I haven't purchased it yet, but I have a question regarding washing the car. I wouldn't put it in a mechanical washer, but probably a touchless car wash. Would that be okay? I know cleaning it yourself is probably the best way to do the job.

Also, is the car your primary car to drive daily? I mostly see RX 8s on weekends.

 

Haha a mechanical wash won't hurt it. Mine's been in them all. For the money I'd rather do it myself. Even if you pay 40 bucks to have it hand waxed, still doesn't look half as good as if you do it yourself.

My 8 is my daily driver... wouldn't have it any other way .

 

Touchless ought to be OK. Took mine to a touchless once. Only two paranoid **** fear issues. One is that before it went into the wash they scrubbed the wheels with some kind of brush. Since the wheels have a paint and clear coat finish, that didn't thrill me. The other issue was that it was late in the afternoon, the towel guys were getting tired, and they left a few pockets of water that dripped down and left streaks. Those cleaned up easily with quick detailer.

On the other hand, the quantity of water and the inundation of the car were more than I'd ever do by hand. I'm sure the bottom got well cleaned.

In the Show and Shine forum, someone recently posted links to car wash industry web sites that claimed automatic washers were better for the car than hand washing.

Mine is my daily driver. I do have a beater for snow days, Home Depot runs and airport parking, but Zoomy is my main wheels.

Ken

 

I think touchless is fine as long as you go to a reputable place that takes care of its equipment.

 

Most Car washes leaves chips from other cars which is no good for your car But lucky for me down the road is a safe car wash place that my friend told me about that owns a Lexus, So I bring it there. They do it all for $8.

First time ever, I loved it, next I'm going to try it manually.

 

There were too many complaints here about Mazda's soft paint and the high PSI water pressure used in touchless washes that I've decided not to use them. The thought of embedding dirt into the paint doesn't appeal to me.

Besides, hand-washing is a nice break for me, to turn off the brain for a while.