Alright, I found the actual consumer reports and I will attach them here. The testing methods are on the last page of the report. Their shine testing was based on putting the panels side by side and having the testers view them to see which one was the shiniest, but this is highly subjective IMO, which is why I have stayed away from making any such claims regarding the shine and leave it up to you. In addition, it says the vehicles were owned by staff, yet no mention to how they made sure all vehicles were subjected to the same environment, if they were the ones used in the other testing.
I also noticed they used the same amount of wax / polish for each product, but some waxes and polishes require more while others require less. Zaino says less is better. I think it would have been better if they simply followed the manufacturers suggestions when using the products since each product is unique in it's application. Some suggest the use of other products in the line for the best results, such as Zaino and Meguairs. Zaino suggests Clay bar, ZAIO, Z2, Z5, and Z6, while Meguiars suggests Clay Bar, Scratch X, and NXT 2.0. I think in order to use each product to it's fullest potential, you have to follow the manufactures guidelines, as more normal individuals will.
In order to test longevity, they used a beading test, which is what we are using as well. One thing I have noticed in regards to beading is that even my roof, which hasn't seen a drop of wax for at least 4 years, still beads (with a rain simulated test), but the beads are irregular and flat. Beading also depends on the way the panel is sprayed. A light, simulated rain will produce different beading than heavily spraying the water on the panel. I noticed this right after starting this test and noticing the water on the hood after it rained. I came home, dried the hood, and tried to replicate the effects, which is now called the "rain simulated test" in our testing. One thing you might notice if you watch the last videos is how Zaino was still repelling the water nicely and the water was rolling down onto the Meguiars panel. On the other panels, the water appears to be sheeting instead of beading. Here is what I mean regarding bead testing:
Freshly treated surface:
Untreated surface:
We can definitely see a difference, but at what point do we say the water is no longer beading? I guess it would be safe to say that when the beads look like photo 2, the wax is no longer beading, but getting to an agreement on when that exact thing occurs will probably be open to debate. Of course it would be easy to see which product is beading better and not sheeting after being sprayed.
This is where the drag test removes subjective speculation and gives us some hard data that we can look at to see how well the wax is still providing a slick barrier. I am sure you can find flaws in our testing as well, and if so, please point them out so we can improve them. Our only goal is to get good data.
I will add gold class to the list of waxes / polishes to test. Sorry for the long post, but I am learning a lot with these tests.