How often do you wash/wax your Prius?

I take it to the carwash about once every 3 months because a whole team of people gets it very clean inside and out and it gets waxed. Well worth $20.00

 

I've been washing mine about every week. Zaino'd again today with two coats of Z5- having Zaino'd it about four weeks ago...have had the car since Sept 28.

 

I'm having great luck with ONR and OCW once a week. Super fast hand wash and the spray wax takes a few minutes.

 

After the new wears off I usually wash my cars about once a week in the summer and once a month in the winter. Wax two or three times a year.

I realize this is a sacrilege to some so please don't over react to my question. I'm not suggesting we all throw our Zano or Turtlewax out but I am curious.

Does wax actually do anything to "protect" the paint? I know people who sell car wax would like us to believe it does, and it does make the car look better which is why I use it. But I have seen vehicles where I worked, and one of my friends cars, that are 5 or 6 years old and have never been waxed. If you go out and wash them good and put a coat of some kind of wax on them they look just as good as the ones that get waxed several times a year. So does car wax actually do any good, other than making the car look better and making the owner feel better?

 

tumbleweed (Tom),

"Does wax actually do anything to "protect" the paint?"

What an interesting question. I've always believed wax protects my paint. I know for certain it makes my car look better and it provides me a “strange therapy” for me.

For instance when I wax my car, I do a lot of business thinking and get a real sense of accomplishment from this simple (brain dead) task.

But, I own a few cars and I usually only wax those few that I have affection to. I really can’t say I’ve noticed a difference in paint preservation/waxing with modern cars (car paints in the last 8 years).

With the newer paint technology I question if any (peer reviewed) studies show that waxing is really worthwhile.

Maybe I should have checked consumer reports before writing this. But in any event, Tom presents a good question worth discussing here.

 

What is ONR?

 

ONR is optimum no rinse car wash.

 

This might sound weird, but I usually log when I wash or wash and wax the car.

I've been going about 4 to 5 months between wax jobs and I use good 'ol Meguiar's cleaner wax. I've seen some very good results with that stuff. There's a reason it's on the shelf of every auto parts store around here and probably all over the US too.

 

No matter how good the paint technology, it's environmental contaminants that can damage a cars finish - harsh water splashed on the car, bird droppings, tree droppings, and so many other things fall onto the finish and some of it can stick there after washing.

I don't know the science behind waxes, sealants and car finishes, but the chemical engineers that produce them do.