Yup. If the streaking is due to leftover detergent or from minerals in the water, that will even cause streaking with hand washing. Hand drying will reduce that tendency but you have to be careful to not "find" any sand or dirt that can get caught in the rag and scratch the paint. Even if the blow drying lasted longer, it's still just pushing water around that will leave trails of residue. There's no real good way to avoid that other than with hand wiping. That's why you see some people at old cars shows meticulously examining every square inch of their car looking for that. It's also one of the many reasons I let my "new" car sit in the garage and prefer to drive my old rusty trusty '88 Grand Caravan. It has never gone through a car wash since it was new. I just let the rain do its thing. My old new car with 4,200 miles gets hand washed and waxed, then parked back in the garage out of sight. Hmm. What good is a car you won't drive?
Oh well. Keep in mind too that another source of spotting is from rain. We always hear about acid rain but that isn't nearly as big a deal as it was many years ago. Still, any water from any source that isn't hand dried will leave some hint behind that it was there so I wouldn't be too hard on the car wash. If it was free, just accept it and rinse your car again at home, then hand dry it, at least in the areas you'll see. If you have to pay for the car wash, save your money and wash it at home. I don't even use detergent on my new car. I just surprise it with lukewarm water and a rag, then lots of buckets of clean warm rinse water. I do get spots but it doesn't take long in storage before the dust hides them!
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 AT 11:01 PM
