2011A6Rider

I totally agree! I have a 2011 A6 in Black Phantom Pearl, I will never take my car to a auto car wash with brushes or anything that touches the car...strickly high power jets and the dryer.

I recommend buying Griot microfiber towels online they are the best. The ones you buy at Autozone or Oreilly's are cheap and will also scuff up your car. Everything is more exagerated on a black car so it may not be as big of a deal if you have a white car but I've seen what car washes that use "top of the line" towels scratch the hell out of the paint.

KevinGary

I try to stick to hand washing the car in my driveway.

kziggy

The best way to tell the quality of microfiber towels is too take a CD(one you don't like)and on the back of the CD,take the mic.towel with your finger and rub hard on the surface. If there are scratches on the CD, it will also scratch your car.

AMDG75

My kids lived in apartments for a couple years and used my method: Optimum No Rinse. There are several threads on this forum where I and others have posted.

Briefly, a 5 gallon bucket with 2 gallons of water with a capful of ONR, with good microfiber --- and you can wash your car in 20 minutes without having a hose.

My son's car is Daytona Grey and there are no scratches.

Sallad

Ive lost my front tow eye cover in an auto wash before.

95% of the time I just wash it in my driveway with only water and some rags. (I don't want to use any soap because the water runs into the area where my chickens live)

KevinGary

I bring my car to my local detailer every Saturday morning for a hand wash. It takes about 50 minutes. It is across the street from a Starbucks and I read the paper with my cappuccino while I wait. The car looks great and doesn’t have any swirls you get from the typical car wash

jasontaylor7

Happy to see this thread alive. The two really easy/stupid questions I have:

1. Is the soap in these $10 car waxes specially made to not harm car wax, and is it not a normal detergent (that most know is harmful)?
2. Is any wax added in the last stage of washing so that you don't need to re-apply wax on it?

sswari

HAND WASH YOUR CAR!!!!! As mentioned above, Opti No Rinse a big yellow sponge and a couple of thirsty high quality micro fiber towels and you are good to gol
https://www.opticoat.com/product/opt...o-rinse-16-oz/ will wash your car many times.
will last many years
Look at the Rag company for towels, there are too many choices.

R3Wood

I’ve used “No-Touch” thru the years in the winter on my A6. It’s still looks good after all these years. Never went thru the brush and scrubs with it. My S7 has Modesta BC-04 and it indicates never go thru auto washes.

Six-Pack

That really is a lot of washing; likely to result in damage to the paint, micro abrasion.