I put my Smart through a automatic car wash

[GiantKiller]

Originally Posted by Bremer Speck

I tried to go through one of these laser assisted drive-through car washes, where the laser beam detects the front and rear ends of the car to determine its proper positioning in the car wash. It refused to accept the shortness of the Smart and had me move forward and backwards several times and then it shut down. This was a $10 experiment.... :-(

We've got one in Waupon WI it works great gets as close to the passenger side and the back, as it does the front and drivers side. But only one stall works the other one goese through the farthest out range. I have to drive 14 miles round trip to use it verses 5 miles for the ones in Fond du Lac. But worth it in the middle of winter.

[bigcritter]

Had the right B3000 emblem ripped off of my Mazda pickup awhile back at an automatic car wash! So I'm a little paranoid about automatic car washes for my smart. There are a couple of brushless washes in my area, and they do a halfway decent job, but if there is a considerable amount of muck on the car, like what has accumulated on the back of my smart right now, it doesn't get it! It's supposed to finally be a halfway decent day here in the PNW tomorrow (for a very WELCOME change!), so I'll be doing the hand-washing thing! :>)

[driven2succeed]

Bigcritter...it looks like all you need to do is park it outside! Lots of rain and run off in the Great Northwest! I hope you and yours are safe. The flooding seems to be quite serious.

[SidneytheSmartee]

Originally Posted by Atomic1dr

I have the Cabrio and I ran it through a brushless wash with the push/pull track on the left side and my Smart came out undamaged and clean as a whistle!

HA HA HA!!! So FUNNY I came across this post! A month or so ago I was out with my car and it was all sorts of nasty from my daily travels into rural communities where the Amish live so...of course, every road is DIRT! (The Amish love when they see me BTW) So I take it to an automatic wash as I have in the past, but not this location. I am mid way through the cycle and it malfunctions. I have soap all over my car and I had to hand wash it. Here I guess they calibrate the sensors in the auto bays for specific car sizes and well, my Smartee totally confused it. This was my only bad experience in a carwash....I found it quite funny actually!

[Neonspinnazz]

I'd say if it's not clean the 1st time, go again!
-works that way when there's tons of muck on the bulky Envoy and one time through doesn't work.

P.S. I'm talking about the touchless autos

[bigcritter]

Originally Posted by driven2succeed

Bigcritter...it looks like all you need to do is park it outside! Lots of rain and run off in the Great Northwest! I hope you and yours are safe. The flooding seems to be quite serious.

We're good. Thanks! :>) Lots of rain, but still a lot of the dirt/sand/muck on the roads from when we had all the snow & ice just before Christmas! :>) They're finally predicting a little "dry" today for a change, and temp around 43 degrees, so smartie is getting a BATH today for sure! :>)

[forestacademy]

OK Here are my Carwash stories.
Local touchless that goes around the car must think I'm a pick up because the back of the car never gets clean. The sprayer winds up almost a car length away.

Another one we have in the area is the kind that pulls you through the car wash with brushes. Because the Left wheel is what pulls you through the wash the brushes on the right side don't reach the right side of the car all that well.

This past weekend I was in IA. Since the temps were near 40 I decided to get the car washed before I went home. Their just happend to be one next to the hotel.
It had the standard self wash bays and I had planned on getting in line for one of them. Then I noticed the Touchless automatic sign and pulled over that way. Since it was a buisy day several attendents were working. They decided I should use a particular automatic because the other one would not wash the back of my car.
I pulled in slowly waiting the the light to change to red. It never happened. The wash couldnt see the car. They gave me my $5 back and I went back around to the self wash bays and spent about $4.

[Suze]

I've been through the brushie car wash (non-brushless) almost every week for a year. Yes, the right side of the car doesn't get the full treatment and the back comes out a bit dirty. But my place says if I'm not happy they'll run it through again - no charge. I've never taken them up on that, just give zippy some personal attention and it's fine. But I might -- come warmer weather when I expect the car to look Spanking Clean all the time!


Oh, yeah, this is a $5 wash. That's the same price I've paid at that car-wash for the last 15 years. I can't think of another product or service that costs the same as it did in 1993. I'm happy with my auto wash!

[h20m0f0]

Nothing but hand washing here, Noway I'm trusting by baby to a robot built for big cars...... It takes me 5 mins to wash my car anyway why would I go to the carwash

[jefferios]

I can wash my car at a self bay for $2. So I cannot find a better solution for the winter.