Automated Destruction! - Why Automatic Car Washes are Killing Your Paint

Okay, okay. It's not all doom and gloom. There's a little bit of hyperbole in the title but you can't blame a guy for getting your attention. This week, its time to learn about the hidden dangers in automatic car washes that can wreak havoc on your brand new car.

America - The Land of The Free and the Automated Car Wash

People always find ways to reduce the amount of effort, cost, or time for tasks that can seem mundane or are just plain difficult. This isn't a bad thing since there are lots of cool inventions that make our life easier. I mean, what would we do without Alexa? We would have to order stuff on Amazon ourselves. Sheesh! Anyway, back in the 1960s there was a really cool invention called an automatic car wash and it was invented right here in the U.S.of A. It was a big hit, as you can imagine, and throughout the rest of the decade it made its way to pretty much every corner of the United States. There are a lot of great attributes to an automatic car wash namely the ease of use and cost effectiveness. But, every great invention has its flaws and if you care about your car, then you'll want to read on.

Sandpaper and Paint - Not a Happy Marriage

Let me write this in all caps....NEVER TAKE YOUR CAR THROUGH AN AUTOMATIC CAR WASH WITH BRUSHES! These car washes are the ones with the twirly plastic brushes that look fun but are in actuality destroying your paint. The problem with this design is that even though these brushes are great at getting the dirt and grime off of the paint's surface, they don't get rid of the particles after a car finishes the wash. So, that means that every car behind will get "slapped" with the dirt and rocks from every car ahead of it. This can leave the car with millions of scratch streaks. But hey, at least the car is clean right? So, unless you're okay with paying a machine to rub sandpaper all over your car, don't use the automatic car wash with the death brushes.

Hard Water - The Scourge of The Midwest

It would be pretty expensive to wash your car with filtered water and the water that car washes use is likely not filtered so that means that if the car isn't dried properly, those nasty hard water spots will form once the water evaporates. Even though those big dryers are pretty awesome, you only have 60 seconds (or less) to dry your entire car! Also, some people bring their own towel to dry afterwards or buy them from the car wash but if the hard water spots are left unchecked, the spot will become permanent and will require some paint polishing to remove.

I Just Bought a New Car - Can I Wash It With Dish Soap?

Dish soap works really well on the pan you just used to make this week's Lasagna but its not really good for cars. Automatic car washes use a "jack-of-all-trades" soap so that means it needs to clean all sorts of vehicles and can be really harsh like dish soap, and in some cases can even use a harsh "acid-like" soap that is more engine degreaser than car soap.In order to properly clean a painted surface it requires an attention to the current state of the paint and if you recently waxed your car, the soap will strip all of the wax off, along with everything else. The right soap is an important aspect of car washing and an automatic car wash doesn't care about preserving your beautiful paint job, they just want your $8.50.

If you just bought a new car and would like to keep your car looking good for years to come, keep in mind that properly washing your car is as important as keeping your tires filled air. Well, I'd say that tires are probably more important, but you get my point. Even though automatic car washes can be pretty brutal, its better than not washing at all and during the winter time its especially critical to keep your car clean, but we'll save that for a future post. Happy driving!

Cheers!

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