I didn’t own a car nice enough warrant being wary of automated car washes until I finally got a Car I Really Wanted: a 2012 Mustang GT just like the one below, brand new, complete with Coyote engine and frankly not much else.
For the same $25,000 or so, thanks to my X-Plan discount, I could either get a 6-cylinder Mustang with all the niceties of the Premium package, or a base GT with 412 all-American horsepower, cloth seats, and a radio (even a single-disc CD player, as I recall). I didn’t even consider the six-cylinder, and yes, I got manual – but if I could go back, I think I would have had more fun with the auto. The gearbox wasn’t particularly good, and I found it a little too easy to money-shift the thing.
Anyway, I resolved to hand-wash the Mustang, but I probably only broke out the buckets and sponges three or four times before I was over it and just went to the car wash down the street. It never seemed to harm my wife’s RAV4, and I figured any harm it might do could just be polished out – if I noticed at all, ’cause the red paint was bright. For the record, Kona Blue was my first choice, but I was extremely OK with red. And it really helped the police do their jobs, you’re welcome the police.
Now, I should explain that my local Trademark Car Wash is very nice car wash. Not touchless, but nice. That doesn’t make it any less likely grit trapped in those slappy fabric belt things will goof up my paint, but the vibe is good.
On the other hand, I would not run my Mustang (or my wife’s RAV4, for that matter) through the very sketchy car wash at the 7-Eleven on the corner. I’m pretty sure I saw sparks shooting out of the doors once, I swear. But the Honda Civic I was driving before the Mustang? I would roll the dice on 7-Eleven. I don’t see how it could have made that beater any worse, but the whole point is moot, as I really never washed it. It was silver, I live in Texas, it was fine.
And now here’s Griffin, since he piped in on Slack and has a cool car. Sighhh … I remember having a cool car.
I don’t auto wash anymore. I stopped after getting my Corvette, as the turning radius is so bad it can be scary trying to get into the drive-thru washes, and I worry about the clearance of the guide rails. Now that I have an apartment with a substantial outdoor space, I can hand-wash my cars, usually once a week. I save money, have fun in the sun, and listen to “Summertime” by Will Smith. Happy Sunday.
Mercedes Streeter
I can’t wash cars at home unless I want to piss off my condo association in the summer or freeze in the winter, so I go to those wash bays with high-pressure wands. The cool thing about wash bays is that you can bring whatever tools you want. That said, if it’s a daily or beater I don’t care that much about, I’ll go to an automatic wash with brushes.
If you live in the Midwest or the East, I don’t recommend the old-school sponge and bucket hand wash job as your only form of washing. You have to get the underbody, too. Road salt has a nasty way of getting into places that you will just never get with a simple hand wash. Go to a touchless automatic wash that has an underbody blaster, go to a wash bay, or get a power sprayer and do it yourself. Either way, just clean that crap off of the bottom of your car! There are just too many cars here in the Midwest with pretty bodies that are completely rotted out underneath.
OK, your turn: What’s Your Automated Car Wash Policy?
Top graphic image: still, Breaking Bad/Sony Pictures Television
Tommy’s Express Car Washes is where it’s at.
Touchless car washes actually do more damage to the finish of your car than touch car washes. They wear down the outermost layers of the surface and dull them. Ford and other automakers actually have changed the formulations of paints based on people thinking touchless is better when it’s not. Touch car washes have all of the obvious downsides, but if are run properly are better for car care. You may be more likely to have swirl marks, but that’s just because on the touchless the swirls are just smeared over the entire surface.
I have a Lexus GX 550 Overtrail and I take it through the car wash regularly. I couldn’t take my 4Runner TRD Pro through because of the rack, and it killed me. I like a clean car!
Pro tip: keep tire shine spray foam at your house and after the tires dry and your car is freshly washed do it. Your car will look way cleaner for longer because we are all dumb naked monkeys and the shininess actually does work.
Touchless car washes use harsh chemicals that also wear down your rubber and seals.
Newer cars use water-based paints not solvent-based like older cars and this also helps them stand up to car washes. They have ceramic-infused or nano-based top layers, whatever that means!
The user manual for our 2024 Rav4 Plug-in calls for touchless car washing only. We asked the dealer where they are located, and they didn’t have an answer at all. We did find some that were in cities that we only visit when we have to go to a specialist doctor or a Costco run. We finally looked around closer to home and did find one. No idea of why Toyota only recommends a touchless, but as we bought this one (got out of the lease cycle), we will follow that recommendation. I still pull out the towels and dry off the glass, open the doors, and dry off the door edges and body door edges as well.
In priority order…
I absolutely hate washing cars, but I also don’t want to ruin them. So I use the touchless ones up until there’s too much that they’re missing, and then I bring it to get detailed by a guy in the next town over. In the winter, though, getting those underbody washes is vital, so I do the touchless one every week or so.
Not even once.
Depends on the car. The RAV4 and twelve year old F-150 are basically appliances, so automatic car washes are fine. We do spray their undercarriages with Fluid Film every fall, though.
The Miata lives in a garage during road salt season, and it gets hand washed or sprayed in an in-bay wash.
When I owned my cars, I would either bucket wash or wand wash them myself and never went to auto washes. Now that both my cars are leases, I pay $18 per month (per car) for unlimited washes at a local chain that has very nice machines (even though they aren’t totally touchless), and they do a great job. I haven’t noticed any paint damage, although I’m sure I would if I looked closely enough. I take my cars through the wash pretty frequently because I like them to look clean but also because all the sensors on them need to be clean to function properly. I wax the cars once a year with Collinite 845 Insulator wax.
My policy is never. I will never subject my car to a car damaging wash machine that ultimately does a shit job of cleaning.