Yeah I've had black cars for the last three (so nearly 8 years now) and you're spot on wrt how hard they are to keep looking nice.
I decided to drive to my meetings today, and had to go through Hyde Park, music up, sun out life is sweet had a whole crowd of Spanish students walking past and gawping
OK I think I know the answer to this but what do you mean by a 2 bucket wash?
I've invested in some Autoglym products at the Halfords 2-for-1 weekend, got some wash, what they describe as "deep shine" which is bascially a polish, a shamy type thing (called "aqua-dry", I mean seriously thier marketing dept needs a good kicking...I digress) and some fast glass spray so I'll give it a good going over this weekend....any dos and don'ts gratefully recived.