tommallett

In South Africa you can pay to go through a mud wash. Yup, that’s a little bit like a car wash but instead the car gets coated in glutinous, brown mud…just to give your 4X4 a little bit of credibility when you’re trying to justify to the neighbors why you have to cart the kids to school in that 2.5 tonne leviathan.

In the UK, and the rest of the world we pay handsomely to have the opposite effect done to our cars (I should add where a little bit of elbow grease would save £’s) and it certainly seems a bit more logical. In fact, today I nearly got the bucket and sponge out myself to give the car a wash…but I didn’t and here’s why…

I think it helps that my car is silver. Silver is a colour that is easy to clean, hides all manner of sins, and best of all seems to offset the colour of Leicestershire mud rather well. I think the car looks more purposeful with its mud coating actually, like it has been driven rather than just been pampered.

The same goes for older cars. I am on the verge of getting my 1966 MG Midget back from being recommissioned. I’ve spent more on it than I would like and it will come back looking lovely, but I’m still going to use it, and it too might get a bit muddy at times.

While I would stop well short of paying to have my car coated in mud, and I certainly like to sit in a clean and clutter free interior, I like to see cars when they are used, and a bit of mud can prove that, whether it be Mr S’s Porsche 911 2.7 RS (mmmmm…nice) or my cheapo Clio 172, a bit of good honest mud doesn't hurt.

Quite simply I can’t see the point in having something that you can’t use because it might get a blemish or a chip. You don’t have to drive your Ferrari 250 California Spider SWB down the lane that I drove my Clio down, I grant you. But a bit of patina can’t hurt either.

I wonder what you think? Does a bit of patina or a splash of mud on a well maintained car with un-curbed alloy wheels and no dings in the bodywork appeal to you too? I’m afraid I see too many cars that are cleaned to within an inch of their lives but have the scars of a curb and a supermarket shopping trolley all too evident. I know what I’d rather have on my car.