So just how bad are full service carwashes?

kannibul

That's exactly why my car is dirty more often than it's clean...well, that and it's magnetic black, which the magnetic part comes in when it comes to dirt, dust and rocks that chip paint...lol

I don't trust myself to wash my car....I go to the high-pressure manual spray-n-wash and it gets clean, then I drive it home, and by the time I get there, it's dirtier than when I left.

In an ideal world - that's when I'd rinse it off, get out the zaino stuff I bought and STILL haven't used ($300 worth of product, and the only thing I've used is the bucket, car soap, and a couple towels), and properly wash it (less risk since most of the dirt is gone!), then clay it, polish it (need a DA buffer...), then wax it, then wax it, then wax it, then wax it, then take pictures of it, then put it in the garage where a week later it has a layer of dust on it...drive it to get the dust off, come home and pull out the detailer spray to get the bugs off and anything else...and admire the new smudges left from the detailer spray (meguier's leaves an oily residue from what I can see), then try and get that out with a second MF-towel, then come back and notice that where the detailer spray was used, it's "cleaner" according to the dust build up on the rest of the car...take it down to the spray-n-wash again, come home, it's dirtier than when you left...you say "screw it, I'm going inside..." - then you notice a new blemish on the car...a paint chip, a ultrafine scratch, an etch from a bug's ***...either way, you're not happy!