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!)

Plenty of sources but easier to explain firstly the breakdowns simple if you dont keep your car clean you are unlikely to take care of it in other ways hence more mechanical problems. Second a dirty car will have dirty glass and vision is reduced hence more accidents. Fuel efficiency believe it or not most cars are designed using wind tunnels to be aerodynamic the more dirt you put on it the more the airflow is disrupted it might only be marginal over a few gallons but it adds up. Finally the interior can harbour millions of bacteria from all sorts of sources the less your car is cleaned the more bacteria many steering wheels a dirtier than your average toilet seat.

Because maybe people actually care about their car, Those machines don't clean them properly and the mostly foreign car washers at supermarkets etc all they do is scratch your paintwork, the amount of times you see the sponges laying on the floor, then picked up and put straight on your paintwork, all it does is give them scratches and swirls...

Gives some people a job rather than just another automated machine.

@Singletomingle so you have no actual data, just anecdotal guesswork?

My car is very well maintained and serviced regularly. I change my own oil on a regular basis and check my tyres every week etc. It's cleanliness has no bearing on its safety. Someone could clean their car every weekend but still maintain it poorly. Having a dirty car does not mean you are more likely to crash.

Secondly, why on earth would you assume I would drive around with a dirty windscreen? That's just stupid. Often on a frosty or snowy morning I'm the only car on the road I see with a properly cleared windscreen. A dirty car does not equal a dirty windscreen.

Thirdly, you'd have to be carrying around one hell of a lot of mud with gravel embedded in it before it made any noticeable dent in your fuel consumption. You may as well say you shouldn't wear any heavy clothing in your car because of the increased weight, for all the difference it would make.

And yes, the interior of cars can harbour a lot of bacteria, even if you clean it. Just like remote controls and kitchen sponges and keyboards and your phone and your pillows and honestly the vast majority of things we come into contact with on a daily basis. So what's your point? I'm not rubbing my bare hands into horse manure and then liberally wiping them all over my upholstery.

DH has forbidden automatic ones because of scratching and damage to paintwork

Hand car washes give people jobs and around here at least, they do such a fantastic job. Much better than a mechanical car wash.

@PoppingOneOutIn2020 indeed! The rural approach tends to be a bit more pragmatic

I'm actually a bit of a vintage car enthusiast and I can see the appeal in keeping a showpiece car clean and shiny, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I pay someone to clean my day to day runaround!

I suppose I don't really understand why people bother washing their cars at all but reckon they must like having a clean shiny car, so it's worth it for them.

I get to marvel at how clean and shiny my car looks after a particularly heavy shower of rain.

And when it gets serviced, the garage sometimes wash it before they give it back to me.

@contentedsoul My mother uses one because she has a disability that means she isn't able to do it herself. Maybe consider that before you rant about laziness.

I'm from a farm, and now live rurally.

Well, I’m too scared to take mine to a car wash now after one of the guys damaged my car door. It cost £200 to fix. Yeah, they gave me the money back, but had to go back several times with my angry ‘resting bitch face’ to get my money back.

Look at your car paintwork under bright sunlight. See those faint spider webby hairline scratches? They're called swirls and plastic car wash brushes are really bad for causing them. If they build up enough they'll make the paint look dull (mainly because wax/shine products collect in the microscopic cracks rather than rubbing in uniformly like they would on a smooth surface). This is why car enthusiasts and people with expensive cars have them periodically machine polished to remove a really tiny layer of paint and smooth it our again.

The way to minimise swirls is to use one bucket for rinsing the cloth and one for dipping in the shampoo - even better with a 'grit guard' to keep the crap at the bottom rather than circulating around the bucket.. That way you aren't transferring pieces of grit back into the clean shampoo and rubbing them into your car like sandpaper. Ideally, you want to wring the cloth out regularly to remove the bits of grit. Watch the guys at most of these cheap hand washes and you'll notice most of them don't dip very often at all and clean a whole panel with one dip.

A microfiber or lambswool cloth is much better than a sponge as it sucks any bits of grit into the pile, rather than trapping them against the surface and scratching.

It may sound extreme but why spend thousands on a car and mar the paintwork when it can be preserved very effectively (most of my friends cars look older than my 16 plate after a month or two).

I work in a petrol station with an automatic car wash.. I don't recommend them at all! It still shocks me how many people will put brand new cars through them only for the car to come out dirtier than it went in! All for the cost of £6.99 🤦🏼‍♀️
They're a rip off, please don't use them people!

Still chuckling at the Romanian and “polish” mafia!
Presumably they threaten you with a wax spray?! grin

Does it really make you grin that some people are brought in here under "agencies" that promise legal work, take people's Id's or passports and girls end up usually in illegal brothels, guys usually in agriculture and hand car washes because if they won't do it, they have their ID hence their address and will find them or beat their family up?

I do my own. To get someone else to do it would mean driving 35mins to a supermarket. Why?

Amd if you are chuckling at polish mafia, please note that mafia style organisations are in most countries. And they run these things. Also in some countries for example pubs still pay "fire insurance" to locav "mafia". Might sound funny and luckily this levy is now going, bit these things are real.

FreeToRun

How do you know my brother? 😁

Automatic ones fuck your paintwork up.

Hand washing gives a far better clean. Plus they do inside. For next to nothing.
YABU.

I have a nice car and it deserves better than being battered by a scratchy rag with cheap soapy water! If I could do it myself I would. The men at my local car wash do a very good job and have a nice chat with me.

I do only use my local Tesco one though so at least I know I'm paying a registered business.

I recall how proud my DH was of his absolutely brand new car. All shiny and new with just 4 miles on the clock. We had never been able to afford to buy new before. After a few weeks we took it to get it cleaned.

And all that grit and shite from precocious washes that collected on those automatic cleaners scratched the shit out of the paintwork. He was gutted. It took a lot of T Cut and buffing to sort it out and it was never quite the same.

I have better things to spend £35 quid on.

Wouldn't take it to an auto one as it can get scratched.

Previous not precocious*

Chester, that would absolutely be fixable by a car detailer. Might be a couple hundred (could maybe find one for less) but really worth it on an expensive new car. Or you could buy a cheap DA polisher lfor £50 and do yourself (really hard to do damage as much gentler than the rotary polisher professionals use - a DA polisher will stop rotating if pressed to hard against car).

Buffing by hand is almost impossible without several days work. A quick machine polish and a wax would work wonders.