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I went to one too today. They raised their price to $24 from $20, not the best wash. Just a decent one with tire shine.
It was for the LS. LX was have on an auto thing where it's $25 a month for unlimited.
Sheesh---times have changed, I remember when $5 (with gas) seemed annoying and like a lot to use the reallllly crappy old ones connected to gas stations.
I hand wash the GS (plus, it's always in the garage where it stays clean), but have monthly memberships for both the Tundra and the Highlander. The Tundra gets the dirtiest, as there's no room for it in the garage so it sits outside, and it's our vehicle that gets driven the most. Not to mention it's a beast to wash. The Highlander, well, I just don't care enough to hand wash it.
Carwashes have REALLY increased their prices. The one I take the Mercedes to was $27 for the best wash and the interior etc. They went to an automated system, so less staff! The price went to $29 for just the EXTERIOR, and $20 extra for the interior. Which is insane because they do such a crappy job, windows are always all smeared etc. They added a monthly deal, so $35 a month for just the exterior and its $20 each time if you want the interior done. I do the interior myself.
The one I take the Pacifica to is much better, its $60 a month for unlimited interior and exterior and they do a much better job, plus you can add an interior steam cleaning and mini detail for $30 which takes 45 minutes on the interior but they do a great job. You get a free one of those upgrades every 3 months, which is great for the Pacifica because my wife and kids are so hard on it. I don't take the Mercedes there because they have wheel brushes in the tunnel that screw up the rims, doesnt hurt the Pacifica because it has higher profile tires.
You took the Mercedes to a drive thru car wash?!? Lolol
I hope you don't get swirls in the paint.
That would be a bad day.
I do it once a week lol. I hate washing cars. I love detailing cars and using products etc but I hate the mess of washing a car. Thats why I buy white and silver cars lol
You will get swirls on the paint with a Carwash, with the combination of silver paint and not looking down on the lower sections of the car with a light you’re not seeing the swirls. On the Pacifica you can see the swirls.
No way to avoid it, but you can lessen it by finding a high quality carwash that sprays cars off well when they go in cleans its equipment and uses microfiber towels to dry at the end etc, but you will absolutely have swirls down low on the car.
I just want a clean car on demand, and I don’t have time or energy to fully wash it myself.
The one I use is careful, and state of the art. It has an assembly line belt for cars' tires instead of groove things you drive your rims into.
All the Bentleys etc high ends in town use it.
Doesn’t matter, it’s still going to cause swirling. The issue is the mitters they use hold the dirt from every car and they don’t clean them between every car. That’s why you want to find one that sprays the cars down really well before they go into the wash tunnel, it keeps the mitters cleaner. You also want one that uses a lot of foamy soap for lubrication.
Think of it like using a wash mitt that has been used to clean 100 cars without being rinsed between them
My paint looks great too, but if you get down low on the car and hit it with a bright light you will absolutely have swirls, I guarantee it. I do. I just don’t spend a lot of time down on all 4s with a light looking at my swirls lol.
Silver and pearl white etc also make swirls basically invisible unless they are really bad
For a long time I never would have taken a car through a carwash, but I’m old and busy and it is what it is.
Here’s an example. This is right behind the rear wheel on the driver side, this is 3 years in, washed at least once a week, so it’s been through like 160 car wash trips. It’s ceramic coated, really needs to be re coated. You can see the wear along that character line and the random scratches from the carwash. Now if this really bothered me I would get the buffer out and it would be gone. You never see it unless you get right up on top of it.
If I do buy the car out of the lease I will have the PPF in the front redone and the whole car polished out and re-coated and it will be like brand new.
I get swirls in my Tundra and Highlander from the car wash, no doubt. However, I can spend all year hand washing them, or I can run them through the car wash regularly and take a detail day to polish them out once or twice a year, and I choose the latter. YMMV, but I find it totally worth it. If I had to hand wash my Tundra, the last time would have been in September.
01-11-24, 05:22 PM
