EVery seven years whether it needs it or not.
Every two or three months, when I can’t see it beneath the pollen, or sap, or bird poop, or whatever else happens to be falling on it at the time.
Pretty much never. Car paint these days seems pretty robust. After 10 years, my car looks OK. Not new, but OK.
Once every few weeks and I should do it more often. I have to park outside under trees, so it gets covered in pollen, sap and leaves, at various times of year. The biggest problem is that it makes it hard to see out the windshield at night or when facing the sun. The windshield wipers don’t clear it, especially if I forget to lift the blades to free all the debris that piles up against them. My paint has taken a bit of a beating. It has swirl marks from improper washing, which I suppose are the price one pays for going to a charity cheerleading carwash. She-devils!
I got some Klasse polymer sealant but I haven’t used it. A regular wash doesn’t get it clean enough, and it gets some road debris by the time I drive it home if I don’t wash it myself. I don’t want to seal things in and scratch the paint any further. I think the thing to do is probably to get it professionally done and then put the Klasse on myself shortly thereafter.
I park under trees too, the poplar trees drop blooms and copious amounts of sap. The Hickory trees drop those little strings with all the little balls on them, plus golfball-sized hard nuts in the fall. I try not to park under them, but all year long squirrels carry hickory nuts to various branches and drop them. I’ve got a dozen or so dents in my hood and roof. I’m thinking of investing in some of those paintless dent removal tools, especially for my hood; it’s easy to get to the underside of the metal there. Not so much with the roof.
I think I washed my car once…
In all seriousness, I think the dirt is the only thing holding my car’s body together at this point…
–FCOD
For the vehicle to be already “dust-colored” was a consideration the last time I bought one. As a result, I’m driving something that’s a goldish/tannish color. When it’s clean, it’s shiny. When it’s dirty, it’s simply not shiny.
My dad takes it through the car wash once or twice a year, when I go visit my parents. Usually first thing in the morning, when I’m still asleep so he won’t see me rolling my eyes at him 
Actually, I appreciate it, but it seems unnecessary to me. At least when he does this, he takes the car out for a drive, tells me if he thinks there’s anything wrong with it (rarely, since I do get regular maintenance on it), makes sure the tires are inflated and often tops off the gas (at Quebec prices, I’m thankful!)
He used to have (almost) the same car. It was a year younger, and a different colour, but the same make and model. He took it through the car wash at least once a month, claimed it took all the salt and sand and dirt off, and prevented rusting. Thing is, his car was rusted pretty much all over, while mine has just begun to show damage in the wheel wells in the past year or so. I think the layer of dirt on my car protects it!
(Arguably, he was driving it on highways in Quebec winters - snow and salt are way more damaging than the sand and very little snow we get here in Hamilton. But still, I maintain my position that the car washing didn’t help!)
Let’s see, I bought it last August, and I washed it last weekend.
After deer season and after mud season for sure. If I’ve been on a particularly dirty job site, but only sometimes then. Before a special date or a long trip with the kids and/or company, but only if it’s really showing the dirt. So I guess about five or six times a year; more in the summer than the winter. There’s no point in the winter.
I never wash my car myself but I have it washed by others about every two weeks.
I don’t mean this at all in a negative way, but…what is it you do that gets your car so dirty in such a short time? Washing a car every two weeks seems like the automotive equivelent of taking a shower every 30 minutes or something.
Well, I live on a gravel road. We have a pressure washer and wash all of our stuff at home every couple of months, spend time detailing the nice cars. We have never washed our farm truck as far as I know. If it’s been a while since the last rain, and the dust is really bad on the roads, I wash my car in town at the car wash on occasion. The last time I did that was a couple of weeks ago. The last time we washed at home was in April.
Usually every week.
I’ve had my current vehicle about six years, so… more often than once every six years, apparently.
Duhhr, I mean, less often.
nothin’ kills the funny like sloppy writing
I understand this wasn’t directed at me, but…
I don’t wash my car nearly enough, though since it’s new I’m trying to do better. When you live on a gravel road, you either get mud or dust. In the winter, I have snow, ice and salt every day for about 6 months. The salt is very bad for the car. But wash it one day and it’s usually a mess again the next.
And mud season is just that. I end up driving on muddy wet roads every day.