I bought this to reduce the overall amount of elbow grease required to wax and polish my car. I waxed by hand, wiped the majority of the wax off by hand, and then I used this to buff it all to a nice shine. That approach worked well with this product -- the car looks beautiful, and it was overall much easier and faster.The car is black, and I am always nervous about anything touching the paint -- black shows so many flaws so easily. I was unsure whether this would be soft enough for me to feel comfortable hitting the paint with it at high speed. In the end, I trusted the brand name and just went for it. I'm so glad I did -- soft as anything, it polished the wax and paint beautifully.