Are newer & well maintained car washes really that bad? Everything I've read states that they are terriblef or your car.

 

i would NEVER trust my car in one, i don't care how new and state of the art.

 

auto or manual?

 

I like to throw my Avalanche through them.. Its just a pain to wash by hand.


My Camaro though only gets handwashed. Especially because of T-Tops. Any other car I'd care about I would only handwash.

 

I will take the Firehawk to only good touchless carwashes during the winter when it is way to cold to wash myself. I will do the same for the GTO I guess.

 

An auto one

 

Depends. The majority of them are bad.

I cringe everytime I see them use a towel to dry someone's rims and then use the same towel on someone's paint.

 

I will go through a brushless one sometimes, maybe once a year, if that. What sucks is it normally finds small leaks in the t-tops. ARGH!!

 

When I got back from vacation from PA(an entire week without driving my Camaro!!! ), I took it through an auto wash for the "deluxe" wash thing because I wanted it clean fast so I could drive. Well it found a small gap in the weatherstripping on the back side of the drivers side window. So I got everything splashed onto my neck.

And yes, the deluxe wash included hot wax

Never again

 

Either way if its the Z06, don't take it through. I wouldn't trust the ride height. Jsut how my stock camaro rubs, and how much lower a vette is(been driving a C5 Recently)


Dark cars are the ones that see the bad effects....(lighter cars will see it to but not as bad...)

problem is the ones that "touch" your car, generally leave swirls... It gets bad fast... I got lazy with my car, I can get it detailed for free, they run it through an auto machine then detail it, my swirls started showing up more and more on my car. I ran it through like 15 washes right after my t-top conversion looking for leaks.

a good full car buffing can fix it. But its a pain. My dad's vette looked like total ****. (black) a guy at the dealer took a buffer to it and trashed the paint. I paid a freind of a friend who is good with a buffer to buff it out, and I jsut zainoed the **** out of it. Looks like a show car

touchless ones I believe they are ok, its just a high pressure. I use those at times... and it comes out.


IMO, if I had a dark vette, I woudl clay, zaino(research to do it right) then keep it clean at a do it yourself wash with pressure washing.

 

who is your friend of a friend? i might wanna get my paint buffed ... stupid swirles

 

i wouldnt even take my car through the touchless one. think about how harsh the soap/chemicals must be in the water to take the dirt off w/o even "scrubbing"! I am 100% sure that if you had any type of wax/sealant on it before the touchless, you have absolutely none on it afterwards. I guess it would be alright though if you planned on waxing it after every time you took it through, but that would defeat the purpose of trying to save time in the first place.

 

LMAO now i got images of that rickey martin video in my head.

 

I havent taken the Camaro through a standard car wash in years!

I just Cant do it after seeing all the crappy dirty cars going through before me.

I go to this U Wash by my work, $2.00 in quarters buys 5 min and it's enough time to power wash off most of the salt when it's too cold.

Even though it's just a power wash and the car is still streeky, in the winter it's enough to get by till a warmer day.

 

The last time I tried to use a drive through car wash I had to spend a couple of minutes getting the long tubes to not hit and then the rear tires wouldn't fit between the rails.