I'd have to agree with most of the responses. With a very good car or a car with excellent paint I would never go thru an automated car wash. Those places use too much soap, and the "touchless rags" which are still brushes and the excessive wiping will cause bad swirls and streaks.

On the other hand, if your daily driver gets caught in a winter storm, and it has accumulated a lot of road salt, and if it is either too cold or you don't have the time to wash it, then you should most certainly get the salt off of the car with any means possible, even thru a car wash.

In general, however, I avoid those places unless it is absolutely necessary (daily driver). Car #1 will never see a car wash.

 

I handwash my car all the time. In the winter, I go to the diy quarter car wash because not supposed to use hose in winter. Its good to spray off the salt on the bottom on occasion, plus, it is highly pressurized. Never do carwashes!

 

I handwash in my driveway. I don't trust any of the car washes, hi-tech or not. I also am concerned about the 275-40 tires fitting in the rails. The high-pressure nozzles can make any T-top or weatherseal leak. A garden hose won't.

 

I use the quarter wash in the winter to get the salt of my bonneville. The camaro rarely sees the quarter wash. Neither cars see the automatic touchless car washes.

Rob

 

I ended up taking the z06 through a touchless carwash that I found. It pretty much sprayed a rainbow of soaps on the car, looked pretty crazy, should have taken photos. I was worried it wouldn't fit in the track, but it made it through without any complications!

It's just toooo cold to do it myself right now, my hose would probably freeze.

 

I'm in Illinois so it gets damn cold i do it in the driveway here hook hose up spray down nicely soap her up rinse it off haul *** around block pull in garage crank heat bring hose in garage and dry her off works for me but still a pain in the rear and it gets cold so i work fast with warm water in the bucket... car washes make me cringe but ive done it

 

I'd never used them on a car with a good paint job. I had a girlfriend take my 94 though auto bell a couple months after a $2500 paint job. I had scratch marks all down both sides that took me a week of buffing to get out. Needless to say once I got rid of the marks I got rid of her also.

The touchless car washes should be fine. We've got one in town and I took my wifes car through it and it just layes alot of soap on the car and then hits it with high pressure water. It cleaned the car pretty good but the windshield still need to be cleaned around the eges where the wipers do go across.