Which do you use and why? Which one gets it cleaner. If it matters we have “real” winters here, meaning snow cruft and salt that absolutely must be removed.
Edit to clarify: I’m talking about a choice in automated car washes- not hand washing cars. Seems people are getting confused. Touchless is a few passes with a pressure washer. Soft touch adds spinning car-wash brush things.
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My dads car was actually damaged by a touch car wash. One of the brushes caught on the edge of his hood and folded over the hood metal. It was a huge pain, had to fight the car wash company to pay for the damage (they eventually did) and even still you can tell where it was repaired. Plus they wouldnt pay for color matching so he had to pay out of pocket for that.
Between that and the possibility of some tiny rock or grain of sand being caught in a brush and scratching the heck out of my car, I now only ever use touchless or wash it myself if the weather is warm. Im in upstate NY where we get pretty cold winters, so whenever it dips above freezing ill run through the touchless just for the underbody spray to get the road salt off
Always touchless, but some film will still remain and the vehicle needs a hand washing once in a while.
When cleaning off salt with a touchless carwash find one that has the under body spray.
I would never use a soft touch car wash. At best it’s going to put small micro scratches in the paint. At worst it’s going to put actual scratches in the paint.
I do touchless, and I don’t bother with anything beyond the basic wash option. That tricolor foam stuff looks fun while you’re in there, but idk how much good it actually does.
I don’t care about my car looking shiny and clean, but I’ve driven hail cars exclusively for the last 15ish years. I try keeping them rinsed off at all times to avoid anything gnarly festering in paint cracks or whatever. Every third or fourth fill-up, I’ll run the car through the cheap $8-10 touchless wash, even (especially) during Minnesota winters.
I think hand-washing is the only way to go if we want our cars clean looking, but who am I trying to impress, you know?
the colored foam is just dyed car soap, so it's helpful in that it's soapy water.
I do the option with undercarriage wash and call it good. (particularly in winter.) in winter it's about getting the salt off before it does unpleasant things to the exposed bits. (breaks come to mind, suspension components. everything else, too.)
The one near me has "Lava" foam. It's really white with bright orange lights shining on it.
It's mildly infuriating that the touchless wash I go to has the blow dryer on the deluxe option only, so you need to choose that if you want to leave the carwash dry, even if you only want a basic wash.
With Soft touch you risk that the caked on mud will scratch your paint as it’s best of you’re car rr that the previous guys mud is still stuck on the soft touch brush. If you have any non stock exterior accessories, they may get ripped off by the car wash as it flails your car clean.
Touch less it’s just water cleaning your car. Sometimes you need a scrub. Think of how some things get clean in a mediocre dishwasher and some things you have to scrub clean before that go into the dishwasher.
I’ll use whatever’s available. Though I have a preference for the soft touch as it cleans better.
I use this guide made by ChrisFix on YouTube and it doesn’t require much effort after the first wash. I only “deep clean” once a year
yeah. Come to Minnesota and do that in January. Sorry, but if I wanted to ask “how to wash your car”… I would have. for reference (not my car), this is probably about 1 week of winter driving here:
There’s absolutely no way I’m washing my car outside in 20-below weather once a week.
Like I said, I only do this once a year, other washes are done just with a pressure washer and a foam canon, sometimes when the car gets really dirty I use a mitt wash with shampoo after the foam canon.
I live in the same kind of weather and still stand by this method. Do the touchless phase very regularly, especially under the car, and you can keep the full detail to a yearly rotation.
No offense, but I’m not particularly sure you do live in this kind of weather.
For one thing, frostbite sets in inside of minutes, even when you’re not soaking wet; and I’m pretty sure the frozen-solid ground would freeze any water before it can run off as another.
But I’m really talking about a choice in an automatic wash. Because I’m lazy, don’t need a perfect clean car (it’s not about the cosmetics, exactly.)
I live in Quebec, we get sub-freezing temps 150 days a year or something lol. No, I won't go outside to clear my car in the winter in freezing weather, thank you.
outside in 20-below weather once a week.
Car washes also shut down at that point. No one is cleaning anything outside. (Information for those not in MN.)
This doesn’t solve the problem.
Every automated car wash here is inside a heated bay. They don’t shut down. (It’s not heated to room temp, but “enough”.)
Funny. My area they put a sawhorse out and close down tight. (I am not sure of the temp, but by the time the highs are -20.)
Touch less or hand
If nothing touches my car, what’s cleaning it? 🤔
Neither. The racks on my car mean I can't use a conventional brush carwash, and there isn't a "touchless" car wash within 100 miles of me.
Going to probably be the oddball but I daily drive a Maserati and go with touch everytime. Specifically 'EverClean' car wash, a chain that recently started popping up in my area.
It's a monthly subscription (another one I know) but for like 15$ unlimited full service washes, and I've never had an issue.
People scoff when I say I take it through auto car washes, but the reality is unless some major cosmetic damage happens, the "swirling" or scratches arent an issue.
Leased or owned/financed?
Financed for first 3 months to trial then paid off in full.
I got a good price and bafflingly haven't had an issue for the past 10k miles. I was prepared to be hitting up the auto shop 4-5 times a year.
Right on. I've heard these can be a nightmare to maintain - I hope yours stays trouble-free
