Just got back from a week in Solihull area. One thing I noticed about cars in the UK, that I hadn't noticed before when living in UK is that a LOT (> 50%) of the cars there were absolutely FILTHY dirty. Here in US you see a lot of dirty cars, especially when travelling through the mountain passes (or going off-roading), but the average typical cars is never super-dirty. In the UK it was common to barely be able to read the number plate; and sometimes the ones that I could read had clearly been wiped for that purpose and the rest of the car was black. I don't think Americans, or the people in the state where I live, Washington, particularly clean their cars more often than their UK counterparts, so I'm rather confused as to why there is such a disparity. The only thing I could think of is that with the prevalence of diesel in the UK that this could make the roads much dirtier ? Any other ideas ?
Paul it's just the current Weather, they salt the roads, then we get some damp at night and it turns it into a sort of soup, come in the Spring or Summer and things will look better
Also with the, "one minute" weather mild next freezing, the bloomin car washes are frozen solid out of order!!!
Agreed. Can't beat England when the sun's shining! But they salt the roads, especially the mountain passes, over here too ... a LOT.
Our roads just seem to get this covering of black slime on them that doesnt dry out for literally weeks.....I took our Range Rover to Hudsons yesterday, spotlessly clean when we went, looks like its done the Paris Dakar 120 miles later Sponge time again!!
I have driven thousands of miles in USA winter and noticed that car has stayed clean compared to the UK what do they use to prevent iceing ?
My cars are filthy, but that is because I feel too guilty to send number one son outside to clean them. Mind you he did do a good job of cleaning the insides last week.
For our state, from: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/595725B4-8290-40BC-978C-8F113DBC7FF2/0/SnowandIceFolio20072008.pdf It indicates the following: Anti-icing Liquid calcium chloride or magnesium choloride is applied to a bare road before a storm to prevent a hard bond of ice from forming, to reduce the amount of snow buildup, and to accelerate the snow and ice break up after a storm. De-icing - Liquid or solid calcium chloride or magnesium chloride is applied to remove a thin layer of snow or ice already on the road. It can also be very effective for melting and preventing black ice and freezing rain from adhering to the road. Pre-wetting - Wetting solid chemical material and sand with calcium chloride causes them to stick to snow better. Keeping solids on the road is nearly impossible in some circumstances, especially in very cold weather with high-speed traffic. In these instances, liquid calcium chloride can help keep the sand from blowing off the road.
I was talking to a guy the other day about this - he said that the councils have added shale to the salt this year - he wasn't really sure why other than suggesting that it made the salt go further. I have no idea whether he's right or wrong, just passing on what I was told.