I only wash my 1995 truck twice a year for the past 20 years… Once in Spring, once in Fall…no exceptions. Always hand wash followed by a paste wax. Any dirt falls off in the rain due to the wax so it never looks dirty. The paint still looks excellent aside from all the dings and scratches from jerks in parking lots.
I used to wash and wax my cars all the time.
Then life got busy with other things, In the past 30 years I’ve probably only washed our cars a total of 10 times, (if that), and maybe only applied wax once.
I never could see the sense of waxing and washing cars. Rain does a good job of washing.
And as for the waxing, when I trade in the car with 120k or more miles on it, does it make any significant difference in price? I think not.
Lower end of the spectrum I guess, maybe waxed 2 times, maybe a couple or more brushless car washes, Big rains and 1’deeep water for an underbody wash, an 03, still driving on.
I wash my cars regularly and wax them at least three times a year.
In New England, a car can easily and instantly in bad weather get encrusted with salt and sand to a thickness that retains water. Water-saturated salt frozen to the underside is a formula for an iron-oxide farm.
One of the neighbors used to razz me for washing my car so often. Now, twelve years and 247,000 miles later, totally unrepaired and unretouched, this recent photo shows how it looks. Said neighbor has been through three or four cars in the same timeframe, and they all looked like crap when he got rid of them. His maintenance? Every six months or so he gives them a quick and sloppy wash with a hose and dries them with his gas-powered leafblower. Yup, a leafblower. That isn’t a typo. He used to flush the engine compartment out with a hose too, but he stopped when he realized that every time he did so it took a weekend’s work to get it to start again and a half-dozen visits to his garage to get it running right again.
Feel free to enlarge the photo. Neither the car or the photo has been retouched, with the exception that the wheels have been painted with a rattlecan.
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Yup. Some people don’t cut their grass either 'cause it just grows back.
Same here…I wash our vehicles regularly…and wax 2-3 times a year. Early spring I even use a clay-bar. Cars look great even after 10+ years.
The one thing I do that you don’t is wash the undercarriage (especially during the winter)…and never had a problem.
Bikini-wax too?
How about a cream rinse & facial? manicure?
Yup, and I’ve never had a problem not washing the undercarriage. 
For those who choose to mock those of us who take care of our cars, I don’t see what they get out o f doing so. Troll, would you like to field that question?
I’ve always found detailing a vehicle kinda therapeutic. Usually do it on a Sunday evening starting around 6. Takes about 3 hours to do one vehicle.
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Wax on, Wax off, Mike!
Allows me to find any nicks that need touching up, scratches needing polished out, paintless-dent guy jobs or anything else that needs addressing.
Plus its a little pride. Same reason you get your hair cut and take a shower now and then.
My car’s old. If it’s dirty I feel like I look like a loser. So I keep it clean.
If I had an Alpha 4C I might not be so obsessive.
Oh, who am I kidding. I’d probably be even worse! 
If you had a 4C you could afford to have someone detail it for you.
Powerball is over $250 million.
Who are you kidding, @MikeInNH? If @the_same_mountainbik wins the whole Powerball pot he’s buying a Bentley Continental GT! Well, that’s the FIRST car.
Yup.
Truth is, I’ve seen a 4C up close. I can’t get into one. It isn’t designed for old men whose bodies have stiffened up. 
Bing, are you in Mpls. In the 60s classmates worked at the Octopus Car Wash on University Ave, SE. Slogan “Many Hands to Serve You”
Recently used that technique. Truck had an inch or 2 of mud and sand on the steps, had a thunderstorm, so I went to areas with deep water- mud gone.
Naw I’m south of there a bit but worked there for over 20 years. I remember Octopus but never let them lay their hands on me.
Hi TSM:
I was one of the ones who commented about no longer feeling the need to wash or wax my cars. I hope I didn’t come across as mocking anyone. It was simply to contribute to the discussion that car washing & waxing is a preference that some are happy choosing to do, while others are equally has happy choosing not to do.