It’s True: Weekly Car Washes Do Make A Difference!

You probably feel like you’re on top of the game if you get regular oil changes and keep your scheduled auto maintenance appointments. Sure, you may give your car a quick wash if you’ve been driving through mud, or if you’ve been up north in the winter and need to rinse off some road salt. But weekly car washes? That’s just not something that’s been on your radar.

If your goal is to do a great job of maintaining your car to get the highest possible resale or trade-in value, you may want to consider how important regular car washes are. The long-term rewards of keeping a clean car are more than just the satisfaction of having a pretty exterior. In fact, the benefits of weekly or monthly car washes are plentiful.

Car Washes Protect Your Exterior
Dirt and grime wear away at your car’s paint. Even with some of the extremely tough finishes on today’s vehicles, road dirt can slowly abrade the surface. Once the paint is worn through — even if it’s in very tiny areas that are hard to see — the exposed sheet metal is susceptible to rust and corrosion. And rust, once it’s set in, can be nearly impossible to get rid of. It will definitely lower the value of your vehicle.

Waxing is an important key to maintaining the vehicle’s just-cleaned exterior. Once you’ve removed all the dirt, a good coat of wax protects your vehicle’s paint and makes it harder for abrasive grit to scratch and chip away at the finish. As an added bonus, wax also helps protect your paint from ultraviolet rays that can fade and weaken it—which is a well-known problem here in San Antonio.

A Good Wash Will Improve Fuel Efficiency
Have you ever watched the Discovery Channel show Mythbusters? In one episode, hosts Adam and Jamie test the fuel efficiency of a clean vs. a dirty car. They wanted to see if the dirt created an uneven exterior surface that was more aerodynamic, similar to how the dimples on a golf ball help it fly faster and further.

After running several tests on the same sedan, in both clean and dirty states, they determined that the clean car actually does get between 1 and 2 miles per gallon more than the one covered with dirt. (If you want to achieve the aerodynamic efficiency of a golf ball, you’d have to apply uniform dimples to the entire surface of your car, not just rub some dirt around.)

By keeping your car clean, you could improve your fuel efficiency by about 10 percent. That’s nothing to sneeze at.

A Clean Car is a Safe Car
When you wash your vehicle’s exterior regularly, that includes your windows and windshield. It may be stating the obvious, but clean windows make it easier to see. No patches of dirt, squished bugs or bird excrement on your windows means no breaks in your visibility, which can be especially important at night and in bad weather.

If you’re not regularly cleaning your car, you may just leave those dirty spots on the windows, thinking you’ll take care of it later (yeah, right). Instead, wash your car weekly to remove this yucky stuff from your windows. Visibility is your reward.

Helps You Discover Other Problems
When you’re regularly washing your vehicle, you’re more cognizant of any issues that could arise. After all, you’re going over the exterior with a brush, mitt or cloth to get all the dirt off, giving you the opportunity to see things like chips in the paint, dents in the bumper, cracks in the tail light and other problems before they become more difficult and expensive to fix.

Even if you’re having someone else wash your car, the clean exterior makes it much easier to spot small problems before they balloon to a bigger concern.

Regular Washes Make a Difference
While you don’t have to commit to washing your car so frequently, a weekly wash can help keep your car in the best possible condition. If you’re using products made specifically for cars, like a liquid car cleaner instead of dish soap and a washing mitt instead of old towels, you’re less likely to scratch or damage your finish, even with regular cleaning. Waxes should happen about every three months, or once a quarter, to ensure maximum protection of your vehicle.

Regular car washes can help maintain your vehicle’s new or like-new appearance and make you prouder to drive it. Plus, car washes protect your paint, improve your gas mileage and help keep you safer and your car in better overall condition. And all that takes is some suds.

For more auto body advice or to receive a quote for general bodywork or repairs on your car in New Braunfels, reach out to someone from our San Antonio collision center and repair shop. At Northside Ford, we handle repairs on any type of vehicle, Ford or otherwise. Call our Ford dealership at (210) 525-9800 for a quote or schedule your collision estimate online.