QOTD: At the Car Wash
I went to wash a test car today, and I thought I'd timed it so there'd be no line, since it's warming up here after a deep freeze and a lot of people want to get the salt off their rides.
No such luck -- I sat in line for at least half an hour.
Not only that, but the short drive to my photo location dirtied the car up again. Or the brushes didn't do their job. I just wasted six bucks of VerticalScope's money.
That got me thinking -- when the snow thaws or the rain stops, how quickly do you rush to wash your ride? Do you do it ASAP, especially if you live in a place that salts the roads, or do you wait a few days?
Or do you not care at all? Are you one of those people who drive around with a car so dirty that people write "wash me" in the grime using their fingers?
Sound off below.
[Image: Nadezda Murmakova/Shutterstock.com]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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My truck gets washed about twice a year. I spray the mud, gravel dust, and cow droppings off when it gets bad enough. :)
Used to take the GTI to a car wash regularly and keep it clean as possible year around. But now driving a somewhat banged up 04 Honda Accord with 100k+ on the clock, don't wash it at all. Actually enjoying the peace of mind and not stressing over cosmetics. I'll probably vacuum out the floors once the weather gets better because they can get kind of messy.
I live in southern Ontario so we get a nice amount of salt and slush. I tend to wash it every week or two when it's above freezing. I pass a coin op on my way home from work so it's easy to go in and pay $3-4 to wash off the worst of it. Actually washed it today as my red car was mostly white from salt.
I fell for the monthly scheme at the local automatic car wash, so I take my car whenever I'm close to it, even in the rain. Doesn't matter. It sure beats spending 4hrs hand-washing, just to try to dodge people's sprinklers. I can just remove this one OCD nightmare from my brain.