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That settles it: There is no good solution. Brushes, brushless, hand-wash, non hand-wash... It sounds like eventually you're out of luck. Best bet is to never wash it. Just find a way to safely chip away the 1" of grime that will accumulate around the door handles once per year, so you can at least get to the door handle to pull the door open. Maybe use a screwdriver or exacto knife, or yank it off with some duct tape & wd-40.
Interesting thread. I guess I'll go brushless. I thought maybe there was something about the carbon fiber roof that you shouldn't take it to an automatic wash.
In my experience every car gets swirl marks whether it’s washed by hand or in an automatic car wash.
I've had my ISF for over nine years now. Never been through a car wash. Always been washed by hand. When my kids were in diapers, we used cloth diapers. That was better than 50 years ago. The diapers were very soft and lint free, I kept them and have been using them to dry my cars ever since. I have no swirl marks.
The whole car wash vs. self wash debate is pretty hilarious.
I have never seen a personal hand washed vehicle not have swirls. Its completely unrealistic to expect to have no swirls after a car wash unless you take it to a high end professional who would just buff out whatever swirls that come from that wash.
Of course washing yourself there is more care and better peace of mind, but there will be swirls.