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
Pete does it again with the topshot! I didn’t even watch that show and somehow I got it. Excellent!
Incorrect. I daily a convertible.
I’d definitely recommend laundering money through that car wash in the top shot though…
Our regular daily drivers, need the scrubbing power of a Sam’s car wash to keep clean, also they’re daily driver EVs so not really worried on the finish.
On the Ranger electric, hand wash only, or diy car wash, mainly as the batteries aren’t in a completely sealed compartment that’s air cooled, and getting water in there could be bad….very very bad.
On the bike, hand wash all the way, take easy parts off, then go over the chrome…so much dang chrome.
I run the BRZ through the tunnel sometimes and handwash other times, it’s about 50/50 but like the rest of you I avoid the shady carwash tunnels.
Touch free a few times a year and after each trip to the off road park after the pressure washing off the mud. We get below freezing temps here for 7 months a year so the automatic is easier than washing outside with a frozen hose.
To be honest there have been cars I have owned that I never washed. I am not fussy or obsessive.
For automatics, I will use a touchless. I’ve run the car through a regular automated once in a blue moon, hoping no one in a mudded up truck has proceeded me, but that’s only in peak pollen and/or love bug season. I will hand wash with high pressure hose car washers regularly.
Automated non touch car wash on a subscription basis. They just bumped it to $40 buck a month from $30 but you still get 1 car wash a day. The wife and I will each use it once a week so eight washes a month for 40 bucks is a no brainer.
I will keep a quick detail spray and a bag of microfibers in the car in order to take care of bird crap ASAP or other sticky items that the car wash will not get.
I have never run one of my cars through an automated car wash. It really doesn’t take that much time to do a proper two-bucket wash at home once a month or more frequently (wish I had the time do wash every week, but I don’t.) With ceramic coating, washing is quick and easy.
People who use automated car washes are not taking good care of their cars, and nothing will change my mind about that. As a detailer, even one wash will cause damage, and after a few, the damage becomes irreversible.
Detail Dan agrees with you however winter in Wisconsin requires using the wand but never the brush at the local self Serv or preferably, usually the nice touch less system at Kwik Trip I just did the first hand wash and topped up the Gtechniq CSU.
I have no problems with a wand-style jet wash. I have a heated garage with a sink and sometimes when it’s super cold for weeks on end I still opt for the local jet wash, but that won’t damage anything.
Before I moved into my current place with a garage, a jet wash was all I could use at my various apartments. I had two 3-gallon jugs that I filled with water, two 5-gallon buckets, and a small bucket with car shampoo, wheel cleaner, wash mit. drying towel, etc. I’d go during off hours with some quarters and spend about 30 minutes doing a proper 2-bucket wash in the bay.
I have two older “fun” cars in nice aesthetic shape that I’m meticulous about. They’re always garage kept, NEVER driven in the winter (Michigan) and always parked at the back of the lot while I’m out. I also refuse to run either of these through an automatic car wash, even nicer/high-end ones. Even if I’ve taken the Jeep off road I still avoid them; I’ll crawl under it at the self-service wash and get myself filthy blasting the mud and dirt off.
My daily driver? I don’t care, automatic car wash at least once a week (especially in the winter). It’s a workhorse that I bought new and have proceeded to drive into the ground, currently about 10 years old with 185K miles. It doesn’t have any serious body damage but does have the usual door dings, small dents from acorns and hail, chips in the paint and on the windshield from gravel and rocks, a couple spots where the clear coat has worn thin, cloudy headlights. If you’re gonna actually use a car like this it’s gonna get banged up, unless you spend a fortune on fixing every little imperfection that arises and drive yourself nuts in the process. I don’t care about “swirls” or superficial scratches from the auto car wash; I care about consistently blasting off the salt so the car doesn’t start rusting out. It’s a disposable appliance that will probably meet its end a few years from now, not going to sweat the small stuff.
I use touchless or microfiber ones. The undercarriage is a must in the North East.
Vehicles with low splitters or expensive parts don’t go into auto washes.
Anything else is fine.
I’ve owned my K3500 for 10 years and I’ve never washed it a single time. That’s what rain is for. I do wash my BMW whenever the rear end gets too much engine oil on it, but by hand because I’m cheap.
I don’t own anything nice enough to warrant worrying about such things. When I had a black ’04 GTO for a few months, that only got hand washed. Not that the pile of shit warranted such treatment. Damn lemon.
I know that as a gearhead I should be paranoid about scratches and avoid automatic car washes, but I don’t. Every vehicle I own has gone through the Costco automated car wash near me. I’ll happily swap a transmission myself, but have a weird aversion to washing cars or doing detailing work.
Handwash only when I had a Sportcross in black, as the paint lacked a clearcoat (thanks, Lexus). Every car after that (black or otherwise) went through a “touchless” carwash. I moved to a house with only a one car driveway, and the water was hard.
Can’t say I’ve noticed any difference in terms of scratching the paint, but I did a better job at totally washing the car. I also don’t spot new door dings, scratches, chips, etc. anymore, which could be a good thing.
If I go through the work of color correcting and ceramic coating a car, It only gets hand washed from then. Otherwise, the scratch and dent car wash. I will do the DIY foam brush wash if the truck is muddy.
Its a last resort. Prefer to hand wash myself or pay a little more for a hand wash done by someone else; and honestly the auto wash places are getting expensive enough that the hand wash aint that much more.
Also some modern cars are getting a bit too high tech for the auto wash- take my Accord and former TLX with the 10 speed… they have a car wash mode where you have to put it in neutral, then hold neutral again for 5 seconds to allow the door to be opened without the car going to park. Someone is gonna screw that up.
Miata only gets hand washed because I dont want top seal issues.
I don’t do carwashes for either of my old cars because I’m too afraid they might break something off, and because, frankly, I don’t really wash them, just wipe them down when they get dusty, but that’s it. I also don’t run my CVPI through, but that’s because it has vestigial mountings for various stuff on it that I also worry could get snagged or something
I put PPF on my daily driver when I bought it. The installer strongly recommended hand washing, and with no high-pressure water (especially near panel edges). So it’s hand wash only.
Other cars get touch less machine washes, though.
I live in Michigan where they salt the roads 5 months out of the year. Regular car washes are mandatory if you want to keep rust at bay.
It has always been baffling to me to see cars 4-8 years old with extra-wide wheel wells due to the tin worm. Same for trucks with dissolving bumpers and tailgates. Some of these cars, the owners are probably still making payments on, but they can’t be bothered to get a subscription car wash pass? It’s crazy!
I guess the subscription pass makes sense in that case… down in Texas trying to get you to subscribe is all the rage. To me it feels like a gym membership they’re hoping you never use but pay for anyway.
I try to avoid them especially in older vehicles made the mistake of going through one when my Firebird when I first got it and it broke the power antenna off. It came out looking spotless though hah. Now I mostly wash my cars in my driveway keep the power washer on the lowest setting to wet it and rinse it off and hand wipe the soap on with rags. During the winter I may bring the fiances car through a car wash to get the salt off. My FJ I have gotten to the point I just power wash it when ever I feel like it since it has just been beaten to hell offroad and rusting from all the salt.
Roadster is a soft top, so never. But honestly I would take it through a touchless wash if it was a hardtop. I don’t do touch washes for nice/fun cars though. The wife’s van gets washed like once a year if it’s lucky, and it’s whatever gas station offered me a fuel discount when it’s particularly dirty.
Since my newest car is 14 years old and none of them are pristine in the scratch-n-ding department, they’re lucky I wash them at all. But they’re all charcoal gray, so I do, and the auto-wash at the La Cañada Shell is good enough. When the inside gets too crusty with ketchup drips, fossilized fries, and one too many sneezes on the horn button, I’ll get a proper handwash from Fair Oaks Car Wash. And after the Eaton fire I had them all detailed there to eliminate the smoke residue.
When my 1970 Cougar convertible is driveable, I only hand wash it, because, y’know, old convertible that would fare poorly in an automated wash. But the RAV-4, Odyssey, and LS460 aren’t so precious. Into the dishwasher they go!
Mine is a size-based policy. If my car requires a ladder and an extendable brush just to do the roof, then I’ll take it to an automated place about 50% of the time. It’s the same price, so the real value is for bigger vehicles.
Normal sized cars, I try to stick to handwash only. Winter can be tough, but I’ll use heavy rubber gloves for the bucket. I’d like to feel my fingers later.
If one drives their car in the rain, I see no reason to avoid auto washes.
Auto wash is more like driving through a hurricane.
My wife signs up occasionally when they offer some 90 day pass or something.
One is on my way home, so I’ll run the Escape through every couple of days to get my money’s worth and my 2 second wax job. We have a gravel parking lot at work.
No way on the NA Miata/68 Cougar.