Okay, upfront, I should make it clear that my partner isn't a dirty person, or even all that messy, really. But his car sure was!
My partner has had his second hand Mitsubishi Magna for five years, and I'm not sure that it's had a proper interior cleaning done in all that time. It's a pretty cool car, but that doesn't mean it's self cleaning. Meals get eaten in this car, at one point homework got done in this car, we go on trips to the beach--all pretty common, but also all sorts of things that can make a mess. This is fine with me. I don't mind a bit of sand or some sandwich crumbs. Would I like to contemplate vacuuming the car out or something? Yeah, of course. Does it ever happen? No way. We're all human.
However, a few weeks ago, I opened the passenger side door one morning to find a small trail of ants scurrying for cover. Game over. I looked at my partner, and with all the love I could muster, informed him that the car needed to be cleaned--professionally--This. Weekend. Period.
Enter Waves at Braddon. I scoped them out online and were alarmed to find they were basically the only car wash service in Canberra without angry reviews about car damage--but I guess that was a perk? When we pulled up around 11am on a sunny Sunday morning, it seemed we were not the only folks with this idea, and the line to pull your car in stretched right out to the street.
However, Braddon is a happening place on the weekend--loads of cafes, trendy op shops and even a courtyard full of food trucks all directly across the street from the car wash. So we pulled in, had a short conversation with a staff member about what the car needed, declined his attempted up sell for seat steaming (an extra $20/seat), and head off to get some coffee and wander over to the mall at Civic.
We'd been told it would take an hour and fifteen minutes to have the car vacuumed, washed, waxed and buffed, so we knew that actually meant an hour and a half. We rocked up at 12:30, only to be told the car need another ten minutes--since we could see four guys frantically waxing and vacuuming, that seemed fair. So we wandered over to the food trucks and bought some drinks, only to find that as soon as we sat down with our Solo, the car was ready!
When we crossed the street again, we were impressed to find that the car was, in fact, prettier looking than it had ever been in its second hand life. Shiny rims, polished hood, and best of all, no more ants! All up, the detailing cost $170 and took about two hours, which I consider well spent and well worth it. As soon as we paid up in the slick payment center, we hopped in the now seriously improved car and hit the road, wind in our hair and feeling like we were in a car commercial all the way.
Would highly recommend the experience. read more