Cleaning a regular driver

[thigger]

I'm still relatively new to the world of Proper Cars with my Z4MR (sapphire black). I've seen a fair bit of advice about how to clean, care for and wax them properly but I get the impression a lot of this is for people who rarely take their cars out.

Mine's a regular driver and as such has been getting pretty filthy pretty quickly. I've been giving it a rinse and sponge down (usually water only, occasionally with one of the all-in-one "wash-n-wax" jobs) and have once waxed it properly with the liquid wax.

My question is, how often should I be waxing it? Does washing it remove any protection or am I alright to just wash as I have been and wax it every few months?

Thanks for any advice.

(Also: does anyone have experience of the Turtle Wax soft-top kit; it doesn't seem to make my roof water-repellent at all)

[thigger]

Mattt said:

Gives a great finish, and makes cleaning for the next month or so really easy - water and dirt just falls off.

How do you clean it in the meantime? Water only, or do you use one of the shampoos?