I understand, never had a yellow vehicle before. My Enclave is a little over a year old, and haven't waxed it yet...it's in the garage most the time, and only has 7400 miles on it. Will most likely have my brother-in-law do the detail on it before winter. (he charges $100 for complete detail, has all the materials, he used to work at a car dealership detail area) I hate waxing cars, and I don't hand wash anymore...just don't have the desire, and it's so much easier paying $4.00 to run the car thru the automatic wash, and it looks 99% as good as I could do with hand washing it, so I'm pretty much done with spending up to an hour washing it in the driveway...for $4.00 I don't think that's much, and we probably get it (Enclave) washed once or twice a month in the summer, (more if it's been in rain, sap from trees, etc.) and about 3 to 4 times a month in the winter. Add in my wife's Bonneville, which usually is once a month wash in summer, and twice a month in winter (since she drives it to work, it's usually dirty a lot in the winter, so doesn't get a chance to stay clean).
I figure auto washes cost us, at the most, considering total for both vehicles to be 6 washes per month: $24 per month, $288 per year. (add in one full detail per car once a year from my brother-in-law 2 X $100=$200) That's $488 just for appearance care, which I don't think this is unreasonable, some may. (haven't figured out gas, and oil changes....that would be harder to do)
My point to all this....not much, just pointing out that if you have the time, and enjoy hand washing your vehicles, more power to you. (but if you're lazy like me, it doesn't have to cost too much)
