I recently just started washing my car and it’s a pain as I have learned, but I do not have the money to take it to a car wash. Do you dopers wash your car or take it to a car wash? How often do you wash your car?
Currently, I don’t wash my car much at all. It spends most of its time in a garage, where it gets totally dusty, and I only take it out when I’m going somewhere. It’s also 20 years old, I don’t really care what it looks like.
My suggestion to help make washing less of a pain is to get a brush like this one. Screw a regular broomstick into it and you have a tool that can, very quickly, go from bucket to car, scrubbing each panel way faster than you can do with a sponge. The bristles are soft, and grit will get rinsed out easily when you dip it back into the bucket. Guaranteed, it will cut washing time in half, and no bending!
Throw in a California Water Blade and your drying time gets cut in half as well. That SOB will squeegee away the water left over from your rinse quick as a wink, leaving only a few stray drops to dry with a towel.
I have a 97 Accura. The only time that I remember having washed it was in Setember when I came home from a 3 month health related recovery period and found that a friend thought he was doing me a favor by parking it under the trees (he didn’t want it to be in direct sunlight.) It was covered with sap. I took it to a car wash which worked well.
Other than that, I don’t bother with it. My view on cars is that they are meant to get me to and from safely and that is enough.
I wash mine every six months or so, whether it needs it or not.
Either me, or my husband washes it about every two weeks. In the summer, more, because the top is down, you can’t drive with the top down in a dirty car! 
I wax it twice a year. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. I polymerize the finish to protect the paint. Shiny is just a perk.
I try and wash my MINI every weekend - the back end with the wheels so close to the rear of the car means everything gets thrown up on the rear. I use the Mr. Clean system and that is working well. I hate car washes and I won’t touch my car with a brush. I use soft mitts (washed after each wash) and with the Mr Clean system I don’t need to towel dry. I am doing everything I can to avoid swirl marks. I am pretty fussy about it, but I am nutso cuckoo in love with my MINI.
I take it to a car wash.
I don’t. I take it to a car wash. :rolleyes:
Oneathem automagic gas station thingies. Only costs $4. And I don’t do it all that often. 8 or 9 times a year, tops.
Hey, it’s the only chance I get to use neutral.
I definitely prefer to wash my car myself: I think it looks better after a hand wash, and I feel like I get to know the car better that way because I’m more aware of any new scratches or dings. I used to wash my car in my mom’s driveway all the time, and when I first moved out I lived just a few miles from her house so I’d come over and “borrow” the driveway (and hose, but I’d bring my own bucket and supplies). When I moved to Virginia (an hour’s drive from Mom), I didn’t have easy access to anyone’s hose or driveway anymore. I still washed the car at my mom’s house every now and then, but started taking it to a car wash once or twice a year.
Now, 7 years after moving here, I’m pretty much a car-wash-only person. 
I’d still rather wash the car myself, and I did figure out a way to wash it in my townhouse’s parking lot once, but it was way too much of a pain in the ass to do with any regularity. I daydream about finding a small starter home to rent one day, and partly because I’d finally have a driveway and hose of my very own.
My local Jiffy Lube has a car wash, and you get a discount with an oil change, so I tend to wash the car every 3000 miles (and sometimes in between, if it’s gotten really dirty). I had to take a raincheck the last time because the line was too long and I needed to get back to work, so my poor car is a little overdue for a cleaning now. I’m going to try to run it through before my upcoming road trip, though – I hate being on the interstate with a dirty car!
Every two years, just before I sell it and get a new one.
I’m a lazy lazy man.
Sorry beware of Doug. I meant to say “How often do you have your car washed?”