Car Wash Etiquette
Discussion
So, would love your opinions here.
I have a hand Carwash near where I live.
I have been using them for the last five/six years, and they usually do a pretty good job - I used to wash my own porker but find it all too tiring nowadays.
They charge £8 for a wash/wax and dry.
After I got my car washed today, I went to pay and upon returning to the car, noticed little blobs of dried bird poo all over the car roof, windows and bonnet (roughly 20/25 in number).
I went to the Bossman and told him that I felt the car wasn't cleaned properly. He came over to take a look, and said that the only way to remove them would be via a polish, which they don't offer.
There was a long queue, I needed to pick the other half up so I didn't bother arguing.
OH noticed when I went to pick her up, and said I should have complained and pushed them to clean it all off - it did take me a good thirty minutes of rubbing the individual dried bits off myself when I got back home to get the car looking up to standard.
Should I have expected this to be done by the carwash in the first instance? What would the general consensus be? OH is making me feel rather meek. Opinions would be appreciated.
I have a hand Carwash near where I live.
I have been using them for the last five/six years, and they usually do a pretty good job - I used to wash my own porker but find it all too tiring nowadays.
They charge £8 for a wash/wax and dry.
After I got my car washed today, I went to pay and upon returning to the car, noticed little blobs of dried bird poo all over the car roof, windows and bonnet (roughly 20/25 in number).
I went to the Bossman and told him that I felt the car wasn't cleaned properly. He came over to take a look, and said that the only way to remove them would be via a polish, which they don't offer.
There was a long queue, I needed to pick the other half up so I didn't bother arguing.
OH noticed when I went to pick her up, and said I should have complained and pushed them to clean it all off - it did take me a good thirty minutes of rubbing the individual dried bits off myself when I got back home to get the car looking up to standard.
Should I have expected this to be done by the carwash in the first instance? What would the general consensus be? OH is making me feel rather meek. Opinions would be appreciated.
Bird poo and many other contaminants will etch into unprotected paintwork and be difficult to remove. A decent wash, polish and coating even with something as cheap and quick to apply as Sonax BSD will prevent this happening making washing much easier. Preferably not with the sort of cheap harsh chemicals that commercial washes tend to use. Does require regular effort though...
£8 gets you a wash. If bonded on contaminates haven’t come off during a wash then extra work is needed i.e claying and machine polishing.
We’ve had a lot of dry and hot weather lately which has baked things on to the paint, in some cases I’ve seen tree sap and other contaminants have eaten into the paint. No amount of washing will remove these. You are into the realms of machine polishing and/or wet sanding.
You’re being unreasonable.
We’ve had a lot of dry and hot weather lately which has baked things on to the paint, in some cases I’ve seen tree sap and other contaminants have eaten into the paint. No amount of washing will remove these. You are into the realms of machine polishing and/or wet sanding.
You’re being unreasonable.
Yeh - I kinda didn't expect them to spend that kind of time for £8 hence didn't bother pushing it too much. Did ask Bossman however as he knows what needs elbow grease and what doesn't.
They've usually done a bang-tidy job and I've never, ever noticed anything, so must be the hot weather and the like.
The car is a GT Silver Panny 4S - I used to hand wash it myself, but alas I just don't have time/too tired to do it myself these days. Also daily the car, so needs a wash every few weeks. Bodywork doesn't look too bad unless someone examines it under a lamp...
Thanks for the replies!
They've usually done a bang-tidy job and I've never, ever noticed anything, so must be the hot weather and the like.
The car is a GT Silver Panny 4S - I used to hand wash it myself, but alas I just don't have time/too tired to do it myself these days. Also daily the car, so needs a wash every few weeks. Bodywork doesn't look too bad unless someone examines it under a lamp...
Thanks for the replies!
For 8 quid all they're going to do is wash and wax it, and whatever comes off in the wash comes off. Tar, bird crap etc is different, and probably best asking to have stuff like that cleaned in advanced, for which they have the option of charging extra. For the basic cost you get a clean car, with clean bird s
t on it.
t on it.A tale from my local car wash (see "at a loss' thread)
At the time i had two cars hyundai i20 owned from new, only ever washed by me except when in for a service and a 1994 Merc SL, a little tired but generally good order.
January 2020, very wet muddy winter, both cars absolutely hanging, took cars to hand car wash, established and well regarded locally.
Fast forward 6 months and I started to notice problems, paint was falling off the Hyundai, Merc paint looking dull and patchy, the (18 month old soft top) stitching was starting to fail.
Another 18 months and great gobs of paint falling off the hyundai, merc paint and lacquer falling off, softtop seams coming apart.
I suspect truck wash was used and not rinsed off properly.
At the time i had two cars hyundai i20 owned from new, only ever washed by me except when in for a service and a 1994 Merc SL, a little tired but generally good order.
January 2020, very wet muddy winter, both cars absolutely hanging, took cars to hand car wash, established and well regarded locally.
Fast forward 6 months and I started to notice problems, paint was falling off the Hyundai, Merc paint looking dull and patchy, the (18 month old soft top) stitching was starting to fail.
Another 18 months and great gobs of paint falling off the hyundai, merc paint and lacquer falling off, softtop seams coming apart.
I suspect truck wash was used and not rinsed off properly.
Edited by PositronicRay on Thursday 15th September 08:42
The only time I clean my car is to remove bird crap. So probably twice a week sponge off on those spots. Once a month otherwise, dodging in between the rain to get a free soak and final rinse.
I hate other people washing my car. I always say don’t wash it, when it gets serviced, but BMW always do it.
I hate other people washing my car. I always say don’t wash it, when it gets serviced, but BMW always do it.
For £8 (not much more than a pint of beer in London nowadays!) I am not surprised they literally throw some washing up liquid on it, rub it with a sponge and jet wash it off. Their advice is completely wrong i.e. the polishing bit, which shows they know sweet FA about actually cleaning a car. So in this case, nothing to complain about, you got what you paid for really, a cheap bit of labour to throw a bucket of washing up liquid over the car and rinse off. Buy cheap, get cheap.
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