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.
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.
Touch less or hand
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
