I have been intending on ranting a little about what a depressing winter it's been around here(Iowa) to try to keep a vehicle clean. We have been through several periods where we get a new storm every 3-4 days. Several have included significant ice accumulations.

I have snow piled about 4 feet high on both sides of my driveway. Many street corners have snow piled so high it's difficult/impossible to look around the corner for oncoming traffic. Parking lots of box/grocery stores have snow 10-12 feet high 30-40 feet across the entire width of the parking lot. Because of the ice, our DOT has used copius amounts of salt and brine to try to keep roads clear. The other day the roads were dry but the salt cloud on the highway was so thick you could hold your french fries out the window for a few seconds if they weren't salty enough for you.

Combine all this with abnormally low temps (-31F last week) and it's really tough to find a time to wash a car without it freezing into a solid block. A trip to a detailer would be a huge waste of money as you couldn't drive six blocks without the car looking exactly as it had before you went in. I have driven through a touchless drive through a few times, but the car is dirty before I get home. My wheel wells get so crammed with salty frozen slush, my suspension only has about 1/2" of travel. Today is supposed to get into the low 30's, so we could wash cars, but if it stays warm we will have rivers of salty slush for weeks.

I haven't washed/dried my car by hand since early Nov., and the prospects don't look good right now. I'm glad I've got Zaino on my car, and DG 105 on the wife's truck, but it sure would be nice to be able to clean them up and have them stay nice for a day or two. Sorry for the rant - how's you're winter going? And I'd really rather not hear from the Florida/Arizona guys.

I posted this on the Autopia site as well - be interested to see the responses.

 

My cars are looking purty. Sorry for your ****ty weather.

 

I just spray mines off everyday so I'm cool. Might pick up a 95 Jetta as a beater so well see

 

Yeah I know what you mean last year (December 2008) if anyone heard about the Washington storm, my car got 4 shades darker before it was finally warm enough for me to get out and wash the hell out of my car. But it only lasted one day before it was covered in dirt again

 

 

Pearl93VE.....you suck!

 

x2

 

yup im up in nh and man we've gotten a sh*t ton of snow this year..and man do they love to use salt..damn..im very depressed to about winter...but 4 weeks and spring is hear!!!

 

aight so ya'll might have it worse than us in the south, but d*** it won't quit rainin!!!!! Last summer I never looked at the forcast before I washed, but right now I look to see if I will have a day or two to enjoy the wash before the rain. I got my windshield replaced last week and I be d***ed if it didn't start rainin while they were replacing it. The forcast finally shows a couple of days with sunshine, so get the soap ready!!!

 

im in mn dude, i feel your pain!

 

I'm in NC and I feel your pain too. The weather is not stable around these parts....LOL

 

I'll never complain about the heat in the summer after going through this winter

 

I'm in Norcal and its been non stop rain. Not really cold but raining day and night. Now that I don't have time to go snowboarding is when the most snow falls.

 

Im in montreal.... bah, I have an indoor garage so I wash it every week, but one day to go to work and its dirty again... eh.

 

in door garage eh, how do you wash it in doors......lol j/k that still sucks have a garage and still can't keep it clean but at least its out of the weather for the most part.

 

I have another month or so to go in Vermont till it'll be worth washing my car for real again. I just spray off the mud and salt for now. I live on a dirt road too so regardless of the season she's durty all the the time unless I have the car air lifted by a chinook to the pavement first. This mud season looks to be a beaut too so there ain't no tellin when I can try and keep her clean for more than 2 seconds. It is what is but I guess it does suck looking at a car that I know that can look 10 times better than it does now. *****.

 

ONR