Cost:  £12

Date of Review: 12/11/2023

The Sales Pitch from Dat Wax:

Tyre Dressing that provides a protective barrier resistant to road debris with a high gloss finish. Fast drying anti sling formula. This product can also be used on rubber trim and plastics.

Source:  https://datwaxuk.com/product/dat-wax-high-gloss-tyre-dressing/

Disclaimer:

I have always liked the Dat Wax original wax and reviewed it here a little over five years ago. I have been watching with interest their relaunch of the product and new website here, where they are introducing new products to complement their waxes. I have been messaging them about details and they asked me what I would like to try. They kindly sent me three samples to try and two small samples of their other two waxes. Which again are a real treat for the nose. Its worth waxing your car just for the smell of these waxes.

Although these were free samples it will not affect my review or show any favouritism towards Dat Wax. That would be unethical and taint my fully independent stance on reviews. Just because I didn’t pay for these I won’t plug them if they aren’t any good.

What You (would) Get:

An opaque black bottle containing 500ml of product. The bottle is filled to the top as well.

Product Description:

The product is a high gloss protective coating to be applied to the tyres. The product is quick drying as it says. This product also claims a no sling formula with a similar consistency to many other products out there. The liquid itself is clear.

However, there is no mention if the product contains any UV protection. The product can be used on trim and rubber seals as well.

Instructions:

On the side of the bottle, and there is also a guide on their website, including a ‘tip’:

Testing Environment:

Cool, overcast day mid afternoon.

Application:

Looking on the bottle isn’t much help, but to be honest it’s not difficult to work out. It would have been good to note that the product should be applied to clean dry tyres. My tyres were cleaned and dried of thoroughly with my car dryer. The tyres are eight months old but soon lost their blackness. These tyres are a perfect test tyre as the sidewalls have lots of close vertical lines as part of the Dunlop branding. These lines would show how the product would conform to the tyre and if any over-application was evident or any lack of coverage.

The Dat Wax recommendation is to use a ‘foam applicator or cloth’.

Note: It’s interesting to see that on the website they are using a brush for application. This would be an ideal way to apply the product working into the tyre, but could lead to over application. Having a run of missed product that wasn’t evenly applied would fly of the tyre at speed. A common sense approach should be used if you intend to use a brush like this.

Using a cloth I think isn’t an option as it would soon become saturated and feel oily and slippery to hold anything once on your hands or gloves. At this point I should point out the label, the design is very simple and catches the eye with a little holographic highlight on the product name itself. The label is textured which is a real first for me and is a good attention to detail. In fact it feels like some sand paper and makes holding the bottle of a slippery product that much easier.

The best application method I recommend would be to use a foam applicator covered with microfiber material. This can be in the form of a block or the round flatter circular style which is what I used.

I didn’t have any masking tape to do a 50/50 comparison, but I didn’t need it.

Using a foam centred pad allowed even pressure to the tyre and the product was very easy to apply. I Applied in a circular motion around the tyre, then went back over to rub in the direction of the lines to give the even coverage. It wasn’t any effort. You don’t need ladle the product on the tyre to get any results. I reckon a couple of tea spoons for two coats on each my 18″ tyres. The second coat didn’t need as much as the first coat’s application.

There is virtually no smell to the product at all. The consistency is not too runny and tipping my applicator cloth vertically didn’t see an immediate cascade of product on the floor. The product was easy enough to rub on the tyre. Other brands are purple, brown or even spray white. When I want to add shine I want just that, I don’t want to discolour the white lettered tyres on my Mustang.

Removing:

No need to remove anything, except any over application on the wheel rims.

Results:

After a single coat the result was as good as anything else I have seen from other well-known brand suppliers. I wouldn’t say a single coat was a glossy finish at this point, more of a nice sheen eggshell finish. If that’s the result you want then a single application is enough. I wanted a more glossy look, so I went for a second coat.

The second coating actually did make a visible change to the appearance and again its easy to see the difference, I have also added an arrow to show the end of the second application below. Some other products don’t see any difference after a second application.

Now we had a nice glossy look and almost looks wet. In fact I had to check it after my back wheel’s applications as I thought it was still wet. It wasn’t, it was dry.

Below are all four wheels with two coats applied. You could see a reflection of movement past the tyre. Impressive.

After I had buffed the rest of the wax of the car about thirty minutes or so, I revisited the tyre to see if it had faded or dulled down. It hadn’t and I would go so far as to say it had evened out and became more of a uniform finish.

The morning after the applications I went back out to see how the tyres looked as there was a cold evening and a mist had settled.

The looks are still as good as the day before.

There was some beading on the tyre which is something different.

Rating:  9 out 10

See below for a revised rating in the ‘Update‘ below.

I have reached out to the guys for clarification on the UV properties as it’s not noted anywhere. However, they got back to me pretty quickly on a Sunday evening and confirmed to me that there are UV protectants in the product. They stated that there should be ‘no browning’ and ‘apply two coats for that extra gloss’, which I had already done. I do think they missed a good selling point by not mentioning it on the bottle or the website.

Most of these tyre dressings only tend to last for a few weeks at best, maybe a month with little usage. How long this product lasts is yet to be seen. The claims for protection against road debris are as yet untested, I will provide an update after a week on the road commuting.

There are other dressings out there that can be applied to wet or dry tyres. This product needs to be applied to a dry tyre, which does make sense allowing the product to adhere to the rubber of the tyre surface.

On my Mustang I certainly want a level of UV protection on any product. If it doesn’t mention it I would have to think twice about buying it. With that in mind, I think Dat Wax have missed an opportunity to make the UV protection aspect of the product an additional selling point.

Ease of use – 10 out 10

Finish – 9 out 10

Conclusion:

Why not full marks? Simply the fact it needed two coats to get the ‘glossy’ results. If the price point was more competitive and a single coat application, then no doubt this would be a full marks product. Subject to longevity results of course. If it only lasts a week I will be disappointed. However, while cleaning the car and wheels you need a single top-up coat, then I consider that to be acceptable.

The price point of the product is reasonable at the £12 mark, arriving at the middle to upper tier pricing brackets of the competitive tyre dressing market. I have used more expensive big brand products and they don’t look as good as this. The usage of the product is good and economical, so that is offset against the cost and making this a good value for money purchase. Always a consideration when coming up with a rating score.

My score may well change Up as well as Down, once I have more information on the product’s longevity performance. As it’s poor weather driving up and down a major ‘A’ road in the rain and passing by a building site’s dirty road entrance. When the roads are dry our little village roads can get quite dusty so it will be given a tough test.

For now, I like what I see, I hope it lasts.

Would I recommend it? Yes.

Would I buy it again? Yes

Update: 18/11/2023

Revised Rating:  8 out 10

I have adjusted the rating down a mark as I will explain below.

After one week of bad weather for the tyre dressing road test, there is good news and some not so good news.

The good news; is that the protective dressing is still there. If you look at the wheel rims themselves you can see just how dirty they are. Yet the tyres are still black and still beading nicely. The road debris hasn’t stuck to the tyres and the ‘protective’ properties has stood up to their claims, excellent.

The not so good news is that the ‘high gloss’ has gone. After a few days of driving, the impressive first applied gloss had gone. The tyres now have an egg shell sheen look to them, perhaps a more natural look. However, the tyres are still black as you can see from the side on pic of my car above.

Why did I knock a mark off?

It was a tough call to be honest. The reason is this; the product is called a (Protective) ‘High gloss tyre dressing’. As the gloss faded pretty quickly it’s not so high gloss now. Other brands are the same and I mark those down for that gloss claim that fades quickly too. If it says ‘high gloss’ I would like the longevity of the great gloss after the application(s) to be lasting a bit longer.

If you are going to a car show and want a high gloss tyre dressing to look the part then this product is the one for you. If you want it to last as a high gloss daily driver, then that would be short lived in bad weather. The black protective tyres are still there so that outweighs the lack of gloss. On a nice day with not so bad weather, I suspect the product would stay glossy longer.

I would still buy it again, it’s a great product when applied and is indeed high gloss for a while. The fact it now has an 8 out 10 score doesn’t make it a failure, it’s still a good score from me. I have a sample bottle bottle that I will be taking to car shows with me and ditching the other tyre dressing brand I carry.

The fact I will have it with me in the Mustang should tell you a lot!