Originally Posted by scottIN

In most cases, you're you're not using a PC (or rotary or Cyclo or a similar professional tool), you're not really removing scratches - you're just filling them with the products. Most of the polish products you can buy at retail like Walmart or auto parts stores have fillers and oils. Most professional polishes do not. Look to see if the polish says 'Body Shop Safe'. If it doesn't, it's got fillers.

So it's not really the buffer that's doing anything - it's the product that's filling in the swirls. And the product fill will work for a while, but eventually it wears off and you have to polish again (even though you're not really polishing).