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Professional products are really only for professionals”
In an interview we talk to Dieter Otto, car care specialist at Liqui Moly, about the differences between consumer and professional products in everyday life.
Professional products are really only for professionals”
Mr. Otto, when it comes to car care products, there are end consumer and professional products. What is the difference?
Dieter Otto: Professional products are really only for professionals. They are at a higher level, not only in effectiveness but also in application. There's no such thing as just polishing with an old undershirt. When processing, you have to stick precisely to the specifications; you need the right tools and the right locations. If a dust-free environment is necessary, you simply have to go to a paint booth. And the application takes more time. Done correctly, you get a great result that lasts a long time. However, due to the high requirements, the use of professional products is also prone to errors. And if you do something wrong here, your mistakes will be visible on your car for a long time. We currently only stock products for end consumers.
Sometimes there are enormous price differences for apparently “similar” products. Where does the price difference come from? Are there big differences in the quality of the ingredients?
This is often due to the different range of performance and applications. Let’s take our window cleaner foam as an example. It is more expensive than any window cleaner foam for household use. It can do more than just clean dusty glass. In this way, it removes silicone residue, as must be done when installing a new window. That's why it's generally not a good idea to use household products in the workshop - they are simply too weak for that. But it works the other way around. Another example: Our shine polish is more expensive than our polish & wax, even though both are polishes. This is due to the special formulation of the glossy polish, which is able to remove holograms.
How can you recognize differences in the quality of care products or what characterizes a good care product?
This is indeed very difficult and even more so for laypeople. There are no industry standards, no minimum requirements and no quality levels. Even one or two tests in car magazines are problematic from a technical point of view. Of course, the price can provide an indication, but not every expensive polish automatically delivers top results.
Is the car care products business a growth market?
Definitely for us. Our car care line includes around 60 products. We are putting these more in the foreground this year. We still see great potential in this.