What makes a car wash good?

T

Taxlady

New member
I've been using Meguiar's Deep Crystal Car Wash, but I have only Mother's California Gold Car Wash to compare to.



What are the qualities that make a car shampoo good? Don't tell me about sudsing, because that depends on how much sudsing agent they put in.



I hated the Mother's - it left streaks and it took much more effort to dry the car. The Meguiar's DC seems okay, but I'm not convinced that it cleans terribly well. I had mud on the car and washed extra well there. After the car was clean and dry, I ran a finger along the outside part of the door sill and I got a clean streak. Is that normal?



Which car shampoos do you like and why?
 
So far my favorite shampoo, bang for the buck wise, is Meguiar's Gold Class Shampoo. 1 gallon can be had for under $10. For one car, expect that to last a year. The Z-7 wash comes this weekend, so it may change my mind.



Qualities of a good car shampoo:

- pH balanced, reportedly the BF wash strips the product easily. MGC can strip carnauba, but not with the recommended dillution.

- sudsing action (remember dawn suds too).

- lubricacity (is that a word?)

- cleaning power, largely dictated by dillution. I want something that does the job without having to use a lot of the product, or something that needs very very heavy dillution. I don't need EFHI wash, just something to remove a week's worth of dirt from a semi-daily driver.

- special attributes like gloss enhancers, surface enhancers, smell. some washes contain water soluble carnauba (i have no idea if this works or not), obviously this has no use on a surface with synthetic products. z-7 is supposed to replenish the zaino'd surface.





That's all I could think of for what I'd like to see in a wash, more will come to me...
 
Price/Ounce

Cleaning ability

Slipperyness

Unharshness

Smell

Color



Those are some attributes to look for not in any order.
 
What makes a car wash good
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For me it's 2 numbers surrounded by 2 letters, P21S. It has all the qualities that JustinTRW listed except at $8 per 500ml it's not cheap. I buy a year's supply from Car Care Specialities when it's on sale for $7.20 a bottle. One bottle last me 2 months of washing 2 cars weekly, so it costs me 90 cents per week to wash my cars.
 
Guess My Name said:
Price/Ounce

Cleaning ability

Slipperyness

Unharshness

Smell

Color



Those are some attributes to look for not in any order.
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You gonna get high on this stuff? Smell shouldn't matter unless ( and no company in theri right mind would do this) it smells like :shocked



Color either. If I change Megs color and noone of the acutally suddsing or anything like that, then you shouldn't tell a differancece.



Just my .02
 
samiam513 said:




You gonna get high on this stuff? Smell shouldn't matter unless ( and no company in theri right mind would do this) it smells like :shocked



Color either. If I change Megs color and noone of the acutally suddsing or anything like that, then you shouldn't tell a differancece.



Just my .02
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I like things that smell good....If it smells bad I will not want to use it no matter how good it is.



As for color....I like products that look good when poured and in the soap mixture....



I would not want a shampooo that was black or greay as it would cover up the dirt in the bucket.....



Again my opinions.....
 
i've used gold class shampoo. in fact, still got about 80% of a gallon just sittin there.



why is it just sittin there? cuz since switching over to Zaino Z-7, I've never gone back.

Z7 is just amazing. More u use the better. It replenishes your original Z coatings.
 
A good car wash? One that has pretty girls in bikinis drying the cars, of course!:xyxthumbs Really, I like a car wash soap that is relatively easy on the wax and is slick enough that the wash mitt slides easily over the paint. Currently using Pinnacle, just one and a half cap fulls - very slick.
 
4DSC said:
Yeah I pretty much bought Zymol's cheaper blue wash based on that review and the fact that it does smell great! :D Seems to have good lubricity too. :up Can't comment on cleaning power since my car never really gets that dirty.
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Zymöl works great and has all the great attributes David point out.



It's super-sudsey

It cleans better than anyting I've ever had

It smells GREAT... natural oils & ingredients, such as coconut bark... which...

makes it incredibly glossy/shine

Clear-blue in color

Not harsh at all



Currently using Meg's DC... and like anything I try from Meguire's it's, well... OK I guess.
 
I've used Zymol and started using Gold Class which is great for Black but seems to leave a film that I have a hard time getting off of my windsheild.
 
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