On 1/31/2010 03:52, JKevorkian wrote:

I can't understand people's fascination with fabric softeners... I use old towels to dry my
cars after washing, and early on I noticed that the towels would more or less
just push the water around instead of sucking it up. When the car finally dried,
you could see the streaks on the surface where the chemical residues from the
towels had remained. Same goes for polishing the wax off the car - using a
terry-cloth towel that was washed with fabric softener, the wax job looked like
it was buffed with a mini-notched trowel.

Fabric softener should not be used on towels for the reason you experienced.