I wash my own car about 1-2 times a month. The wife's car gets a monthly treatment. About every 3-4 months, I'll do a full detail, and spend 4-6 hours washing and waxing both cars, and "spot polish" if I see a weird scratch mark or something similar. I'd spend more time detailing them, but usually the sun sets, and that means it's time to clean up. Years ago, I'd hand wash my car about once a week. But I do not have the time I once had.
At home I mostly use the
Meguiar's series of car washing stuff; the Deep Crystal soap, their Gold Class wax, and the ScratchX for the tougher stuff that wax alone won't take out. I use their interior leather cleaner twice a year, and PlastX for the plastic polish like headlamps.
Wet, soap, wet, use a silicone blade squeege to remove some of the standing water/windows, and then dry it all off with an
Absorber. Then wax it if time permits; I use elbow grease for a workout, apply wax on a pad, let it sit for a few minutes, and clean it off with a microfiber towels. I use old terry-cloth towels for the wet stuff in dirty places, and old rags to clean anything that accumulates in the engine bay.
I usually just use a wet, soapy towel to clean the interior bits, unless it's dirty/messy; wipe with a static microfiber cloth to accumulate the dust, and wash it accordingly. Scrub the floor mats every few months, and sometimes I go nuts with a toothbrush and cleaning every surface I touch. Once a year, I'll clean every nook and cranny, wiping the grease and dirt away from corners unseen.
I use a wet cloth to get the wheels clean; I' have never needed polish or anything more to wipe the brake dust and make the wheels shiny again on my car. For family that brings over their car, and only wash it once every year or so, then their wheels do stain. Tire dressing (Black Magic, or something like that), when I'm all done. I've suddenly realized that wearing latex gloves saves you that slimy feeling and avoids 15 minutes of post-wash fingernail scrubbing. If i"m going to wax, I'll do that afterwards, so any excess spray or streaks on the paint goes away.
About 3-4 times, a year, I use Rain-X or just wax the outer windows so water beads off the glass, especially during the summer rainy season. One tip I'd like to share is for the smudges on the inside of the front windshield/back glass. For some reason, you can never get them totally smudge or streak-free, which drive me nuts. The trick I figured out is to actually use a light coat of wax, and wipe it away, just like you were polishing the paint. No streaks!
I also picked up a special
mitt (similar to this one) with a rough, Velcro-like finish that picks up pet hair; mostly the wife's car has this problem. The dog and cat hair weave themselves into the carpet fibers, making it nearly impossible to get out with a vacuum. This little $2 item does the trick.
Lastly, I confess that actually own one of those car dusters, so every 2 days after a wash, I will dust off the car for 2-3 minutes, if it's dry. After a week, I give, up because the car is "dirty" again. No, it doesn't scratch the paint, but I'm gentle and only use it on light dustings.
Other confessions: I have washed my car in the rain, since sometimes it will rain nearly once a day for two months straight, during the summer rainy season. Just use the free water and use the soap and buckets. Other times, I've washed, and just drove around in the rain to clean off the bubbles. I've washed every rental car I've used but one, and always if I've used someone else's personal car/truck for more than a day.
An advantage of owning a Lexus is that you can get free car washes any time the service department's open. I go in about every 2 months to say hi and chit-chat my former co-workers, and get some cappuccino and danishes. They use an automated wash there, but from my personal experience (my wet and soapy hands and my car), and from those owners who brought in their cars in the past, it doesn't scratch the car's finish (unless you drive into the machine at 20 miles an hour like one bozo did some years ago). It's not a detail, but it is a good wash; they do a quick vacuuming, put a little tire dressing on the donuts, and dry it with a chamois to get most of the wet spots off.
I used to wash my own car at Lexus/Audi, off-the-clock, about once a week (although Audi's automated wash was only half as good). Honda never had any such perk, although you could get a wash for $7 (instead of the customer-pay price of $15). The Honda guys were an outside company, and they were terrible; they were the only place that could make a brand-new car look like it was re-painted by blind body painters at the Pay-N-Spray, so I never took them up on the offer.
