Brilliant mate, thank you.I generally use autoglym stuff as it's a bit cheaper than meguiars.
You don't have to ore wash but I always do as I like doing it so I either use the polar range (great of you have a pressure washer and a snow foam Lance): polar blast (pre wash), polar wash (shampoo) and polar seal (seals paintwork and process protection) .
If you don't have a pressure washer, or just fancy the traditional methods, I've used a citrus pre clean spray (can't remember the brand, not used or for a while) , autoglym shampoo and conditioner or meguiars shampoo, and any spray wax you like. Autoglym aqua wax is great and long lasting.
Even some of the cheaper stuff (simoniz, turtle Wax) is decent enough if you wash regularly but for really dirty cars I'd use a recognised semi premium brand (autoglym, meguiars, auto finesse etc).
Not used it myself but plenty of People swear by Halfords own label car shampoo
I use the classic "2 bucket method (2bm)". Ie, a bucket of clean water for rinsing, a bucket with your shampoo in. Wash a panel at a time, rinse your mitt in the rinse bucket, on to the next panel etc. The theory is you don't transfer dirt and grime from the mitt into the wash bucket and reduces the chance of swirling your paint. Important to use grit guards in your buckets as they keep the dirt trapped at the bottom of the bucket and stop it transferring on to your mitt.
I use the 2 bucket method on my bikes so I'm familiar with that.
I do have a pressure washer but I've never used snow foam. After a bit of research it makes a lot of sense to do this before contact washing. I'll deffo give it a go.
Thanks very much for the advice mate, much appreciated