The Easy Budget-Friendly Way to Wash Your Car

Life happens, but a visit to the car wash every week or even once a month adds up to a small fortune by the end of the year.

• Click here to get a car insurance quote online with Budget Insurance.

Automatic car wash services are very convenient and efficient, and they use specialised products that are designed specifically for the exterior and interior of vehicles.

There’s no need for you to spend a lot of money on buying special products and equipment and still achieve good results for the weekly wash-and-go.

How much could you save by washing your own car?

It depends on the size of your car, where you drive, how often you drive, and how obsessive you are.

Assuming the following prices for a standard size car:

• Exterior wash-&-go = R65
• Full-house includes wash, dry, vacuum, tyre shine = R90
• Mini valet = R350
• Full valet = R550

Assuming your car wash cycle for the year is:

• A wash-&-go 3x per month
• A full-house 8x per year
• A mini-valet once a year
• A full-valet once a year

In a year, you would have spent:

• Wash-&-go p/year R65 x 36 = R2,340
• Full house R90 x 8 = R720
• Mini valet = R350
• Full valet = R550
• Total = R3,960

That’s a substantial amount of money that you could use to fuel up, take a weekend break, go on a camping trip, or a just a day’s drive out to break away from the daily grind of the city.

So are you ready to burn some calories?

The easy, economical, and eco-friendly method

The wash-&-go is the most frequent form of car wash, and also the one you can easily do yourself.

Our budget-friendly method not only looks after our pockets but looks after the environment as well. On average, washing a car with a hosepipe uses 450 litres of water.

Washing with a bucket uses an average of 32 litres.

What you need

All the equipment must be clean:

1. 2 large buckets
2. 1 T car shampoo, if you don’t have any, hair shampoo will do
3. 1 car washing sponge
4. 1-2 super-absorbent microfibre drying cloths
5. 1 microfibre glass cleaning cloth

Method

Begin by parking the car under shade and out of the sun:

1. Put 1 tablespoon of shampoo into a bucket and add water so that it works up into a sudsy lather.
2. Fill the other bucket with plain water.
3. Use your sponge with the soapy water and begin washing and rinsing in sections from the top of the car downwards in lengthwise strokes. Circular strokes can leave faint swirl marks that become noticeable over time.
4. Use the second bucket to rinse the sponge each time you move to the next section.
5. After washing and rinsing, dry down the body with a soft microfibre cloth; a glass cleaning microfibre cloth works well for shining up the windows. Don’t let the car air dry as this will leave watermarks and streaks.

Washing tyres

Notes on cleaning tyres:

1. If you are planning to cleaning your tyres in the process, it’s a good idea to start here first before washing the paintwork.
2. Use tyre cleaner and follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Typically you’ll spray it on, let it sit, then scrub with a fairly stiff brush to loosen dirt.
3. Use a separate sponge and cloth and don’t use these to wash the car’s paintwork.

In conclusion

By all means, a professional spring clean once or twice a year is worth the cost of a valet service.

Keeping mud, grit, tree sap, and bird deposits off the bodywork and out of nook and crannies is important to keeping the paintwork in good condition in the long run.

However, if you’re counting pennies this is one area where regular DIY can put some rands back into your pocket.

You can also get a car insurance quote online with Budget Insurance