When you have to decide whether to clean your car yourself or have someone else do it, price may be a consideration. Surprisingly, sometimes the cheapest way is not to clean it yourself. Hiring an amateur to clean your car may not be expensive, but your expectations may not be met. If you take your car to a professional car wash, you will know the job will be done right, although the price will be higher. Cleaning your car may cost as little as $4 or soar into the hundreds of dollars, depending on what you want done.
There are inexpensive and time-efficient ways to wash your own car. The least expensive way to clean your own car in less than two hours is to use a spray cleaner that you can buy in the housecleaning aisle of your grocery store. It will take less time if your car is small and is not too dirty, but if your car has tar or splattered bugs on outside surfaces, it takes time to scrub them off.
Use a 4 in 1 All-Purpose-Cleaner, found in the bathroom and kitchen cleaning aisle of your grocery. Spray your car all over with this undiluted spray. The road film will easily come off on soft rags. Use plenty of clean ones so as not to spread the dirt around. Bugs and tar may be removed easily if you use net scrubbers or soft filament brushes after spraying well and soaking with spray cleaner. Clean the top of the car first, then move down to lower sections, and finally scrub the very bottom, the hub caps, tires and wheel wells. After cleaning and scrubbing the car all over, use water to wash off the spray and towel dry.
Spray and wipe the inside dash with a spray dash polish, clean door panels and windows, as well. Vacuum the rugs and seats and you're finished. The expense of cleaning your own car this way is approximately $3.00.
Car washes vary in type and price. There is the Do-It-Yourself variety, where a cleaner and a water sprayer are supplied, costing $1.75 for a few minutes of water or soap coming from a scrubber on the end of a hose. Then there are the incrementally priced car washes, where others perform different services for higher prices. These prices vary from place to place.
In the Baltimore, MD area the basic wash, which includes vacuuming the interior, washing the exterior of the vehicle and toweling it dry, cleaning the windows and wiping down the dashboard, costs $10. The highest priced car cleaning, which includes a thorough detailing, applying rust inhibitor, air freshener, polishing the exterior with three kinds of wax, and cleaning the interior, seats and surfaces, costs $35.
In Boston, car cleaning costs between $15 and $30. In Colorado Springs, $6 to $30. Throughout the United States, car cleaning comes in a wide variety of prices and services and takes more or less time. For instance, a full detailing takes eight hours and costs $300 in Indiana, while the local teen charges $1.50 for a 15-minute spray-and-wash. The choice is yours, depending on how much time and money you want to spend.
