Subaru has struggled with advertising decisions over the years, but one of their better efforts was a television ad where some self-satisfied beta-male cyclist — you know, the kind of guy who wears his padded shorts to lunch and thinks Cervelos are made in Italy — refuses to wash his Outback until “nature takes care of it” by raining on the car. Of course, anybody who cares about their car’s paint knows that a “rainwash” usually just moves the dirt around and helps what remains settle into a hardened, scratchy mess.
No longer, perhaps.
According to Technische Universiteit Eindhoven’s newsletter, the Dutch university has made a breakthrough in “self-washing cars”.
Researcher Catarina Esteves of the department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at TU/e and her colleagues have now found a solution to this problem. They have done this by developing surfaces with special ‘stalks’ carrying the functional chemical groups at their ends, and mixing these through the coating. If the outer surface layer is removed by scratching, the ‘stalks’ in the underlying layer re-orient to the new surface, thereby restoring the function.
This development can be of great importance for many applications. For example it will be possible to make a self-cleaning car, with a highly water-resistant coating that keeps this self-cleaning property for long periods. The superficial scratches will be self-repaired and the water droplets simply roll off the car, taking dirt with them.
This is apparently a further development of Nissan’s self-healing paint. Imagine a world in which everybody’s Subaru is perpetually clean! How will the faculty of your local university show its collective disdain for automotive ownership then?
I wonder how good this type of paint looks. Can it give the deep rich colors of either very expensive luxury cars or custom paint on a vehicle?
Or will it be slightly matte, and lose that gloss factor? I’m definitely curious to see this paint on some vehicles.
Sigh…just another “extra cost” color option…
Right now, it feels pretty good to be a one-car family probably for a few days, but it’s going to be fun looking around!
The funny thing is that is a really common theme among Subaru owners (me being one.) I was at the local Subaru dealer recently and there were two incredibly dirty current-gen WRXs sitting outside; with plates, so someone owned them. The only thing that perplexed me was the fact we had heavy rain here for an entire week before. Nature… Maybe not a good enough car wash for some. I drive my car off the beaten path a lot but I always clean it within a day. Self cleaning cars? I don’t know why but it just seems like a horrid idea.
Dirty Subaru is to show the owner actually goes off road?
Since when did “beta male” replace “tool”? The problem with calling people beta male is that it suggests you consider yourself an alpha male, which pretty much always mean you are an ass.
I believe the other options are delta and gamma males. Betas give a f*ck what others think, so perhaps deltas know about the game and don’t play, and gammas don’t know about the game at all.
I’m suddenly reminded of Brave New World.
Or the heavy rain just caused extra mud.
Haha. The local bike shop around here peels off the “Made in China” stickers off “Italian” bikes in the showroom.
Sadly now that Cannondale has moved all of their production overseas you’d be hard pressed to find a single bike from a mainstream brand at your local bike shop that isn’t made in one of a handful of massive factories in China or Taiwan.
That’s disgusting. I have one bike that was made in France (a 40 year old Peugeot) and another that was made in Oregon (a BikeE).
When I was looking at hybrid bikes last year, I wanted to take a look at a Canadian-made brand that my relatives from Canada spoke highly of. (Since I couldn’t “buy American” without ordering an extremely expensive custom-made model, I figured it was the next best thing.) However, I couldn’t find it anywhere – not just in my area, but also in the entire US. Turns out, this manufacturer could not export its bicycles to the US because of a patent dispute with a certain large importer of Chinese-made bikes…
Heck, most Italian bikes aren’t even made in Italy any more.
I’m pretty sure you can buy 5k Pinarellos that are made in Taiwan.
I bought my Litespeed (had to finance it with a personal loan), it was to replace a Motobecane touring bike whose frame broke after about 10,000 miles. At the time I was riding in a large weekly ride sponsored by the Wolverine Sports Club, which has produced some champion cyclists and speedskaters. Suddenly, at least with a small group of folks, I had credibility as a rider because I had a titanium frame, relatively high end bike. I was the same rider I was the week before, but I guess in some folks’ minds I was now a serious bikie. Titanium bikes don’t need to be painted because Ti won’t corrode in any conditions a bicycle will face. I was half tempted to paint the frame and put on Huffy decals.
I was lucky enough to be willed a Litespeed when my grandfather passed. (The only thing I’ve ever inherited). He himself got it from his lawyer brother who had a weekend bike and a weekday bike, as he lived and worked in different cities, and only needed one when he retired.
I got the same kind of reaction when I rolled it out.. It helped that it had Record components on it. Even now that the bikes 10+ years old people still comment on it.
Titanium bikes are great long haul investments- when I worked at a bike shop I always recommended them to people (with the money) that were looking for something nice but weren’t racing or needing the latest thing every couple years.
Hey! How ’bout them self-cleaning Subarus?
Soooo… Back on topic then… I think it’s a great idea, especially for those of us who deal with more than just rain. Assuming road salt won’t degrade this product, that is…
Didn’t Nissan/Infiniti quietly stop advertising their self-healing paint and discontinued its use?
It was adequate for folks who never polished or waxed their cars, but the paint was very soft and the thin “healing” surface was easily polished away.
Professors may keep their old Subarus, or switch back to old Volvos. Or they may ride their bicycles.
A friend who is a classics prof at U Wisc Madison had a ’68 Volvo wagon that her parents had bought when she was a child.
I want to know how much the fancy paint adds to the cost of the new car.
Q: Self-cleaning Subarus?
A: Lickity split.
When I have the time, I like to spend my Saturday mornings washing/detailing my vehicles, get them as clean as I can.
In the winter, or if I don’t have the time, I love to take my car to the car wash. Something about the rotating brushes and what not. I’m like a little kid.
So I lose all of this entertainment?
No thanks.
Just keep it off Wranglers. I always loved leaving the dirt and mud on for a few days after a good off-roading session.
I hate to break it to ya folks but even a heavy deluge of rain won’t totally wash off the dust and the grime.
We had a short, but very intense shower last week that lasted probably 20 minutes but when it all dried up and the car was dry, it wasn’t any cleaner sad to say (and yes, it WAS outside as I was at work).
My little Mazda is in need of a good, sudsy bath and a good claying and waxing. It got a good waxing in January, but that’s 6 months ago now.
Yes, I’ve washed it once since then, in April when we had a nice warm weekend while at Mom’s as she has a good place to wash cars as I don’t, which is why I don’t get mine clean all that often.
But as to self washing paint, I’m skeptical and I’ve heard of Nissan’s self healing paint, but I think only on here though and have felt that while it may work for a time, eventually, it won’t work and it’ll just be like all of the other ordinary paint and then what?
I just get cars in the right dingy color so the dirt barely shows.
Per Paul Fussell, I can afford to drive a dirty car.