How do you all keep your cars clean

[coffeegirl73]

All the car washes round be me seem to have closed down? I cannot find one. I’ve been washing it occasionally with a sponge but it takes me ages plus I can’t reach the roof. And then to do all the windows as well and then the inside… how does everyone else manage now all the car washes seem to be gone!

Round here the big Tesco and Sainsbury's have a car wash service. They do it while you shop.

All the garages have self service machines where I live. There’s four nozzles washer things with pressure washer, soap, wax and dry. It’s €2.
Dh does it every other week as in winter the grit and salt on road trashed underneath cars otherwise as speeds up rust. The rest of the year it’s always dusty.

It’s illegal to wash car in driveway here. Due to soap run off to groundwater and the risk of the water freezing and becoming lethal on paths

I just wash it? Or I ask —bribe— one of my teens to wash it? We have a set of steps to help with the roof, and an extension lead to help with hoovering the inside.

I pay the teens £5 for the outside and £5 for the inside. Or I do it myself.

i washed my caravan last week, Same deal - hose pipe, detailing brushes and microfibre cloths. My 10 year old was desperate to do the roof, which was a bonus, otherwise I’d have done it from the step ladder.

How has washing a car become a skilled job that you can’t know how to do unless you can outsource it

Rain

How has washing a car become a skilled job that you can’t know how to do unless you can outsource it

It's not, I just cant be bothered to do it!

DH does it, if he didn't do it it would probably not get done, I think he quite enjoys doing it

How has washing a car become a skilled job that you can’t know how to do unless you can outsource it
I know how to to it but for 7 quid a much better job is done by the car wash people in a quicker time.
I don't have the outlay of buying the soap and wax and I get my nice smelling thing to hang from my mirror. I get a free wash after every 10 washes.

Cotton buds.

ETA: Read the thread title as 'ears'.

I don’t - it just ends up filthy an hour later anyway.

Doesn't everyone end up with moss growing on their car if they don't wash it every few weeks? Mine keeps trying to grow it's own eco system. I can't help think it's probably not going to do the nooks and crannies any good if moss is getting in there.

I am very pleased that the local valet service at a local car park is still going. I side and out once a month fir £27. Worth every penny.

I have a pressure washer at home. But my car has matt paint so I can’t run it through a car wash.

I use a mobile valet service.

I don't. My car looks like a skip right now.
I sling it through a car wash occasionally but I must get it valeted it is truly awful.

My car is tiny so I just wash and polish it myself. Takes about half an hour if I clean the inside as well. But I live in a flat so it’s a bit of a pain in the arse carrying buckets of water down the stairs and into the car park.

DappledThings,it's the gulls, mostly,you have to get it off straight away it ruins the paintwork

I don't. Life is too short!

7 years living at the seaside, plenty of gull poo, probably washed the car about 15 times in that 7 years and not noticed any damage to the paintwork.

When it is particularly grubby at the end of the winter I jet wash it at the garage. Ditto when it gets really covered in bird shit when I park it under a tree. This is a rare occurrence though, I did it yesterday for the first time in probably 8 months 🤣

Garages and bigger supermarkets have drive-through washes; I use them and clean the inside myself. Didn't use to clean my previous car and it lost its shine completely. It was a Citroën - not sure if it was a manufacturing fault or due to lack of washing + polishing.

Modern cars don't use the same quality of paint, so need more/better washing, especially against the likes of bird crap and some tree debris. I think rules changed a while ago as to the kind of chemicals allowed in paints. A bit like the way household paints have had their formulation changed to ban toxins etc.

We bought a new car a couple of years ago and left a bit of bird crap on it for a few days. When we finally got around to washing it off, a tiny chip of paint came off too as it had been eating away at the paint. We now go out with wet wipes as soon as we see any on it.

As a person who is quite short I use a flat mop for my roof

I take it to be valeted once a month.

I don’t wash mine often but so many times when I’ve actually decided to get it done, have driven to a petrol station which has a car wash and it’s been broken 😡

I think dh uses the power washer he does the lorry with at work.