Which do you use and why? Which one gets it cleaner. If it matters we have “real” winters here, meaning snow cruft and salt that absolutely must be removed.
Edit to clarify: I’m talking about a choice in automated car washes- not hand washing cars. Seems people are getting confused. Touchless is a few passes with a pressure washer. Soft touch adds spinning car-wash brush things.
My dads car was actually damaged by a touch car wash. One of the brushes caught on the edge of his hood and folded over the hood metal. It was a huge pain, had to fight the car wash company to pay for the damage (they eventually did) and even still you can tell where it was repaired. Plus they wouldnt pay for color matching so he had to pay out of pocket for that.
Between that and the possibility of some tiny rock or grain of sand being caught in a brush and scratching the heck out of my car, I now only ever use touchless or wash it myself if the weather is warm. Im in upstate NY where we get pretty cold winters, so whenever it dips above freezing ill run through the touchless just for the underbody spray to get the road salt off
Always touchless, but some film will still remain and the vehicle needs a hand washing once in a while.
When cleaning off salt with a touchless carwash find one that has the under body spray.
I would never use a soft touch car wash. At best it’s going to put small micro scratches in the paint. At worst it’s going to put actual scratches in the paint.
I do touchless, and I don’t bother with anything beyond the basic wash option. That tricolor foam stuff looks fun while you’re in there, but idk how much good it actually does.
I don’t care about my car looking shiny and clean, but I’ve driven hail cars exclusively for the last 15ish years. I try keeping them rinsed off at all times to avoid anything gnarly festering in paint cracks or whatever. Every third or fourth fill-up, I’ll run the car through the cheap $8-10 touchless wash, even (especially) during Minnesota winters.
I think hand-washing is the only way to go if we want our cars clean looking, but who am I trying to impress, you know?
the colored foam is just dyed car soap, so it’s helpful in that it’s soapy water.
I do the option with undercarriage wash and call it good. (particularly in winter.) in winter it’s about getting the salt off before it does unpleasant things to the exposed bits. (breaks come to mind, suspension components. everything else, too.)
I use this guide made by ChrisFix on YouTube and it doesn’t require much effort after the first wash. I only “deep clean” once a year
yeah. Come to Minnesota and do that in January. Sorry, but if I wanted to ask “how to wash your car”… I would have.
for reference (not my car), this is probably about 1 week of winter driving here:
There’s absolutely no way I’m washing my car outside in 20-below weather once a week.
I live in the same kind of weather and still stand by this method. Do the touchless phase very regularly, especially under the car, and you can keep the full detail to a yearly rotation.
No offense, but I’m not particularly sure you do live in this kind of weather.
For one thing, frostbite sets in inside of minutes, even when you’re not soaking wet; and I’m pretty sure the frozen-solid ground would freeze any water before it can run off as another.
But I’m really talking about a choice in an automatic wash. Because I’m lazy, don’t need a perfect clean car (it’s not about the cosmetics, exactly.)
outside in 20-below weather once a week.
Car washes also shut down at that point. No one is cleaning anything outside. (Information for those not in MN.)
This doesn’t solve the problem.
Every automated car wash here is inside a heated bay. They don’t shut down. (It’s not heated to room temp, but “enough”.)