The extra purple goo they throw on the car, the “wax” and, rain repellant, paint primer blah blah.
Am I just paying for fancy purple water? Or do these upgraded packages actually provide a benefit to my car?
I am not saying rain exing your windshield and getting your car waxed doesn’t do anything. I’m asking specifically if doing it in a drive through automatic carwash actually applies them, and if it applies them in a way that matters.
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application in a drive-through setting is usually very quick and thin, meaning these coatings tend to wear off fast and are not as durable or thorough as those applied by hand or through professional detailing
Idk but the Kwik trip I go to is completely touch less and the difference between platinum and base is 3 dollars so I just get my special purple water and be happy with it.
To my understanding, it does do something. It’s not a scam per se. I don’t think it is just colored water, and if there was no additional compounds, that would be grounds for false advertising suits.
Whether those additional compounds have tangible enough benefit to actually be worth paying for, however, is unclear. I would venture to guess no, unless you have a very expensive paint job that you are very dedicated to being pristine.
So I don’t think it’s a scam but I also don’t think it’s worth buying, but I’ll leave that to someone with a bit more knowledge on car washes and paint
The biggest drawback to the drive through car washes are the brushes impacting the paint on your car and when they do, they put fine scratches everywhere the brushes touch.
Yup, catch it in the sun, at the correct angle and you can easily see them.
they help empty your checkbook
Wax and rain repellant are cool and useful. Most top programs on carwashes include washing the underside which is useful in winter when there’s ton of salt everywhere but other than that makes little sense unless you were driving in the mud.
The higher tier car washes usually have a water repelling agent so that your vehicle dries a little better as you’re driving and you won’t get any spots. Honestly, you’re better off saving the four dollars every time you get a car wash and simply get yourself a bottle of spray wax and as you dry the car from the car wash just spray a little bit on your towel and that’ll dry it and it’ll look better than whatever the upgrade is for the car wash.
The top program at my one does the underside of the car too along with the extra chemicals and an extra pass over the whole car .
It makes more money for the owner
I think the waxes and things do something, but also that it wears off too fast for me to pay for it every time.
I usually get the lowest tier that will wash the car twice at a touchless car wash. I tend to avoid the ones with rollers and tracks because anxiety.
But pressurized water two times? I’ll pay for that.
I have a membership at my local car wash. I pay $20 USD per month for the base package but the premium membership, which includes “graphene, ceramic, etc etc” is $50/month.
I will never pay for that, nor will I pay for the $30 package because I can’t stand hot wax. I think it might look good the first few times, but at some point it just starts adding layers and layers of gunk to your car.
For instance, I used to have the package that had “hot wax”. The hot wax got so caked on that when I used my windshield wipers, it would leave visible markings where they stopped at max extension. They were pushing that caked on wax out to the edges and it was very difficult to get off. I ended up using a dual action polisher.
I ended up ceramic coating my own car (I’m not a pro by any means) but it’s held up well for two years now. When I’m lazy or during specific times of the year like pollen season, I go get the basic wash at the automatic car wash, and then when I’m done I pull around and use a detailing spray to be a little more thorough and to try to rejuvenate my coating’s hydrophobic properties a bit. I find this to be much better than forking out extra per month that just results with more stuff gunking up my car.
Even if you don’t want to ceramic coat your vehicle because it’s very labor intensive, simply getting the cheap wash and spending 5 minutes applying a paint sealant afterwards would give much better results.
Separate fools and their money.
I can tell you the rain repellant does something. It works on the windshield and leaves a hazy residue on most of the matte contrasting trim.