I take my Eclipse to a touchless car wash. It's not a conveyor belt one; the arms actually move around the car while I chill out inside; and it's not *too* powerful when it's doing the real washing. Then I move forward under my own power below giant jet-like turbines that blow the water off.
Now that I have a Z and care about the washing, I realize this was never *truly* getting my car clean. Thankfully the Eclipse is silver so it hides it very well.
I have taken the Z through this same carwash, but only because I was in between normal washes and got nailed by birds and had tons of bugs from a rural drive in the middle of the week. I think it's fine, as long you realize it's not *really* clean until you manually do things like the wheels, wheel-wells, and other nooks. But I think it's a valid once-in-a-while habit.
Your mileage varies depending on the car wash, of course.
That said, if I had my own place and driveway, I'd always do a handwash or touch-up on my own. As it is, I am still figuring out a good routine at a local coin-op wand-wash place. I really just use them for drainage, shade, water-sprayer/rinse, and vacuum.
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