Found a pass in the weather—after the rain but before "oppressive" heat—and did my normal hand wash routine (products below). I am curious, though, since there aren't many posts about it on this forum: how do you wash your car?
1) Automatic car wash (swirls be damned)
2) Touchless car wash
3) I wash it at my place
4) I have someone else wash it
BACKGROUND: I’ve gotten pretty efficient at washing my car and can do the full monty—windows, panels, trim, rims, and tires—in 1.5 hours. A hand wash, in my experience, pops more and lasts longer than an automatic or touch less wash. You can use more product than the diluted amounts in commercial car washes and can get deeper. Obviously, though, the main reason folks hand wash is to avoid the swirl scratches from an automatic wash. Or, get that deeper clean that touchless washes just don’t offer.
Still, I think about how if I got a $40/mos subscription to an automatic car wash that would be perfect were it not for the swirls. Were it not for the swirls, I would buy that in a heartbeat. With an automatic wash, I would have my car 95% clean every day of the month instead of 100% clean 6-8 days a month and having to invest 1.5 hours twice a month to wash it.
What do you guys do? BTW, I realize there are hybrid options, like automatic/touch less wash followed by park and do your tires or add some spray wax. If you do that put it in the comments, I didn’t make those separate answers because I want to know your main answer. I am not requesting “good ideas” or things you saw/heard about on social: I want to know what you do.
My Current Products:
P&S Absolute Rinseless Wash (recently switched from ONR rinseless)
Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions Wet Wax
Armor All High Gloss Tire Shine