How do you wash/wax your car? [View all]

Me, I wash and wax my car by hand. I rarely take it to a do-it-yourself car wash with the high pressure hoses and I haven't used to a drive-through car wash in over 20 years. What i do is I dust the car off with a car duster. Then, I use distilled water in a spray bottle and do one section wiping the water off with a clean cloth and immediately drying it with another cloth. I repeat the process on the rest of the car. Doing it this way, I don't use a hose, a bucket, sponge, or detergent so there's never a mess to clean up. It takes me about 20 minutes to wash the car and I only use about a pint of water to wash my car.

As for waxing, I do that by hand about every two months. I have friends who take their car to an automated car wash to clean and wax but from what I've experienced in the past, more than 20 years ago, is the wax doesn't last very long meaning you have to reapply it in a week or two.

So, do you wash and wax you car yourself or do you take it to a car wash?