A woman returned from a four-day trip to find something she never wanted to see: fresh scratches on her car. Even worse, she says the person responsible was her own mother, who had been told not to touch the vehicle.
Before leaving with her boyfriend, the woman gave her mother two clear rules. Don’t drive the car, and don’t take it through an automatic car wash. According to her account, her mother ignored both requests.
The car had a ceramic coating, making the owner’s choice of washing method especially important. After finding scuffs and scratches, she compared photos taken before her trip and became convinced the damage was new.
She shared her frustration in a Reddit post, where other users quickly took her side. But the story took another turn when she explained what her mother had said about the car wash.
A Warning Ignored
No I’m actually pissed tf off
by
u/Serious-Tonight-3172 in
raisedbyborderlines
The trouble started before the woman even left home. According to a follow-up comment, her mother had already announced plans to drive the car and wash it while she was away.
The owner refused, pointing to the ceramic coating and her concerns about how her mother drove. Despite that warning, a text message arrived just two days into the trip.
Her mother complained that the car’s air conditioning smelled like vomit. Then, almost as an afterthought, she said she had washed the vehicle.
When the daughter returned, she found scuffs and scratches she believed hadn’t been there before. Her mother insisted the marks were old, but the owner says photos from before the trip told a different story.
The daughter had left the car at home to avoid paying for airport parking. Instead, she came back to a dispute over damage she believes could have been avoided by simply leaving the vehicle parked.
That Wash Matters
Adding to the argument, the mother reportedly claimed that car washes legally couldn’t scratch paint. That claim doesn’t hold up as a general rule, and automatic washes can cause damage.
According to Ceramic Pro’s maintenance instructions, owners should avoid automatic washes that use brushes or other equipment that touches the vehicle.
Ceramic coating helps protect a car’s finish, but it doesn’t make the paint immune to scratches. Dirty or abrasive wash equipment can still leave marks.
AAA also warns that brushes can pick up sand, dirt, and other debris from previous vehicles. As the equipment moves across the next car, that material can scratch its surface.
For ceramic-coated vehicles, careful hand washing or a touchless wash is generally the safer choice. However, the Reddit post doesn’t establish which type of automatic wash the mother used or prove exactly what caused the reported damage.
Reddit Takes Sides
Back in the comments, readers were far more interested in the mother’s decision to ignore her daughter’s instructions than in the cleaning equipment itself.
Several urged the owner to keep her keys somewhere her mother couldn’t reach them. Others suggested seeking payment for repairs, although the cost of fixing the finish hasn’t been established.
One commenter recommended small claims court. The owner replied that she had warned her mother in person, leaving her without written proof of that conversation.
Another user questioned whether an automatic wash could cause marks that appeared so severe. The owner maintained that even one wash could damage her coated finish.
As the discussion continued, the daughter explained that she already had concerns about trusting her mother with the car. She had left it at home only because airport parking would have cost her money.