competitors, and as I've mentioned in this space before, Acura never revived the CL and therefore never challenged the G coupe from Infiniti (which, by the way, is standard RWD with optional AWD). Since Acura is no BMW with only a FWD or AWD version offered on its TL, and only a four-cylinder in its smallest car (the TSX) until recently, I have a hard time figuring out the motivations of Honda's luxury brand.

This is aside from the fact that the new Accord - while impressive - grew to just over full size status in its most recent incarnation (2008 Full Model Change). With Korean competitors increasingly biting into the sales of Honda and Toyota, especially in the bread and butter segments like mid-size and compact sedans, it's amazing Honda decided to cut off the DX (most basic) trim level in the Accord and position the Accord as more upscale than it already was - as even a few years ago you could rack up over $30K on an Accord by buying the loaded V6 version. These are ideas I'd expect from dealership goons, not Honda Corporate.

It's hard to build loyalty into a brand when you can't get the basics right. Sales of the RDX and MDX are okay, but they could be even better if the rest of Acura's lineup was at least somewhat attractive, and people aren't buying SUVs in the numbers they were years ago anyway.

Honda is showing lately (and this does hurt as a former Honda owner) that they are all poorly executed style, with some good substance but nothing substantially better than what's out there from other companies.

One can make the same argument about certain Mercedes products too, but at least they are turning it around with the new C-class and new S-class (as well as a new E-class on the way soon). I'm not worried about the future of Mercedes-Benz, but I am worried about the future of Honda/Acura.

Tips & Tricks: Aftermarket brakes for German vehicles

Most Honda and Toyota owners have a vast array of options for aftermarket brakes. There are plenty of Honda/Acura and Toyota/Lexus products on the road, as well as the newer Korean brands, such that a ton of different options exist when it's time for new brake pads and/or rotors.

German vehicles can be a bit tricky. They are finicky, and many of them have brake wear sensors (many Japanese vehicles do too but only in their luxury brands). Also, what if it's time for pads but not rotors? Do you go the OEM (original equipment manufacturer, for those not familiar with the term) route, or do you go aftermarket?

All I can tell you is that my experience with aftermarket brakes has been great, and I've used - twice now - BMAParts.com. Sure, this is partly a shout-out to them, but it's also to ease your mind about using aftermarket brakes on a sophisticated luxury car. Note that in both cases below, we used OEM rotors with aftermarket pads, with positive results.

When my E-class needed new brakes, I was ready to go OEM. I had been told by my alignment specialist that OEM is the way to go with any car, when I had a Honda Accord, but I wanted to save money as well as get something without as much brake dust on my Benz wheels (the Benz OEM brakes, on both the W210 [1997-2002 (sedan) or 2003 (wagon)] and W211 chassis [2003 (sedan) and 2004 (wagon) to 2009] produce tons of brake dust). It seemed like I was washing the entire car every week just so I could clean the wheels. This isn't a bad thing - once a week wash is nice in the summer, especially, when one in cold climates has access to an outside hose that often - but it still was causing extra work, despite the great performance I got out of the brakes.

I spoke to a gentleman by the name of Yves at BMAparts.com, and I got the referral from a friend. I told him I didn't want to invest in parts for my Benz that I wouldn't be happy with and he completely understood, and walked me through my options. I told him I was more concerned with performance, though the brakes didn't have to be "track-ready", meaning I wasn't racing the car or anything - they just had to be as safe in terms of 'bite' while also lasting a while, as the OEM brakes.

He recommended the following for my vehicle:

- Brembo discs all around, PBR Metal Masters rear pads, Akebono ceramic front pads

A year later it was time for brakes on my wife's 2000 Lexus ES300 Platinum Edition. Here's what we did on hers. Note that these still having amazing bite a year later because she doesn't drive aggressively and they have been amazing thus far:

- Brembo discs all around, PBR Metal Masters rear pads, Akebono Ceramic front pads

Noticing a pattern yet?

The point is, it's always worth it to explore aftermarket options even on items as important as brakes. Just do your research and work with a well-informed business like BMAParts.com or Autohausaz.com. There are plenty more out there but use your model's preferred forum to get the specific answers you need, or even talk to your parts specialist at your local dealership - they are usually more willing to work with you and answer questions, even about aftermarket parts, than you think.

General shopping guidelines, part I

One of the curses of being a luxury car owner is that when one is buying used (who are these people that can even afford to lease an S-class?), there's always a glut of great cars on the market at fair prices. Due to the weakening economy, one can buy a 2004 BMW 5-series for $20,000 or so, depending on mileage. BMW is one of the last companies to offer full maintenance with their warranty period, so BMWs continue to keep their value well, falling a bit right after it's out of the warranty period.

The BMW is just an example, but is this really a good buy? Well, the one in question (link will expire in a few days so I won't bother posting it) is a 530i, which in 2004 was the best 6-cylinder option one had in a BMW 5-series. So there's one "pro" to that purchase. It also has 30K miles - another excellent "pro", indicating it hasn't been used much in over five years of ownership. It's in immaculate shape - another pro.

But it's a 2004! 2004 was the first year of the newly designed 5-series. Is this a bad thing? Not always, but a few things to note about new body styles:

• In German vehicles in particular, they may carry the same exact engine as the prior model, at least for a year or two, tweaked for more torque. This happened to the E320 (1997-2006 had the same engine). This isn't necessarily a bad thing; in fact it can give you confidence that the engine is tried and true, and may be a reason to get into that newer body style if you like the design better.
• New body styles sometimes come with new electronic wizardry - ventilated seats, new traction system, new wiring harnesses, iPod integration. This has no doubt been tested extensively at the factory, but over thousands of units being shipped per month when a new model comes out, there are bound to be issues. On the used market, this is particularly a problem as the vehicle likely isn't under warranty and some of the nuisances may not be covered under any affordable aftermarket warranty.
• Sometimes, companies make missteps. The current-gen E-class is a nice looking car, but I would honestly rather own a "W210" chassis (prior gen). It seems more spacious, is more classic in feel and design, and the layout makes more sense than the W211. That's not to say one shouldn't buy an E-class from 2003-2009 used, but shop it against comparable models first, or look for concept photos of the next generation to see how radically the company is changing the style. Do research and comparisons to find out if that's the car you really want for a bunch of years.
• If the old body style had features that were nearly as good (a la the old vs. new E-class) and the design differences don't bother you so much, maybe look at the old body style if it was considered more reliable, depending on age & mileage of course.

More tips to follow.