So just how bad are full service carwashes?
 

I used to wash and detail my car on a regular basis but I just don't have that kind of time or the necessary location to do it anymore. So I have the option to rather clean the car myself about roughly every 2-3 months(at my parent's) or just take it to a car wash where your car goes through the machine and workers manually dry it off.

I know members here have preached on how bad those places are for your paint but I'm thinking it's still better than having a dirty car.

If you have to go through a machine see if you can find the touchless car wash. They use only detergent and high pressure water jets to clean your car, followed by a blow dry. Not as good as doing it yourself but better than getting scratched up by a bunch of sweaty guys with dirty towels.

Don't go there. You're just gonna' ruin your clear coat and paint and what else sratches. It's not worth it. DIY when you have a spare time. I better drive her dirty than go to those machines.

it depends on how anal you are. We take our black 07 tahoe to the full service car wash, and while there are swirls in the paint, its nothing that can't be buffed out every couple of years, and it looks fine from 2 feet away.

No way man!!! Just find one of those carwash places where you can pay to clean it yourself... you get a high pressure washer + dryer + soap etc... I would just take 2 buckets to one of those n clean it myself

if i could not wash my car at home i would use the touchless and clean the rest of the car using Griot's SprayOn CarWash, follow up with some Prima Hydro.

i rarely wash my hobby cars though...maybe once or twice a year when weatherchannel lies. i dont drive on wet days to begin with and just use QD after motoring. if i drive over puddles i use the SprayOn CarWash on that area that got contaminated. since the car resides inside the garage during the week, i dont want to use water since it takes forever to dry. although i do have a dehumidifier and fan in there.

my 5+yr old G looks brand new inside and out. :p my almost 7yr old MINI looked better than new when i sold it earlier this spring.

I'm just concerned about the dirt and grime caked on my car... will it deteriorate my paint if I just leave it? I would go to those manual car washes but every single one of them in my area has a strict no bucket washing and no drying the car within the bay policy. In addition, those brushs in the self washes feels like razorblades.

Also I've been through the no-touch washes and they barely do a damn thing. :/

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!

I like it when they leave spirals of semi-cleaner areas on the car.

That or when the thing has a broken nozzle.

I actually would take mine to the regular full service if I wasn't worried about the wheels being too wide and car being too low for their tracks, but then, my Z sits outside in the elements anyways.

The corvette, no way not ever.

So dirt and grime on the surface for a prolonged amount of time won't necessarily damaged the paint am I correct?

:bowrofl:

I have took the Z to one last weekend because I was too lazy to do it myself. I kind of had to bite my tongue because I am pretty anal when it comes to detailing... but everything was fine. Not bad.

No it won't. It will actually put a ni e protective layer on the car

get a hose and spray your car real quick. thatll get the dirt off if your worried about that. let the air dry it.

i say that because i'd personally have a dirty car until I have time to clean it, than to have a car wash machine that drags dirty rock filled hard rags along my car.

I can wash and dry the Z in 15 minutes. If I did it in 10 it would still look better than a drive through. Come on just 15 min. Well worth the time.

:iagree: this is what i do sometimes if i feel lazy lol. If i have time i wash and wash her real good for 3 hrs. max inside and out.

I just don't have the facility living in an apt and all.

When I used a diy car wash. I took a couple of wash mitts w/me. If its not too dirty you can just use the water, no soap.

there is a guy that posted a thread on how to wash his car in his apartment he said he uses a 3 gallon water sprayer he got at home depot if im not mistaken.....

Round what part do you live? Depending on where you are there are a few self wash facilities that are pretty good.

I went to a full service once because I got lazy and they scratched one of my wheels...

I usually just get my bucket and soap and rags and wax etc go to the local manual car wash use their water to wet it down and rinse it off then use the bay to do all the other cleaning and leave

This thread exists as an example of why silver is the best color. Hides the dirt like no other. :tiphat:

As long as that also includes platinum, then I agree.

Platinum was my color of choice, but, they didn't have one, and couldn't locate one.

Since you're in LA, I thought I'd mention that there is a pretty good one in Glendale called California Hand Car Wash. It's the best car wash I've been to, and they offer a frequent flyer program that is a big money saver.

Are they perfect? No. Are they going to put scratches in your paint? Sure. Is it anything that you won't end up doing yourself unless you're perfect? Probably not. Nothing that occasional scratch removers/buffing can't take care of.

If I didn't live in an apartment complex, I'd wash my car all the time (I still do it myself occasionally, as I can do a better job than the car wash), but having to go to one of the places where you put the quarters in is a pain in the *** (try working on your car for an hour and then having someone twenty feet away get drizzle all over your back end--true story) if you want to keep your car clean.

As a word of warning, do everything you can to avoid Magnolia Car Wash in Burbank. They are flat out the worst one I have ever been to; they did a carpet shampoo (in my old car, thankfully) and didn't vacuum the shampoo out, just threw the floor covers on top and hoped I wouldn't notice. I did, and brought it back the next morning... I had to fight to get them to vacuum it out. They said "Just keep the windows down for a while!" Another time, I went there out of desparation (needed the car washed pronto and at the time hadn't discovered the place in Glendale) and they failed to remove almost 2 square feet of wax; when I pointed this out, the washer gave me some serious stink eye. I eventually figured out that they are severely pressured to upsell services and get the cars in and out as fast as possible regardless of quality.

According to the owner's manual it will.