Yeah, that’s kinda where I’m at. The E46 M3 is a fantastic car, but my 435i has keyless entry/start, bluetooth, HUD, and gets about twice the MPG.

I’ve gotten it as high as 74mi while managing 35mpg on a road trip, so about 2 gallons. Still not really worth it.

My normal commute gives me about 17mpg in pure Sport. Eco Pro typically gives me about 21mpg, and if I really, really lean into it I can get about 25mpg on a tank (all in-town commute, 35-40mph, stop-and-go, with a visit to a 3rd floor on a parking garage 2x a week).

If I drive 80mi/week, I consume 4.7gal/week normally, or 3.2gal/week on my best-ever Eco Pro run. Lets say 91 octane is $5.80/gal, that would mean it would cost me $27.26/week in gas normally, or $18.56 on full Eco Pro.

So, it would save me around $8.70/week or around $452.40/yr if I were to drive my beautiful Estoril Blue 435i MSport 6-speed like a hyper-miling octogenarian with glaucoma. My dad had a saying he would drop every time we saw a guy driving a Corvette 5mph under the speed limit: “what a waste of a perfectly good sports car”.

If I wanted to conserve fuel really bad, I’d get a 330e or an i3 and just keep it charged up. Even with our crazy costs/kwhr in California and my SOs lead foot, the cost to roll our i3 down the road was about 25% the cost per mile of my 435i on a good day. That’s $27.26/week or $965/yr to limp my 435i along, versus $6.81/week or $352/yr to operate an i3 like I stole it. And that yearly delta? 1-2 payments on either vehicle, which is why I find it so impractical for me to switch.

Prolapse.

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.