Are car washers a dying breed?

[8IKERDAVE]

Ever since I learned to drive I've always washed my own car. My equipment and products have progressed over the years but I will always do it myself unless I genuinely haven't had time in which case I will take to a hand car wash.

I live on a nice estate and there is literally one other chap (in his 70's) who hand washes his car. A lot of them don't seem to bother at all and the ones that do must take it elsewhere. I get the usual comments "can you do mine next, you will wash that away", etc.. but for some it seems to be quite amusing that I was my car once a week with my own hands. Strangely when I'm cleaning my motorbike no one really mentions that but it seems very out of the ordinary now. Presumably the rise of the hand car wash has been a massive contribution but I can't help thinking people are just generally lazier than they once were!

[DaveCWK]

Probably also has a lot to do with how people own cars vs the past.
You don't really have any level of pride of ownership when your car is leased (rented).
Same with houses - comparatively few people in rented accommodation will invest time & money in say making their front garden look nice.

[vikingaero]

Definitely. Most people would rather pay £15 to the local Albanian car wash than get their hands dirty.

I find washing cars therapeutic as you get to see the result from start to finish , much like ironing.

[spikeyhead]

I still wash my own cars, rarely more than a couple of times each year. Modern cars don't need anything like the fuss that older cars used to.

[steveo3002]

dont see any car stuff going on at all, theyd rather drive on a flat tyre /knocking engine than do anything about it

looked at like a wierdo for wanting to take pride and look after your car

[PhilkSVR]

I never wash my car now myself. I had it ceramic coated 12 months ago and convinced myself that my hand washing or heaven forbid the local guys putting their dirty cloths on it would simply put swirl marks on it and being a weirdo if I saw that it would drive me bonkers. I have the guy who coated it come round every 6-8 weeks to professionally valet the car. It still looks great because he knows what he is doing and I don’t.

[Faust66]

It certainly seems to me that most people don't wash their cars themselves. If you've got the space etc to do it, I don't really know why you'd pay someone else to do something you can (hopefully!) do a better job of by yourself and something that can be quite relaxing or therapeutic IMO.

If you run an old car (mine are 54 and 17 years old), it's also a good opportunity to keep an eye on your paintwork and watch out for rust etc.

My neighbours are apparently proud of never washing their own cars and think I'm odd for doing it myself.

I think they are mugs for paying out their hard earned for something they could do themselves.

Horses for courses and all that.

[Hol]

I own a Porsche and probably half the posts I see on the FB sites are from the people showing a picture of a newly washed car.
“Been for an early run out and spent the afternoon washing the car” etc…



So, it might be a marque thing…

[John87]

I live in a small street of 4 houses where every one of us washes their car themselves. My next door neighbour even washes his son and daughter in law's cars because he enjoys it!

If I've not had time/ weather to do it, my wife will very occasionally take hers to a local place who will clean it for a fiver but I would rather have my car dirty than have it ruined by TFR. It seems to particularly destroy any plastic wheel nut covers and make them look scruffy

[Jayho]

I must admit, I'm terrible for washing my cars. Have all the equipment and spend some money on products. But even then I'm only ever out once a month. Even with that, the first wash of the year would be a proper wash and wax, then thereafter it's pretty much a touchless wash.

Step 1 Snow foam prewash , rinse,
Step 2 Snow foam shampoo, rinse. (Unless it's particularly filthy from a road trip or something it wouldn't see the washing mitts)
Step 3 Wax it wet type stuff, where you spray on the liquid wax, distribute with cloth then buff out.

Always wash and wax a new to me car ASAP though. Find that way I can really see all the little imperfections and decide if it bugs me enough to have sorted.

The daily doesn't seem to get the same good treatment either, during honeymoon period it gets a proper wash from me, but after a while it's just taken to a multi-storey where they've got people who would wash and wax it for £20.

[GeniusOfLove]

CheesecakeRunner said:

DaveCWK said:

You don't really have any level of pride of ownership when your car is leased (rented).

Disagree with that. I’ll be paying circa £30,000 on the lease of my car. I’ll look after it just as carefully as if I’d paid 30 grand up front because it’s my car for the moment, and I’m paying a lot of money for it.

The whole "no pride of ownership" thing is ridiculous, I don't wash my cars because it's a boring cold job and as much as I'd like a clean shiny car I'd like to do about 100,000 other things much more. No finance on any of my current cars, fwiw.

I personally think people who wash their cars a lot are saddos with nothing better going on, it's part of a glassy eyed living death suburban hellscape along with grass mowing and 65" televisions as far as I'm concerned, but I don't feel the need to come up with sneering reverse snobbery about their personal finances.

If I was going to spend some leisure time with my car I'll spend it driving on little B roads long before I spend the time washing it, but joking aside I do appreciate that some people get pleasure from that aspect of owning their cars and we should no more sneer at that than they should sneer about people who don't.

[Gordon Hill]

Not only don't people wash their cars anymore you never see them with the bonnet up checking fluid levels either let alone doing any preventative maintainance or servicing. I work full time and still find the time to wash and service my car, not as often as I'd like due to weather and work but once a month wash (I have messy grandchildren), hoover and check fluid levels every fortnight. I don't want to sit in filth in my car any more than I do in my living room.

The idea of lifting the bonnet for a lot of people only occurs when they break down as they stare vacantly at a load of parts, pipes and wires without having the first clue what any of them does.

Edited by Gordon Hill on Monday 8th April 15:08

Edited by Gordon Hill on Monday 8th April 15:09

[JakeT]

But by the same token, who cleans their own windows, or jet washes their own patio, or any other of those things. I do, because I’d rather not spend it on those things and do something more fun with the money.

[Pica-Pica]

spikeyhead said:

I still wash my own cars, rarely more than a couple of times each year. Modern cars don't need anything like the fuss that older cars used to.

100%. My cars are only washed by me, but not that often. I agree that car finishes are pretty hardy to the road and weather comditions nowadays.

[kambites]

I'd far rather maintain my own car and pay someone to wash it than vice versa.

In practice I maintain it and it doesn't generally get washed at all. It drives the same whether it's clean or dirty.

Edited by kambites on Monday 8th April 15:29

[anonymous-user]

For me it is simply that where I live isn't conducive to keeping a car clean more than a few days, if I'm lucky. We're surrounded by farmers fields and equestrian pastures, paddocks etc, so the roads are generally always caked in some form of excrement and mud. I've only two neighbours who seem to make a concerted effort to self wash, and another who has someone come to do theirs, but I'll be honest, most of the time I wonder why they bother. All my cars tend to get a yearly ceramic protection, then a regular snow foam and pressure wash. It does the job, and crucially, it doesn't take up time I'd rather be spent doing other stuff.

[donkmeister]

8IKERDAVE said:

for some it seems to be quite amusing that I was my car once a week with my own hands. Strangely when I'm cleaning my motorbike no one really mentions that but it seems very out of the ordinary now. Presumably the rise of the hand car wash has been a massive contribution but I can't help thinking people are just generally lazier than they once were!

I'm not sure laziness is the reason, but rather the opposite for many - lack of time. A clean car is nice, but let's be honest for a moment: it's not important.

When I was in my early 20s I washed my car probably every other week in summer, never in winter. My time was my own, so that's what I chose to do.

In my late 20s the events of life had started to accumulate, I was working more, I was doing a lot more stuff around looking after parents, doing my own house renovations and so on. These days we unfortunately have fewer parents to care for, but the remaining two need much more care. On top of that we have a toddler, who (as any involved parent will attest) takes up a st load of time. She'd much rather be IN the car heading off to a safari park, or a soft play, or a walk in the woods and so on.

So, keeping my car washed falls really, really far down the list below things like "make sure Mini D has a clean bum and a full stomach", and even below "make sure the family car is roadworthy and in a good state of repair". Basically, if I have an afternoon to spend on the car then it's almost certainly going to be doing maintenance and checks rather than a clay bar and polish. The last time it had any sort of hand-cleaning was when I was Bisselling sick out of the rear carpets.

Sure, there are people who even today will say "fack off, raising the kids is a bird's job!" then spend the time washing the car instead of being a dad. No-one ever lay on their deathbed and said "well my kids hated me, my wife left me but holy fk was my car shiny!"

Now, I'm sure someone is about to say "well I do umpteen different activities with my kids AND I wash my car fifteen times a week". Good for you. Can you wash mine please?

[Vsix and Vtec]

I wash mine, but I'm a fair weather washer. If its winter, I get the Albanian/Romanian tax dodgers to do it, and then when spring arrives I resume duties until the autumn ends.

I enjoy doing it, and I find it gets me up close with all the surfaces, so I can seen if I've got any new chips or scratches in the paintwork. Same goes for the leather feed, I do that myself too, only really getting it hoovered out at the car wash.

I guess for some people, they just aren't bothered what chemicals are being used so long as the car is clean, or they can afford a mobile detailing service. Doing it myself means I can select what products go on the paintwork, and I get a feeling of achievement when I step back after that second coat of wax and the car is once again the best looking machine on the street.

[Rich Boy Spanner]

I wash my own. Never used a car wash or the car washing places. I also get the weird comments. Last week I had 'you can do mine' 6 times, and then some genuinely alarmed man came over stating 'but it's going to rain later'. Saying that, it's nowhere the looks of confusion that I get when I do my own servicing.

[Smint]

Always washed my own and always will, part of the pleasure owning older cars is that they look (and are) in better condition than the vast majority of nearly new cars.