A horrified car owner has gone viral after sharing how her car got “destroyed” by going into an automatic car wash. From the moment she was inside the machine, TikToker @booyahboo seemed to realize that this was a bad idea.
In the clip, which has now amassed 1.2 million views as of Friday, overhead brushes appeared to thrash themselves into the car like there was no tomorrow.
As all of this was going on, the camera oscillated between the violent brushes and the TikToker’s own shocked expression, with one of the captions reading, “Not the car wash breaking while I’m inside.”
The on-screen text reads, “My car gets destroyed with by automatic car wash.”
The creator then panned the camera over to the car’s damaged exterior, with numerous dents and scratches which, by the looks of things, were caused by the automatic car wash.
“This is my sign to never go to another automatic car was,” one commenter said.
“Little tip: do not go into any car wash that things other than water touch your vehicle,” another added.
@booyahboo96 Why does the craziest stuff happen to me 😩 #carwash #fail ♬ A Bar Song (Tipsy) – Shaboozey
But how else exactly do automatic car washes damage cars? Damon Lawrence, who runs the automotive business Auto Attention, told Car Magazine that these machines are like “essentially slapping your car with a dirty mop.”
“Automatic car washes, as much as they are convenient, are abrading your paintwork because the brushes used aren’t properly maintained,” he explained. “Over time, this damage builds and eventually results in your paint becoming dull and the scratches become easily noticeable.”
The article continues, “Repairing the swirl marks is done through a process called paint correction. This process cuts down the peaks of your paintwork to level out any swirl marks seen on the surface. This process can only be done so many times due to a car’s clear coat being a certain thickness, depending on your manufacturer. The cost of this process varies but on average costs over £1000 ($1,256).”
Overall, it looks like a better alternative than an automatic car wash is to just grit your teeth and wash your car by yourself at a self-service car wash. In a viral TikTok, @jjdautodetailin explained how to do this simply and safely by, for example, only using the foaming brush on the wheels, and liberally soaking your car in pre-soak.
“Took me 10 minutes,” he said at the end of his TikTok. “That’s how a professional detailer uses a self-serve car wash.”
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