It’s par for the course on new cars. It’s very well known amongst detailing enthusiasts too, there’s a dedicated detailing section on the forum with lots of info and advice on dealing with such contaminants and processes to remove. New cars sit at the docks, pick up railway fallout in transit. For those that care about that stuff, first thing to do (if detailing the new car yourself) is to fully decontaminate it with iron/fallout remover, then tar remover (for good measure) and if needed, claying. Do the sandwich bag test - put hand in plastic bag and run palm/fingertips over panels, it emphasis embedded iron and tar contaminants that can’t be removed by washing. Do the test before and after the iron remover and tar remover stages to see if any left which might need claying. If paintwork is glassy to touch after then claying might not be needed.
You don’t need a face mask on, its stinks but it won’t kill you, lol. But bin any microfibres you might use, same if you use tar remover, don’t wash them with your clothes otherwise you’ll regret it and have no friends very quickly, lol. Iron X does need rinsing well but 30 mins is overkill, you’re just wasting water. And you really don’t need to wash it loads of times. Wash the car very thoroughly first, dry it, apply Iron X a section at a time, not to whole car at once as you don’t want it drying on, let it dwell for 5 mins, gently agitate with microfibre, thoroughly rinse off, move onto next section, and so on. Shouldn’t take more than half hour to do the entire car and wheels. Then after the decontamination stages a final quick wash is all that’s needed. Then do the sandwich bag test to see if any embedded contaminants remain. Then either move onto machine polishing (if desired) and protect with favoured was/sealant.
I’d personally avoid getting Iron X and the like of Tardis on some plastics (reg plates etc) as it can and does discolour certain ones.
