Car Wash People Area Machine Hand Washing Hoses

When people in the United States want to wash their car, they have many choices. They can use hoses and buckets in their "driveway" (the paved area between the street and a house or garage), but many Americans would "rather" (prefer to) pay someone else to do it.

The most basic type of car wash is the "self-serve car wash". The car is driven to an area where there are many "coin-operated machines" (machines that do something when one puts round, metal pieces of money into them). One machine has a hose that will "produce" (make) hot or cold water, with or without soap, depending on which "buttons" (small things that are pushed to make a machine do different things) are pushed. Another machine is attached to a vacuum to clean a car's interior. People often use self-serve car washes if they don't have an area where they live to wash their car or it is inconvenient to do so there.

Automatic car washes are more popular because they are easier. The driver simply drives through the car wash, which is a small building. Hoses "spray" (send liquid into the air) water and soap onto the car. Then large "roller brushes" (long, round tubes with pieces of cloth that move quickly in a circle) rub the car until it is clean. The car gets rinsed and then hot air is used to dry it. Driving through the car wash takes only a minute or two and it usually works pretty well, unless the car is very dirty.

When people want their cars to be really clean, they pay more for a hand wash, where a person or a group of people wash the car "by hand" (manually, without a machine). A hand wash usually comes with a wax, too. A hand wash takes longer, but it is the best way to get a car really clean.