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Spring clean your car
TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO
For car washes, spring is the busiest time of year, with drivers washing away a season's worth of dirt and grime.
Ahh, the sure signs of spring: The sun shines brighter, birds chirp louder and the air takes on a new fragrance – especially inside your car.
All those frozen bits and pieces under the seat also warm up and ferment as winter's icy grip releases its hold. This, of course, leads to that other great seasonal ritual: The Great Spring Car Clean Up.
You can do it yourself, but gathering up all those bottles and jugs of shampoo, waxes, cleaners, buckets, rags, chamois and sundry may seem like just too much work on a beautiful day.
Besides, if you live in Toronto, washing your wheels in your driveway is technically illegal. There's a bylaw covering discharge of banned substances – which includes detergent components found in some shampoos – into the sewers, though no one has ever been charged with illegal car washing, according to officials at City Hall.
Environmentalists also claim washing your car at home rinses oil and other toxic residues into storm sewers and ultimately, the lake, but that's also likely to happen every time it rains, so there's some confusion there.
Still, in the interests of time and the environment, why not spend a few bucks and get the baby boffo buffed at a professional wash. We're not talking one of those coin-operated, do-it-yourself or automated drive-throughs at the corner gas station, we're talking honest-to-goodness human hands powered by elbow grease and sweat.
Sadly though, it's getting harder to find a quality local car wash, says Vito Cosentino, president of the Canadian Car Wash Association and owner of the 60,000-square-foot Wash 'N Go complex at Dundas St. W. and The West Mall.
"It's the land value," he says, noting cash washes, like parking lots, have been going condo overnight. Tougher environmental rules around discharge aren't as big a deal, he says, since capturing and recycling water as required also makes good business practice.
Cosentino has even played the green card himself, installing solar panels at his operation to cut heating costs and use more sustainable energy. He also has a laundromat and a coin-operated dog wash station to get your pooch shined up before you get back into your car.
Car washes have been around almost since the first cars rolled off Henry Ford's line. And when Sergio Dimonte's father opened up his wash at Bathurst St. and St. Clair Ave. in 1958 – expanding it eventually to five locations with full-service detailing available at the original shop and at a second location in Etobicoke – he surely couldn't have anticipated the changes to the industry.
Back in the day, keeping the family car pristine was a point of pride; food wasn't allowed but it was okay to smoke.
Today, providing the old-fashioned hand wash and detail service is tougher, not because customers are more demanding, says Dimonte, but because there's often a shortage of hands to help.
"I've got a deal with some of the hostels to bring guys in for cash work," he says. "But it is hard to get people out on a Sunday. My brother and I often have to get in there and work ourselves because we're so busy."
For full-service car washes, spring is like Christmas in April, the busiest time of the year as drivers line up to expunge the ghosts of winter – get off the grime, dispel road salt from floor mats, clean off coffee stains and put the gloss back.
There are a couple of choices in top-notch care: The first is the semi-automated set up in which the interior is cleaned by hand and the exterior done partially by machinery with human assistance and then finished by hand after a blast of warm air. Some shops also have side bays for full hand washing and extra detailing.
Then there's the classic hand wash provided by places like Maximum Car Detailing on Eastern Ave., where Dewry Mclaughlin has been giving cars TLC for 15 years and services many high-end cars from local dealerships.
Prices generally start around $25 for a basic inside-and-out clean and rise through different levels to the top-of-the-line $300 full monty, which usually includes paint restoration, steam cleaning, engine shampoo, undercarriage wash and interior detailing.
At the top end, you should end up with a car as close to showroom sharp as you're going to get, says Loreto Ferri of Car Buffs Phoenix Auto Salon on Jane St. in Concord, with the obvious proviso that it will depend on what state the vehicle is in to begin with.
Buffing out scratches on the paint, resealing the exterior, getting into the ductwork, sanitizing seat fabrics or restoring the leather are all hallmarks of top-end work. You'll pay for it, but the results will add hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, to the look of your wheels.
"We like to say we'll make you fall in love with your car again," says Ferri, who operates a full detailing service, as opposed to a car wash. "We've had people bring their cars in because they were going to sell them and when they get them back decide to keep them another year."
For those with really grungy interiors, Jun Young Kim's Mr. Steam Car Wash in Newmarket has been getting the crap out of interiors for four years.
"It gets most dirt but if cigarette smoke is an issue we recommend a deodorizer as well," says Kim, owner of the full service car detailing shop. "This is a dry steam which sterilizes also and kills mildew."
Finding a place to detail your vehicle isn't difficult; finding the right place is a trick.
"Ask around," says Ferri. "Go there and check it out. Is it clean and organized? Ask questions about the equipment they use."
And remember, a clean car is a happy car.
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