Just wanted to see who actually did what to their cars

 

For my present car: hand washes only! It gets tough doing that in the winter here at times, but it's for the "greater good".

The Coupe will get the occasional automated winter bath, but will otherwise be treated in the same fashion.

 

Like mapman, I always hand wash my cars myself. In winter, it can be a problem if we get a long spell of sub-freezing temps. If it has snowed and there's salt on my car, I have taken it to a local car wash (Flagship) that does a great job. They use the cloth strips (no brushes) and I've never seen them leave a scratch. One of the car jockeys left a small scratch on a wheel (previous car) when he lined it up with the conveyor.

Otherwise, if it's at least 33 degrees, there I am with the plastic bags rubber-banded around my gloves and my wife and neighbors just can't understand :p .

 

I usually hand wash the car as well...and like MarkL said.. the weather has not really been favorable for hand washing... so my front wheels have a pretty nasty looking graphite color to it...

on a funny note, a bird had just eaten some berries etc and decided that it was going to relieve itself on my white car. so yesterday morning there is this purple bird poop on my hood.. so i saw..not a problem.. i just wash it off.. drive up to the hose in the complex and what do i find... that water in the hose has frozen over night!!!!

i had to jump up and donwn on the hose to break the ice inside so i can get a small stream of freezing water... i think the people that drove passed me probably thought I was nuts....

 

In the spring and summer I hand wash and hand wax (with Meguiar's polish and carnuba wax) my cars--it is great aerobic exercise! I wash my cars every two weeks and wax every two months. At the end of winter I take my cars to the automatic car wash--usually Flagship's on Connecticut Avenue in Washington D.C., to get the salt out of the undercarriages. Hand washing is best, but like MarKL, I like Flagship. When I take my cars to the dealership for service, I always ask for, and receive, a free wash.

With my new C320, I will have three cars to wash and wax.
BTW, how long is one supposed to let paint "cure" on a new car before its first washing?

 

Does anyone know if we have Flagship's -or anything equivalent that does a good job in carwash- up here in upstate/western NY region?