While some Americans treat a visit to the car wash as a spurge, a luxury, or even as entertainment for the kids, there are good reasons to make a trip to your local car wash a regular part of your maintenance schedule. Here’s why:
1. Dirt is Damaging
While engines and wheels receive the lion’s share of preventative maintenance, the paint and coatings on your vehicle is an important barrier that prevents moisture and oxygen from rusting the vehicle’s frame. Unfortunately, that barrier can be steadily broken down by exposure to corrosive compounds including insect splatter, bird droppings, road tar, and even regular, run-of-the-mill dirt and dust. A regular wash keeps the surface clear and limits the damage dirt can cause.
2. Washing is the Only Way to Remove Road Salt
As corrosive as dirt and bugs may be, salt is much worse, and if you live in a climate with cold winters where salt is applied to melt roadways your car will be covered in it weekly. Even a few winters’ worth of salt can cause and accelerates rust across the frame, and even vehicle owners with heated garages or who take the time to rinse their vehicles down aren’t safe, as the elevated temperatures of the garage speeds the corrosive action and much of the salt is deposited on the bottom of the vehicle where rinsing is impossible. The only way to efficiently remove this salt from all surfaces is via a car wash with an underbody or undercarriage flush service.
3. It Keeps Your Car Looking New
Scrubbing away dirt and putting some shine on the tires goes a long way towards keeping a car looking like it did when you bought it. Not only does this mean that owners (like you!) feel better about the car longer, but when a car looks nice it also means that drivers and passengers tend to keep treating it better. This creates a positive loop where a nice looking car tends to stay looking nice longer, all thanks to a few quick car washes.
4. It Makes Driving Safer
Even a light layer of dust can impact visibility, especially when light conditions change. Anything that prevents a driver from clearly seeing out each window and mirror affects vehicle safety and a car wash is one of the quickest, easiest ways of keeping those surfaces crystal clear.
5. For Improved Fuel Efficiency
When the Mythbusters tested fuel efficiency between a dirty car and the same car cleaned up, they found that a clean exterior improved fuel efficiency by nearly 10%! Even light dirt build up can create drag and waste fuel over time.
6. It’s Safer for the Vehicle
Hand washing can be a perfectly good alternative to a trip through the car wash, but only if the washer knows exactly what they are doing. Using the wrong soap (dish, bath, or hand soap) will strip the clear coat and ruin the finish. Using the wrong brush or sponge will carve thousands of little scratches into the paint forever. And even if you have the right brush and the right soap, it’s still possible to grind dirt against the coat. A well-maintained automatic car wash, on the other hand, uses specialty chemicals and soft cloth specifically manufactured for its purpose, so that owners don’t need to take more time, buy more supplies, or risk mistakes to get a great car wash result.
7. It’s Better for the Environment
As we’ve written before, professional automatic car washes are a far greener option for car cleaning when compared to driveway washing. An automatic car wash uses far less water (thanks to targeted high-pressure nozzles and reclaim systems) and the soaps and waxes that rinse off are diverted via sanitary sewer to a water treatment plant. This keeps harmful chemicals out of local streams and lakes where they can trigger algae blooms and wipe out fish and animal populations.
Don’t put off taking responsible care of your car. Visit your local car wash today!
Tommy Car Wash Systems