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Alright.....this is sort of my cup of tea. Years and years of detailing on a professional level and years of BMW ownership. By no means am I god here but my opinion comes from experience....
If you REALLY care about the exterior of your car and enjoy detailing and hate swirl marks / RIDS / holograms.....I can write you a step by step, just ask, but I think I am a bit over the top when it comes to paint perfection. I recently did cumulatively....20 hours of paint leveling and correction on my new G05 which is BSM.
Living up North..in the winter is tough due to temps and weather condition. I am from NH. My take on it is....I support Larry from AMMO, he is an artist I really do support but STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM WATERLESS WASHES IMO! I never see them turn out well....yes I'll do them sometimes but only when the car is dusty. Waterless washing the wrath of winter away is a recipe for disaster if you care about the condition of your paint.
If you want to go the "waterless" route, this is what id do. Find yourself a do-it-yourself car wash...one of those high pressure wash bays....pump it full of quarters and high pressure wash from top to bottom focusing on the lower sections of the body panels, front bumper and rear gate due to station wagon effect. This effectively removes most of the "grit" that would damage your paintwork. THEN go for the waterless wash, panel by panel, good quality micro fiber towels and LOTS of them. This should do the trick for a satisfactory end result.
If you are not too keen on caring for the exterior and want to do the drive through wash my recommendation is only go to touch less washes, brush washes RUIN cars. Lots of my detailing clientele was to correct the damage the brush wash did to the paint work. In this case, YOU SHOULD GET A CERAMIC COATING, GTechniq CSL, Kamikaze, CQuartz....pick one, there's tons these days and tons of installers, all at different price points, coating hardnesses, longevities etc. The ceramic will really really impede any contamination from bonding to your paint which in the long run degrades and permanently damages it. Washing will be effortless, the drive thru wash might actually stand a chance at getting your car clean lol.
I could go on and on regarding this stuff, it was my business, job, source of income, life.....for many many years. Now I do it as a hobby, on my cars the wife's car my friends cars. My BSM is very very susceptible to washing induced marring even with my tedious 3 bucket, 2 hour long wash process I do weekly.... this sucks but it's the nature of soft black BMW paint. My dark sapphire metallic gray F15 doesn't show any of the marring at all, ever, in my 4 years of ownership. My mineral white 330i doesn't show any marring under my detail lights either. If you have carbon/black sapphire, go easy, if you look at it the wrong way it will show it.
I'm rambling now.....any questions, ask, I love this stuff
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