What exactly do you get in a £5 valet?
(A cautionary tale)
Well, it's debatable that you could actually call anything
that cost £5 a valet. It's better described as
a car wash. So what do you get in a £5 car wash? One of our customers
took a 3 week old BMW
to one of these drive in places, the results are pictured below!
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Top of door - our guess is that this was
caused by a dirty sponge covered in grit.
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Boot area - note the deep scratches as well
as the normal wash-marks
The whole car was absolutely covered in scratches!
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Mark sees what he can do with it, machine
polishes the car boot twice, with two different grades of polish
and pads.
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After machine polishing - most of the washing
marks have been removed, but the deeper scratches remain. This
car will require much more work to get it looking like a car which
is only 3 weeks old and has only 400 miles on the clock!
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Now don't get me wrong! We don't expect anybody to pay
out for a full valet every time their car
Gets dirty! I certainly don't, and I freely admit that I have paid somebody
a tenner to give my
car a quick wash... but only after having watched them for 20 mins to
see how they do it, making
sure they used the correct gear and plenty of clean water.
Anna has a great series of articles on how you should wash your car Here,
and if you aren't
washing your car yourself, then you should ensure that whoever is is following
these instructions.
The damage pictured above was basically caused by bad
washing technique and lack of care.
A decent car shampoo or TFR (Traffic Film Remover) is needed to lift the
dirt from the car, plus
plenty of water to rinse it off. A purpose made traffic brush is best
for removing heavy soiling
without causing scratches, this is pretty much as soft as a baby's hair
brush.
We also suggest using a wool wash mitt rather than a sponge which is hard
and can trap grit.
Plenty of water is the key... I'll use between 5 and 9 buckets of water
while washing my car,
which is a fair bit smaller than the one pictured.
These days the paintwork on cars is very soft and easily
scratched. Great care needs to be taken
while washing. As with most things in life, you get what you pay for and
unfortunately, we are
seeing damage like this all too frequently.
I can only wonder how much this damage has devalued
the car by. I can tell you that we would
ask £650 to put it right.
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Valeting Articles: Index Page
A list of articles on various car care and car valeting subjects |
Article: The
danger of automated car washes
Why you should just stay away from
them and clean your car yourself!
Car Leasing Article: Car
Leasing Advice
The in's and out's of personal car
leasing, business car leasing and contract hire.
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