I'm sitting in a sainsburys car park watching some bloke 'hand car washing' a scenic. Its involved a tiny bucket with a sponge and some tap water by the looks of it and then a chamois (or imitation)

All for the princely sum of a fiver. I'm in the wrong job.

Yep, I've often seen those in Sainsburys, and at St Mark's in Lincoln too.

Tiny tiny bucket. Probably 1L of water in there

Has he dropped the sponge onto the floor yet?

Wouldn't touch ANY road side car wash place with a barge pole.

I suppose they are only there for the bone idle that don't really give a jot anyway, or for the physically disabled

Edited 11 April, 201313 yr by Mr Ree

The car would be better off unwashed. I always wonder how even the roadside ones stay afloat since there are so many of them cropping up with 5 to 7 guys on each one, usually sat around all day on weekdays.

Then there's the question of insurance. I occasionally drive past a roadside car wash in Bristol which is full of high-end Audi's and Mercs, even an Aston DB9. Good publicity for them, but I dread to think what the costs would be if the paintwork on the Aston was ruined by a grubby chamois..

Well i took mine to a typical 'Shiny hand' with eastern european guys and gals type car wash just down the road one day as i was in a rush and was pretty surprised at the results. Firstly there was at least 4 people working on the car at anyone time they were using the two bucket system clean in one dirty in the other. They cleaned the car very carefully including door shuts and sills with microfibre mitten. One of the guys even got me out the car to show me he had slightly t-cut the rear spoiler to get rid of the white cloud oxidisation that is very typical on Red Cars and was well chuffed with himself that he had managed to get it nice and shiny gloss red again. They comented in how good condition the paintwork was in and seamed realy enthusiastic about their jobs. One of the girls was pretty fit aswell and was wearing practically nothing apart from see through leggings and a high vis jacket and i know its very sexist but she was much better to watch to pass the time which seamed like a good 30 mins.

This was after a good garage hand wash place an old friend runs, they don't mess and don't reuse things. Lambs wool, proper buckets and grit guards in bottom etc. There are about 4 of these within 10 miles all providing the same service and competing with each other on quality not price. Some are really bad but some around my home area are very very good! You get what you pay for though I think. Saying that this cost £4.50 I don't normally do such things this happened twice due to not having time and car had to be presentable. I have recently used a karcher car drive in car wash because I wasn't physically able to do a handwash.... My logic is, it was detailed just after I got it and its overdue as is, all will be corrected when done again. But up close does still look fairly well for over 2 years old and polished/waxed once with Gtechniq products.

Click to make pictures MASSIVE!

I'd never use the ones that come to you in a supermarket carpark. I do however use the one round the corner from work, £5 and I get a full wash and just like scribbler above they do a fantastic job using the proper methods.

There's a car wash opened just down the road from me, use proper 2 bucket method, pre wash car and use a snow foam lance....all for the pricely sum of £4 :-)

I've used one of the 'side of the road car washes' that's just up the road from where i live, think it's run by Bulgarians, but they do a really good job and i'm always impressed with the results.

Not for me, I'm too suspicious to take a chance on these things. My VRS has only ever been washed my me.

Not for me, I'm too suspicious to take a chance on these things. My VRS has only ever been washed my me.

I'm the same

There is a similar setup near me, run out of the back of a (franchised) BP garage, in fact they use what was the car wash area!

Many months ago, a neighbour knocked on our door advising us that there had been a spate of car break in's with sat navs etc stolen - turns out it was some of the guys at the car wash place getting friendly with regulars, clocking what was in the car and working out where people live, then turning up and breaking into the cars.

Just a word of warning.

Just seen a lady in a 13 reg white 1 series (coupe ?) using one.

Think that I shouted "NO" out loud........

Saw someone a week ago with a hose and a basin washing a brand new Yeti with....... wait for it, an old t-shirt. Plain water form hose and a basin of water and a t-shirt to wipe it with. That is a step too far for me lol.

SWMBO would use washing up liquid and a Brillo pad if I didn't stop her.

I'm the same

Me too.

Has he dropped the sponge onto the floor yet?

Wouldn't touch ANY road side car wash place with a barge pole.

I suppose they are only there for the bone idle that don't really give a jot anyway, or for the physically disabled

I used to walk past one every day in Acton on the way in to work. They were cleaning the sponges before the days work.......

...by placing them on the floor, standing on one end and pressure washing them...

(yes really!!)

At the near me, the cars always seem to come out nice and clean, but when ever I've been past (it's right next to a set of traffic lights) the sponges always look like they've seen better days. I always wonder, what products do they use? Had my previous car washed there a couple of times, and they wet the car, then spray it a liquid from a bottle, then it foams up when they use a sponge.

Prefer to wash and clean my own car, even if it does take the best part of 2 hours, unlike the Eastern Europeans who do it in 3-4mins.

Not for me, I'm too suspicious to take a chance on these things. My VRS has only ever been washed my me.

I'm the same! Some neighbours think I`m nuts!

Same here, plus I'm always in and out of the house tinkering with the car - swapping bulbs, hoovering it since I use it for work. I also check my oil and tire pressures once a week as someone should. My neighbours think I have the most unreliable car in the world I know because they keep asking if it's broken!

Edited 12 April, 201313 yr by Ben90

We've got them in our local Sainsburys car park too. Sorry but I'm not trusting my paintwork to someone I don't know, who could dissappear quicker than a fiver at the pumps. Problem is you just don't know what sort of job they'll do-if the scratch it or leave swirls all over it what chance would you have of getting it sorted? Somewhere betwen slim and none I guess. Too risky.

I take my car to a local pub car park where these have a proper set up and the car always comes out like a showroom finish and all for £10 in and out of the car.

I wouldn't use one of these eastern european places out of principle.

I wouldn't trust the products, techniques and methods used.

And if the guys working there aren't supposed to be here then I wouldn't

want to encourage that either. I wash my own cars/van.

Pay your money and take your pick I guess. I have used the local polish place before now, car came out reasonable, all the kit looked clean and decent. Compare it to a car a local professional valeting company has cleaned, or a car I have cleaned myself then there is a clear difference. Obviously there is a cost difference though, which is why the road side/car park places are so popular. It's cheap and convenient for joe public to stop off on the way home from work. Anyone who is interested in their cars bodywork will either do it themselves or pay for a decent fully insured valeter to do it.

Recently a local place has opened up, "xx and sons", I think they are trying to capitalise on people rather have a English person cleaning their car than foreign, not sure if they have tried to price themselves too high though as its never busy.

Now I have a driveway I'm more than happy to spend a couple of hours on a saturday or sunday giving it a clean.