Is 2010 Prius safe at a car wash?

What do you recommend for a synth cleaner wax? Wonder if Meg's could make a Tech cleaner / wax.

I haven't tried a clay yet.

 

What could happen to the nav screen with windex used on a glass cloth?

I might have used a bit of Meg's quick interior detailer on cloth on MFD screen.

thanks.

 

Megs NXT Tech Wax 2.0 does minor cleaning. Other all-in-ones do a better job though, both cleaning and duration of protection. Prime example: Duragloss 501, also available OTC.

 

web1b: if you are worried about taking your new gen3 to a car wash (brushes, touch-free, hand-wash, whatever), then don't take it and learn to do it yourself. It's not that hard and doesn't take that much time. You can also avoid other questionable practices at auto washes, such as using Armor All on leather, scratching the door sills, and my worst fear, using a harsh dirty rag to wipe the plastic instrument panel window, which is usually super-soft and prone to scratches.

If you have no other choice, unscrew your antenna and go through a touch-free place that uses recycled water and good water filters. Make sure you decline hand-drying. You can do it yourself by bringing along some quality microfiber drying towels and blotting the car dry. With microfiber towels and plain water, you can clean up most parts of your interior safely, including the Navi screen. Again, I would resist all temptation to wipe the plastic instrument panel cover, even with the cleanest best quality mf towel.

 

I like Glare Professional Polish available online through Parkers Yamaha in Arizona. For a low priced syntactic, I like Nu Finish available just about everywhere. Walmart sells it for around $6. Caution, don't put it on to thick or you will have dust everywhere. I like Klasse All-in-one made in Germany too. Even Maguire’s is turning to the syntactic technology. It takes the heat in the sun and it stays on your car longer than any other type of wax. I use Nu Finish on my airplane so I can slip through the air faster!

Oh, for sure use a clay bar first.

Dan

 

I've found glass cloths do not scratch the smoked clear plastic in the Gen2 interior. Microfiber terry cloths do grab and scratch that plastic, so don't use them.

 

Thanks. I had a good experience using NuFinish scratch doctor. Worked very well. Heard Quixx is better though.

First tried meg's Scratch x2.0 which marred a bit of clear coat. I never called them on that. Did get a refund at auto parts, was miffed.

 

I am still scared to touch the plastic. Even with glass cloths, one piece of dirt/grit dragged across the plastic is all it takes to cause a scratch.

 

Why not use a touchless car wash? Theyhave no brushes at all. Nothing but water, soap and air touch your car.
That's what I use and then I wipe it down with a chamois after it comes out to finish it. Many of these places recycle the water, although I wouldn't worry about water at my house, since we have an artesian well and the water just goes right back into the ground, so it's fully recycled.

 

I would never run through a car wash that slaps my paint job with thousands of dirty rubber strips. I wash my daily driver once a week with rain-x car wash. I wax every other month and I clay bar once a year.

For my weekend car, I wash it on weekends when I take it out (two or three times a month), and I use a california duster if it gets dusty in the garage (a couple of times a week). I never drive it in the rain. I wax once a month (sometimes more) and I clay bar before every car show (about every three months).

My cars SHINE.

If I ever HAD to go through an automatic carwash, I'd make sure it was touchless.

If I ever HAD to let someone else wash my car, I'd hire a detailer that comes to me so that I can be over his shoulder every second.

 

Wow, what a bunch of holier-than-thous. Not everyone has access to a hose and driveway. And to the one who was going on about how ungreen it is to use land for a car wash: living in suburban sprawl where you have driveways and hoses is a far greater problem than the couple thousand car washes in the country, ya freeking hypocrites.

Let's see, we drive though blistering temps in full sun in the south and frozen salty slush in the north and you people are worried about what a car wash is going to do to your cars?

Speaking of salty slush, (why am I now craving a frozen margarita?) us northerners don't have much choice about using a car wash when the temps are below freezing and we want to get the salt off the car in the winter. Try thinking about the big picture instead of bragging how you use the wool from a virgin yak to polish your fenders after bathing the car in recycled perrier and implying that people who don't do the same are lazy.

This thread originated because someone was legitimately worried about the Nav screen and rear spoiler. That is legit. Most of the rest of you are off the deep end. It is a car, not a child.

 

You're totally out of line on this one.

Some people actually enjoy looking at their car's mirror finish and not spider webs and haziness, scratches or dings. If you don't give a damn about your car's appearance then that is your prerogative but do not bash others because they do care.

A bad car wash can compile years of road abuse into a single session. Apparently you have never been through one or you just don't pay attention to the damage. This is in no way comparable to the average year damage that is accrued through mild driving habits which is minimal unless you live on gravel roads. I don't purchase used cars that have not been taken care of so think of what all those scratches do to your resale value.

Like I stated earlier, their driveway at least serves other purposes considering it is a part of their home. Multi-use is nearly always better than single use and you can control your own water and chemical use so you know exactly how much you are wasting and what chemicals are doing down the drain.

This has nothing to do with being on a high horse. It is about trying to do the best for your car's paint while minimizing the impact to the environment.

 

There are people who care about taking care of their cars' paint. There are those who have other priorities. There are ways to wash the car by hand, even in winter, that protects the paint -- it's up to the individual whether they want to do it after they know such an option exists.

The OP's point of the Prius being fragile is actually applicable to all cars at an automatic car wash. Cars with whip antennas are at risk. Cars with navi screens are at risk. Cars with good paint are at risk. Etc. Toyota's recommendations are not out of the blue nor unique to the Prius. If one wishes to use an auto wash, risk can be minimized by finding a touchless one that recycles and filters the water. And then finishing drying and cleaning the interior oneself.

 

Your driveway may be multi-use, but without suburban sprawl, we wouldn't be in the fuel mess we are in and this hybrid stuff would be on a back burner.

And you ignored the cold weather dilemma. Does salt-caused rust look better than the potential damage of a car wash? Because there ain't no way I am going to chisel through a glacier in January to find a hose bib.

And then there is the argument that if all these car washes were so damaging to your car, how do they stay in business? Are you folks the only ones in the world who care about your cars?

I have used this car wash for years Delta Sonic, The Kissing Clean Carwash and not had any of the issues you are worried about.

And yes, a lot of you are on some smug high horse.

I came here for information, but level of commitment to a mid priced car is way too deep for comfort. I wanted a car, not a religion.

 

Could some of the differences of opinion on car washes have something to do with the preferred paint colors of the various posters? I have noticed that micro scratching is MUCH more noticeable on dark colors, esp. black. In my experience (and I admit to taking a much more casual approach to my car's appearance) you have to look hard to see micro scratches on light colors like white, silver, and gold.

 

What does that have to do with car washing? So you are saying because there is suburban sprawl we just shouldn't care about anything else?

I don't live in a region that produces glaciers in my driveway (or apartment complex) so your situation doesn't apply to me nor does it Apply to the majority of the U.S. population for most of the year. When it is to cold to wash I simply don't wash. *shrug* For those who have to live like you specified then finding an alternative car washing regime would seem prudent.

Judging by the looks of most of the cars I see on the road I would say yes, most people do not care about their paint as much as we do. Prius Chat is no different than just about any car forum I have been on over the last decade, be is Mustangs, Trucks, Corvettes, Trans Ams, whatever. People on forums (generally considered enthusiasts) actually do care about their car's paint. If you can't understand that then that is your deal, not ours.

Interesting you feel that way. You must have low self esteem or some other condition if you cannot comprehend what we are talking about and automatically assume we are smug. We just care about our cars and want to impart as little damage to our environment as possible. What is wrong with that? Or are you one of those "pointing fingers" kind of people who love to point out how bad someone is doing instead of recognizing the good they are trying to do (and encourage such behavior) and as such you take no action whatsoever?

Not everyone is rich and some of the most enthusiastic car fanatics support low to mid priced cars. Think VW Beetle or any muscle car here....

Honestly, if you think this is a religion I think you have other issues you should attend to before you start worrying about learning more about your Prius. This is a hobby for some people.

 

I'm sure there are many options for washing one's car by hand in the winter -- if we all lived in beautiful San Diego!!! Try it in 10 degree weather with 40 degree tap water.

The OP wanted to know about the spoiler and the nav screen. Then some people got off topic and started opining about environmental impacts of home/commercial car washing.

First, I absolutely understand that hand washing and claying is best for maintaining a car's finish. For me, my fun car will never see a car wash. The paint is way too rare and expensive, at $2,000/gal when it was made. It's actually more of an engineered material than a paint because there are no pigments. I won't even get into what it would take just to touch up a spot! Besides, I like hand washing it on nice days when there isn't too much pollen or other crap in the air to make washing the car pointless.

My Prius will be an every-day car. I will probably hand wash it most of the time at first and then eventually start taking it car washes more over time -- I'm sure the machine at my usual place won't break anything. Besides, it won't take long for the shopping carts, bad parkers, and salt & sand trucks to cause way more paint damage than a car wash every will.

If anyone is really worried about the nav screen I bet you can find a removable clear film to cover it.

 

Wow, this thread got a little nippy. Looks like the environmentalists took over. And to think it started out as a simple question asking if we should use a auto car wash.