[GS2019]

This would be my first BMW X5 - really excited. My BMW Dealership said that I can take my car to them as much as I want to get a FREE car wash regardless of any service or not. Does anyone here use BMW dealership FREE carwashes? Is that recommended or not a good idea?
Does the dealership provide touchless carwash?

[rmorin1249]

No rotating brushes, please.

[Cross1681]

To each his/her own. Though I would personally hand wash and detail every week to protect the paint from swirls and paint damage. If it is hand wash that would be a good benefit by my local one is machine wash so I pass.

Now if you are not a fanatic go for it. They want you there so in a year or so they can get you to upgrade.

[GS2019]

Does some dealership have touchfree (meaning No rotating brushes) washes?

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by GS2019

Does anyone here use BMW dealership FREE carwashes? Is that recommended or not a good idea?

Does some dealership have touchfree (meaning No rotating brushes) washes?

The question is, do you want your vehicle clean, shiny, and scratch free? or just one of those three?

If you want all three as much as possible, then wash your vehicle yourself - it's not tough to do, even if you have no garage or access to a hose, but it does take a little up front know-how to do it right. Once you know how, it takes ~20 min to do a full waterless, scratchless wash and add another 20 min every 3-6-9-12 months to do a protective coating depending on which product you use.

I would never let any dealer touch my car, even if it's "touchless" because there's no point to a "touchless" wash unless it's just to get the 4-wheelin mud off before you drive it home to wash yourself (and assuming they don't pressure blast sand and rocks at your car from all the accumulated dirt in the bay).

With auto car washes you usually get what you pay for.

[YuicyYumboYack]

You'll get lots of opinions here but I'm with GrussGott. Only I wash my car. So far the paint seems pretty durable but no way I'm letting it anywhere near a tunnel wash.

[kingmonkeyjr]

Nope. My SA has a hard note in my profile. Never wash.

[GrokuE7]

Not at all. I have a ceramic coating on my X6 and I wash my own vehicle. I have a sign that I hang in my window that says do not wash. Plus I tell my SA do not wash. They get a double whammy of do not wash.

[goobies818]

Originally Posted by GS2019

This would be my first BMW X5 - really excited. My BMW Dealership said that I can take my car to them as much as I want to get a FREE car wash regardless of any service or not. Does anyone here use BMW dealership FREE carwashes? Is that recommended or not a good idea?
Does the dealership provide touchless carwash?

yeah...offered the same with my delivery. i'll pass on the freebie wash. I'm going to be too OCD with my Tanzanite Blue paint job that i might carry a BB gun to murder any birds that attempt to poop on my car.

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by goobies818

I'm going to be too OCD with my Tanzanite Blue paint job that i might carry a BB gun to murder any birds that attempt to poop on my car.

I'm not even kidding about this: I stopped quick at a grocery store, came out, and my Tanz car was covered with like 50 giant white blobs of bird shit. It turned out that I'd parked near a ginormously high light pole and the birds sit up there & shit and the wind blew it all into my car


And to make it worse, since I'd parked away from the other cars to avoid dings, mine was only car hit.

It was like all douche-karma had been bottled up just for that moment.

Luckily I carry around a gallon of distilled water & some quick detailer so I sprayed every spot until it was saturated and then rinsed with the water and most all came right off ... and then, of course, it was off to the U wash to spray down the car and then back to my condo for a garage wash.

It all sounds pretty bad until you consider one thing: normally I drive top down and never put the top up - except that day it was windy and I didn't want shit blowing in the car, so I put the top up ... otherwise shit would've literally blown into my interior and that would've been pretty fucking disgusting

[buckybadger]

Never!

[Davis1888]

Had a lot of bad experiences with Audi dealers letting the garage apprentices wash cars and making a complete mess of the black paint, had it happen twice and from then on told them not to bother. Now I just tell them the car is ceramic coated and they immediately stay away from washing it for fear of having to pay for a recoating if they mess it up. Prefer to detail my own cars, or give it to a professional to work on.

[dynamic]

Originally Posted by Davis1888

Had a lot of bad experiences with Audi dealers letting the garage apprentices wash cars and making a complete mess of the black paint, had it happen twice and from then on told them not to bother. Now I just tell them the car is ceramic coated and they immediately stay away from washing it for fear of having to pay for a recoating if they mess it up. Prefer to detail my own cars, or give it to a professional to work on.

Some of those "apprentices" washing or detailing your BMW are dope head losers that were slingin hash last week at Bob Evans. Can't imagine the mess that some of these guys could make out of a black vehicle.

[Aimster82]

Originally Posted by GS2019

This would be my first BMW X5 - really excited. My BMW Dealership said that I can take my car to them as much as I want to get a FREE car wash regardless of any service or not. Does anyone here use BMW dealership FREE carwashes? Is that recommended or not a good idea?
Does the dealership provide touchless carwash?

Only if my car is white

[Luminor513]

Absolutely not. Both of our cars went straight from dealership to my detail guy for paint correction and ceramic. I didn't let the dealership do anything beyond removing plastic wrapping.

[YuicyYumboYack]

Originally Posted by GrokuE7

Not at all. I have a ceramic coating on my X6 and I wash my own vehicle. I have a sign that I hang in my window that says do not wash. Plus I tell my SA do not wash. They get a double whammy of do not wash.

Great idea! I'm taking my car in for service this weekend, going to borrow that from you.

[thereef510]

Originally Posted by GS2019

This would be my first BMW X5 - really excited. My BMW Dealership said that I can take my car to them as much as I want to get a FREE car wash regardless of any service or not. Does anyone here use BMW dealership FREE carwashes? Is that recommended or not a good idea? Does the dealership provide touchless carwash?

some folks here are very very picky about their exteriors and have made it a hobby to care for and protect it. I am not one of those people, a free car wash is a free car wash. I completely forgot for a moment that existed and I'm gonna go get one today lol

[sahajesh]

My local dealer does a hand car wash - no doubt it's not detailer quality but on a PCP car that will get handed back, I don't really care.

They haven't screwed it up and I have TB as well.

[YuicyYumboYack]

Originally Posted by GrussGott

I'm not even kidding about this: I stopped quick at a grocery store, came out, and my Tanz car was covered with like 50 giant white blobs of bird shit. It turned out that I'd parked near a ginormously high light pole and the birds sit up there & shit and the wind blew it all into my car


And to make it worse, since I'd parked away from the other cars to avoid dings, mine was only car hit.

It was like all douche-karma had been bottled up just for that moment.

Luckily I carry around a gallon of distilled water & some quick detailer so I sprayed every spot until it was saturated and then rinsed with the water and most all came right off ... and then, of course, it was off to the U wash to spray down the car and then back to my condo for a garage wash.

It all sounds pretty bad until you consider one thing: normally I drive top down and never put the top up - except that day it was windy and I didn't want shit blowing in the car, so I put the top up ... otherwise shit would've literally blown into my interior and that would've been pretty fucking disgusting

This is exactly why I always put the top up in my S2000. The thought of the interior covered in bird shit...ugh.

I also had a problem with pigeons and it was driving me insane. My driveway is next to my neighbor's overhang, and pigeons would always perch there and shit all over the driveway and the car.

After years of pressure washing the driveway on weekends, I finally gave in and called pest control. I learned that:
1) most won't bother with single family homes because it's not worth their time compared to commercial properties, and
2) if they are willing to come out, they charge an arm and a leg, plus the life of your first born.

After much debate with my wife, I decided the only way I was going to beat these damn pigeons was to wage war. Obviously I couldn't hurt them because that's against the law (not that I want to hurt animals, but...yes I checked). So instead I went to Target and bought a water gun.

Everyday for a month I went outside to check for pigeons, and I shot at them until they left. Everyday for 30 days. First thing in the morning, shoot the pigeons (with water, in case that wasn't clear). Quick break between meetings? Go shoot the pigeons. Dinner's going to be ready in 5? Great, time to go blast some pigeons. Oh, time for bed? Let me go outside really quick before my day comes to an end to check on some pigeons.

By the end my tireless work paid off, and they were appearing less frequently. After a month of very likely looking like a complete idiot to my neighbors, I had won. Finally I could rest.

In all seriousness, I'm really surprised it worked. Those birds were there when I bought the house years ago, but as far as I can tell they're now permanently gone. They came back one time a month ago, but my spidey senses told me there was a disturbance outside, and lo a behold there they were. In a weird way I almost missed them and was glad to see them back, but did what I had to do and shot them again. Haven't seen them since.

[goobies818]

Originally Posted by thereef510

some folks here are very very picky about their exteriors and have made it a hobby to care for and protect it. I am not one of those people, a free car wash is a free car wash. I completely forgot for a moment that existed and I'm gonna go get one today lol

I can respect an honest and totally DGAF perspective. cheers!

[XGoober]

Originally Posted by Aimster82

Only if my car is white

This is why I chose white on my X3. I routinely take it through a regular carwash (not touchless) and I have no problems. Chances are there are small swirls or scratches if I go looking for them, but they are not apparent otherwise due to the color.

I used to be the two-bucket wash every week guy, but that got old along with myself. Too little spare time to spend it washing the car ;-)

In any case, here in the Puget Sound area they don't want you washing cars in your driveway as it all runs off to the lakes or the sound. Good excuse to be lazy :-)

[IFlyX5]

I make it a routine to print 2 sheets of paper with the words "NO WASH PLEASE" everytime I go to service and put one on the passenger seat; the other one (with the words printed in reverse) left on the dash.

My SA prints a couple of sheets similar to mine when I ask him "No Wash, Please!" They must have a lot of customers asking the same