Here in Durango, Colorado we have many car washes. Like everywhere, some use rather stiff brushes which I won’t use. Some use only water pressure which don’t do the job. But we have one (Cascade)
that uses rotary strips of synthetic chamois I tried with my Mercedes C 43 AMG SEDAN a couple of days ago. The car’s exterior was really filthy after a winter here. It’s 4WD so we’ve used it all winter. They offered a wash with Rain-ex graphene applied in the rinse for $18. And they offered a wheel and tire polish for $10 and I took that as the wheels and tires were filthy and the rims were a mess. To shorten the story, I got a good exterior detailing for $28. Even the damaged wheel rims came out looking good. Now I don’t know if a place like that can service a soft top convertible or not. I’ll check it out. But if there is a wash in your area that offers these benefits, it could save you some exterior detailing time and effort. The eight year old C 43 came out nearly like new. Just FYI, I’m posting here as I also have a 2001 S 2000 with 37000 on the odo. And I developed a popular cool air intake for S 2000s referred to as the “Dolebludger mod”. And I was the detailing moderator on the Mercedes Benz Club of America forum some time ago. So when I say the C 43 came out great — it did.