I really don't get what this is implying, commuter cars are essentially self-cleaning. You're driving on roads where the worst that's gonna happen is some salt buildup in winter that isn't worth washing off in winter (and isn't rusting in winter) and then it washes itself off first rain of spring.

This feels like one of those iceberg tips where I'm really glad I'm not in the kind of social circle where having a spotless car matters at all.

I've driven four going on five cars to 200k miles having never gave any shits about car washes and haven't had any problems.

I think it’s pretty normal for people to want to take good care of things they’ve spent hard earned money on. Is driving a filthy car some kind of weird flex?

He's saying it rains and the car gets clean.

I only needed to rinse my car off once a year, max, and did that with a garden hose. It was fine otherwise. Car washes are a waste.

I live in the PNW where it rains pretty steadily most of the year and my car gets absolutely gross if I don't wash it once every couple months. Not dusty, I mean filthy dirty. Rain does not make the car clean, quite the opposite. All that water on the road getting kicked up brings muck with it.

I live in an area of the PNW where it snows and rains a lot during the winter, and rains more during the summer. Mud loves to stick to everything, and the Magnesium Chloride they use to de-ice roads loves to oxidize the frame of vehicles.

I have everything at home to clean our vehicles, but I can’t just run the hose during the winter when it’s most important because of the MgCl; so I’ll take our rigs to the wash if we are in town (nearest car wash is 60 minutes away) to clean the undercarriage and minimize rusting.

A dusty car body is no more "filthy" than the soles of your shoes. Do you wash your shoe soles?

It doesn't get merely dusty unless you live somewhere very dry. I live in the PNW and it rains a good portion of the year. The car gets absolutely filthy during the rainy season.

If my shoes were that dirty, then heck yeah I would clean them. What a mess, it's easy to get your clothes dirty when the outside of your car is filthy. My kid's white dobok is especially sensitive to dirt on the car.

Yeah, it's probably a regional thing. Here in Colorado, most cars don't really get that gross. I take a hose to mine like 3 times a year and dry it with a towel and it looks pretty nearly pristine. They'll only get very dusty if you take them on dirt roads a lot, or keep them in a garage all the time without ever cleaning them. Ones kept outside will keep mostly clean due to the rain, with maybe a little bit of grime under overhangs, and some sun damage on the paint.

People who are into shoes (e.g., sneakerheads) do clean their soles.

If torn jeans can be a fashion statement, then so too can an unwashed car. Let them have this, why don't you?

I'm perfectly happy to let them have this, I was just curious why someone would deliberately neglect basic maintenance. It's kinda foreign to me, and frankly I'm towards the lazy end of the motivation scale.

Fashion statement is actually a pretty good explanation, thank you.

it's not maintenance if it's for aesthetic purposes. unless there's a serious concern for rust then i don't think it classifies.

If you live in an area where they heavily salt the roads washing is important to get all that road salt off of your car as it does speed the process of rusting. Neglecting to do this will result in rust spots on your body. Most of the comments here seem to be taking highly individual situations and assuming it must be the same for everyone.

I live in the UK, where it rains multiple times a week. I mostly drive on paved roads, not too much mud, roads are rarely salted.

Whether I wash my car or not, it changes nothing - the car will get dusty and rained on over and over regardless of what I do. When I first got my car I would wash it sometimes, but it's inevitably going to rain in the next day or so and return to exactly the same state. Washing it once a year is enough to remove any grease/carbon from the roads.

Why bother? I don't think it's actually "maintenance" if it doesn't maintain the car in any meaningful way.

> Why bother? I don't think it's actually "maintenance" if it doesn't maintain the car in any meaningful way.

As usual, it varies. Some outdoor environments can cause pollen/pinetar/birdpoop to accumulate and form a layer of weather-resistant plaque which slowly degrades the paint. Some indoor storage environments are open-air, which can lead to a stubborn buildup of oil/pollution/dust with a similarly negative impact.

Of course, there's also the general idea that, if you baby something, it'll last longer. Inspecting how the car looks on a semi-regular basis might lead one to noticing any number of issues -- a soft tire, a fluid leak, a faulty tail-light, etc. It's not a bad ritual to have if you rely on the good working function of such things.

With all of this being said, I don't exactly practice what I preach... Driving bores me and I'd rather pay someone else to do the associated maintenance even though I've been thoroughly taught how to do it myself. I very much belong to the "carwashes for thee and not for me" school of thought

Depends on the climate. In parts of California, rain can be rare.

Exactly. I paid a small amount extra for hydrophobic coating 15 years ago, and basically have never bothered to wash the bodywork since then, and only now are a couple of rust problems starting to emerge. Unless you bought a white car, as foolish a project as wearing white trousers, the everyday dust isn't very visible. I find myself manually washing the windows much more often, though, since there cleanliness actually matters.

Ya, he’s bragging about letting his frame and underbody rust out.

(must be nice to live in a place without salt on the roads!)

Most of humanity lives in a place without salt on roads (or doesn't own a car).

I've never washed a car I've owned and my frame is fine.

Depends where you live. In Texas you want to wash occasionally and reapply some type of wax or you'll lose your clear coat in a few years to UV damage.

Sand on roads, no rust.

Why would you assume OP owns a car or has any use for a rental one?

I don't get it? When I wash my cars I like to go all out and clay them and wax them. And then the next morning there's a nice layer of dust. And the morning after that the morning dew has cemented that dust on.

Even a 3 year old car that has been washed twice a week at an automatic wash is going to look a lot worse than a 5 year old car that occasionally gets a good hand wash. The constantly auto washed car is going to be full of swirls and maybe even a screwed up antenna or spoiler or rear wiper blade because car washes like eating those.

Plus even the most aggressive automatic car wash isn't going to actually CLEAN a car. Even the laziest 20 minute rinse/soap/rinse/dry is going to clean a car better than an automatic car wash does. And if you use good microfiber towels ($13 for a pack of 36 at costco) and pretty much any microfiber sponge ($5 at walmart or whatever), and something like meguairs gold class wash and wax ($15 for a big bottle at walmart) you're set for at least 2-3 years.

Err anyway... "doesn't take care of their stuff" - I reserve that for people who never clean the inside of their car, people who ram into curbs and mess up their bumper getting out, and people who slam their doors into other peoples' cars.

Garage