My car is only 3 months old (4000miles) and has only ever been handwashed. I have now bought a pressure washer so am going to do a proper detail tomorrow. There are no swirl marks, scuffs or scratches that i can see. I am going to apply a couple of coats of Collinite 476s, but dont see a reason to polish, the car beads well without any previous waxing so must have a decent clearcoat on it still, so i really don't want to start removing that. I've polished using Autoglym SRP before on my old car which needed it, this one doesnt seem to, its Silver too so i cant see it helping the colour much. I'm not going to clay as the bonded contaminants are negligible and not worth the effort, plus im scared ill do more bad than good with the clay.

TBH polishing by hand is a lot of hardwork so i dont want to waste a couple of hours if i wont see much benefit. I think the Collinite will give enough of a shine on its own. What do you more experienced guys think?

I think you've answered your own question mate, I wouldn't bother. If there are no swirl marks and your happy with the state of the paint then why go to all the effort, I concentrate on a good washing and drying technique and try to avoid the swirls altogether.

Polishing by hand is long and painful with better results being achieved with a DA or Rotary............if you believe there are no scratches or swirl marks then just run with the wax...........:P