1 Year with Meguiar's M888 Beyond Ceramic: Am I Beyond Impressed?
I just hit the 13-month mark with Meguiar’s M888 Beyond Ceramic on my daily driven 2024 VW Golf R. Being in the Houston area, this coating has lived through plenty of heat, UV exposure, rain and humidity, but none of the salted roads or harsh winter conditions found elsewhere. I wanted to share the results of how it's holding up after 13 months of daily driving and 54 washes (all done by me!).
My Maintenance Routine: Since application, this coating has been washed exactly 54 times.
- 26 Rinseless Washes using ONR
- 28 Foam-Rinse-Foam Washes: Bilt Hamber Touchless Pre-Wash, Meguiar's Shampoo Plus in Bucket and Foaming Sprayer, multiple mitts/towels
- I have not done any kind of iron removal or other kind of physical or chemical decontamination during this time. Only maintenance washing. No "toppers" or anything that would boost the performance has been applied.
My Observations:
- Self-Cleaning Ability: This was a benefit that I totally did not anticipate when I applied this. The self-cleaning properties are obvious in person and on video; road film, bird bombs and light dust simply don't want to stick, making maintenance significantly easier. Driving through a hard rain will clean the car to about 80%.
- Coating Degradation: After 13 months, the coating is showing no signs of degradation, even on the lower panels. The water beading is still tight. Gloss and slickness are still uniform across the entire car. Creating a sheet of water with the hose will get panels mostly dry.
- Variables: It’s worth noting that this performance could be a result of the strict maintenance routine or simply the environment I live in, lacking salted roads and winter conditions.
The Verdict: Before selecting and applying this coating, I watched as many videos as I could find on it. Auto Detailing Podcast (Jimbo) and Apex Auto Detailing channels both have deep dive videos that cover the application and torture/chemical resistance testing. It did extremely well in those videos. What they didn't cover was real world durability. I can confidently say that after 13 months, in my environment with my maintenance routine, this coating is an absolute winner. Would I buy it again? 100% Yes.
It Can't Be Perfect, Right? The only real negative is that it didn't do well on glass. It works great on paint, trim, and plastics, but not on glass. It just wouldn't cure to the glass evenly, so I quickly removed it. So you'll need a separate glass coating or sealant for that. It's covered in other people's videos, but the application isn't super simple. It's thick and a bit tacky when wiping off. It has a very long working time (10-15 minutes) so there's no real risk of high spots though, assuming you take your time and don't rush. If you've ever applied an old school wax (think Collinite 845), the application and wipe off feels a lot like that.
Here's the video I made which shows water behavior both before and after washing, lots of rinsing, a drying tip and a special bonus (a demo of the Neburia V2 Foaming Sprayer with 1% Bilt Hamber Touchless): https://youtu.be/QPKtCdp2yfk
So, what should I do with this coating now? I'm really tempted to keep doing what I've been doing since it's working so well.
As always, no product links and my channel is not monetized. I'm just doing this for fun and my own education.