Whether you’ve bought your first Cadillac, or you’re on your 10th Caddy, it’s a great feeling to drive one of America’s most historic and iconic vehicles. However, maintaining your pride and joy is a different issue altogether.

I’ve used a lot of different cleaner, detailers, waxes and polishes, and have found a couple that I usually stick to. I would guess that most “car-people” have settled on a particular brand because they’re satisfied with their results. For me, I usually stick to Turtle Wax and Meguiar’s products.

I recently tried Turtle Wax’s Ice Detailer and Ice Polish. The Detailer is much like other Detailers on the market today. If you haven’t used a Detailer, you should! I keep a bottle of Detailer in both of my cars at all times. When you have bird droppings, tree sap or bee poop on your paint, you should remove it as soon as possible so the acids and other chemicals don’t eat into your clear coat and paint. All you do is spray the area and use a microfiber cloth to wipe it off, and it removes that ugliness from your car. The Ice Detailer doesn’t mist as much as some Detailers, so the spray seems to be more controlled, reducing the possibility of overspray onto windows, etc. It’s a good product just to keep the car clean, protect the paint, and maintain your shine between washes.

Now, I also tried the Ice Polish, and was very surprised with the product. I read the instructions before applying it, and it can be applied after your car wash, in the sun, and it won’t leave a white residue on plastic components. The instructions said that the polish dries in 3-5 minutes, but I didn’t see it dry for much longer (in California dry conditions). All it requires is spreading the polish onto the foam applicator, then applying it to the car. When dry, it just wipes off with a microfiber cloth. The whole process is very easy, and doesn’t take as much time as waxing. Thus, I think the idea of the product is slotted somewhere between the Detailer and the Wax stages. But here is the surprise. After applying this on my Corvette, and wiping it off, I tried to put the car cover on the car, and my cover kept on falling onto the floor (which kind of irritated me, because the cover was picking up floor dirt). Every way I pulled, the cover just kept sliding off the car. The Ice Polish made the paint so slick, that the cover had nothing to grab onto. I love the feeling of glass, smooth paint on my car. So, I washed my car this weekend to see how well the polish adheres to the paint, and I was pleasantly surprised that the polish was maintained, and the car was still slick. After washing the Caddy, I applied it also to the Caddy.

So, you’ve got your Caddy, but how does it look, and how is it protected? The best compliment I always get from people, is that they thought my cars newer than they really are. It’s a good feeling when you know you can maintain your car to look as if it were new.