Avalon King, VINwiki Team Up to Total a Beater AMG
After three years of partnership, VINwiki puts Avalon King ceramic coating to the ultimate test: launching an AMG off a cliff!
If there’s anything out there ready to protect your Mercedes from the elements, our friends at Avalon King have the products you need. For just a few bucks, a tiny bottle or two of Avalon King’s Armor Shield IX DIY Kit will protect your Benz fleet from the sun, jerkass taggers, and sap from your trees for a long time. And the best part? Anyone can apply it.
Anyone, such as Ed Bolian, Mercedes fan, former trans-con record holder, and founder of the VINwiki app. Bolian and Avalon King have been in a partnership for three years. The sponsor wanted more of a challenge for its ceramic coating. Bolian replied with a derelict AMG, and the ultimate test.
“Avalon King has been one of the channel’s sponsors for each of the last three years,” said Bolian. “We’ve done a lot of different projects and road trips and adventures with them. I certainly have appreciated their continued support […] They contacted me a couple of weeks ago, and said, ‘Ed, we’d like you to find a way to torture-test our product a little bit beyond what we normally see.'”
Avalon King usually sees their partners apply their Armor Shield IX DIY Kit to their rides, then move on. After all, the ceramic coating is “a super wax” that makes anything look stunning. Why prove the point further? If only they knew what Bolian had in mind.
“What [the VINwiki team] arrived on was learning of the tradition of the people of Glacier Park, Alaska,” said Bolian. “Up in coastal Alaska, where, on the Fourth of July, they have a tradition of retiring some of the broken-down and derelict cars that would otherwise just sit, rusting away in junkyards.”
That tradition involves shooting the busted rides off a cliff. Thus, Bolian & Co. wondered if Avalon King’s Armor Shield IX would “protect your car in the event of an accident.” To determine this, they decided to take part in the automotive cliff-diving event via an A/B test. One side of the chosen ride would be coated, the other left alone. Bolian didn’t choose just any ride for the sacrifice, though.
“I set out to try to find the perfect car to do this in,” said Bolian. “For me, that answer is always gonna be an AMG Mercedes, obviously. I’m gonna buy the most depreciated form of the coolest car […] and we’re gonna see how it works.”
Thus, Bolian purchased a 2002 S55 AMG “for over 97% off its original value.” That means lots of error lights, and a “shimmy from a very weak shock.” Therefore, it’s the perfect test bed for Avalon King’s Armor Shield IX ceramic coating. We wonder how many bottles he’ll need for the launch.