After almost trashing the paint work on my nice new mk6 gti by using a drive through and wondering why my MK5 had all the swirls on the paint work (thinking it was the steel, and also not knowing you can clean the chrome exhaust end pipes - don't laugh! - I've learnt my lesson and trawled through this forum and picked up some outstanding advice from it's pages - so thanks to everyone for sharing such fantastic info.
After all the volcanic ash, the now taking note of the general dust and crap that lands on my car after a few days outside and hence seeing how I trashed the paint on the MK5 - I bought a snow lance. It came today with a nice big 5lt bottle of snow foam to play with! Also the essentials such as wash mitts etc etc.
Got to say WOW! the snow lance is sooooo much fun but is amazing at lifting the dust and grime!