I get my car washed to get the road salt and other crap off of it and was wondering how good is the hot wax they advertise?
I’m not sure there’s a factual answer to SDMB standards. Which carwash store you use and which brand of wax they use and how well-maintained their equipment is will have a lot to do with it. Which aren’t questions we can answer factually for you.
As a matter of opinion, I think hot wax is a good idea on a nice car that’s washed regularly. If you have a beater and you’re just knocking the salt & hardened slush off it and trying to get the windows clean enough to see out of for the next few days that’s a different matter.
If you’re hoping the wax is a miracle slush and salt repellent plus effective anti-rust treatment I think you’d be wasting your money. And ISTM you would not be asking whether it’s any good unless the extra $3.95 mattered to you.
Consumer Reports seems to think that it may have cosmetic benefits, but that it doesn’t protect the finish the way a hand-applied wax job does:
As a once-and-former car detailer … I tend to agree. If the money doesn’t matter to you, it might help, can’t really hurt.
But if I watched my pennies, I probably wouldn’t bother paying for the wax.
Undercarriage wash? Wheel cleaning? I’d be more inclined to pay for those throughout the winter.
I always wondered how the sprayed-on wax doesn’t smear up the windows. But it doesn’t and afterwards I can still tell which car uses RainX washing fluid vs the other car with the factory fluid. My 2006 Scion xB has a fairly vertical windshield and uses RainX fluid. I barely need to use the the wipers. Rain drops just blow off. So this probably means the wax treatment is really minimal.