Are high-end car washes springing up like mushrooms anywhere else?

You mean the car washes that aren’t the cheapo ones that you get with a free tank of gas, or the ones where you wield the wash wand/brush yourself? I suppose I’d call them mid-range, in that they’re not the cheapest version, but nor are they the kind of thing where people go and hand-wash/wax your car with expensive name-brand stuff as well as detail the interior and exterior either.

We had a flurry of openings about 6-8 years ago of those sorts of car washes- they all seem to be the sort where you put your car in neutral and it’s pulled through the wash system, and then the dryer system and a small army of people go over it and dry whatever didn’t get dried by the hot air blowers.

As far as I know, they’re all still open. They seem to have filled the void produced when a lot of the older spray-wand ones were shut, or newer gas stations were built without them.

Today I learned about a new fetish. Who says reading the Dope doesn’t pay off.

This, in my experience as the owner of a place that sold lock de-icer, seemed to be used by young males. They would come in and buy a .69 lighter and freeze their ass off trying to heat up a key in 35 mph winds. All that when $1.29 would have bought the lock de-icer.

Big yes to this. I would not live in snow country without a garage. Learned my lesson early on this one.

Fortunately, I found some de-icer on clearance at a nearby resale store, so I bought some and kept it in my purse until a couple weeks ago. Even more fortunately, I didn’t have to use it.

Did that cover your repair costs?

The “Midas” brand here used to write on your windshield; now they carry an iPad and take a picture of your license plate with your order information. Pretty slick. Or you can buy the monthly pass and get a barcode sticker for your windshield.