Can Automatic Car Washes Damage Your Car? found this on aol today, what does every one think about this?
Sounds good to me. I say car washes are the way to go. Just be sure to refer those people straight to me, and I'll straight them out afterwards for $1K.
That article has so much misinformation that I feel like reporting it. You can polish single stage, yet scratched clearcoat can only be repaired with new paint? This article really perpetuates many of the incorrect assumptions people have regarding car care. However, P1et is 100% right: if it weren't for so many people going to the swirl-o-matic, there wouldn't be as high of a demand for professional detailers.
I guess I'll be the only one to say that this article is pretty good (besides the misinformation about SS and BC paints.) These articles are written for the average person that is not detail savvy. It touches on good points to use a "brushless" or "touchless" washes and to be weary/refuse hand drying at the end to opt to do it yourself with a detail spray at home. There was actually a test done where they took three cars and ran one through a car wash, one through a touchless, and one a hand wash. The results they found was the car that ran through the car wash received light straight line swirls. The car that went through the touchless wasn't completely clean. Lastly the hand washed car was received a lot of scratches and deep swirls. The test concluded that the car wash is safer for the non detail savvy people vs a hand wash because most people do not know how to correctly wash a car(mitt/drying towels on floor, using wrong cleaners/detergents, excessive rubbing/scrapping) and can induce more damage than a car wash. The light straight line scratches were better(more uniform and less noticable) than the random deep scratches created by hand washing. (How many times have we all seen people using brillo pads and scotchbrite pads on their paint.) With that being said, I think its a good article for the average person. ::flame suit::
Wee bit of misinformation there but I have to say a properly set up touchless carwash is awesome. I have run my wifes Toyota Sienna through the one near us every week for four years and the paint is damn near perfect. If I wax half the hood, you do see a bit of a difference but nowhere near what you would think. It doesn't do a great job on wheels so once a month I'll clean them front and back. Hey, its her mess, I mean minivan, not my Passat!
wow. at first i thought it was going to be a great article that i could use and maybe put on my website but after reading it man it was off. Washing in the sun can leave burn spots? I have never ever heard of that before. I think tunnel washes are horrible especially here because people go off roading a lot, have their really nast construction trucks and what not go through there and the same cloth that cleaned those vehicles are cleaning your nice new BMW or what ever car you have . . . . . that's just horrible but you get what you pay for. Can't expect much for $7
when i found this and read it i was like ill just post this up here and see what every one thinks. i know wher i live i would never take my car threw any of the touchless car washes, first casue i can do it my self but they also cost like 12$ where i live. but reading about the clear caot and stuff pissed me off
This same group asked both me and a forum (not DB) I'd posted the article on to withdraw it. Needless to say - http://www.detailingbliss.com/forum/detailing-school/8186-touch-less-carwash.htm is still around on this and other forums
Well it is pretty obvious the article is propoganda for the carwash industry. I have a free subscription to a car was industry magazine. I can't remember the name of it right now, but they have said themselves that it is all propaganda to promote using automatic car washes. They have gone so far as to write articles stating that washing a car with a bucket in your drive way puts more pollutants in the ground water than if you dumped a gallon of gasoline. You can see how well the propoganda is working by all the silly water reclaim laws the local municipalties have. I just find laws like that funny for the sole reason that when it rains where does all the water that runs off the roads which are covered in oil (and other junk and chemicals) and cars go? Oh that's right into the sewers that in my area dump into the local stream. So hypocritical is should be criminal.
