So folks, had half an hour to kill after work until i picked the wife up so i thought i would pop into the local Skoda Garage and showroom (Mervyn Stewarts Belfast).

 

So on my walk around outside looking at what was for sale over in a corner a fella was washing the car but as i moved closer i couldn't believe what he was using. Basically he had what i could only describe as an old builder's bucket full of dirty water which had no foam or suds in it but if that wasn't bad enough he was also using what looked like a floor brush with a wooden handle and then tried to dry off the water with a crappy looking chamois and the icing on the cake was the had a t-shirt on that was tucked into his trousers and had a lovely belt on with a nice big brass buckle so when he was drying the roof of the car.. well you know the rest.

 

First of all the young lad is not to blame for all this.. IMO more than likely he's on a minimum wage and grateful to have a job of any kind. I suppose he may be thinking 'these are not my cars so why should i care?' but it's the bloody managers in their nice suits sitting in their lovely, air-conditioned showrooms looking out at said young man that are to blame for this situation. 

 

Is it only this Skoda showroom that has this 'cleaning regime' or does this happen in a lot of car showrooms because i'm not surprised that new or nearly new cars are sitting on display looking so rough. Here is a couple of pics that i sneakily took today to show you the situation. 

 

 

 

 

 

Epic fail!

Wow that is so wrong, I feel for the customers.

I hope this is only one of a few that do this, if I saw someone doing this to my car I'd be out for blood and demand a new car or respray.

I feel you should have give him some polite advice

Yeh i know what you're saying but this was only a young lad who was told what to do by the suits indoors i presume, and all he would have needed on a hot and sticky day like today was for some dik to approach him and start telling him the rights and wrongs of car washing. BTW some of these cars were around the 20 grand mark ....unbelievable. But if customers accepted this then why should they change what they think is an acceptable practice.  

Very true. Point taken totally

Like you said though nice expensive cars being physically abused lol

99 out of 100 people care so little about paint finish that they 

let the Albanians wash their car if at all.

 

Enough said.

99 out of 100 people care so little about paint finish that they

let the Albanians wash their car if at all.

Enough said.

Not sure about your percentages but point taken we are in the minority!

Aylesbury Honda did that to SWMBOs Honda when I forgot to put my 'Do Not Wash' sign on the dashboard :(  Took my 2 days polishing to get it out - not impressed!

Aylesbury Honda did that to SWMBOs Honda when I forgot to put my 'Do Not Wash' sign on the dashboard :( Took my 2 days polishing to get it out - not impressed!

Yup it's heartbreaking mazda dealership in Bradford scratched my wife's mazda 2. Luckily I had ChrisRs to help sort it

99 out of 100 people care so little about paint finish that they

let the Albanians wash their car if at all.

Enough said.

True! Did work experience in an Audi dealers, experienced the same and also found that most of them are foreign and employed through an agency on minimum wage so don't really give a toss!

Aylesbury Honda did that to SWMBOs Honda when I forgot to put my 'Do Not Wash' sign on the dashboard :(  Took my 2 days polishing to get it out - not impressed!

Ouch!

Holy poo, wrong on so many levels already said. Cannot believe that's OK in any 'suits' book.

 

Nicking the pics for Facebook, got a few mates who will love this!

Drop an email to SUK with them attached not that it will do much

Holy poo, wrong on so many levels already said. Cannot believe that's OK in any 'suits' book.

 

Nicking the pics for Facebook, got a few mates who will love this!

Yeh go for it ,it's a pity i didn't take pics of him using the "yard" brush on the cars but he was when i first was having a dander about.

Drop an email to SUK with them attached not that it will do much

Your spot on matey ......fuk all would be done about it !!!

The PDIs are mostly done at VAG PDI centres however some are done at dealers but the PDI valet ers are also agency!

Is that any worse than putting them though an automatic car wash?

This is not rare. When ours went in for her service a fifty year old guy had almost the same bucket (but his even had builders marks on like dried concrete or something) and was using a battered old sponge and was doing a corner at a time, ie front wing, front wheel, front door and half the bonnet, then tipped that one bucket he was using over the bit he just sponged to rinse it off. He then went away to come back and wipe it with a dry chamois. 

It know each to their own and I agree it's the owner's car to do with it as they wish but you expect a dealership to want to protect and look after their assets a little better. It just screams that they don't care about the product they sell or the customer who may want to buy it. 

I'm lost for words.... unbelievable!!!  :peek:

Sadly..normal practice

Even sadder..Joe Public are not bothered either

Mate of mine washes and rinses his car with the same bucket of water and never dries it

Ive tried and tried to recommend other ways...offered to do it for him.........but he is just not interested

Needless to say his 4 year old Audi A4 Avant is a shed and the clearcoat is failing on the roof!!

I can't understand why people would pay out thousands of pounds for a vehicle and not want to look after their investment.

Crazy! Or are we, the minority the crazy ones?

And to be honest with you the motto I live by now is "Life is too short" but if it all ended for me today I still wouldn't regret the hours I've put in to detailing. It's something I really enjoy. And it baffles me to see people do this to vehicles.

A neighbor of mine has a nearly new Range Rover, he hardly ever washes it and when he does out comes the Yard brush and I would put money on it that the soapy water he uses is a mix of washing up liquid. I just cant believe this Guy, he changes his cars on a whim and has no respect for them at all. He must think I am one idiot the time I spend on my Yeti.The difference is in the detail and it shows.

Rant over

Tony

Rant on Tony get it of your chest, Yeh i think people that really look after their cars are seen by others as a wee bit bonkers !!

Sadly..normal practice

Even sadder..Joe Public are not bothered either

Mate of mine washes and rinses his car with the same bucket of water and never dries it

Ive tried and tried to recommend other ways...offered to do it for him.........but he is just not interested

Needless to say his 4 year old Audi A4 Avant is a shed and the clearcoat is failing on the roof!!

I was doing ours yesterday (she looks awesome now) and the neighbour pulled up across the road and got a bucket and sponge out. I said "I can do that if you want, I've already got everything out and I'm just finishing ours if you want to pull it over this side". I'm not kidding she looked at me as if I'd just said "do you mind if I go into your house and 5h1t on your carpet?". 

Well I'm not an expert and learnt a lot about cleaning my car properly reading this forum. When I do my car I spend at least 5 hours doing it. I'm always really pleased with the results and my neighbours can't believe that cars can be so shiny and look great after little effort. I got te the stage that they are now almost fighting with each other and trying to get me to clean their cars... I promised that I'll one day but my cars take the priority...