AIBU not to understand why people prefer hand washing their cars rather than use an automatic car wash?

[swissmilk]

And by that I mean the teams of people in supermarket car parks.
I've tried both, automatic machines seem cheaper, quicker and just as good?
(I never get the inside cleaned...do that myself at home where I'm not in danger of judgement over how many empty crisp packets there are stuffed in the glove box!)

They have way too much time on their hands.

Ah sorry, I thought you meant those people that spend all Sunday washing and waxing their Jag.

maybe it's the convenience? you can just leave your car there, do a shop ad drive off? no need to go to the petrol station, go into the kisok, get the toke/code, drive into the wash, wait for it to finish, and then go home?

It’s a time thing surely? The same as how some people have cleaners or get people to do their ironing.

Equally I would never go in a machine one. I don’t even remember the last time I saw one. One with those colourful rags whipping your windscreen do you mean!

Because it gets DH and the DC out of the house and away from me for a solid 45 mins. Bliss!!

I usually go to a hand car wash. Used an auto one for convenience recently and it was shit by comparison. Missed loads of bits particularly on the wheels. I won't use an auto one again.

No way does an automatic clean do ask good as a good hand job.

Those auto ones with all the rollers terrify me, no way would I ever use one. They seem menacing and claustrophobic.

Have only been once as an adult and I wouldn't drive, DH had to.

DH washes our car, if he didn't I'd go for a hand car wash every time

Handwashwes in random car parks and the ones which quickly pop up on empty lands are often stuffed by victims of modern slavery....

*staffed🙄

do ask good as a good hand job.

I think that too @fridgeraider but they could be legit and therefore giving someone a job?

I stopped using the automatic ones after getting done pretty heafty scratches on my paintwork

The rollers in automatics can scratch your car. My car is a lease car so I have to be careful not to get it damaged.

I have also got the vibe at all make ones they don't like cleaning a woman's car? (I am a paranoid lefties!)

In theory, Hand washing cares for the paint better, is less aggressive and avoids swirls and light scratches on the paintwork. It’s also more thorough as you get in every nook and cranny.

In practice I suspect the hand car wash teams at supermarkets have a manky sponge covered in grit which is just as likely to trash your paintwork as an auto - but they might be slightly more thorough.

If you do it yourself, it’s cheaper, it’s a bit like a workout, you can use a nice microfibre mitt and a bucket with a grit guard at the bottom and your car will look lovely. Except where the kids have ragged the door handles getting in and out with too much enthusiasm. And let’s not to mention the accumulation of litter and McDonald’s toys in the rear foot wells 😁 (I always get bored or run out of time and energy and either do inside or outside the car, rarely both)

Because the automatic ones are actually quite poor?
Because no one in a supermarket cleans it as well as you do yourself. Because no one pays as much care and attention, and time, as you do.

Seriously ? You really have to ask?

Machine ones gets objects stuck in them, like car aerials, and then the next car that goes in behind it gets scratched with the object or has the window put though. Then you have to claim on your own insurance because the car wash/garage takes no responsibility.
Hand washing is much safer, they do a much better job and it employs people.

When you've got 1/2 a brain cell to work it out OP, let us know!

I’m scared of the ones with rollers so give them a miss.

We call the hand-wash places around here ‘fucked up spongebobs’ because that’s what they always seem to have on their signs. And we definitely don’t go to them because of the slavery risk. I never wash the outside of my car anyway- honestly who cares? I clean the windows when I clean out the inside every month or so but that’s it.

I do have a cleaner and even a gardener on occasion in the past...but for some reason I feel bad someone hand washing my car....and I don't think they do a great job to honest.

@Oblomov19 if you read the original post properly that would help?

I wash and wax my own car. I enjoy it, it doesn't take more than an hour.