Drying the car. What is your preferred method?

[lee]

There's an potential issue on the use of cloth for washing and drying. the usual towel product is a cotton polyester blend with the ends stitched up with 100% polyester thread. Pound for pound, polyester is stronger than steel (think tire body plies). Polyester to paint is like diamond to glass.

For drying I would suggest only using a water blade, one of the absorber cloths mentioned by others, or a 100% cotton micro-fiber towel (or the leaf blower I mentioned earlier - it really does work).

For washing, use a wool wash mitt, or sea sponge as they usually "wick" grit away from the surface as they're being dragged around on the car's surface. Keep in mind a lot of scratches occur during washing as grit is dragged along embedded in the cloth used for washing.