Dusty Cars: A new trend by Leaf owners in drought-ridden CA?

FROM DIAMONDS TO DUSTY CARS
With the ongoing drought, are dusty cars the new badge of honor?

"We first noticed it with a number of Nissan Leaf owners in the San Gabriel Valley. We also noticed it with an automotive journalist colleague’s own Fiat 500e. The common thread between both cars? They are pure electric vehicles. The 500e owner then clued us in: Since she never goes to a gas station, she never gets the car washed. And since her hometown of Monrovia (like many other towns in California) has banned the practice of washing cars with a free-flowing hose at home, her car gets dustier as the days go by..."

Full story: http://patch.com/california/monrovia/diamonds-dusty-cars-0

Admirable, but also silly.

A "free flowing hose" is one without a spray nozzle. Spray nozzles can be had for under $6 at Home Depot.

I stick a bucket under our shower head, and save the runoff from before the water gets hot to wash our cars. Thus, the only water "wasted" is that to hose the dirt off initially and the soap off after. And I've gone to washing the cars every two weeks, rather than weekly. I feel fine about my water use for car washing. Oh, and I do use a spray nozzle.

Actually, the only part that really needs washed regularly is the backside. Mine gets dirty there about 10 times faster than any other part, just because of aerodynamics.

I use a glass of water and some paper towels to wipe off only the backside down to the license plate.

I went from trying to wash my Leaf weekly (and often failing to get around to it) to washing about every 3 weeks. Got a nozzle for the hose, try to minimize the wetting down and rinsing portions by letting the sponge and chamois do more of the work. When I have the energy, I am going to check the water meter before and after to see how much water is actually used. Visually it looks to be a lot less water, but you never know.