Give the motor car a luxury treat

Zymöl is like Häagen-Dazs. It oozes sophisticated European brand, but it’s American – a very good thing when it comes to car care, because when the Americans say concours d’elegance they really mean it. There’s a fundamental misunderstanding across the Atlantic when it comes to classic cars. The European “very good original condition” translates into “tatty” from a Californian perspective, while the US take on concours strikes the average Swiss citizen as too clean by far. But Zymöl – which has German roots in a Bischofsheim carriage wax discovered over a century ago – has re-entered Europe via Connecticut and is fast becoming an absolute phenomenon among automotive cognoscenti.

Right at the top of a product tree not short of branches, there is Zymöl vintage wax. It comes in a crystal ink well, costs heavily and is re-fillable at no cost for life. Based on a custom formula developed for a prize-winning 1947 Bentley Mark VI Cabriolet, it contains 61% Brazilian No.1 white carnauba wax by volume, Montan evergreen oil, sunflower oil, cantaloupe oil, coconut oil, honeydew extract and propolis (from bees). So it smells fabulous as well.

The rest of the Zymöl product range is not far behind in sensory delights and beautifully glazed results, but a good deal cheaper. We tried the Carbon Wax Smart kit, which comes with such comprehensive instructions that car cleaning is transformed into a process as delicate and breathtaking as heart surgery.

Juggling pre-wax and wax applicators, the coup de grace comes when you buff off with the “ultra light-weight, ‘rubber’ (nylon+nytril) quad axial woven material” Zymöl Microwipe, “forcing all of your Zymöl wax or glaze to bond during application.” The results are undeniably superb, and result in that fabulous moment when the rain comes down, and instead of turning the paintwork to slime, beads and slides away like aqueous quicksilver.

Using hard, chalky water to clean the car leaves behind horrid smudges, especially on darker paint work and diamondschwarz metallic especially. Zymöl has fixed that too with a hose filter called ReinesWater. It’s simple, it works, and it will ensure the cleanest base from which to begin the washing-waxing process