If you’ve visited this blog for any amount of time, you know that I have a fetish for car detailing supplies. I love to rub on my cars, and make it my purpose to test out and try a variety of detailing products up and down the price and quality scale.
By now I’m sure the pessimists, conspiracy theorists, and ignorant haters among you are thinking “oh here goes rich guy Leno trying to make a few more bucks pasting his name on a line of detail products.” That is SO NOT the case. Because believe me, Jay is far too credible and integrous to just slap his name on anything, and he certainly doesn’t need the money from a quick and dirty licensing deal.
I visited JLG not long after they introduced the still fairly new Advanced Vehicle Care lineup and asked Jim, one of Jay’s long time employees if they really do use this stuff around the shop and if its any good, and also what spawned the birth and launch of this product line.
He explained to me that they’d long been using a variety of products around the Garage, and never found a level of stuff they were consistently satisfied with. They tried pro level products from virtually all the car care companies you can name, and they found that they may have liked the detail spray from this one, the tire care from that one, and the waxes and polishes from another, but nothing consistently meeting their needs across the line.
He then told me that they made a connection with a company that makes pro level detail products under a variety of names and labels, and challenged them with their conundrum; that company supplied them with a bunch of stuff to test out on Jay’s cars and bikes, and after considerable testing and evaluation, identified a series and level of products that did the job of being easy to use, giving high quality results. The company expressed its desire to expand its market share and compete in the retail space, but not entirely confident they could compete with the big brands on their own name. So a bunch more discussion lead to the idea of leveraging the popularity of Jay, Jay Leno’s Garage, and the television show of the same names.
They have no hopes or desire of ever putting the big guys like Meguiar’s and Mothers out of business, but the idea is to expand the company’s volume and reach. I asked Jim if they really use these products around the JLG, and he showed me numerous detail karts full of them, and said you’ll notice you don’t see any other detail products anywhere else around the shop.
That’s when I sneaked this photo, something not normally allowed in JLG. I’ve now since used, and tested all of these products on my own cars and find them to be of very high quality, living up to the promise of being easy to use and giving great results. These products are also handsomely packaged, and wait till you try the JLG microfiber towels of which there are several for the different jobs around your car.
The underlying message here is that Jay is too much of a true car guy and has too many great cars to use junk products on them. The line is generally affordable, although there are a few low line auto parts and give box store products that are less costly for a reason, because they just aren’t any good (it’s unfortunate that there are some really crappy products out there that I wouldn’t dare rub or spray onto my own cars).
I encourage you to visit the JLG website, and sign up for its email updates blast deal, which is always running discount specials on the Advanced Vehicle Car products so you can get them and see for yourself at an even better price. Like Jay, I use, like, and recommend these products And besides, when you whip out that big JLG red wash bucket full of goodies to spiffy up your ride, all your car buddies will wonder “how you know Jay.” The envy value alone is worth it, plus your car will look fabulous.
JayLenosGarage.com