Tsunami Express Car Wash — Local services in West Lafayette

Whew, this was a comically bad experience. I went there on a whim. It took a bit to figure out where to enter, as it looked like it had been changed a few times. it was a slightly awkward turn to get lined up. A large 4-door work pickup truck was ahead of me. They were taking forever at the payment kiosk, and finally an attendant came to help them. I finally pulled up to pay, while they pulled ahead to turn into the wash. There, I found out the kiosk problem - maybe because of the cold weather, the touchscreen simply wasn't working normally, and wouldn't acknowledge my options. About 1 press in 10 would register! I couldn't finish my order. Meanwhile, a comedy of errors was taking place in front of me - the truck was trying to make the VERY sharp 90 degree turn right out of the payment kiosk to enter the carwash, but due to the tight space and the large concrete barriers, couldn't make the turn. They ended up having to do a 10 point back and forth, like a bad parallel park-er, to get the truck in a trajectory to enter, and it took several minutes. But that wasn't all!

Once they had managed the turn, they couldn't seem to get lined up with the wheel track to go into the carwash. I watched them pull up off-center, back up, try again, etc. again about 10 times. I rather uncharitably thought, whew, that person is an awful driver! An attendant finally came out and after about 3 minutes of attempts with "right, now left!!" instructions, they made it in.

In the meantime, an attendant came out and asked me if I needed help ordering a wash, and I said apparently so. He said, "Put in your credit card", so i did, then he POUNDED the machine screen over and over and finally got it to record the options. HOWEVER, after he handed me the receipt, I realized he assumed (or purposely?) sold me the ultimate wash, which was more than I wanted to spend and not what I wanted. He apologized profusely and offered to get a form to change it, but by that time I was just ready to be done, and about to be late for a meeting.

But THAT'S when I discovered why the truck was having such trouble. I drive a small, sporty crossover and STILL couldn't make the 90 degree turn without backing up to get a better angle (like the truck). i didn't want to scrape my car on the concrete stanchions, but it was annoying to realize the turn was designed so poorly. BUT THERE'S MORE! Once I made the turn, the ramp into the wash, only about 15-18' long, turns UPWARDS sharply, causing the front of your car and subsequently your view out the front window, to turn to the sky, RIGHT when you are needing to see the wash mechanism and the ground track to line up your wheel. It was impossible to see anything, and no mirror or device to give you a view of your wheel. You had to move forward completely blind! The attendant was there shortly and began directing me in, and as the car entered and leveled off, I could see normally again. But it was embarrassing to not be able to line up the car on my own! That's never happened to me. But, I finally got hooked up to the tow mechanism and went through the wash.

About the wash - Rather than using the large felt panels that are moved rather slowly over your car to do the wash, every aspect of this wash used very fast spinning rotors with thousands of smaller rat-tail shaped cloth or felt. It was really moving, and when it went down the side of my car, I began to worry that the force and speed of those hundreds of little whips might damage my car. Sure enough, when I pulled out, the black lacquer coating on one of the metal window trims had flaked, leaving a bright polished piece of chrome underneath. Unfortunately, my car is something of a "classic" at this point, and there is no way to replace that piece. Not sure what to do to cover up the obvious flaked section, which is not very big (half dollar sized), but noticeable.

TO add insult to injury...my car wasn't clean. There was still bird droppings on the hood, which I washed off by hand at home.

So, not a great experience. Use at...

The wash is just OK. It never gets my windshield clean with all the bugs I have on it (I live in country and drive early in the morning when it's dark, so LOTS of bugs). I had a membership & have taken my car through multiple times. The vacuums and free and good. However today, I heard a loud thud while going through. When I got out I noticed it broke my back wiper. I have a 25' Subaru Forester. I told an employee he said the wash is notorious for doing that to Subarus. Ok so clearly it's their fault. Fix the problem then!!! He was very nice about it and said he could credit my account for the next month. BUT why would I want to come back through after I pay myself to have my wiper fixed when it might just get broken again??! He said they don't cover wipers if they get broken. I've been through many car washes over the years with 5 different Subaru's and I have never had this happen! They could have covered the cost to fix my wiper, but no so I'll be cancelling the membership and going elsewhere. And it doesn't just need a new wiper blade, the whole arm of the back wiper need fixed now. Thanks...

When I first arrived at the car wash there was a lovely person there who was nice and explained the car washes in detail to me. I should have paid more attention because I opted for the most expensive package, but did not realize that it also included the vac system at the end of the car wash, which I did not intend to use. That one's on me. I drive a GM truck made within the last 10 years, and when I went through the car wash the first time I stopped to look at the truck and realize there were many parts on the truck that weren't even wet let alone clean. I then brought this up to the lovely assistant who got who appeared to be a manager and they allowed us to go through one more time at no charge. I then got out of my truck and inspected it again, and again. I found spots on the curvature of my hood and the bottom of my windshield was not even wet. They were still covered in dust. Also, the second time through my towing mirror on the driver's side was knocked out of place by one of the brushes. It seems this car wash is not built for full-size trucks. We will not...