I appreciate all of your opinions and advice! Are there any great wand hose attachments to wash my new white Cube? Anything to know - i.e. what brands of soap are great, what not to purchase, etc.? Thanks.
Oh, for heaven’s sake, it’s a CAR. Buy some car wash solution at your local auto parts store, pour it in a bucket, add water, and hand wash your Cube with an old wash cloth or piece of terry cloth towel. Dry with towels or a chamois.
Is this your first car?
You’re going to get LOTS of opinions. Consult Consumer Reports magazine for unbiased ratings of car care products. You’ll discover that some of the least expensive products work the best.
If you want to spend money, however, there are plenty of products out there.
Consumer Reports will give you a few reviews. Try Autotopia.com. Personally, I use Meguiar’s and Rain-X products, but there are many good products available. I wouldn’t use a brush type wand though as they will leave minute scratches. A microfiber or terrycloth washing mitt and a high sudsing wash is good.
Good luck
soap is soap imho.
BUT any ‘wand’ means bristles. They work great the first time you use them. the problem is as soon as you set it down it gets grass, dirt hard scratchy stuff in it. then when you go to rescrub your car you start scratching it. I use the microfiber cloths, and throw them away after a couple uses. No sense in being cheap, and scratching the paint and clearcoat surface. If you have a hard time reaching across the roof, then you could open the door and step up on the door frame to get to the middle.
on the other hand, a pressure washer would do a superb job of cleaning the whole car (including the underside!) sears sells a curved extension wand just for things like the underside and the roof of cars.
Thank you for your reply and all of this information! 
Thank you for your reply. I will definitely check out this pressure washer you are mentioning. I like the idea of being able to wash the underside with a curved wand - will find out if Sears in Canada carry it. I did not realize that there are bristles…thought it was just a sprayer that was stronger…definitely will stay away from bristles…the Cube colour is called Pearl Glacier…in the white family.
Thanks for your reply and your opinions and suggestions are appreciated.
I have kept up on the pressure washer idea. I am sorry I didn’t state the obvious. A pressure washer is another item you will have to store, and maintain. In your climate you will also have to keep it in a heated area in the wintertime! (or it will freeze and break) Pr you could run R/V antifreeze through it before you put it away for the winter.
They have electric ones, which would be enough for your needs. However if you can pull start a lawnmower, you would be able to pull start a gasoline powered model. The gas models are more $$ but alot more PSI (pressure) I’m talking from 120 (electric) to 250 to 450 (gas).
Here is a link to an angled extension http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_07141803000P?vName=Lawn+%26+Garden&cName=Pressure+Washers&sName=View+All&prdNo=10&blockNo=10&blockType=G10
I don’t work for sears, but I use the heck out of my pressure washer. Cars, deck, fences, siding/shingles, dog (just joking!), patio furniture, sidewalk.
Also, the pressure washers have a soap injector function, so you can apply soap (whichever you decide to use) and let it sit for a few minutes, then BLAST all the dirt grime and salt off your car.
If a person is exciting about their car why knock them down?
That being said buy a wax product that easy to use like Black Magic. The reason is the finish will be great anyway on a new car. Also it is very easy to apply so you will be tempted to do it more often. The difference from low end to high end (prices) waxes is a bit more longevity. However twice or quad the price does not equate to product lasting much longer. Soap is soap I concur.
Don’t forget the self-service car washes…does a good job and useful in winter time…just don’t use their brush…
Great suggestions so far…
Here are mine:
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Stay away from ANYTHING with bristles when you have to wash painted surfaces on a car. That applies for hand washing devices or the neighbourhood carwash. Same rule applies to foam sponges. Always use a soft washing mit, made of cotton or synthetic fibers. The shaggy type are the best. Dunk and rinse the mit in your wash bucket often.
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Do not use ANY sort of dishwashing detergent (Dawn, Palmolive, what-have-you-in-Canada, etc, etc). They will very quickly remove any layer of wax on your paint, which is not good.
Almost all CAR washing detergents purchased in the car care section of your favorite general store will be OK. -
Rinse whole car thoroughly first. Always wash and rinse your car in sections. Start from top: roof; hood; windows belt; upper beltline; lower beltline; and last the wheels.
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Dry the whole car with a quality natural chaimois.
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Check your local library for books on Car Detailing for further details if you want to take this to the level of artistry/hobby.
Enjoy your new car.
After years of trying almost everything on the market, I finally found a really excellent product.
The Mr. Clean Auto-Dry Car Wash System consists of a hand-held, non-pressurized tool that you attach to your garden hose. It has a chamber that you fill with their special detergent solution, and it utilizes a cartridge that demineralizes/deionizes the rinse water so that white spots don’t appear on the finish and that allows the rinse water to “sheet off”.
I use it in conjunction with a “fleece” type car wash mitt to spread the suds around & to rub off the grime. No bucket is used with this system.
By comparison to an automatic brushless car wash, I find that the Mr. Clean car wash detergent gets more road grime off of the paint, and–even more importantly–my car actually seems to stay cleaner, for a longer period of time after washing with the Mr. Clean system. Most likely that has something to do with the deionization of the rinse water, but that is just a theory.
IIRC, Pep Boys stores sell this product, as well as the refills for it. I bought mine at Costco a couple of years ago, but they don’t seem to carry it any more. Whether Canadian Tire (a great store!!) carries it, I can’t say, but I would imagine that you can find it at some Canadian retailer if you look hard enough.
Personally, I would avoid a pressure washer. If you had a 4x4 that you drove off-road, I might see the need for a pressure washer. For a passenger car that is driven on streets and highways, I think that a pressure washer is overkill and it is also possible that the high water pressure will take off any wax that you apply to the paint. Stick to normal hose pressure, and you will be much kinder to the car’s paint finish.
I used that when I had my Chevelle, worked pretty good. If you buy the full kit, the sheepskin mitt (or whatever it is) should come with it. If not, it shouldn’t be too expensive to find one.
here:
Meguiars Gold Class wax. The paste wax is best, but it’s also a lot more effort to buff than the liquid, which is almost as good.
I also use Gold Class car wash. It isn’t really any more expensive than any other car wash, so why not?
If you have a leather interior, clean it with Leatherique products. They’re expensive, but very worth it.
More important than brand is technique. Do not wash or wax your car by rubbing it in circles. Always straight lines along the front/back axis of the car. That way when you do get the inevitable bit of grit in your wash mitt, the tiny scratches it leaves will all be in one direction, so you won’t get irritating swirl marks in your paint.
Do not use an electric buffer to finish your wax job unless you know what you’re doing. If you’re not careful, you can burn the paint right off the car. Orbital buffers minimize the risk of this happening.
I wouldn’t use a pressure washer on any of my older cars much less a brand new one.
I’m late to the thread, but I wante dto add a few of my own comments.
Countless times I’ve heard and read comments against using dishwashing detergent. While I don’t know about (and would avoid) detergents with lemon oils or any citrus additives, I’ve been using plain Ivory Liquid for decades and it does not wash the wax off of the car. I even tested it to find out. I tried to wash wax off of various surfaces in cluding a glass, and it simply does not do so. This is a myth.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against using store-bought car wash. But I thing the dishwashing detergent myth needs to be countered. Again, I repeat that I use clear Ivory and not a liquid containing citrus juices.
I just use Meguires car wash in a bucket and a terry towel and a hose with a sprayer. Works fine for old and new. Check out Meguires site for more information.
vory Liquid is a soap not a detergent as most products sold as auto cleaners.
As a disclaimer right off the top, I work for P&G in a different division. P&G is the maker of the Mr. Clean system.
I loved that device. But it has been discontinued, so that is why you’re not finding the refills anymore. I have found that Meguiar’s soap works just fine in it, but there doesn’t seem to be an easy replacement for the filter that I have found yet. We have VERY hard water around here, and the filters allowed me to not have to dry the cars by hand. Without a good filter, the cars almost look dirtier after washing unless I towel them off…