Which do you use and why? Which one gets it cleaner. If it matters we have “real” winters here, meaning snow cruft and salt that absolutely must be removed.
Edit to clarify: I’m talking about a choice in automated car washes- not hand washing cars. Seems people are getting confused. Touchless is a few passes with a pressure washer. Soft touch adds spinning car-wash brush things.
I do touchless, and I don’t bother with anything beyond the basic wash option. That tricolor foam stuff looks fun while you’re in there, but idk how much good it actually does.
I don’t care about my car looking shiny and clean, but I’ve driven hail cars exclusively for the last 15ish years. I try keeping them rinsed off at all times to avoid anything gnarly festering in paint cracks or whatever. Every third or fourth fill-up, I’ll run the car through the cheap $8-10 touchless wash, even (especially) during Minnesota winters.
I think hand-washing is the only way to go if we want our cars clean looking, but who am I trying to impress, you know?
the colored foam is just dyed car soap, so it’s helpful in that it’s soapy water.
I do the option with undercarriage wash and call it good. (particularly in winter.) in winter it’s about getting the salt off before it does unpleasant things to the exposed bits. (breaks come to mind, suspension components. everything else, too.)
The one near me has “Lava” foam. It’s really white with bright orange lights shining on it.
It’s mildly infuriating that the touchless wash I go to has the blow dryer on the deluxe option only, so you need to choose that if you want to leave the carwash dry, even if you only want a basic wash.