pkphilip

That's why I stay away from car washes when I see them use sponges!!

I think most car washes will have swirl marks on the clear coat, which you can take it to a detailing shop and have them do a full detail ($200+) should get rid of most of the obvious ones.

If you must DIY, you probably need to use a product call Scratch-X and do it a small portion at a time. I would not use rubbing compound if you are inexperienced because it could do more harm than good. We use rubbing compound with 1600 grit water  sandpaper to polish it, so you can imagine why there's a risk there.

I use a commercial quality orbital polisher to speed things up and the result is amazing.
http://www.autogeek.net/griots-orbital-polisher.html

You can have a look at the car I worked on for 9 hours for a wedding. :-) It's a 2004, and it looks spanking new. (lot of swirls marks, but got them covered)

Philip