Detroit Named One of America’s Worst Cities for Keeping your Car Clean, New Study Finds

Photo by RovichYTB Maksim

Detroit residents may be facing one of the toughest car-cleaning battles in the country, with new research ranking the city among the worst in America for local environmental damage to vehicles.

A new study by Panda Hub, a car detailing platform, surveyed 1,004 drivers across the 44 most populated U.S. metros to find out where local conditions are doing the most harm to cars. The study created a composite “Filth Index” by averaging how much damage drivers reported, how strongly they felt their city was hard on cars, how impossible cleanliness felt, and how normal dirty cars were in their area.

Key Takeaways:

• Detroit ranked No.4 overall among the hardest cities in America to keep a car clean, with a Composite Filth Index score of 56.

• Detroit ranked just behind Denver, Chicago and Columbus, placing it firmly among the top five worst metros in the country for car cleanliness.

• Detroit ranked worse than Phoenix, Charlotte, Houston, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Dallas-Fort Worth, according to the study.

• The findings suggest Detroit drivers are not just dealing with occasional dirt, but a wider issue of local conditions making cars harder to keep clean.

• Nationally, 75% of American drivers said their local environment has caused at least one form of damage to their car, including paint staining, rust, windshield pitting, scratches or other visible damage.

• The study found that 63% of drivers have paid for a car wash and watched their car get visibly dirty again the same day.

• Clean cars do not last long for most drivers, with 32% saying their car is visibly dirty again within two days of washing it and 71% saying it is dirty again within a week.

• Bird mess was one of the most common complaints nationwide, with 91% of drivers saying they had bird poop on their car in the past month and 58% saying it happened three or more times.

• The 10 hardest metros for keeping a car clean were Denver, Chicago, Columbus, Detroit, Phoenix, Charlotte, Houston, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Dallas-Fort Worth.

• The easiest metros were Baltimore, Portland, Orlando, Nashville, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Washington, D.C., Jacksonville and Philadelphia.

You can view the full study here:
https://www.pandahub.com/studies/your-city-is-wrecking-your-car