Meguiar’s to Polish Cars, Image

Call it waxing eloquent.

Irvine-based Meguiar’s Inc., manufacturer of one of the premier lines of automotive waxes, polishes and cleaners, says it has signed a multiyear sponsorship agreement with the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show.

As part of the arrangement, Meguiar’s will have space to display show-quality vehicles--all shiny with the company’s products. In addition, all of the vehicles on display at the show (there are about 900 of them this year), will be cleaned, polished and touched up with Meguiar’s products during the 9-day event.

And Meguiar’s will have bragging rights to let everyone who comes to the show--held at the Los Angeles Convention Center Jan. 2 to 10--know that it is supplying the shine.

Meguiar’s, which was founded in 1901 and is still owned and run by the same family--Barry Meguiar is president--has long been a major sponsor of classic collector events like the Pebble Beach and Newport Beach concours d’elegance.

But this is the first major consumer auto show that the company is sponsoring. It’s part of the company’s effort to spread the brand’s recognition to the broader consumer market, a spokeswoman said.

Not coincidentally, Meguiar’s is launching a product Dec. 30 that it hopes will help make its name, and other products, as familiar in the carports and attached garages of the workaday auto world as it is in the spotless showrooms of the collector crowd.

The new stuff is a tire dressing, Endurance, that is being marketed as a “long lasting tire protectant gel.” It gets wiped on after the vehicle and its tires are washed, and is supposed to keep the tires looking bright and shiny for up to a month.

John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations and manufacturing for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com.