As 1eng said, they aren't liable.

Since you seem to care about your vehicle (I do too btw,) do yourself a favor and order a bottle of Optimum No Rinse. It's super easy, saves money/water AND it 'can' be enjoyable. I wash my vehicles this way in the warmer months and it stays cleaner for longer.

For all the automatic car wash bashers, I'll take ANY of them over a mag chloride covered vehicle all day!

Not only what you said...

Winter months makes it damn near impossible to wash at home unless you use rinsless, which i imagine is not worth destroying microfiber clothes in the dirty winter.

How often do you clean rig after driving on mag chloride streets? They use that posion here in CO also.

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You guys have some pretty crappy experiences. My newest vehicle is a 2007 civic (my t4r is 20 yrs old) with bright silver paint. After auto wash, i can't notice any scratches. Local carwash uses what appears to be microfiber or other soft cloths on the spinning machines in the auto. Is that unheard of or something?

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I was at a car wash this summer and had to take an important call. I stepped away from the crown for privacy, which was next to the machine exit, out of view of the waiting area. As I was talking, a Tahoe came off the conveyor thingy, completely unattended, rolled down the exit and crash into a planter box. As I was looking for someone to tell, a Mercedes rolled out right behind. It rolled right out and crashed into the Tahoe. Finally, someone came running over, still out of everyone's sight, and separated the cars. I walked over to the waiting area and asked the crowd who owned a Tahoe or a Mercedes. 1/2 of them ignored me, the other 1/2 looked at me like I was crazy. As the cars pulled around, with the attendants pretending like nothing had happened... "no one?... Ok"

I never use automatic car washes. I road through one of these things back in the day and the car physically was pushed around, jerked, shook, vibrated from the force of the spinning brushes beating on the car. They even have a sign that states they are not liable for damage when you drive in.

You don't need to worry about that sign, if you have damage you file through your own insurance and your insurance company will go after the carwash owners to challenge that sign through subrogation

If you have metallic paint it will hide swirl marks better than solid colors, if you have solid black or blue swirl marks you're pretty much stuck with hand detailing. After owning multiple black cars I will never make that mistake again, I got so tired of polishing my car weekly. The magnetic gray hides dirt and blemishes really well, the only downside to magnetic or pearlescent paints is that they are harder to match if you ever need to paint something.

I do touchless car washes normally and then do a full hand detail, iron-out and polish twice a year

When you wash your truck yourself, use a product like Optimum No Rinse and read the instructions or you will end up with just as many swirl marks as a carwash

I believe touchless places also reuse water, so that probably doesn't really help much. I still haven't a good brush with a handle to wash a 4runner efficiently. I can get my impreza done in 15 min if I don't wash it

The thing I would strongly recommend, if you are going to do carwashes just dont let dry your car. That is where most of the damage occurs. basically digging a dirty towel over your car is sand paper. just deal with the water spots, or go to a near by mall garage get some quick detailer, quickly pat dry your car down.

they filter it though. ask what kind of filtration they use, a well monitored and maintained RO filter is going to give you better water than tap. also some carwashes will also only filter the pre-rinse or high pressure rinse and use fresh filtered water for the spotless rinse.

If you try out a few different places you'll notice a difference in the amount of water spots they leave. The crappy unattended car wash near my house leaves terrible water marks (although i'm happy to use it to clear off mud after offroading :devil: ) but another one nearby leaves almost no water marks and has multiple people onsite who are keeping an eye on things and monitoring the filters.

After I use a touchless carwash I hit any water spots with Griots Garage Speed Shine and rubber and vinyl dressing and call it a day.

I also NEVER take my cars through a brush carwash. When I do it's always the brushless.
I always use the handheld wand carwash and in the winter when it is too cold to hand wash and the truck is not super dirty just to get the road salt & snow off, I use Scrubbing Bubbles Multi Surface Cleaner.
I just spray it on, no scrubbing and believe it or not it gets it very clean. My trucks a 2011 and still looks great.

My bumper looks like that after 3,000 miles. Cause: Use. That's what I bought this sucker for.

This is why I prefer my Toyotas in Classic Silver. It hides dirtiness and water spots better than any other automotive paint color I've owned. I just with the interior of my 4Runner was light gray like my wife's RAV4. The black 4Runner interior seems to just stay dirty no matter what.

It's also why I'm glad I bought my 4Runner used. In the short time I've owned it I've put plenty of little scratches, nicks, and such on and inside it. Front end rock chips in the paint don't bother as much when there were already some there when you got the vehicle.

The only brand new vehicle I ever bought was a 4x4 Tacoma and I think I lost sleep for a week after the first time I took that fresh, beautiful rig down its first muddy gravel road.

Just because they have signs does not mean they are not liable. If they do legitimate damage they generally will pay and they have insurance for this. If someone has damage the thing to do is to report it before leaving the lot. IMO there's no way OP's scratches are from a car wash. The scratches were already there and wax or bumper dressing filled them in. The carwash cleaned it off. By leaving he's SOL with reporting damage. If the brushes could do that damage to the bumper would not other horizontal surfaces also be scratched? Roof, hood? Get some Back to Black and fix it in seconds.

Apartment residents, how do you clean your 4R while avoiding automatic car wash stations?

My Rental Agreement states no car washing on driveways, but I see residents doing it when no cars are around.
Anyone with suggestions or input?

Thanks an advanced!

I farted once and I swear this Toyota paint chipped. So sure.