Well, winter’s gloom is fully upon us, and that means salty roads, bad driving conditions, and a lot of muck on your car. One need only drive briefly before their car is a whitened, briny mess. That may explain, then, why business is booming at my local car wash.
The number of people lining up at car washes leads me to wonder: how often do you wash your car in the winter? As with a number of automotive questions, the correct answer seems to depend on a number of factors, including who you ask.
Some detailers, don’t recommend washing your car when the temperature drops below freezing, but their reasoning is entirely based on preventing doors and windows from freezing shut. And, although, that’s a reasonable concern, it doesn’t really get at the nature of my question.
Read: These Icy Winter Weather Accidents Are Sliding Into Your Feed
So let’s say that you have a way to dry a car before it freezes, how often should you do it then? It’s a question that matters because, in addition to regular grime and dirt, the winter also throws an abundance of salt and in many states and countries, chemicals too, at a car, which could lead to corrosion.
Washing the salt off a car isn’t pure vanity, it’s also an act of preservation, helping a car last longer. That means that the cost in water is offset slightly by the prolonging of the car’s lifespan, so an ecological argument could potentially be made for washing a car in the winter.
On the other hand, the question of how often to clean your car could be complicated if you’re among those who decides to get their vehicle oil-sprayed before the salt trucks come a-rusting. In that case, the math might change, since soap tends to wash oil away.
What’s your winter washing wisdom? How often should a car be washed in the winter? Do you stop washing your car when it gets too cold? Let us know in the comments.
