Although most Gainesville residents grumble about pollen season, a select few rejoice, namely car wash owners.
“Pollen season is a good thing for car washes,” said Scott Martin, owner of Tropic Car Wash on Archer Road. “If a car wash owner could figure out how to put pollen in the air, he would do it.”
Martin said he has seen the number of cars at his wash double thanks to pollen season.
If a person has allergies, they only worsen when exposed to a car covered in pollen.
Jasmine Anderson, a cashier at Park Place Car Wash on Northwest Fourth Boulevard, said the best way to keep pollen off a car is by waxing it.
“Keeping a wax is always best to keep the paint safe,” Anderson said.
Eric Renney, one of the cashiers at Tropic Car Wash, said pollen could be damaging to the clear coat, the outside layer that makes the paint shiny and protects it. If the pollen get through that coat, it could also ruin the paint.
For some college students, though, the cost may not be worth it.
Ashley Dunne, a 19-year-old UF psychology freshman, said she doesn’t want to spend the money to get her car washed when she could be spending that money on more important and necessary things while on a college budget.
“I don’t really get my car washed every week or month,” Dunne said. “I wait for it to rain because the next day I feel like it will just get covered in pollen again, so I feel like it is pointless to get it washed.”
Dunne said moving her car from out under the trees when spots are available has helped her car not get coated with pollen, but it is never perfectly clean during pollen season.
“I find the pollen to be really annoying because I walk outside, and my car is covered in it,” she said. “It looks disgusting.”
Although the end of pollen season may not seem near, summer will be back to Gainesville within a few months.
And when summer comes around?
“Lovebug season,” Martin said.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 3/26/2015 under the headline “Pollen season bad for cars — great for car wash business”]
Pictured is the hood of a pickup truck covered in pollen on Southwest First Avenue.
