By JONATHAN WELSH

For some people, the words "car wash" bring to mind the eponymous 1976 movie, in which entrusting
one's car to a crew of misfits came with risks beyond water spots and windshield streaks.

In the real world, car washes have changed a lot since then. Gone are the spinning brushes that could inflict tiny
scratches on paint. High-pressure sprays that use much less water and soft sponges do most of the work, while
air jets finish the job by blowing off excess water.

Washing your car to remove dirt, road salt, tree sap and bird droppings -- which can damage its finish
-- can help it extend its life and maintain its value.
That's increasingly important as people hold on to their cars longer in a difficult economy.

Many car washes are also more inviting than they used to be, with nicely furnished waiting areas, coffee service
and attached convenience stores. Many offer basic exterior washes ranging in price from less than $10 to about
$200 for custom "detailing" jobs that promise to clean and shine every nook and cranny.

Car washes are now a big business, with industrywide annual revenue of about $15 billion. The industry has traditionally
been fragmented, consisting mainly of single-shop family-owned businesses, but large operations are moving in,
and consolidation is well under way in many areas.

Chains like the Turtle Wax washes based in Chicago and Procter & Gamble Co.'s new Mr. Clean unit say their
size helps them provide better technology and higher standards that result in a better, more consistent wash
from one location to the next.

We wanted to see how well some of these larger operators cleaned our grubby cars, which were still coated with
winter road-salt residue and sported interiors made messy by children and pets. So we visited a number of chains,
from the Northeast to the West Coast, to see if bigger really is better.

Brown Bear Car Wash has 20 locations in the Seattle area and was typical of the chains we tried.
So was Shammy Shine, which has a dozen shops in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Both chains offered do-it-yourself washing stations and automated "tunnel style" car washes in which the
driver remains in the car.

At Brown Bear, we chose the tunnel to wash the muck off of our 1997 Subaru Impreza compact.
We picked the highest of three wash levels -- the "Beary Best Wash" -- which cost $13.96.

The wash was mostly automated, but technicians did some work manually. Before the car entered, an employee did
a quick prescrub of the front and back fender, bumper and grill areas with a large mop.
After that we got a "presoak" spray before being whisked through machines with swishing vertical mops and spinning
horizontal brushes. Next came swinging blue sponges and a deluge of berry-scented cleaner. As we sat inside our car
during the roughly five-minute process, we couldn't help but think a Mini Cooper or tiny Smart Car might not withstand
the considerable pounding and swishing.

Drying jets pounded our car dry as the wipers shook eerily. As a coda, a Brown Bear staffer emerged and did a bit
more of the work manually, using towels to wipe down both sides of the front fender and much of the hood.

We were pleased that the car's exterior and wheel wells were clean. But streaks remained on the windows, and the car's
interior was wholly our responsibility. Brown Bear had DIY vacuums that cost $1 for four minutes, and we spent $3 giving
our seats and dirty floors a good vacuuming. The vacuum power, however, wasn't as strong as we'd have liked.

Shammy Shine's bargain $7.48 "Exterior Car Wash" was similar, with no interior cleaning. DIY vacuums cost $2 for
four minutes. Still, the wash was over in less than five minutes, making it a good place to stop on the way to a date,
class reunion or parade.

While the basic car-wash procedure hasn't changed radically, drivers visiting a car wash for the first time in a few years
may be surprised by the level of detailing available. This high-end service addresses many parts of the car that a basic
wash doesn't cover, from waxing the body and shining the tires to cleaning the windows, carpets and even degreasing the
engine compartment. Detailing prices range from about $30 for shampooing the carpets to as much as $200 for a thorough
car-show-style cleaning. The process can take from 15 or 20 minutes to a few hours.

At the Turtle Wax car wash we visited in Chicago, we ordered the Exterior/Interior Value Package No. 1, for $169,
which included trunk vacuuming, wheel cleaning, tire shine and a "clay" exterior treatment (which involves running a clay bar
over the car to pick up grit from the streets that the wash may have missed). Carpet, mats and seats were shampooed.
Employees cleaned the door panels and dashboard, restoring "like new" appearance to interior vinyl.
They also cleaned the windows. The exterior got an automated wash and a coat of Turtle Wax, applied by machine
but then wiped and buffed by hand. (The car wash waived the $10 charge for our "oversize" vehicle, a 1997 Honda
CR-V sport-utility vehicle.)

They said the job would take three hours, so we left for a little while but came back early, in part to watch the final touches,
but also because we didn't think it would really take that long. It did. One man was working alone on the car when we got back.
We could see him cleaning the upholstery with a machine and buffing the wax.
The windows in the back of the SUV were still dirty. This is our car-wash pet peeve, but he cleaned them before returning the
car. We think the detailing was worth the money because the wax has held up well, and weeks later our car still looks
shiny and clean.

We also tried the Splash Car Wash shop in White Plains, N.Y. We pulled up to the white line in the driveway, just short
of the entrance to the wash tunnel. We got out of the car and three men immediately attacked the car with vacuums,
sucking up every speck of crumbled Cheerios we had sprinkled throughout the car as a test.

They even cleaned the rear cargo area and under the seats of our Volvo XC60 crossover. We went inside to pay,
and within 10 minutes the once-muddy car emerged looking great. Men with towels dabbed away drops of water
not blown off by air jets. They cleaned the windows inside and out and, best of all, wiped the inside of the door frames.

At $13.99, Splash's "Full Service Wash" was the best value of the washes we tried.
The chain offers more expensive services, including a $44.99 "super interior" cleaning and a "pro shine" for $85.
But unless you are headed to a car show or your vehicle is extremely dirty, it's difficult to justify the extra cost.

Overall, we think the big car-wash chains don't offer much of an advantage -- if any -- over the local car wash.
For comparison, we tried a couple of the mom-and-pop washes near our home in New Jersey and didn't think the
chains' results were appreciably better. If you already use a wash with prices and service that satisfy you,
there's little reason to switch.