4 Reasons to Wash Your Car Weekly!
Why should you wash your car? This topic comes up a lot among car enthusiasts and each person you ask will give you a different answer. Throw in the question, how often should you wash my car and you’ll get even a larger spread of answers. So without further ado, here are 4 reasons why you should wash your car weekly.
Prevent damage to your paint
Your car’s paint is arguably the most abused part of your car. Each day it takes a beating, from the sun, dirt, road debris, and precipitation. Think of your car’s paint like your body’s skin. It surrounds your car’s body panels and protects them from rust and corrosion much like your skin protects your muscles and organs from viruses and bacteria.
Let’s think about how we care for our skin. We wash it every day, if not multiple times a day. Why, because we want to prevent it from getting damaged. Your car’s paint is no different, granted a car’s paint is designed to be more resilient to the world than your skin. Now image if you didn’t wash your skin for a week. How would it look? I’m guessing not too appealing between clogged pours and acne that would appear. Over an extended period of time without proper care your car’s paint will experience similar effects. Dirt and debris will penetrate the paint and eventually cause staining, rust, and eventually the paint will chip away. By washing your car weekly you’re rinsing away contaminates and not allowing them to penetrate your car’s paint. A car wash goes much deeper than what the eye can see.
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Resale value
A car’s resale value is something that comes up in discussion a lot. Think back to the last car you bought. What was the first thing you noticed when you first saw the car in person? You might not realize it but it’s the car’s paint. Within seconds of seeing the car you’re going to make a judgement about it. You might say to yourself, “Wow this is a nice car” or “This thing’s a beater”. Whether the car has dings, dents, or damage at the end of the day you’re still looking at the paint.
This is one of the most important reasons why you should wash your car each week. When you go to sell your car you want to get top dollar for it. Don’t you? I know I do. Imagine you’re driving around in a $30,000 car and in 2 years you plan on selling it. According to KBB.com a car’s resale price can fluctuate as much as 10% based on its exterior condition. So in this case over the course of 2 years you could either keep $3,000 in your pocket or lose $3,000. Is washing your car worth it? I would say so.
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Portray a positive image
Let’s take a brief departure from the first two reasons. I want you to close your eyes for a minute and think about the last time you saw a nice car; a Ferrari, Lamborghini, or maybe an Audi R8. Was the car clean? I bet it was, do you know why? Yes of course reason one and two are part of it but there’s another reason, the owner understands how important it is to portray a positive image.
If you don’t know this already I hate to break it to you but we live in a shallow world. People often make a judgement within the first few seconds of seeing someone. This includes when you’re pulling up to that business meeting or meeting someone on a first date. I know you’ll take a shower and put on clean clothes for both of those situations. Your car shouldn’t be an exception. It’s just as important as the way you dress and your hygiene.
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Look better, feel better
The title says it all, “Look better, feel better”. Have you ever had one of those days where you don’t feel like doing anything or going anywhere and you mosey around the house all day in what you slept in? I’m sure on some of those days you managed to clean yourself up; take a shower and change your clothes. How did you feel after that? If you’re like me, you feel better after you’re cleaned up and in fresh clothes.
This translates over to your car too. Next time your car is dirty I want you to think about what you’re feeling as you walk towards your car when you need to go somewhere. Do the same when your car is clean, think about what you’re feeling as you walk up to a clean car. Do you see where I’m going with this? Your attitude, level of excitement, and overall mood will be considerable better getting into a clean car over a dirty car. Think about it next time you’re walking up to your car to go somewhere.
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