Well, I wouldn't say it's impossible to keep a vehicle marring free- I kept the S8 perfect for over two years while driving it year-round. Any kind of lighting, magnification, etc. etc. there were no swirls, cobwebs, *nothing*. And other Autopians have marring-free vehicles, too. Heh heh, no lie
If you wash/dry carefully enough, frequently enough, and if you keep a good layer of a slick LSP on the vehicle, you can keep it marring-free. Easy? No, not at all. Possible? Yes, definitely.
jsoto- you sorta answered your own question:
I always end up with slight linear drying *scratches*...I don't really blot......I do more a traditional wipe
There's part of the problem. If you don't move your drying towel across the paint (I assume your MF is a *very* soft WW), then you won't get drying-related scratches. That's why blotting works best for avoiding marring. But I can't help wonder *what's* scratching the vehicle. If it's been washed, you should be able to touch it with a (soft-enough) towel without marring it. Maybe there's still some (abrasive) dirt left on it after washing, or maybe your drying towel isn't soft enough, or maybe you're marring it when you wash (I suspect the latter).
Do a search for "Accumulator's Non-marring Wash Technique". IMO, the real trick to avoiding marring is to get the dirt off the paint without grinding it it. Think about how tricky this is- the dirt has to move over the paint to get off (it won't all stick to the mitt, and even then, once you move the mitt across the panel it's the same problem). How to do this without letting the dirt scratch that paint when it moves across it? Answer: lots of high-lubricity shampoo and water- you "flush" the dirt off the paint, only letting the mitt touch the paint enough to do its job. If you wait (either to wash or refresh your LSP) until the dirt sticks to your paint, then you're gonna have trouble.
