Somervilles No Touch Car Wash

Worst car wash I’ve ever been to. It took half an hour, even though there were only 2 cars ahead of me, my car came out filthy, and there was not a smiling face in sight (as far as service). I didn’t bother to try and get my $ 12 back since I had already spent way more time there than I had.

Just upgraded the brushless wash system. Wash is better, drier maybe not. Probably better overall.

4 stars only for *convenience* — i.e. it is one of the very few places in the area with an almost-​24/​7 (4am-​1am, according to the website) automated carwash. For some idiotic reason the Somerville Avenue location’s drive-​thru carwash is NOT 24 hours, because there is no credit card machine outside where you can pay when they are closed… and they close ridiculously early (6pm).
In terms of thoroughness of cleaning, keep your expectations low: as with any automated carwash, the best you can hope for is that about 80−90% of your car’s exterior gets clean, and don’t even THINK about any sort of flawless drying process. Nothing more, nothing less. Anything caked on, like bird droppings? Good luck with that. Still, it’s great for when you don’t have the time or energy to wash it yourself or like me, are too cheap to pay 2 – 3 times more for a handwash.
Final note: I chose the $ 10 Bronze wash mainly to get the «undercarriage rinse» after this long brutal winter of driving through all that road salt. I naively assumed that «undercarriage rinse» = there would be a cleaning element on a rail beneath my car that would directly spray my car’s underbody. WRONG! The water comes in at a low angle from the same cleaning elements that move back and forth along the sides of your car. What that means is, you are going to get as good or (more likely) better results spraying the bottom of your car with the high-​pressure nozzle by hand in one of the self-​service bays… which costs the same or less money, just more elbow grease and time.
So, from now on I’ll just stick to the self-​service bays. Very glad I didn’t spring for one of the prepaid carwash packages… if they ever get a REAL «undercarriage rinse» machine, I’d happily pay more for that.

This winter has caked my car in salt. I couldn’t handle it any more and even though we were expecting another snow storm, I had to take my car in and rinse it off. I got $ 5 in tokens and got about 12 minutes of power washing out of it in a self-​serve bay, including any combo of soaps/​window cleaners/​waxes I wanted. My car was squeaky clean. The system is easy to use and very powerful. It cleared months of salt and dirt off my car. The water washing away was BLACK. So glad I did it. In order to pull in to any bay, including the auto car wash, you have to take the next one way street, take a right, then another right and come down the street adjacent to the car wash. A little confusing.

Yeah, this place is great. If you want a car full of water spots. I been to this place a few times, I two different occasions the top air dryer does not work. Leaving my car with huge spots. Both times I have called the number, never got a call back.
correction: the picture is from back window. I took 2 pics, uploaded wrong one. but it looks the same all over.

I think most of the negative reviews don’t realize that any touch free car wash won’t get hard bird poop and such off, that being the case– I stop here often on my way out of the city during the night. Easy access right off 93, prices are pretty good and it does a good job getting the road salt off the truck, this touch free even features an undercarriage wash which most touch free shops don’t have. Not a bad place.

Went for the first time a few days back, in between salty road conditions. Went for the $ 14 «Gold» wash as it’s the only touchless option that does the undercarriage. Had to call them – no one on site – to ask about the type of wax they use; they were super helpful and nice, but it was irritating to have no one there to simply ask.
The car got pretty clean, but not spotless, and while it was a bit dusty and salty it was certainly NOT caked in mud or anything extraordinary. There are many streaks and spots on it now, and still some dirt on the back of the car. Tires also not well cleaned.
My windshield has also been suuuuuper streaky since the wash, which makes me wonder if they really do apply Rain-​X as advertised or not. Not sure I’ll go back to the automatic section of this place, especially for the price. And yes, as other reviewers have noted, it’s a very weird entrace/​exit layout and I had to pull a couple of U turns on Washington to finagle my way in there.

Did the drive in car wash. Bought the silver package. Cleaned «most» of the car. We had gotten annihilated by some birds the night before and it took most of it off, but not all of it.

This place became my go-​to car wash spot after another establishment on Route 99 heading towards Everett closed down. I usually go one to two times a month.
More often than not, the car ends up clean enough that I feel that I got my money’s worth. I typically use the brush-​less car wash, where there are two bays you can use. They have a few different types of car washes you can buy, with various bells and whistles as the price goes up. This place is about $ 1-​$ 2 per wash more expensive than the prior place I went to.
Word to the wise, given the set up at this place, logistically it makes sense to vacuum before going through the car wash (at least with the brush-​less option).
A few points of constructive criticism on the place:
1. As other reviewers have noted, it’s not the easiest place to drive into. If you are driving down Washington Street, the only way to make it through to one of the brush-​less wash bays is to drive through one of the self-​wash areas. If all of those are full, which can be true on a nice weekend day, then a detour is in place. Instead, I generally come down Pickney Street, which for me translates into coming from the Broadway side of Sullivan Sq and doing back streets.
2. The machine that completes the brush-​less wash tends to drip water during the drying process and as you are driving out of the bay. Can leave spots on the car if you don’t attend to it quickly.
3. In order to use the vacuums, you need to buy tokens. I much prefer using the stash of quarters that I have in my car, rather than exchanging them for this fake currency that only has value at this establishment.
Though I have railed on the place a bit, I still come back so it can’t be all that bad.

Don’t waste your money. I bought the bronze package and I’m serious when I tell you it did NOT do anything to my car. To the business owner, try spending $ on decent equipment/​supplies if you’re going to charge this type of money.

Good for a quick car wash. It doesn’t always get everything off, but when you’re too lazy to do it yourself it works. I don’t drive an expensive car or anything, but I like the option of no-​touch. The «bronze» is $ 10 and gets the job done; I don’t see much of a difference with the more expensive options. You can pay cash or credit/​debit, but unless you have exact change, go with credit. Otherwise you’ll get a bunch of gold dollar coins as change.
The entrance is somewhat confusing, and I always seem to go the wrong way up a one-​way street.

Let me preface this review: I’m not a snob about about where I get my car washed. The only places I go are always places similar to this: cheapo automatic drive-​thrus with the option to self-​vacuum. With that said, this probably the worst one I’ve been to. Not only is it on the pricey side ($ 14 for the full wash, including undercarriage plus $ 2 for 5 minute vacuum) but it didn’t even really clean my car. At the end, not only did I still have bird poop stuck to my hood, but I also had all these white specs on my car that weren’t there to begin with. So I guess my car is slightly less dirty, but now it’s speckled like an Easter egg… great. At least it’s raining today…
The only real positive is that it’s touchless, but there have to be better touchless car washes closer to the city. Bottom line, I’m gonna keep looking.

It was my first time doing a touchless wash on my car, and some tough stains remained while most of the loose dirt came off well.
Since my car is not new, I would like to use a non-​touchless wash the next time. Not a bad experience overall, though.

Nice concept, but doesn’t work in this case.
I took my car here because it’s a convertible — dark blue — and I didn’t want to have traditional car wash brushes touching the top. This wash is pretty easy. I took off the antenna as they recommend and went through. The car came out FAR cleaner than it went in — with salt covering every inch. The car is still wet, which is normal for a car wash. I usually bring an ABSORBER type towel and dry it off.
The next morning when it was light out I noticed that the lower half of the car was still quite noticeably dirty — streaky kind of dirty. The top got washed reasonably well, the front and back — which most car wash places usually miss — got washed fairly well also. But the sides are still dirty — I’d say the lower 2 feet of the car. I think the pressurized water nozzles just don’t aim low enough to get the bottom of your doors cleaned. I took my wife’s black sedan there today also and same story — bottom of the doors are streaky and dirty.
So much for the hopes for this car wash. I guess I’m still looking for a decent touchless car wash.
P. S. Don’t ever go into a car wash expecting that it will clean off dried-​on bird droppings, and then write a one-​star review when it does not. Instead scrub it off using a window squeegee at a gas station, then take it through a wash.

I don’t think I’ve ever used a touchless car wash before this, and to be honest, I was not impressed. The bird poo that was visible though the sunroof as we pulled in was definitely still there when we pulled out and drove off.
I had used the vacuums here before, and washed my car by hand, and it seemed to come out better than this touchless business. They have much better hours than alot of the other carwashes in the area, but… if poo doesn’t come off my car… I’d rather spend that $ 14 elsewhere thank you very much!

After a very late night out I parked my gorgeous car (aka My Beloved) outside of my apartment instead of in my company’s garage. It was under a tree and it was pouring rain all night. I woke up the next afternoon to discover My Beloved covered in layers of gross tree sap. The entire body was covered in the stuff: windows, hood, sides, doors, wheel. She needed attention fast, before the sap scarred her permanently.
After scrubbing the windshield down enough that I could safely drive, I went over to Somerville No Touch Car Wash. The goal wasn’t to have a perfectly sparkling car, but to wash off all the sap. I used the touchscreen to choose the $ 11 wash (why not?) and drove into the auto-​wash alcove. There’s a cut information panel on the left explaining what phase of the process we were going through. Since I had to stay inside the car, I was nervous about how the wash was going; was it actually washing all of the nastiness away?
Success! After I drove out I checked out her body and she was in great shape! It was shiny and clean and I could breathe easy knowing My Beloved was safe.
You have to drive through the self-​serve bays in order to reach the autowash entrance — what happens when they’re all full? When I arrived I pulled straight up, but as I was leaving there were two or three cars lined up behind me.
If I wanted a perfect detailed clean I would go somewhere else, but this is perfect for the routine car wash. It’s nice not to have some dirty towels being used on her when she’s wet — she deserves much better than that.
Update: Just went there this week, and I figured out how to enter when all of the bays are full. Drive up Myrtle Street, down Pearl, and turn right onto Florence. You can enter the car wash on your left.

I tried again with just the works wash, no pre-​washing. It did just as good a job for the $ 11. Of course, that day it rained…

This car wash has two halves: a do-​it-​yourself half where you can put in coins and wash your own car… or an automatic touchless car wash.
I haven’t used the do-​it-​yourself half. Frankly, I’m lazy and would rather pay a couple extra bucks and let a machine do a slightly less thorough job.
I used the automatic touchless car wash last night. With hours of 5am to midnight, this is open much later than other local car washes — especially during the winter when some car washes cut back on their hours. I arrived and had to drive through one of the do-​it-​yourself bays to get to the entrance to the automatic car wash in the rear. (I have to wonder how you’d get back there if all the bays were occupied.)
There are four levels of car washing available which range from $ 7 to $ 11 (as of December 2008). The $ 7 level basically throws soap at your car and rinses it off. It’s good for anyone who just needs to get one bird poop off or someone who wants to wash a car they don’t own themselves. If it’s your car, spend the extra $ 4 to get the $ 11 wash since it includes an undercarriage wash. If it’s your car that extra $ 4 is worth it to get the road salt out from under your car. The middle two levels don’t matter and nobody should ever really buy them.
After you use the computer screen to select the $ 11 wash, you put the money in or scan your credit card. (The machine at the left bay wouldn’t accept any of my bills, so I had to put it on my card.) The garage door will open and you drive in until the light on the left says «Stop».
Once you’ve stopped in the proper place, the show starts. Shut off your car so that you save gas, stop polluting, and don’t die of carbon monoxide poisoning. The machine will run through its whole process while you sit there. Use that time to get close to a girlfriend or to clean our your glove compartment. (So THAT’S where I put that CD!)
A few minutes later, the front door will open and you’re on your way. Your car will still be fairly wet, so you may want to bring a towel in order to towel it off before you go.
While the touchless car wash will get most of the dirt off, it doesn’t get the car as clean as ones that touch your car (or you doing it yourself), so it’s a trade-​off. However, if it’s late and nothing else is open, if it’s the winter and you want to get the salt off and it’s just going to get dirty again, or if you like playing with automatic things because it seems like The Jetsons… then this car wash should be a rather obvious choice.

It baffles me how people can go to a non-​touchless carwash, especially if you have a newer car. Do you really want all those brushes, which have cleaned many cars before yours, to be scrubbing your cars paint finish?
You pay first, credit card or cash accepted, then drive into a bay where an automated moving washer arm scans your cars dimensions and will spray a bunch of stuff on your car during various stages. It’s a little nerve racking at first, because what if it thinks you drive a Mini but you actually have an SUV?
So anyway, this place is great, costs about 11 bucks for a touchless wash with wax, underbody rinse, etc. (Which is cheaper than scrub a dub which charges like $ 15 or more) My car comes out just as clean as from Scrub a Dub, minus the potential scratches from the brushes. Only possible complaint is they do not clean your wheels, might want to do it yourself when you get out.
They also have do it yourself wash bays with brushes, but who wants to use that?
Hint: to get to the touchless wash, drive through one of the self service bays. all the streets next to this place say Do Not Enter.

Surprisingly in a city the size of Boston it is difficult to find a touchless carwash.
Now that I live in Cambridge and no longer have a driveway it’s much more difficult to wash the car. I wanted to go to a car wash, but not one with brushes as they tend to wreck the paint on a car.
This is the first no-​touch wash I have found in the area, and thus far I like it.