Our local Porsche dealer has a new state of the art automated carwash with three client bays, reclaimed water, gentle soap, microfiber materials, etc. All customers who purchase their Porsche, Mercedes or Audi from this dealer can use this at anytime for free and they all do. I see Porsche and Turbos use the car wash and was wondering if there are opinions on this versus handwashing. Seems like a nice option for a daily driver in our rainy NW climate. Thoughts?

 

Interesting. I know a lot of the hardcore enthusiasts / car detailers at heart would be quick to say no. I would hang around the car wash and check out how a car looks when it gets out of there. I take pride in the upkeep and cleanliness of my car so I do all of my work myself, granted time permits. I wouldn't cross it off as no yet but get more info on it and check it out for yourself. Only you are the best judge for your own car and since none of us have the open access to this that you do I'm not sure how much we can assist you. Good luck!

 

Off the bat, I would need more information.

Water is fine, but how hard are they firing it at the car? Too hard and it may grind dirt, grit, or sand into the paint, or move it along the surface and create scratches.

What kind of soap do they use? I bet it ain't Zaino. Poor quality soap will remove wax. Cheap soap will even strip some non-wax sealants if applied at high pressure.

And then, the most aweful of all: the drying. What are they RUBBING against the surface of your paint? Sure, maybe it is micro-fibre, but I promise you this: it ain't clean. When I do my car, I use about 30 micro-fibre towels (not the cheap ones from Target, but the top-of-the-line ones from Pakshak) and once it hits dirt, it's in the to-be-cleaned pile. Does your place take that much care?

Anything that rubs against your paint better be the absolute best MF Towels, cleaned in MF cleaner, and never touching dirt, grit, or grime before hitting your paint.

When your joint can promise you that, call me. Please, call collect, I wanna' hear about it.
CATTMAN

 

I use car washes all the time - always have always will, i dont see all the nay-sayers about car washes

And please tell me how some expect us to handwash our cars in chicago - it was in the singles digits the past few days... hand wash? I think not

 

I go to a car wash three times every week. With all the time I save, I drive the car more. Vroom Vroom.

 

You don't have problems with the front scraping the track? The plastic lip on my 997S just barely touched the track and the rear tires were almost max width so I always assumed my Turbo would not fit.

 

No problems with mine. And it's lowered (lower than in my avatar). Go to your car wash and measure the height of the tracks. That's what I did. But I bet different car washes have different specs. I've seen lots of exotics at my car wash. Maybe their tracks are lower and wider than average.

 

I use the Barrier car wash for my Cayenne, but I always wash the turbo by hand. With a white car, you're not going to see swirls very easily. If you had black (like my cayenne), the car wash eventually will start swirls.

The big problem with the Barrier wash is the brushes. If you have dirt on your car or dirt on the brushes, you'll get fine scratches on your car. I say wash it by hand once a week. White looks good for a long time.

 

yes.

 

I would say no....IMO....But They are offering this at LOKEY Mercedes-Benz...I havent to my SL 500 there in a long time. If you are a busy person and dont have time to spend 1 hr washing/detailing your car at east once a week then take it to the dealer.

We have 4 cars and taking them all to the car wash is a PITA(at $25 a pop). I have a commercial grade pressure washer and use it on the all the cars. I dont carve my name in the paint or anything. Keep it at 1/2 throttle and keep the nozzle 2-3 FT away and im fine.

I wash my 997TT every time a drive it. Lat week I drove it for 7 days str8. I ended up washing it twice. Cant stand a dirty PORSCHE.

 

I hsve the same problem on my Dark Blue Range Rover.....Looks soo bad in the sun

 

Greta,
It probably depends on how **** you are about your car. I personally could not run my car through any type of wash, but that's me. You can probably get away with doing it every once in a while since you have a white car. A few years back when I didn't drive the type of cars I have now I sometimes used a high-end car wash and it finally bit me. One of the cloth strips which drag across the car just happened to perfectly slide under my wiper blade and catch it and bent it back and put a nice scratch on the edge of the hood. Yes they took care of it, but it reminded me of my luck with murphy's law #1. I have not been back to any type of car wash since. The touchless car washes where they have people drying the car after it comes out are just as bad if not worse since the rags they dry with are what pretty much what gets the dirt off.

 

I would worry more about the rims getting scratched on the tracks that guide the car thorugh the car wash.

Me personally; I will never bring a car that I care about through a car wash!!!!

 

No tracks on this one. You pull in and then the machinery moves back and forth over you. Also, the drying is by blowers. No wiping down.

 

On that thought maybe once in a while if I were to busy.