How is everyone washing their car to protect your paint finish? What type of wax do you recommend and how often should it be done?

I wash my car as often as I shower, once a year whether I need it or not!

I hand wash my car about once a week, depending on weather and how clean/dirty the car is. I polish it 2 or 3 times a year. There are several quality products out there. I prefer Zaino. Those guys are absolutely **** about paint maintenance. I'm not nearly as devoted, but I appreciate their commitment.

You can find them at zainostore.com.

if you want durability and also good shine, zaino is a good product to use imho. read the detailing section, or go to autopia.org, tons of info

It's all about the weather in your area! How often you drive it and how dirty it gets! There so many types of waxes on the market, I would recommend a Carnuba type that will not only protect the finish, but help with the finish protection.

If you have a Detailer that comes by, ask him to wax it atleast once every 2-3 months, especially if you use car car daily! If you park it outside, I would have it done every 1-2 months!

Just my 2 Cents!!!

It should be washed (correctly, not with a sponge or dish soap) and vacuumed once a week. It be professionally detailed every 3-4 months. You can get longer out of higher end products, such as Zaino or other paint sealants and making sure you park in a garage as much possible.

All the above are very good suggestions. If you are in the Houston metro area and want to use a detailer, pm me and I will give the name & the tel# of a very good and reasonable guy who comes to your home. He massages all my vehicles, and has done quite a few LS's in our area.

I agree with Henry. I love Zaino. I think its the best polish on the market. I have been detailing my cars for 20 years and I have never seen anything like it. The car looks like a freakn mirror

I used to use Zaino (it's great) but after I treated my car with Matrix Micro Coating... no need to wax it ever again. I wash it whenever it gets dirty which is seldom, because this product doesn't allow dirt to stick so easily.

I use Zaino also, best product for shine and durability. I only have silver and white cars now so they are super easy to maintain. I like the shine but I am obsessed with the paint being super smooth to touch. Zaino can be layered so I add a coat every couple of month.

I have dark blue and black lexus vehicles, I have to agree with this article, http://pages.sbcglobal.net/gheumann/zaino_test/ that Zaino is a very good product, as is Zymol but for the money not significantly better than Mequiar's. I find that Mequiar's hides surface scratches better and lasts long enough for my preference. There are many opinions to these, I actually prefer Zymol to Zaino, but I have found over the last 20 years and too many vehicles to count, Mequiars to be excellent quality, reasonably priced and they have a broad spectrum of progressive products that are easily purchased around the country at auto parts stores, I buy the detailer's product off Amazon when they are on sale, its a better value if you can use the larger quantity they come in.

If you saw my garage it would be similar to I8ABMR.. Stoner, Mothers, Zymol, Zaino, Meguiars etc... lots of good products out there.

Do you all use wax on the headlights/ windows too or not?

I use compound, polish and carnuba on the car, no wax on the windows and meguiars plastic polish on all the plastic parts