For all the bitching I did about Valet car wash, I kind of miss them now that I moved further south, and all we have is Cloud10 Car wash.
Cloud10 is ALMOST identical to Valet in its look and operation, but there are certain little things that irk me about Cloud10, while still having the same big things that irked me about Valet.
SO, about a week ago, I decide that my car is filthy enough, and it's time to go check out Cloud10 and see how it stacks up. On the outside, it looks the part. It's huge, clean, and lit up like an Atlantic City slot machine.
Pulling into the "driveway," and up to the machines, the first negative comes into play. It's a little bit more expensive for the wash. (Which makes the monthly plan a better deal.) I think I paid about $20 for the 2nd tier wash, that provided "hot wax," (although I damn sure didn't see any hot wax during the actual wash....). I think the cheapest wash is $12 plus tax, which is only about a $1 more than Valet, but the monthly plan is about $7 more. (The second level wash is $3/$9 more. 3rd level wash $4/$5 more) So, they're charging more, and you're losing out on some of the little things.
Valet provides towels to detail your car afterwards, which Cloud10 does not. The Valet in Burlington, where I was, had an indoor vacuum area, to get out of the sun, but Cloud 10 does not. And this may seem like a nit pick, but there are mirrors at Valet when you're entering the tunnel, so you can see where to line your wheels up with the tracks, but Cloud10 is missing those too. It's something that you take for granted until you're relying on old school hand signals from the attendant to line up your car.
The wash itself was similar, in that it wasn't great, and the vacuums were similar as well. I would say they felt less strong with the suction, but they had two different nozzle types for different kinds of crevices/uses. They also had a little clamp to hold your floor mats, but I'd trade both of those things for towels.
Another knock was, when I went, they had a cone blocking the vacuums entrance, so you had to drive around, and come through the exit. This was a pain because the lot is one way, and designed to be driven as such, so all of us that were having to come in through the exit were making it difficult for people trying to leave. But, the MAIN REASON I was there was for the vacuums, and I had just spent $20 on a mediocre wash; I was not leaving without using the vacuums. NO idea why they had it blocked off.
Overall, I'll probably still get a monthly plan, because cars need to get washed, and Cloud10 is literally the only game in town down in my neck of the woods. But I would move over to even Valet wash (which admittedly, wasn't great either) if they moved down this way. read more