The local "hand car wash" (car goes through tunnel where it's sprayed with stuff and then they do stuff by hand) has a $3 option of "triple foam spray wax". Does this do anything at all to protect the paint?

Then for $45 they have a wash + wax package with "hand applied carnauba wax". It takes about 45 minutes to do everything. How does this compare (mainly in regards to protecting the paint) to doing it yourself or having a professional detail done for >$100? I guess in the $45 package they don't use a clay bar or polish, and only apply one coat of wax.

Basically I'm wondering if the most I do is that $45 package (how often?), is that enough protection, or would it still be a good idea to do a more comprehensive detailing sometimes?

(My old car I never waxed it, and didn't wash it very often; after 8 years the paint looks terrible. I thought wax was just to make it shiny and didn't know about the protection aspect. With my new car I want to protect it, but don't want to go overboard.)
Modified by sg77 at 2:46 PM 10/19/2009

I can never recommend a car wash place. Waste of money and what ever they put on to protect is not going to last since the paint is not prepped. The protection will not last. Once you go thru that place again it will strip the wax. Go find a pro detailer (here or autopia) to do the work and stay away from those wash places.

I have learned to never EVER use the brush at the car wash place.

And what ever wax they offer is most likely the cheapest they can buy.

Look at my list which I keep updating: zerothread?id=397294

Does anyone have some numbers that can be used to compare these wax options relative to each other, like maybe the spray wax will only protect for X days, the cheap carnauba wax with no prep will protect for Y weeks, carnauba wax professionally applied by a detailer will last Z months (or M months for a synthetic sealant)?

sg77 wrote:Does anyone have some numbers that can be used to compare these wax options relative to each other, like maybe the spray wax will only protect for X days, the cheap carnauba wax with no prep will protect for Y weeks, carnauba wax professionally applied by a detailer will last Z months (or M months for a synthetic sealant)?

No. there are so many variables.

Also what the ads don't tell you is this: Where you live, color of the car and time of the year makes a huge difference in durability.

Zaino is a pretty good choice. FK1's #2180 and #1000 are very durable sealants as well. So is Collonite. If your wax doeasn't last you can do 2 things: try something else or just apply more layers more often.