My sister recently got her 2024 330i in white. She loves it to death, her friends purchased a car wash pass at Petro Canada here in Canada, and they split the cost. 1 wash per day for a year and is split among the 3 of them. She gets a wash like every 2 days or something. But the thing is some of the car washes are not touch less. They are touch with bristles, and she showed me a video and I just cringed.
Then some are touchless, but regardless, aren’t the soaps in touchless washes bad for the vehicles clear coat? I am thinking of just cleaning it for her by hand and such. I’m mad at her because she isn’t taking care of this car she spent lots of money on.
The real reason to avoid the drive-through car washes is because that’s where all the people with the dirtiest vehicles go to get their vehicles cleaned, and the equipment there doesn’t get cleaned as often as it should. I knew guys who would go 4-wheeling in mud all weekend, and roll back into town and go to a gas station car wash. A non-zero amount of that dirt gets stuck on the equipment and can scratch cars more than it already does.
…that being said, her car is white, so it’s the least likely to show how scratched it is. I hated detailing white (and silver) vehicles because it was so difficult to see the condition of the paint without staring into bright lights all the time.
As far as a touchless, eh…I’ve never heard anything about them damaging the clearcoat. My main issue with touchless is that it typically doesn’t get everything off, especially that thick winter road grime.