Experienced Staff

Not all automatic car washes are created equal! Using an automatic car wash you risk being the culprit of swirl marks, especially on darker-colored cars. Swirl marks are very difficult to get rid of once they have shown up. Cars with wider wheel widths or a low profile will sometimes have problems with automatic car washes. In this case, you may fall victim to scratches and scrapes on your rims or the undercarriage of your vehicle. Keep in mind the spinning brushes and the dangling cloth pieces that do most of the washing. These may be quick, efficient, and fun for the kids to look at, but if you’ve got a car that you want safe from swirl-marks and contaminants then this is the wrong path for you. Most people don’t realize that these brushes have touched hundreds if not thousands of other cars, collecting dirt and debris along the way. That dirt and debris are like acid on your paint surface!

Most automatic washes will use either air drying or hand drying with a towel. These methods tend to leave extensive water spotting and exterior scratching when compared to proper hand drying with a clean, microfiber cloth.

Claying, polishing and waxing helps to remove embedded contaminants, as well as to restore the luster of a damaged finish, which is done when you hand wash your vehicle. In automatic washing, none of these steps are comparable.

If time is not a factor, hand car washing is better in all aspects than automatic car washing. Hand washes with the corresponding additional steps such as claying, polishing, and waxing should be done whenever time allows, for the best results.

Royal Auto Care uses microfiber towels to detail your vehicle! Each car gets their own microfiber towels during the detailing process and those towels are washed or discarded after each detail.