Mothers Ultimate Hybrid Ceramic Wax Offers Wax-Like Familiarity

When it comes to taking care of your car, one of the time-honored traditions is the wax job. Sure, you lovingly wash your car to keep it clear of dirt, sap, and bugs, but the next step is protecting it with wax or a coating. Unless you have some power tools to make it a bit faster, the task can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be.

I learned to apply wax with my dad, the little foam applicator pads, and a tin of carnauba wax. We’re talking wax on, wax off. This process will make your car shine, but you’re gonna work for it.

These days, there are a number of alternatives to traditional paste wax, such as spray and liquid waxes, and some of them are really good. Then there’s the world of ceramic coatings, which are usually a bit pricier. Storied car care brand Mothers sells something for everyone, including a ceramic line, and I was curious when the company released a new product called the Ultimate Hybrid Ceramic Wax. The ceramic wax is a hybrid in that it’s a blend of traditional carnauba wax and silicon-dioxide. 

The marketing pitch is that it pairs the familiarity of traditional wax with the hydrophobic (i.e. water will bead off it) properties of a ceramic coating. I got a bottle of the liquid version (there’s a spray-on version too) to see how it performed. Here’s how it got on.

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The Mothers Ultimate Hybrid Ceramic Wax is available in a few forms, but I got the liquid that comes out like a thick paste. Cost is more for the liquid than the spray stuff, but waxes applied by spray don’t typically last as long. Though I started out my waxing lessons with the traditional stuff, I soon learned to enjoy the paste. It was a little easier to apply and spread, though you still had a decent wait time for it to dry. The Ultimate Hybrid Ceramic Wax is simple to use if you’ve done this process before: Shake well, squeeze out a bit onto your clean microfiber cloth or applicator, apply in a swirl motion, then buff off with a clean microfiber towel. Easy peasy.

The ceramic wax is an easy product to use in comparison with old-school straight carnauba wax. You only need to apply a few dime-sized drops to your applicator (maybe 2-3) as you get going. Once I had spread the wax across the hood of my test vehicle, it came back off easily and took a moderate (expected) amount of effort to buff to a wonderful shine. As with any wax that you apply and let dry, the ceramic wax isn’t easy to apply and wipe back off like a spray wax, but the depth of the gloss imparted makes it worth the extra effort. 

My test mule is a 2014 GMC Acadia with a black metal flake paint. It’s a good-looking paint, and the ceramic wax really made it pop. So well, I might add, that I could see a number of scratches and nicks that weren’t apparent before. The ceramic wax does have an ultra-fine polish element to it, but I think in my application I probably need something more dedicated to remove some not-so-small scratches in the paint.

The ceramic wax blend goes on easier than most liquid carnauba waxes I’ve used, and it was easy to get a streak-free glossy finish on my Acadia. Drying time on a cooler day was quite reasonable, and I was happy with the amount of effort I had to use to get that gloss too. Some of the waxes I’ve used have required quite a bit of buffing to get all the streaks out or have stubbornly turned into swirls marks that require much towel-flipping and buffing. Not so with the Mothers Ceramic Wax. About a week after application, I got some rain and was pleased to see distinct water beading on the hood. Maybe there’s something to this strategy of adding the ceramic to the old-school carnauba.

The Mothers Ceramic Wax isn’t as quick as a spray-on wax — at least in liquid form. It’s an excellent product that produces a wonderful gloss, but you have to be prepared to spend some time on the process. I’ll add that it’s faster than traditional liquid waxes, but it can’t hold a candle to the convenience of a spray-on, wipe-off product. On the flip side, the finish you get is going to last longer and require less frequent application over the spray-on stuff in most cases. Like anything, the more traditional stuff has a few caveats, but it’s often a tradeoff that’s worth it to many enthusiasts.

If you’re looking to keep your car looking good and want to get a taste of the ceramic coating world without diving fully in, then the Mothers Ultimate Hybrid is a good in-between product. You have the depth of carnauba with the technology of the ceramic. Durability-wise, it should last longer than a traditional carnauba too, while being easier to apply. 

It’s hard to cut through the marketing talk sometimes, with Si02, “Advanced Technology” and the like being thrown around, but the Mothers is just plainly a good wax. Application is familiar, but the result is better and easier to get — even by hand.

You’ve got questions. The Drive has answers!

A: This stuff, despite the fancy name and ceramic blend, goes on just like traditional wax. See our guide on how to wax a car by hand for technique. 

A: Up to six months, depending on if the car is garaged or not. Mothers also notes that the darker the paint color, the more frequently you should wax it.

A: No. The ceramic wax is a hybrid of the two, taking some of the benefits of ceramic coatings and pairing them with the familiarity and user-friendliness of a traditional wax.

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