So i read the sticky, and have a quick ?. What's the difference between cleaner wax and polish? from the description in the sticky, they seem like they do about the same thing. Thanks.

 

Technically, you are correct. A cleaner wax is a polish since it has some abrasives. However, the abrasives in many cleaner waxes only are strong enough to handle very light oxidation and very slight imperfections in the paint. Polishes are different in that they come in varying abrasiveness levels (e.g. Menzerna Intensive Polish has more abrasiveness than Menzerna Final Polish) in order to remove varying levels of paint imperfections and oxidation.

 

Also, polishes typically do not leave behind any protection (wax) the way a cleaner wax does.

In the real world though, you have to be careful about what you buy, since different companies can use the word "polish" differently. For example, Meguiar's calls their Deep Crystal Step 2 a "polish", even though it is non-abrasive, and Zaino calls their polymer sealant (which is absolutely non-abrasive) a "polish" because it is not a natural wax. This last practice is fairly common actually... I think most people tend to use the common-sense definition of a polish and just think of it as anything with abrasives in it, and that's what I do too.