about the car

[jamespan]

Hi guys
I want to know how often how often you clean your cars ,and do you usually have your cars cleaned at your own house or have it sent to a specail car washing factory,as you know ,i am a guy from china ,and most of car owners send their cars to the car washing spots .I want to know about the situation in your country ,because i am going to leave the company soon,and run a trading company by myself to deal car wash cleaning products business ,so i want to plan everything carefully ,of course i have the suvey first .because it is not easy to choose a line ,and once you have chosen it ,you have to do it well .would you pls help me .is the market in UK is competitive ?
thanks

 

[.Spiralling.]

I wash mine in the driveway at home.

 

[leemason]

I wash my car myself. I do it once a year whether it needs it or not!

 

[Rhyl Lightworks]

Hey, once a year is a bit much. I usually do mine before I want to sell it.

 

[weddingcrafter]

I washed BOTH our cars last summer - I am still recovering.

 

[mattk]

I uaually take my car to the jetwash because until last week we STILL had a hosepipe ban. At least now I can finally use the powerwasher I got for my birthday last April.

 

[Arhiann]

When they get dirty and broken I buy a new one. I've not washed a car in 15 years of driving. The girlfriend normally gets fed up with it and does it.

 

[Nikki-Pilkington]

Waterless Detailers come in and do ours before we sell, other than that there's a valet service that only costs £12 in our multi story carpark - they do it once a month while I buy shoes

 

[Gavin Harris]

I go through the car wash at the petrol station - £6 does a perfectly good job, considering it'll just get dirty again the moment I get back on the motorway. And £1 for the vacuum cleaner means inside looks nice too.

And when it get it's MOT or service, my garage give it a full valet too.

I think the market it pretty much saturated over here now - pretty much every petrol station I go into has a car wash, and it seems every town centre multistorey now has a hand wash team too.

 

[andrew1810]

I bought mine a year ago, has yet to be washed (it does rain a lot though)

 

[asonda]

I actually washed mine today!, I went out for a quick drive to see a client, and it's already got bird mess on it! It's white, needs cleaning alot, except, I don't!

Ok, I'd say alot of people wash their cars themselve. We have Jet Wash stations and drive through cleaners. We're I live in cornwall we have plenty of people that'll valet your car in and out for about 7 quid, must be a good business, the owner of the one near to me has a BMW X5!

 

[robbie williams]

Im a little anal when it comes to my pride and joy. I will never take it through a car wash as it will damage the paintwork, I never use a jet wash for the same reason - the brush is usually full of crap and the only thing that actually gets any dirt off of the car as generally the jet wash is useless.. I wash mine either every sat or sunday with my 10 year old daughter. Its a laugh and helps us keep fit and now the other half has got her new car she is out there with us as well.

 

[Stephen Berry]

My car tells me when it needs a service - usually about every 16,000-18,000 miles. It comes back beautifully cleaned - so that saves me ever having to do it. I may occassionally do one or at the most two washes between services if it has been particularly dirty, dusty, snowy etc.

On the other hand ..... my wife ...... she washes her car about once a month. I am thinking that this could be obsessive behaviour. Are there any psychologists on the forum who could help me here?

 

[fastfences]

Its a laugh and helps us keep fit . . .

Thanks for the tip, Robbie. I can now supplement my London Marathon training with washing the car!!

Cheers, Nigel

 

[Dawg]

I wash mine either every sat or sunday with my 10 year old daughter

Does one wash a week keep a 10 year old clean?

 

[An Oasis]

James it is very competitive in the UK

Only when I have to meet a clint that I think will see me car.

 

[Deleted member 9840]

i have never washed or cleaned my van, 92000miles from new,Although i suspect the garage washed it once when it was in for a service.
The car, well that got a full valet once, only because my baby boy threw up in the back.
My motorbike gets cleaned every day, top to bottom.

cheers

steve

 

[Cornish Steve]

Very few people in the US wash their cars on a driveway. In fact, in many places that's illegal (I think because the run-off contaminates the water drains). That means that most petrol stations have drive-through car washes - ranging from $5 to $15 a go. I've noticed a trend in the last few years for custom car washes. The company rents a drive-through area, rents a bunch of students, and offers hand-washing of each car - for around $15.

When I visited friends in Canada, they visited a do-it-yourself car wash. You drive into a big building, put money in the spray machine, and then power wash your car with a strong jet of water. By pressing different buttons, you get either soapy or clean water. That's much cheaper, at about $3 for a few minutes.

The other big tradition in this region is children raising money by offering a 'free' car wash. Typically the children are raising money for the school band - often so they can travel to compete in a band competition. Others may raise money for the sports team, etc. Some students stand on the street with big banners, jumping up and down to convince drivers to pull into the church parking lot or wherever. Drivers typically pay $5-10 for a quick and very enthusiastic car wash.

I don't know if this information is useful, but good luck with your venture.

 

[robbie williams]

Does one wash a week keep a 10 year old clean?

LOL - if only. It takes us ages to get her into the bath but when she is in there she takes about 2 hours!! 10 going on 18!

 

[okiegirl]

i have had terrible experiances with car washes,to which i'm left mentally scarred lol,once i went into one and it wouldn't stop the cycle,sat there for about 20mins before realsing that something was wrong and it seemed to be taking a long time to finish, so had to get out of the car midflow of loads of water being sprayed everywhere to get the garage person to stop the machine,then another time i went thorugh one it completely scratched the side of the car up. will never use one again. we dont have a jetwash in out town at the mo so basically my car will stay dirty,untill the kids clean it!

 

[Sue F]

I'm pretty house proud but when it comes to my car it's probably best summed up by saying that I bought a silver one because it doesn't show the dirt

When I actually do get out there and wash it I always think "I should do this more often" but to be fair I'm another member of the "Once a year whether it needs it or not" club :redface: