Recently as an experiment I decided... yes i made a conscious decision... to NOT wash my car for nearly an entire year. Lucky for me and the people that had to look at it, it was silver in color and really did not show the dirt. Almost an entire year passed before I gave it a good thorough wash. Here's what I learned from my experience:

If you don't wash your car regularly you don't notice the little things as they happen. You notice them all at once in a majestic festival of self loathing. It was like suddenly my car went from being nearly perfect with a bit of dirt on it, to the aftermath of a 24 hour sand and rock storm. The front hood and bumper where literally covered in little paint chips, I had little scratch marks all over my doors and all over the hood from cats. It was very distressing to see my car so clean and exposed like this. It really made me think in a way not so different from when I sold my very first car.

I was so mean to my first car... the stories are so plentiful I could write several different hub pages quite easily. However I digress and the point is when I sold my first car I remembered how it looked when I bought it. I compared what I remembered with what I could see and though it was the same car, you'd never know unless I told you. in the two short years I owned that car the paint had faded, scratched and deteriorated. Blame all that nasty Canadian winter highway driving as much as I tried... I knew deep down it was because of the way that *I* treated the car. I knew proper car care involved dutifully washing your car, checking the oil, and keeping up on the maintenance. I just never knew to what extent the damages of not washing my car could be. At the time I just never cared. It was my first car, a total beater and I picked it up dirt cheap.

Back to my experiment... okay you got me, it wasn't an experiment, I just didn't like the car. What ever the case, It made me think. I bought this latest car used from the original owner. It was 15 years old and looked like it was almost new. It had VERY low mileage on it and was obviously well taken care of. The guy said he waxed it every month with the best wax available. What is the best car wax available? I'm not sure, but I'd sure like to know now! In that one year of not washing my car, I'm almost certain that the majority of the damage could easily have been avoided by waxing the car every once in a while at least. Every automotive detailer I've talked to since laughs in my face while saying "duhhh!", when I share my thoughts. Probably with due cause, but hey not everyone is born a "car person".

I was always under the impression that all those cars with swirl marks all over their otherwise flawless paint jobs where from car waxing jobs gone bad. I've seen brand spanking new BMW's driving around with swirl marks on them that are so bad you get motion sickness from looking at them. The thing about that is... its not from the waxing. I had assumed because they where high end vehicles that the owners would no doubt dutifully attend to their auto detailing needs and apply wax and every conceivable luxury car care item known to man... well, I was wrong there too! After talking to friends who are working or have worked at said high end dealerships they said the a major cause for those nasty looking swirls where due to NOT WAXING or waxing with orbital polishers improperly. Second to that was something that can be absolutely devastating to a car... Automated car washes. Yes even the touch-less ones. The touch-less ones ESPECIALLY. They use extra strong chemicals and high pressure water nozzles to remove dirt and grime from your car. Those high pressure water nozzles actually drive the dirt and grit RIGHT INTO your paint!

I can honestly tell you right now if I had an especially nice car I'd be having nightmares about that stuff. How can you even consider using automated car washes if you really care about your car? The chemicals strip whats left of any protective car wax or finish from any previous wash or wax jobs and replace it with another imitation liquid wax finish that washes right off the next time it rains.

So as you can probably guess, I've taken a liking to waxing my car. A few minutes of work really beats the alternative. In all honesty the car actually stays cleaner longer becuse the water and even bird droppings will bead right off.

Okay okay, it seems obvious that using the best possible car wax on your car is a good thing to do. If that's the case why is it that 90% of the people reading this right now *don't wax their car frequently or at all*?? That's also possibly a no-brainer. If you've tried waxing a car before, its not a lot of fun. Its hard work and the alternative of using an orbital polisher can have adverse effects like those swirl marks we where talking about. Here's something a lot of people that just briefly tried waxing their cars don't realize. The cheap stuff SUCKS. Its hard to apply and the conditions have to be right. Hell, even some of the expensive stuff sucks. There's is a lot of marketing hype out there regarding auto detailing products and car wax in particular. Often times you'll end up paying twice the price for a nearly identical product just because the box has "ultimate" or "The #1 Best wax" labels chucked onto the front of the box. It's still a sub par product... the pros would never use turtle wax on a Ferrari would they? Don't we all deserve a Ferrari like shine on our cars? I know I want that! Whether I deserve it or not is for the car gods to decide.

After doing some research and asking around I've found a few products that really work like advertised. They are actually easy to apply and they actually last a good long time before needing to be re-applied. Yes even in these "harsh" canadian winters. I'm not going to promote products here since that not what hubpages is for, but I do encourage other people to share their thoughts and experiences when it comes to caring for their own cars. I'd also love to hear some suggestions on what you think is "the best car wax". Nothing like word of mouth to circumvent false marketing hype that seems to hide the actual worth while products.

Anyhow long story short... Car waxing good. Automated car washes bad, and not washing your car for a year will dramatically decrease the value of your automobile. Wow... is it me or did we all already know that? lol.