Do you take your car to the automatic car wash? STOP!!
Automated car washes are scratching and destroying your vehicle's paint. Here's what we recommend.
HARSH CHEMICALS
Starting us off on why automatic car washes are such a horrible thing for your car is the chemicals. These chemicals are typically bought by the barrel and are diluted in house. That being said, the more you dilute these chemicals, the less efficient they become. Most car washes will barely dilute these harsh chemicals to maximize cleaning capabilities but in reality, it is stripping away your vehicles clear coat and could potentially leave chemical damage. At our shop, we typically charge a minimum of $300 to correct chemical damage. That is a lot of unnecessary money to spend, but we have cars come in every week that were damaged from the chemicals at a car wash.
ROUGH WASH METHODS
Mixed with harsh chemicals are rough wash methods. Automatic car washes use machines with spinning brushes to clean your car. These brushes are typically never cleaned and can contain dirt and debris from the Toyota Camry that came in 67 cars before you… That is not good for your cars paint. These types of machines are almost always guaranteed to scratch your car and leave swirls. If you have a black car, you will definitely know what we are talking about. These scratches and swirls that are created can only be fixed with a paint correction. These typically costs anywhere from a couple hundred up to a thousand dollars.
DECEPTIVE MARKETING
One thing that a lot of detailers, dealerships, and even automatic car washes have jumped on recently is ceramic coating. While ceramic coating is an incredible option for your vehicle, deceptive marketing and outrageous pricing can quickly leave you with a bad experience. Automatic car washes claim to use “ceramic coatings” in their upgraded packages, but it simply is not a ceramic coating. This is a spray sealant/wax that has about .001% ceramic in it. Think about it, how can a detailer charge up to $2000 and an automatic car wash charge +$4 for the exact same service? Check out this package from a local anonymous automatic car wash.
Let’s look at this from a marketers perspective. It looks like their boss told them “add as many catchy words as possible.” In doing so though, they have falsely advertised what you are truly getting. You are not getting ceramic or a polish or a sealant. You are barely getting a wax, just a single wash wax that lasts 2 weeks at max. The first three terms are all describing the same product. That being said, if you really want to get a long lasting coating that is worth the money, we would not recommend the automatic car wash.
WEARS YOUR PAINT DOWN
One of the big things that automatic car washes sell is memberships. This is great for cheap washes but horrible for your vehicles paint. Any prolonged use at a car wash will result in scratches and swirls. These are stripping away your vehicles clear coat and in come cases, stripping paint all the way to the metal. If you continuously allow an automatic car wash to kill your paint, there may be a point where it is not repairable anymore.
WHAT WE RECOMMEND
If you don’t really care about the looks of your car and you just want a simple, cheap wash, the automatic car wash is the perfect option for you. If you care about your vehicles paint and want to maintain it’s value, we recommend either hand washing or hiring a detailer. A great option to protect your paint and save money is ceramic coating. Ceramic coating is comparable to wax. Like wax, it creates a sacrificial layer over your vehicles paint that provides protection and gloss. Unlike wax, ceramic coating is 10x stronger and glossier, lasts several years, and has self cleaning qualities. Having a ceramic coating will cut your hand washing time in half.
