My sister recently got her 2024 330i in white. She loves it to death, her friends purchased a car wash pass at Petro Canada here in Canada, and they split the cost. 1 wash per day for a year and is split among the 3 of them. She gets a wash like every 2 days or something. But the thing is some of the car washes are not touch less. They are touch with bristles, and she showed me a video and I just cringed.
Then some are touchless, but regardless, aren’t the soaps in touchless washes bad for the vehicles clear coat? I am thinking of just cleaning it for her by hand and such. I’m mad at her because she isn’t taking care of this car she spent lots of money on.
There’s no right answer to this question, and you’re going to get an entire spectrum of responses.
For example, take the parking debate. You have one camp (that I belong to) that parks far away from the “commoners” who might door-ding our investment. You have the other camp that scoffs at us for being ridiculous about a few inconsequential dents.
Another example: food/drinks in the car. One camp doesn’t allow anything in their car (I happen to also belong to this camp), the other camp finds that ridiculous and lives their life normally, happily spilling catsup, crumbs and Coke all over their interiors and just having them detailed on a regular basis.
The same applies to the exterior of the car. I’ve always belonged to a car wash club that uses brushes. I had a black 2015 F30 335i prior to my G80 M3, and I ran it through an average of once every two weeks. After eight years of car washes was the paint damaged? Not in my opinion. That’s the key, though. Was the paint showroom new? Nope. Did it look fine? Yep, especially after I had it detailed.
I do the same thing with my new M3.
At the end of the day, which is worse? A dirty car or a clean car that’s 15% less shiny than showroom new after five years of car washes? 'Cause I’m sure-as-hell not going to hand-wash my car when it’s 98 degrees and 80% humidity outside for four months out of the year.
Wash it well by hand before winter, then only go through touchless car wash all winter
I know a lot of people love their car to death because it’s new. But I think a lot of extra money spent on car detailing is a waste if you aren’t gonna keep it. My bet is that the car at It will be kept for 3-4 years and then traded or sold. So, just keep it simple. If you know for sure you wanna keep it then I would quickly clean it, detox the topcoat and quickly apply the ceramic coating to protect the car. It will make the top coat last a lot longer.
Touchless is definitely the way to go as it doesn’t push debris that can scratch the paint. Regularly washing it is very important, some people don’t wash it regularly and overtime the debris start to oxidize and acidify that dissolves the top coat. So regularly washing the car is very important. I would definitely recommend washing every month.