What a good car wash should never skip

It's easy to assume every car wash does roughly the same thing, but the steps that get skipped are usually the ones that matter most for actually protecting your paint over time — not just making the car look clean for the drive home.

Every wash we run follows the same order for a reason: a full pre-rinse first, to remove loose dirt before any contact wash begins. Then a pH-neutral shampoo wash using the two-bucket method, followed by a dedicated pass on the wheels and tyres — always done with separate equipment to the panels, since brake dust is abrasive and shouldn't be anywhere near the sponge that just touched your paintwork.

After the rinse, drying matters more than most people expect. Letting a car air-dry in the sun leaves mineral deposits and water spots baked into the clear coat. We dry with clean microfiber towels and finish door jambs and shut lines by hand, since that's where grit tends to collect and get missed.

A tyre shine and a final panel wipe-down round things out — small steps, but they're what separates a wash that looks good for a day from one that actually protects the car until the next visit.

If you're comparing car washes, ask what their process actually includes rather than just the price. A cheaper wash that skips the pre-rinse or reuses the same wheel brush on the paintwork can do more harm than good over time.