Folks, in order for a touchless car wash to be any way remotely efficient in giving an appearance of a clean bodywork when you drive out of the carwash, 2 things must happen:
- High enough pressure to remove dirt efficiently
- Much harsher chemical usage needed in shampoos to remove contaminants from the finish.
Unfortunately, the trade-off is that usually the mix uses such high pressure and harsh chemical formulations that it will do as much as strip wax from the clear coat. next time you go there, imagine what it does to your clear coat.
The other downside is that, as sophisticated as the system may be, there will always remain areas where there remains significant contamination which, in time, if not removed will also do its work to attack the clear coat.
A third problem is that, as environmentally-friendly as it may be, the use of water recycling makes it that recycled water is often contaminated with residual metals, chemicals and other solids. Combine this with the use of high-pressure spray and you will have a nice abrasive combination that will cause your paint to dull over time as it's been effectively sandblasted. The no-rinse method is an offset to water usage issue if you wish to be environmentally-friendly.
I will also say this: I live in Quebec and get every bit of dirt, salt and oil (from being stuck behind trucks) on the road as anyone north of 40th parallel. I happen to also pretty much live in my car and travel 80,000km per year. My 90D bought September 29, 2017 with 10km to the odometer now has 60,000km and I have not one single swirl mark to the car's finish. (I do have some rock chips to the front end). Last winter I have not used any automatic car wash, but on average every 2 weeks I brought the car in to hand wash it with a combination of pressurised water gun to remove the salt and dirt and (used to be the 2-bucket method) now with the no-rinse method. I have done this during temperatures as low as -25C and the car handled it just fine.
Think about it folks: As much as a car's finish needs delicate care to maintain impeccable aspect, consider it also drives in the worst conditions, in the worst temperature ranges (CaCl2.2H2O @-25C aka salt brine) and withstands it just fine, so for anyone who wonders if their car will implode by washing it when it's that cold out, well... as long as you're in a heated place while you wash to avoid icing up the doors and handles, you'll be just fine, that's actually pretty luxurious pampering compared to the beating it takes on the highway!
