Bought a Meguiars orbital a while back. Didn't use it for a long time as I wasn't confident because I was always used to doing it by hand and was afraid of doing something wrong. Once I got the courage up, I too was disappointed with the result. But after playing around with it for quite a while, I found out the following: I was too conservative with the speed, bumping up the speed to 5 out of 6 was the way to go. Using a speed of say 3 was useless. Also, I was too conservative on the grade of pad as I was scared of too much abrasion. I need not have worried about that either. So with a higher speed, a higher grade of abrasive pad and a product like Scratch -X, the orbital did the trick and got the swirls out and left a very clean smooth finish. Then with a layer of good quality wax and your laughing. IMHO, I wasted way too much energy (and too little result) doing it by hand and the orbital is the way to go if you get the set-up right and a bit of patience. But for those who think that hand polish is the way to go - go ahead - I'm sure you will benefit from the exercise (remember Danielson: wax on, wax off!).