Car care for effort-averse / time-restricted owner

Right, I know this sounds like I'm being very lazy, but with the amount of miles I'm doing and the hours I'm working, I just do not get the time nor have the energy to clean the car more than once a week.

However, as I've just bought a Z4MC I thought I'd try to put some more effort into maintaining it than I do on my 1990 M5.

So far all I've been doing is using a jet wash (from a good 2m away) to soak, foam, rinse, foam, and rinse once again.

I've not touched the car with anything and this was initally done with the intention of getting the car's leading edges covered in Paintshield due to the amount of motorway driving I'm doing.

So, what's the best way - once the Paintshield is fitted and I get it detailed properly (for the first time) - to keep it shiney, colourful (it's Ruby Black, so not exactly bright), and mark free - considering it's driven every day and will be dirty every day.

Here's a couple of examples of what it looks like on an average day...

...anywhere from this...





...to this...






...and this after a wash (no wax, sponge, cloth, squeegee, chamois, or blade)...






A daily jet wash is about all I can manage myself, so will that be enough as long as I can get it properly detailed regularly by a pro, or do I need to do some ham-fisted preventative stuff myself. Plus what sort of cost are we talking about for a regular maintenance programme from a pro and what sort of frequency should I be looking at?

Thanks, Tony.

Thanks for that.

I think I'll have to get off my fat behind and put some effort into it. I've already got the Paintshield film fitted to help protect against stonechips and they've said that their film is fine with most car wash products and waxes (not polishes).

I'm not sure about using a clay bar myself, so I may get a pro to give it the initial once over to give it a good baseline and then try to keep on top of it myself with a foam lance and some HD Cleanse, Field Glaze and such.

What sort of miles are you putting on yours and does it live outdoors? Mine lives on the road/drive and I'm doing 600-700 miles a week, so there's lots of grit and road detritus that I'm going through.

Tony