It's fine for the paint, we have been using it for years up here. Do a clay bar and good polish in the spring and the car looks brand new. Going to the pressure wash over time just eats your wax off all winter---but so does the salt. Most pressure wash places have a wax spray that I use from time to time.

 

The touchless ones by me have no physical contact with the car other then the liquid used to wash the car.

If it touched the car it wouldnt be very touchless would it?

 

They do a really good job with cleaning out my wheels

 

For the winter I got to a touchless one just to get the road salt off. All other seasons, I handwash it.

 

As long as it's 32 or above, hand wash is not that bad.
Warm water from the kitchen sink and rubber gloves, it can be done
with minimal pain.

 

40 degrees is normally the turn off point for handwashing outside for me, any lower than that and I'm dragging the hose in under the garage door and squeegeeing out the water when I'm done. Luckily, been living in southern states for the past 2 years, so it hasn't been much of an issue.

I stay away from car washes due to swirls, though even handwashing (2 bucket method) leaves some swirls for me on carbon grey. They're not bad, but visible in certain light. The only way I could really see combating them completely is to polish every 3 months rather than every 6, but I unfortunately don't have the time for that.

 

handwash when not too cold, car wash or rain when too cold

 

Handwash all the way. Except the last two weeks it seems to rain every other day so the rain does it for me.