[ashokrajagopal]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

The biggest problem with car cover is rats! I have one open parking and my tiny Kwid gets awfully dirty. I used cover for about week, rats ended up cutting horn wire. Now I drive a dirty car and wash it almost once in 2 week with max 1 bucket of water.

Originally Posted by mchandra13

I have tried car covers with my previous cars. The issues I noticed are
1. As others have mentioned, rats are a problem in most parts of Blr
2. When it rains, it becomes messy. The water somehow seeps in beneath the cover and leaves dirt marks on the car which needs additional cleaning when we remove the cover. I would rather leave the car without cover and let it have natural bath from rain
3. The covers in their as-is forms cant withstand the winds(atleast the ones I have tried so far). So we have to tie the knots connecting the ends by an extended string most of the time.

I dint quite understand how a cover would impact the rat problem. If you have rat problem, why would it matter if the car is covered or not ?

And if your cover has water seeping thru and is the thin type, you must be using the ones sold by dealerships. There are all weather type of covers available. Thru my cover, water seeps in at minimal places.
Yes it is messy during rains to put it on, so if I drive back home when it is raining, I let the car stand until it dries up. Dust once and then cover the next day.

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by lurker

4. try to get ceramic coating done as this will repel dust and dirt easily for atleast 6 months. And then even 2 mugs of water and microfibre can maintain your car looks for 6 months.

Won't it be very expensive? Idea is good but I heard the coating costs heavy on pockets and if it lasts just for 6 months, tough call!!

[Lij]

I wash my car once a month, or sometimes once in 2 months, use total 3 buckets, one of which has car shampoo. The last I washed was sometime early September.

I have an open parking and in front of a line of trees which brings with it the following issues -

• Leaves and small twigs falling
• Bird poop
• Tree sap during winters (its begun now)
• Kids playing around or even adults standing close could cause minor scratches unknowingly with their finger nails, watches, toys etc.
• Cars on either side of mine is washed daily by the regular wash boys and they usually spill a lot of muck water on my car body while they clean the other cars.

So what I do is use a car cover, this is the best solution I have, but a few things to note -

• The cover shouldn't be put on a dusty car, use a duster like Jopasu/California to dust off before putting in the cover. Likewise while removing the cover I dust of the cover first.
• There are few videos on you tube that will show the best way to put on a car cover, in a few days you'll be able to put or remove the cover within less than 5 minutes
• Don't use the cover during heavy rains like the ones we have in Mumbai, but the cover can be left over the car during light drizzles, this could cause some water to seep in but not too much to bother. Only problem, those 4 months of rains created lot of scratches when my car was parked, most of them due to the reasons I mentioned earlier.
• Make use of good quality covers, I use Tyvek ones.
• The covers do create micro scratches but that can be easily dealt by a professional detailer, so my car goes there once every 6 months for a complete detailing.

During rains as well I get the car pressure washed just once a month at local car wash. This rains my car went to the local car wash thrice in 3 months and the amount of scratches they have left I decided if I ever use a car wash service I'll only ask them to do a pressure wash and then the wiping will be done by me.

With all precautions there's still bound to be minor scratches and nicks but then that's what make your car unique I guess

[vinya_jag]

How about this?

At every toll plaza booths, there should be a jet wash (minimalistic, which just jet sprays very little water from all directions), and then we drive away letting the car dry.
And I pay 5 rupess extra at the toll, for the services?

If this can do the job, I can forget about washing the car at all
Okay, what if you don't drive often on the highways? I would want one such at fuel stations too

[adutta2k]

Finally a discussion after my own heart!
I do not wash my car regularly. When I bought my first car I had a cleaning guy and he escaped some mighty thrashing after he cleaned the car with a dirty cloth and left some nasty scratches on the bonnet. After that incident I never had a cleaning guy and that was some 6-7 years ago. My wife thinks I am being fussy but I wash the car myself when required and when I get the time. Bangalore is nasty for the bad and muddy roads especially during rains so I try to avoid driving on those roads during rains if I can. I take Ola or Uber. When I go on long drives some dirt and grime is unavoidable so I make sure that I visit 3M or some other reputed place and give the car a nice foam wash. Over there also I make sure that the car is being cleaned only with a microfiber cloth. At other times if the car is too dirty i prefer to just splash some water in the underbody section so that the excess mud and grime falls off. It saves water and it also saves a lot of energy. Now that I do not drive to work daily I keep the car covered in the basement and it just takes a little dusting with a jopasu duster while taking it out.

[sumeethaldankar]

How often should I clean the car now that the rainy season has started? In the dry season I would just Jopasu the car and use a damp cloth to clean of any stains. Since I no longer prefer the services of the scrubbers (washer guy) and I clean the car daily myself due to other duties I may not be able to clean it everyday in the rains. Is it ok to leave the mud on the car which typically gets attached to the lower regions of the car for around 4-5 days? I am thinking of cleaning only on weekends. Also I use minimum close to 1 litre of water while cleaning and prefer not to waste much H2O.

[2000rpm]

I used to wash my car twice a week when I had open parking (without overhead trees)

In my stilt parking, I wash the car once a week.

For my Beater vehicle, Suzuki Access, it is washed naturally every monsoon I dust it regularly myself.

Since I have purchased quite a few used cars, the ones from Maruti always tend to have some rusting on door borders, etc. I started avoiding water contact due to such purchases and realized that it works for me.

[locusjag]

Heh. Looks like I'm the only one here who gets his cars washed once in.....here come the drumrolls and trumpets....6 months! The rest of the time, the duster does its work and a squeegee and 100 ml of water is used to clean my windshields. A cover keeps the dust off the cars some of the time. A fierce tomcat living under the cars keeps the rats away.

[ece2k2]

Originally Posted by vinya_jag

How about this?

At every toll plaza booths, there should be a jet wash (minimalistic, which just jet sprays very little water from all directions), and then we drive away letting the car dry.
And I pay 5 rupess extra at the toll, for the services?

May be I am too careful, but I think it may not be a good idea to spray water on a car that has run under hot sun or if the bonnet area is too hot.

[Yieldway17]

Originally Posted by locusjag

Heh. Looks like I'm the only one here who gets his cars washed once in.....here come the drumrolls and trumpets....6 months! The rest of the time, the duster does its work and a squeegee and 100 ml of water is used to clean my windshields. A cover keeps the dust off the cars some of the time. A fierce tomcat living under the cars keeps the rats away.

Count me in. My car gets washed only every 6 months and that too on insistence by the service center during the service. With the dry prevailing weather over the last 8 months in Chennai, never needed to do much more than cleaning of the dust settled on the exterior.

[Bigzero]

My 16 Year old Santro was washed almost every day during its service , especially through the first 8-10 years- thanks to the watchman in our apartment offering his services.

Over the last 4 years or so, its been in Kerala, running local errands for my Father in law. He doesn't do it that often , perhaps once in a week or so.

I havent bothered to polish or do anything extraordinary on the painted surface till date;

The car still looks quite good , people are usually surprised to find that its that old. I dont see any major damage to the painted surface , it still retains a good shine and finish.

[condor]

Once a week - sometimes extends by a day or two. And one bucket of water is sufficient. I skip the dry wash that my S.C offers during servicing. I would have taken an under-body wash there, but they have stopped water washing for quite some time now. That's one thing I'd like to get done, may be once a quarter - need to find a place for that.

[harry10]

We wash both cars every Monday in winters. In summers and peak heat like it is now they are washed only once a month. Jopasu duster and Proklear Rinseless wash keeps them shining anyways.

[Chetan_Rao]

Jopasu duster, Proklear (diluted 1:100 with bottled water, one 500 ml portion can easily clean a mid-sized sedan) and two microfiber towels, one to wipe off grime and the other to buff dry. Separate microfiber towel for the interior. Occasional vacuuming of interiors, and an underbody wash maybe a couple times in rainy season or after a really muddy drive.

That's all our vehicles get in terms of cleaning, and honestly, it's more than enough. Given our surroundings where one end of a vehicle is dirty by the time you reach the other with a wipe, there's no point (and not enough water & cleaning agents) to obsess about it.

[FrodoOfTheShire]

How much time and effort does a waterless wash usually take compared to water wash? As I understand, the car has to be dusted off first, then the waterless wash solution sprayed and wiped with a microfiber towel, and then buffed again with another microfiber towel.

I usually dust off my car every alternate day with Jopasu and wash the car maybe once in 30-45 days using a hose and shampoo trying to be as efficient as possible with the water usage. I've been thinking of trying out waterless wash myself, but still in doubt as to the time and effort