May is on the horizon and that can mean only one thing – the spring weather is upon us. Each spring, Canadian Tire likes to show off their latest retail products, so they invited The Driver down to check out their most exciting offerings. 

If you’re a regular spring cleaner – you probably have your favourite supply of products. Whether you favour Autoglym, Meguiar, Mothers or Simoniz, it’s always nice to see what the other has, and you never know, maybe the competitor is worth a try. 

Canadian Tire usually supplies a nice spread of products that touch on all of those companies and this time was no different. The demonstration model was a white Dodge Charger who was sitting pretty waiting for a bath and Simoniz had 17 different products from their platinum division ready to help. 

With simply two buckets, one with soapy water and the other with clear water, Laurie, our Canadian Tire demonstrator showed me how to clean the car with just a Simoniz Platinum wash mitt and extra-large towel. The microfibers in the wash mitt seemed to be super absorbent and got into the hard to reach curves of the vehicle providing a thorough scrub. For your reference, Canadian Tire is offering a Father’s Day seven-piece gift pack from Simoniz’s Platinum collection for only $29.99. 

After the wash, I was shown Meguiar’s Black and White Wax. What makes this product so unique is that there’s a wax offered depending on the colour of your car. Choose the black wax for darker shades that will provide your vehicle a deep shine; while the white wax are for lighter coloured vehicles that will allow that colour to pop. 

The Charger wasn’t finished until the Hankook tires on it got scrubbed and that’s where the Simoniz Platinum collection impressed the most. For this task, Laurie used a Simoniz rim cleaner spray, a tire scrub and a bendable brush. The combination of the three scrubbed everything away with ease. The bendable brush gets into those hard-to-reach places inside of your rims. As a bonus, there’s a scrubber on the other side of the brush as well. 

Once the Charger was washed, it was off to the tech station to see the top items that can enhance your road trip getaway. The first two were GPS items, and I don’t know about you, but these items seem to be enormously improving. There was a Magellan Smart Wi-Fi enabled GPS that could update your map on a daily basis, list various gas prices, provide restaurant recommendations and connect to the data on your mobile. As for the Garmin heads-up display, it didn’t have all of those capabilities, but it can project navigation information onto your windshield for limited distraction while driving. It also comes with traffic and safety alerts and can be paired with a smartphone. Both were simply amazing and top-of-the-line products that can be had for $249. 

A dash camera is not for everybody, but if you’re concerned about documenting traffic incidents or theft, the HP Dashboard Camera has a 2.4-inch colour LCD screen with full 1080 HD video. The best part of this system is that if a collision occurs, the video camera will automatically save and lock the 15 seconds that precede it. 

Lastly, the Logiix Blue Piston Bluetooth Speaker was spotlighted. This could be perfect for anyone driving a car without built-in Bluetooth. It’s a battery-driven, wirelessly connected device that connects to your smartphone and can play music or become a hands-free phone device. It’s so small that it can be placed inside of one of your cup holders and doesn’t shake while the vehicle is in motion. You can find this at your local Canadian Tire store for a reasonable $49.99.

At any Canadian Tire event, there’s always plenty to talk about and only so much you can write. I wanted to highlight the spring cleaning and tech items that are currently available, so you can get started on getting your vehicle prepped for that up-coming May long weekend. Now it’s up to you, to see what best suits your needs for this long-awaited spring.