Do shampoos/screen liquid matter?

Hi everyone!
New at the forum, I just bought a used Fiat Punto 1.2 2001 mk2.
The cars works fine and seems well taken care off.
I'm not particularly found of FIATs or any other brand specifically. But this is my first car and I want to take care of it. I want it to work well, look good, and keep its value as much as possible.
My father allways used car shampoo and windscreen liquid in his cars.
My mate says I should save my money and just use washing detergent for both.

Is it worth it to use expensive shampoos and special windscreen liquid or not? Do they really have an effect on preserving the paint or the glass?

Cheers.

dont use washing up liquid, no point using it to 'save money' because car shampoo is so cheap now days, asda/tesco sell it for under a quid for a 500ml bottle.

NO tell your mate he's a fool

the Washing up liquid is full of salt (that on metal is a bad thing) for a start..
It will strip any wax off the car and dull its finish,

in the screen wash bottle is also a No on 2 accounts its high foaming ability could affect your vision and the gelling agent in the liquid blocks your pumps pre filter and pipework....

also WUL wont stop the water freezing in the winter

as beau said car shampoo is cheap as you want it to be but in all honesty you get what you pay for cheap stuff is often less concentrated so you use more than you would a decent quality shampoo ..

my current selection are Autoglym bodywork conditioner, Meguires Gold class or NXT Generation..

it also might be worth a read of this if you want to really pamper your car,,

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/foru...ead.php?t=4637


lots of other chat about car care stuff but people do tend to be a bit too OCD sometimes

Good points!

Thank you.