Coin Operated Spray Washes near downtown/midtown/corktown

[DetroitDad]

I've been through this. It's half of one, six dozen of the other.

The only car washes that will harm modern paint within the normal life of a car are the ones that use nylon bristle brushes - and those are almost all gone. You can damage a car in any car washing situation [[including hand washing), though, if you scrub cement dust into the clearcoat. I am not sure about "touchless" being better - to avoid contact, that puts water at a much higher pressure on your car's paint - risking sandblasting it if there is any surface dirt.

Jax should be fine. Even the $3/5 on Jefferson is fine. And if your car's paint has been damaged by old-school washes or construction dust, you might as well leave it until it's time to sell [[have a wet-sand done for $100 or so and you are good to go).

On the other hand, hand washes tend to have contaminated scubbers [[people use them on their brake-dust-coated wheels - that's either iron, ceramic, asbestos, or all three), are awful to use during the winter, cost a lot [[the one down on Vernor/Dix can cost 4 more than a machine wash by the time you are done), and miss getting the salt film off the bottom of your car. That last part is a really big deal. You also need to carry a chamois in your car for drying, and that is a complete pain - since it has to dry somewhere.

Great post Huggybear! But, again, it's a little outdated. No one carries around a chamois anymore, not ever since the ShamWOW! has made it's debut on the market. It holds 10 times it's weight in liquid.