Hand car wash

Ollie345

Does anyone here regularly use the hand car wash places , they usually start from £5 for the outside and £10 to hoover inside.
Are they worth using?
What about a proper clean if you want the seats cleaned properly with shampoo or whatever?

BeenThroughItAll

I won't touch them with a bargepole having seen some of the chemicals they use to make the job quicker. Not on my paintwork cheers.

knightstyle

I use them regularly, £4 for exterior and wipe round door jams. Very good, never had any paintwork damage on Toyoya, Nissan and now Ford cars.
Much better than the rotary brush machines IMO.

photome

If you value your car, do it yourself, if you are not bothered about your car then they are ok

marlot

One I know uses brick acid on alloy wheels!

straighttalker

There are a plethora out there. Given that they are all independently owned, there is no set standard. Some are good, some are bad.

GwylimT

We have one come to the house once a month, he does a fantastic job, the package we have is £12 per clean.

1886

As with everything in life, you get what you pay for.

You could have somebody come to yourself and charge you £100 and spend the whole day there going over the car in detail or you could spend £5 and have the outside ready in ten minutes on an old garage forecourt.

I have friends who use hand car wash places and I've not once heard anything negative said about any of them. Most offer a full valet which would include shampooing the seats but IMO I'd get somebody mobile to come to your house or place of work.

Hand car washes are all about high volume and turning out as many vehicles as possible. I would prefer somebody to take their time if they were doing the whole vehicle

agrinnall

It's only £3 for the outside wash where I am, I sometimes pay that and sometimes pay up to £10 for a more thorough inside and out clean, and once paid £20 for a pretty full valet. No complaints yet.

EssexExile

We use a £5 one, we keep our cars for about 10 years & have never noticed any deterioration of the paintwork or wheels over that time. I don't fancy driving home after they've shampooed the seats - wet bum!

neilmcl

EssexExile wrote: »

We use a £5 one, we keep our cars for about 10 years & have never noticed any deterioration of the paintwork or wheels over that time. I don't fancy driving home after they've shampooed the seats - wet bum!

How would you know if you don't get down and dirty with car's bodywork yourself. Washing the car by hand yourself is the only real way to check the day-to-day condition of your car's paintwork imho.