Poll

How often do you (or someone else) clean your car?

Once a week
18 (36%)
Once a fortnight
11 (22%)
Once a month
5 (10%)
Mother Nature cleans it for me
1 (2%)
When it needs doing irrespective of time since last wash
15 (30%)

Total Members Voted: 49

Author Topic: Cleaning your car  (Read 12904 times)

Offline Mutley75

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Cleaning your car
« on: 12 October 2019, 10:47 »
It's Saturday.  Which for me, is my weekly car cleaning day.  Not because I am a detailing enthusiast (I'd much rather not have to clean it at all) but because I can't stand seeing it looking dirty, particularly on the inside.  I wouldn't say I have OCD, although I'm probably borderline.  But the kick I really get out of it is each Monday morning driving to work.  When I roll it out of my garage it is just like the day I picked it up from the showroom.  So I get that warm fuzzy 'new car' feeling every single week.  And after 27 years of car ownership (the last 9 have been brand new, before that, they were all used) it's become force of habit and hard to break.

Today it's raining - which is actually a rarity where I live.  You can count the number of Saturdays that it rains on the fingers of one hand (ok, I'm from Norfolk and some of us have 6 fingers around here but you get the point).  So I'm thinking do I just hoover the inside and put it back in the garage and have a week off, with the fact that it's dirty slowly gnawing away at my inner soul all weekend... Or do I just wash it, rinse it, roll it in to the garage and dry it inside?

Which lead me to this forum and out of curiosity, wondered how often you guys clean your cars?
Golf GTi Performance Edition (2019), 5dr, DSG in Isaac Blue, Dynaudio & Brescia alloys.


Offline hobbes22

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Re: Cleaning your car
« Reply #1 on: 12 October 2019, 11:20 »
I tend to wash mine every couple of weeks, but sometimes as often as every weekend. I have had the comments like 'you'll wash the paint off' etc  :grin:
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Offline Toeman

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Re: Cleaning your car
« Reply #2 on: 12 October 2019, 11:23 »
Keep up the cleaning  nothing like a clean hoovered car  to sit in I tend to do mine every week as well

Offline Mutley75

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Re: Cleaning your car
« Reply #3 on: 12 October 2019, 11:28 »
I think the other benefit of cleaning once a week is that it never really gets dirty.  I've washed cars belonging to other people who might not have cleaned them for 2-3 months and it literally takes 3 or 4 times longer and still leaves lots of ingrained dirt in the crevices, grilles, alloys, door hinges etc.  I can make mine look pristine within an hour.
Golf GTi Performance Edition (2019), 5dr, DSG in Isaac Blue, Dynaudio & Brescia alloys.


Offline Jason b

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Re: Cleaning your car
« Reply #4 on: 12 October 2019, 11:34 »
funny you should mention this as I hoped to clean mine today if I can escape from other tasks im lined up for apparently ... :sad:
I tend to do alterante outside one week then inside depending on how much i use it ..
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Offline Dr Mike Oxgreen

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Re: Cleaning your car
« Reply #5 on: 12 October 2019, 11:47 »
I'm in the "once per week" category, made easier because I'm semi-retired and can wash my car under cover, although I have a rule about only washing it if the outside temperature is above 7c.

I agree that a weekly clean is best, as it avoids the accumulation of crud and grime.  As I do quite a lot of my driving in and around the New Forest, and the roads are often covered with stuff which looks like mud but isn't, regular washing under the wheel arches is essential, and as I live next to Southampton Water everything becomes coated in a film of brown dust, which is diesel soot from the ships which pass nearby.  You can't have everything.

I like a nice clean car, as do most of my neighbours, but I'm almost alone in cleaning my own. Everybody else takes theirs to the local money-laundering slave traders, and has them scratch up their paintwork with their gritty sponges.  *Shudder*


Offline Philip

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Re: Cleaning your car
« Reply #6 on: 12 October 2019, 12:26 »
Every week, weather and time permitting. During the winter when the roads are salted I’ll also put it through the local ARC wash as well. The trade off between possible damage to the paint and having the underside cleaned I think is worthwhile.

We travel to Norfolk pretty much every other weekend and you’re right, it rarely rains 🙃
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Offline Mutley75

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Re: Cleaning your car
« Reply #7 on: 12 October 2019, 12:57 »
I can report the car has been cleaned inside and out, dried and garaged. I shall sleep easy tonight safe in the knowledge it will remain that way until approximately 90 seconds after driving it out of the garage on Monday morning, when I expect it’ll be just as dirty as it was before I cleaned it.  :whistle:
Golf GTi Performance Edition (2019), 5dr, DSG in Isaac Blue, Dynaudio & Brescia alloys.


Offline SRGTD

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Re: Cleaning your car
« Reply #8 on: 12 October 2019, 13:26 »
@Mutley75; I’m also from Norfolk. Being retired, I have the time to clean my car when it needs it, so don’t have a specific once a week / once a fortnight cleaning routine. I’ve not responded to your poll as there isn’t a ‘when it needs it, irrespective of when it was last washed’ option.

Edit: the above option has been added so I’ve voted now :smiley:.

I also garage my car, and being a low mileage driver - around 6k miles a year - some weeks it doesn’t get used much, so if it’s not dirty through lack of use, I don’t clean it just for the sake of it.

It does get cleaned when it needs it as I hate a dirty car. I always use a safe washing and drying method to minimise the paintwork becoming swirled. I also machine polish it if and when it needs it (last done around two years ago - planning on doing it before the winter, weather permitting), to remove any minor swirls that IMO are inevitable over time, even with a safe wash technique. Repairing paintwork chips also forms part of my car washing routine if any new chips have appeared since the previous wash - touch up paint is one of the first things I buy when I get a new car, as it’s inevitable there’ll be stone chips at some point during my ownership (the first one is always the worst :grin:).
« Last Edit: 12 October 2019, 17:31 by SRGTD »
2020 Polo GTI Plus; Pure White, DSG (because they all are)
Gone but not forgotten;
2016 Polo GTI; Blue Silk
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Offline Mutley75

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Re: Cleaning your car
« Reply #9 on: 12 October 2019, 13:36 »
That’s another good point about weekly/regular washing. You get to notice every new defect straight away and can do something about it before it gets any worse. Six months on, my GTI is still mint. Although it did get hit on the drivers door by a flying stone about two weeks after I bought it. Fortunately the dent was easily removed and there was no paint damage. Still stuck in the throat to fork out £90 so soon after buying it though. But better than leaving the dent there.
Golf GTi Performance Edition (2019), 5dr, DSG in Isaac Blue, Dynaudio & Brescia alloys.