At-home car wash season is upon us. I cringe every time I see someone cleansing their car by hand. I have never once observed a DIY auto scrubber use two buckets for the job (one for rinsing, one for soap). On the other hand, as an OCD sufferer, I don’t even crack the binding on the Griot’s Garage catalogue. Quite simply, if I started down that road, I’d never post here, ever. In fact, I’d probably start washing other people’s cars (my neighbors bless my snowblower). So, yes, I do wash and rinse my ride at an automated car wash. And then, sham wow! At one car wash I used to frequent, the owner showed me a secret stash of broken bits, mangled by the mechanical arms that put food on his table. Never went back there again. So, have you been a victim of a car wash? Or seen some poor fool get his clocked cleaned? Spill.
Grand Am mirrors and car washes…
http://www.carwash.org/operatorinformation/vehicledamagereportcenter/Documents/40-April%202000%20Pontiac%20Grand%20Am.pdf
Yes, I had a carwash break a mirror on a truck once. They had a glass shop replace it for me. I suppose I should have held out for factory parts, but I was young and stupid.
I haven’t used a (non-touchless) automated car wash since I got my Vette. I strictly use touchless washes or the pay ‘n spray where I can hose it off myself. Strangely, there doesn’t seem to be an automated touchless carwash ANYWHERE in the Boston area, which is pretty ridiculous
My best friend from college told me that his dad had a late 90s/early 2000s Maxima that he took through an automated wash. I have no idea how it happened, but the automated wash somehow malfunctioned and DESTROYED his entire car, with him stuck inside. They had to literally cut him out of the car
The best I ever saw was when the automated car wash we went to installed undercarriage-cleaning jets.
We were very quickly apprised of where the holes in the floor were in my dad’s ’76 Aspen, and that the ventilation ducts had developed a hole.
I quit using them in about 1991. Prior to that, I lost windshield wipers, emblems, mirrors, etc. Much simpler to hand wash than to spend time with insurance, arguing with owners, etc. (And yes, I use two buckets!)
John
I worked at a car wash in high-school, then got a job at an exotic detailing place.
Yes, the automated car-wash ate and broke things like crazy, and I never took my ride (back then, an ’84 Z28) through it. There was also a huge list that the controller referenced as far as what brushes and things to elevate, retract, etc. so antenna’s, mirrors, wipers, and plastic fenders (IE: Ford Minivans of the time) wouldn’t get ripped off.
Conversely, a lot of the exotics at the detailing place were equally abused, not from the detailing service, but from the owners. Seriously. I don’t know what Ferrari owners do to their cars but they seem to like beating the dashes on them.
never had a problem
I don’t get it. Why 2 buckets? What’s wrong with 1 bucket and a hose for rinsing?
The dirt from the car mixes with the clean soapy water you’re trying to use to wash the vehicle.
A few years ago, I had a coupon for a freebie. This car wash was too far from home to make a special trip for, but I was passing by one day, and figured I’d pop in while I was in the area.
I pulled into the lot and immediately saw a sign listing all the cars they wouldn’t wash. It was a litany of German and Swedish models with available AWD and (for some reason) late-model Acuras.
I was driving an Audi A4 Avant at that time.
I pulled right back out, went to the self-serve by my house, and pitched the coupon as public service to anybody who valued their undercarriage.
It isn’t ideal, but I always use the DIY car wash and bring my own sponge and bucket. I appreciate the medium pressure wash, clean water, air drying wand, etc.
My worst experience has to just be cars with telescopic antennas and automated washes. I’ve driven a few rental cars thru them and bent up the antenna since I’m used to a car that has the antenna integrated into the windows…
No need for the 2 bucket thingy just get the Griot’s bucket with lower grill so the heavy debris falls to the bottom and won’t allow your wash mitt to pick it up again. Works like a charm. I always go heavy on the water and soap and use a different mitt for the wheels/tires/exhaust.
Not if you keep rinsing the sponge with the hose it doesn’t
@ez3276: Exactly. That’s what I do: rinse the sponge before I get more soap. I figured that it’s just common sense.
I’ve never had a car damaged by an automatic wash, but A) I only use a certain touchless one if I’m too lazy to hand wash, and B) I don’t use them that often, because they usually don’t do that great a job.
I watched a Black Nissan Maxima go through the automated wash once. when it came out, it had so many swirl marks from the guys drying the car. I watched these guys go over six cars before changing their towels, it was crazy. When my car came out, I told them Don’t bother drying. I gave them a tip anyway just so they would leave my car alone.
When I first moved to the U.S. and into a block of condos, I asked the owner what rules governed the washing of cars in the driveways. He didn’t know as he’d never washed his car and I never saw any neighbor wash their car. I just went ahead and washed and it was the only way I ever met anybody in the place. (They would wave at me as they cruised straight in through their automatic garage doors.) Apparently all cars in Orange County are washed by our friends from below the border at countless ‘hand wash’ stations.
My parents month old 1994 Cherokee went through a car wash and had the black molding ripped off the rain sill over the doors.
I’ve never had anything happen to any of my cars, but I prefer washing it myself.
If you’ve never tried it, the Mr. Clean car wash system is awesome!
In the mid 70s a pal of mine ran his Citroen DS21 through an automated car wash in Los Angeles. He’d had the car for awhile; I figured he knew what he was doing. We watched as it travelled crab-like down the line (narrow rear track).
The real problem, however, was that with the engine off, the car sank down on its suspension and the entire exhaust system was torn off.
Rinse the damn mitt every time after washing a section before you put it in the bucket of sudsy water and that water will be as clean and pure as it was when you started. For speed, keep 4 clean mitts ready to go. They would be in clean container, not on the ground, wouldn’t they.
By the way, you start with the wheels and tires. Both must be dry when sprayed with tire cleaner and wheel cleaner. Then use a brush on the tires. Then use a sudsy (old) mitt first on the wheels then on the tires and set that mitt aside. It does not go back in the bucket until the next wash, after it has been thoroughly washed and rinsed. Rinse the wheels and tires.
Now you start at the top.
“Put a grill on the bottom of the bucket to let the heavy debris fall to the bottom.”
OUCH! Please drop the mitt, back away, and never wash a car again until you fully embrace paragraphs 1 & 2 above. That goes for you too, RF.
Ok, now as far as the Grand Prix, the first time they rip a mirror off John Delorean’s first effort—that would be my ’63—that sign is not going to save ‘em.
Everyone knows my 2007 story – I had just picked up the (now ex-)girlfriend at O’Hare when I took it to a gas station’s car wash in Schaumburg. It took out the hatch on my Integra – took out the glass and bumped/warped the hatch metal, requiring a replacement to be shipped from California. I really enjoyed the drive back to Champaign the next day, after using duct tape and plastic sheets to create a pseudo-window.
Yes, the gas station’s insurance company did cover the full cost of the hatch and the rental car (yuck, Dodge Stratus with no map lights, yuck yuck yuck get it off me). I had the rental car for nearly three weeks, too (more obligatory yuck)!
I have only used an automatic wash once since then, in my hometown. There are a lot of automatic washes that use conveyor belts in Michigan. (Michigan is also old-skool when it comes to traffic lights, but that’s another story.)
The downside is that my car is never fully clean when I leave the DIY bays. I have to hand wash it, or use a really good touchless wash, if I want it fully clean. Then again, the car is silver so you won’t really notice it. Also, police like shiny metallic paint, so why wash?
The top brands for missing mirrors that I have observed are Pontiacs and Saturns. I wonder why.
I’ve had the front license plate on 2 different vehicles bent up pretty badly at automatic car washes. Between that and the relatively high cost, I’ve sworn off those places and wash at home. I usually rinse the car off outside (to get the chunky grime off) then pull it in the garage and wash it using ONR in a small bucket (using a separate small bucket to rinse off the cloth). This uses very little water and I can keep the car clean regardless of outside temps.
I’ve never had a mishap on a personal vehicle, but when I first started at the Saab dealership I took out a few power antennas in the wash. On the Hummer service drive I had a few H3s come in needing passenger’s side exterior mirrors (at about $450 a pop) and occasionally antenna bases because of car washes. I guess the best one I’ve seen was when someone left a sunroof in the vent position and ran an H2 through the wash. They never noticed it because the sunroof shade was closed, but water ran into the headliner and down to the carpet. The carpet had to be removed and dried to fix the mess. Needless to say, everyone started checking sunroofs (or sunrooves?) before the wash from that point on.
There’s a chain of car washes here in the midwest that uses fresh hot water – the car comes out super clean. I love it.
By the way, in Longview, Washington, they have a car wash on or near Industrial Way that you must know to ask for soap. If you don’t, they rinse it with muddy rinse water then come out and ask “Is there a problem?” when, on exit, you can’t see out the windshield it’s so filthy.
Soap is an extra $7.50
This happened to my elderly mother, who was furious this was pulled on her.
This was a business I never quite got. It takes me maybe 15 minutes to wash the car by hand. 20 for the minivan.
On the other hand, it takes the little woman 20 minutes to drive to the car wash, where she waits in line another 20 minutes for 2 minutes worth of washing. For this she pays more than $20, while I spend $5 for a gallon of soap once every 5 years. Then she drives home, (another 20 minutes) and her car is already starting to get dirty by the time she gets home.
The things that woman will do to avoid getting dirt on her hands….
This was a business I never quite got. It takes me maybe 15 minutes to wash the car by hand. 20 for the minivan.
On the other hand, it takes the little woman 20 minutes to drive to the car wash, where she waits in line another 20 minutes for 2 minutes worth of washing. For this she pays more than $20, while I spend $5 for a gallon of soap once every 5 years. Then she drives home, (another 20 minutes) and her car is already starting to get dirty by the time she gets home.
The things that woman will do to avoid getting dirt on her hands….
Yeah, my wife does that to me, about things like changing oil. “Just take it somewhere.” Uh, pay more money so I can drive somewhere, sit and wait, etc. instead of doing it myself? I don’t get it either.
John
@ CarPerson: You must ASK for soap, which is an extra $7.50?? I hope that car wash is super cheap! Businesses like that are the reason for the BBB.
$450 for a mirror on a on a H3? WTF! I’d expect that much for something oddball or exotic but a GM parts bin car. A heated mirror for my Jeep Liberty was $110 with full stealership markup. I could have gotten one for ~$70 if I wanted to order the base model online.
Friends don’t let friends put their car through a car washing machine. Do it yourself and your car’s finish will thank you for it.
This isn’t a tale of woe at all, but more something that I think is a car wash curiosity.
In my city (Montreal) there seems to be a car wash on almost every corner – but not automated – they are usually just a bay-type building with 3-4 (or sometimes more) guys who will hand wash, dry, and generally take excellent care of your car. I’ve found one that I’m very fond of and they change $6 for the exterior and $10 for int/ext. Plus if my wife goes on tuesday it is half price “ladies night”.
I love the job they do on my car, it is miles better than the DIY or the automatic car wash. I can’t understand how 4 guys make a living doing this, but they must, since there are so many of them around.
Anyone else have this phenomenon in their city?
What is this two buckets you speak of? I use one bucket for soap and a hose to rinse. I’ve gotten some scratches at automated car washes and only wash by hand now.
I wish I took video when I was living in Harlem, the “car wash” on our block was a fire hydrant that people would come and open and wash their cars with all day long. In the summer it would be one after another from morning to night. I used it too. Once somebody even washed their boat there. Pulled up their boat on a trailer and washed the whole thing with the fire hydrant. Cops and Firemen didn’t care, they would just drive by like nothing.
By the way, the bug and tar remover is sprayed or wiped on before doing the tires. After doing the wheels and tires, wipe off the B&T Remover with a soft paper towel and you’re set to go.
Here in Geelong, Australia, we’re on Stage 4 water restrictions as we’re into Year Twelve of the worst Seven Year Drought we’ve ever had.
Home car washing is completely banned, which sucks. So you have to use places that “recycle” their water.
My new Honda Jazz (=Fit) is getting pretty dirty whilst I psych myself up for the mandatory swirling and scratches.
Andrew
I used to work at a full service car wash. Puddle Car Wash in Boulder CO back in 1983-4.
Automatic antennas were something we always had to catch, otherwise, they’d snap off during the run thru.
That was about it. I always thought the owners were very upright, honest guys.
Lots of observations about cars:
1) Any Volvo that came in was at least 10 years old and always had 150K miles on it.
2) Jags that came in (and we had regulars), would go thru the wash, then needed to spend 30 minutes drying out before they’d start. The crappy electrical system couldn’t handle, yunno, the environment. We’d hafta hop in and push em off the line and off to the side.
3) There was one woman, my age, who had a pristine 68 Camaro. Cute, seemed interested in me and I loved her car. Alas, I was married (still am, same person, just doesn’t get the allure of a 68 Camaro).
Two car wash stories. One bad, one just freakin’ hysterical.
Bad: Four years ago I’d just bought a 1985 Nissan Sentra Wagon with 52,000 origional miles. The thing looked brand new. I felt like I’d stolen the thing at the price.
I pull through this little carwash/gas station and the brushes ripped a piece of chrome off of the fender. I got absolutely nowhere trying to get it delt with by the owner and $20 for the replacement trim just wasn’t worth my time to pursue further. Never bought gas or a car wash from that place again though.
Funny as Heck: Last year I pull my F150 into a touchless wash, one of the ones where doors shut at each end when you drive in.
What I’d forgotten was that I had not swept the bed out from the fire wood run I’d done a week or two ago.
Then the “Turbo Dryer” kicked in. Ever seen one of those discovery channel animations of ‘inside the tornado’?
Leaves, sticks, bark, and dirt are bouncing off the walls, doors, and my truck. That thing rolled out of there looking twice as nasty as when I pulled in. Total waste of $8 but worth it in entertainment value.
A few words from detailer in the past:
NEVER use sponge, it can trap sand and scratch clearcoat. Use wash mitt.
I do rims first with a toothbrush. Then I use pressure washer for at home hand wash and to make foam in the bucket. Also I use only one bucket. The key is never deep your mitt too deep and never touch the bottom of the bucket. To dry a vehicle a use clean bath towel (or two). The key to proper wash is to start at the top and work your way to the bottom of the vehicle, flipping and dipping mitt often and working on one section at the time. And never was or wax in direct sunlight.
Mikeys car wash rules
#1 Never ever, ever use an automatic car wash.
#2 Only good quality car wash soap and not too much of it.
#3 Three mitts clean one, and one not so clean and a dirty/greasy one.
#4 Three chamois…see mitt use above
#5 Two pails always
#6 A car is not clean untill the wheels and glass are done.
The colder the outside temp is the harder it is to keep em clean.When its super cold 15 degrees F or colder,forget it.Your doing more harm than good.
As soon as someone tells me “he is a car guy” I look at his wheels and tires.It speaks volumes.
Then the interior,no dust,no junk,no stains,and the carpet better be vacumed.The door jams and pillars should be clean.The inside of the hood and deck lid should be wiped.
Because I put my daily driven[summer only]Firebird in shows,the engine compartment is detailed.When you drive an Impala and it stands out and people notice it and remark about it.You know you keep a clean car.
I just can’t understand why my wife says “I’m anal”when it comes to my cars.
I have found that rather than the three or four mitts you discuss, a quality horsehair or soft boarhair brush works really well without having to change anything (you can go right from wheels to paint if you rinse the brush off with the hose).
Everything you EVER wanted to know about washing and detailing:
http://www.autopia.org/
mtypex:
Hm, curious. I take my Stratus (without map lights) through automated car washes all of the time. :)
The finish is so beaten to snot that it doesn’t matter anyway. Previous owner didn’t treat it well, and it sits outside… Things happen.
Very good advice mikey from another Mike!
I haven’t used an automated car wash with brushes in maybe 15+ years; touchless only since. I do use 2 buckets when I hand wash, learned this from Motor Trend, might be the only useful advice I ever got from that rag.
Good luck on your retirement, mikey, and I always appreciate your insider stories from working on the line.
BTW, there’s no way I can wash a car in 15 minutes, which is the usual reason for taking my car to the touchless place. It typically takes me 1 hour at the very least! Maybe I’m too OCD.
Thank you jimmy2x!
Say NO to automated recycled water blasters.
Scorched Earth – you are quite welcome.
BTW, this is my bucket – and yeah, that is my review at the bottom.
http://www.autopia.org/reviews/censura.php?cmd=details&itemid=1254
The “soft cloth” washes scratch your car. When they have tar on them they get tar all over your car too. The touchless washes don’t scratch, but don’t really clean your car either. Now the car wash in my town is closed Sundays too. I’ll wash mine at home, year ’round, with Optimum No Rinse and a grout sponge. No hose, one bucket. Dry with microfiber towels only. It takes me 45 minutes, but that includes wheels and door jambs. Gotta have clean jambs.
jimmy2x
Props for the Autopia link, this is a wealth of information on car care, especially if you have OCD like me!
My big complaint with car washes is that they create swirl marks all over the paint job!
Roadracer – I use the Klass AIO along with their sealant glaze and have been very pleased. Has held up well for about 10 months now. Use the Sonus Acrylic Glanz Spray Sealant after each wash to bring up the shine. Great products and relatively easy to apply.
I got scratches on the fixed part of my Trans Am’s roof once in an automatic wash. Started hand washing after that.
I’m not too fussy about it these days. I can wash the car in nothing flat in my driveway. One bucket, I use a hose to rinse and if necessary, a cleanly rinsed sponge to get stubborn stuff off;
Most of the time, I stop off at a Saturday fundraiser carwash; you know, youth groups, church travel groups, softball teams, or cheerleader fundraisers being held in a Wendy’s, Sam’s Club, or Walgreens parking lot.
Taking the Vette to these was a blast. Gave the kids something fun to wash instead of the same old boring Civics, SUV’s, and pickup trucks.
They would just about push each other out of the way to wash my Vette (and later my Z3). I’ve had good reaction from most even with my Prius, though. Lots of kids are excited about hybrids, and even some of the parents have questions about the Prius.
I’ve never had damage from a fundraising bunch of kids, either. These fundraisers always seem to have at least one shaparone who’s an adult male car nut anyhow. These guys usually make sure the kids are doing a good job, flushing out their dirty sponges and shammys, getting clean drying towels, washing the rims, squeegeeing the windows, and even drying the side mirrors.
So my first preference is to just let some kids earn a few bucks. Saves me time, and the donations are appreciated.
I has gotten my Cadillac services at the dealership and they run them through a car wash for you before they give them back. As I am standing there chatting about caddies we both watched the porter drive through the car wash with the antenna up. He looks over at me and said “looks like we just bought you a new antenna!” He verified that it was bent and sent the car back into service for a new antenna. Thirty minutes later I had a brand new $300+ GM antenna on my car. The one they replaced for me was a cheap aftermarket one anway so it was quite a score!
I was chatting about caddies with the service advisor, btw. (blogging with an iPhone)
Having OCD and loving cars must be positively correlated.
As long as your car is properly waxed, the touch-free washes do a great job. I use them in the winter, when it’s to cold to use the spray bay.
I never use the automated washes.
I pretty much do it exactly like Mikey says, with the exception that I don’t like Chamois. I use a few 100% cotton, white, made in North America only bath towels.
Another good method to dry (if you are careful) is to use a small electric leaf blower and blow-dry your car. Just make sure there are no objects around you can accidentally blow into your car.
Yes, I have one, and yes, the car is all I use it for.
Neighbors look at me funny, but it gets all of the water out of the vents/grills/behind trim and mirrors etc.
Autopia is great. I can’t count how many times I’ve sent people there.
Many years ago, I worked for a company that ran the lottery system in Maryland and I went through a car wash in a ’73 Chevrolet Impala company car that was a real turd blossom and had a seriously leaky trunk. Several cases on lottery tickets ended up floating around in the Olympic sized hatch on that sucker so I pulled over on I-695 and removed them. The Maryland State Police pulled up to “help” and I had a tough time explaining what I was doing with cases of soggy lottery tickets.
Other than that, when I was a kid, my father had the stainless steel trim “surgically removed” from the side of his ’64 Belair in an automated car wash.
A leaf blower eh?I like it.I like using a good lint free towel myself,but its hard to break and old habit.I still prefer a good chamois.
Thanks delray 210. Retirement is good so far.
Jimmy 2x great link.Its in my favorites now thanks.
Spending too much time washing a car is like spending too much time fussing with your hair.
Put the chamois down and go drive that thing!
There is a careful division of labor and duties in the Lokki household. My wife generally cleans and cares for the interior of the home, and I take care of the exterior, including the cars.
Thus on any warm Saturday, while she is slaving away washing and vacuuming, and dusting the house, I am slaving away in the sunshine washing and vacuuming and detailing the Lokkimobiles.
Fair is fair.
I also use my Toro leaf blower to dry the cars. Works much better than a Chamois. I am another Klasse fan. I’ve used it for several years. Highly recommended.
In bad weather, I’ll take the cars to a drive-though where they detail dry by hand….. Recently I noticed that they have started duct-taping down rear wipers on SUV’s and folding in the side mirrors on cars that will let them do that.
Be careful with automated washes. I slightly damaged my wheels on my former BMW with low profile wheel/tires on the guides. Automatic car washes wouldn’t let me go through either. I paid for hand washes/waxes at some and they always did a great job. Our city (and several others in the area) outlawed washing at home for quite a while a couple years ago during a water shortage. I used the DIY wash places during that time. Never use the brush on the body though, only on the wheels at most (depending on your wheels), or at least spray the grime out of the brush first.
I had a Bronco II that overheated in a car wash. Terrible – never been through one since.
Apparently, I have been washing my cars wrong forever. I’ve always used sponges. I didn’t know they were the reason for my swirl marks. What brand mitt and where can these be purchased?
“Funny as Heck: Last year I pull my F150 into a touchless wash, one of the ones where doors shut at each end when you drive in.
What I’d forgotten was that I had not swept the bed out from the fire wood run I’d done a week or two ago.
Then the “Turbo Dryer” kicked in. Ever seen one of those discovery channel animations of ‘inside the tornado’?
Leaves, sticks, bark, and dirt are bouncing off the walls, doors, and my truck. That thing rolled out of there looking twice as nasty as when I pulled in. Total waste of $8 but worth it in entertainment value.”
I did this too, with my Siverado, only it was mud in the back. Came out looking like it had been on an African Safari! You’re right about the entertainment value.
TylerD
A grout sponge works very well with either the two bucket soap and water method, or the ONR method that I use. A regular sponge, not so good. Lowes and the big HD sell them.
Everyone’s got their favorite wax; I use Optimum Opti-seal topped with Carnauba Moose Wax on the dark red Benz, and Collinite 845 over the Opti-seal on the bright yellow Dub. These products are very easy to use, OS in particular takes no time at all.
Lokki
You’re a lucky man. Though my wife cooks, I get to clean the inside of the house and wash the cars. When I really went off the Autopia deep end I began to notice how much better our house can look. At least my oldest cuts the grass.
Anyone else use automotive products to clean the house?
Good Grief!
Some of you guys needed to pull some donuts in a mudddy cornfield and get your pride-n-joy as dirty as a pig in a mud wallar.(That thump you just heard was Farago stroking out).
Seriously, the truck gets washed when I feel guilty about it. With a pressure washer (Thump again). The wife runs our 2004 Mitsu through a touchless wash in the winter and we hand wash it in the summer. It looks great.
During the winter i run my Mazda3 hatch thru the local full-touch scratch-o-matic (its a daily driver lease, so i really don’t care about it that much, obviously)… during one pass, one of the last scrubbers, not sure whether it was the overhead or the side, managed to get under the rear wiper and flip it out so it was sticking straight out the back of the car, my heart stopped because as anyone thats familiar with the Mazda3 hatch, the entire rear wiper arm is plastic, not steel like the Protege5 was… so up next were the blow dryers, and at the time this car wash was using “The Stripper” drying system, likely named for the way they drag little plastic wheels over your whole car and strip off any loose parts :) (they have since changed them to touchless blow dryers that look like giant turbos, but i digress)… so anyway, my rear wiper was sticking out, and i figured the overhead stripper was going to drop off the rear edge of the spoiler and snap the wiper arm off like a twig, well as i watched in horror thru the rearview mirror, the stripper dropped onto the wiper arm and bounced on the arm a couple times, dragged up its length and off the edge, the wiper arm survived!!! Not a scratch on it, still works perfect, kudos to Mazda for designing a tough assembly! I learned my lesson, so from then on i park the wiper straight up the rear window when i shut the ignition off, this way its protected by the spoiler, haven’t had a problem since!
Why do you think God made rain?
I use “touch” car washes.
I wash my car maybe twice a year.
In the mid eighties I lived in a suburb of New Orleans. I often went to a local Shell station to fill up and pass through the car wash. This was the type that had blue roller brushes that went from the hood to the trunk. It was free or very cheap.
Well one day I was in back of a new Olds 98 as it pulled into the car wash.. This was considered a middle class dream car at the time.
Unfortunately the small truck that had just passed through the wash had its antennae pulled from the socket. It was now embedded in the car wash brushes.
The brushes proceeded to go robot like from the front of the 98 to the rear scrapping the paint off and denting it. Twice.
The husband and wife in the car were horrified. Somehow I got involved in the drama (as I was a witness) and we all went in to vent on the gas station clerk. She simply gave the owners of the car the phone # of the owner of the station and told them to call him.