I've got a 2007 A6 in solid,non-metallic black. It looks awesome when its clean, but it gets dirty easily. While I admire the dedication of many in this forum to keeping their cars pristine, I don't have time to spend hours and hours cleaning and detailing it myself, and with the water shortage in California cleaning your own car is frowned upon anyway because water is not recycled like it is at the car washes.

So I can either pay $20 to have it hand washed (takes about20 minutes, completely "brushless") and I suppose I won't get swirls, but no guarantees on that as the laborers seem to wipe in circles. Or I could spend $6-10 at the machine car wash depending on whether I add the wax option etc.

The machine car wash does not use brushes either. The cleaning apparatuslooks to belarge sheets of rubber sliced into strips of rubber tentacles. Any reason not to spend $6 each week instead of $20, and then use some of the the savings to have it professionally detailed once or twice a year with polish etc?

I like a shinyclean finish as much as the next guy, but I am not fanatical about my car, and I have to park on street at night anyway.Curious to hear what the experts suggestfor adaily driver to look its best given my limited commitment to spending time and money on the black beauty.

Thanks.

 

I use a micro-fiber duster every night when I park it. That keeps it pretty nice except for the bug splats. Then I just wash it once a month. And you can use a bug splat cleaner in between washing.