[getcha]

^^^Yea

Washing and drying is probably THE biggest cause of marring and scratching(aside from obvious scratches from idiots).
You may as well have waxed or sealed the car, assuming you did a good thorough wash. It can only help protect it from acid rain, regular water marks, birdskit especially, bugs(which mind you love my car so much they lay down on the top of it for a tan and decide its cool to just die there) and the other fantastic things that love to ruin paint. Plus protection on the car makes it wayyyy easier to clean.

If you could get your washing and drying technique down, you probably wouldnt even need to polish once a year, maybe every couple. Even so, for the light marring you could use a glaze like Vanilla moose hand glaze that has like the slightest of slight abrasives to over time work on the marring and just fill in the rest.

Waxing/sealing is situation dependent. Is the car garaged?Washed how often?What type of weather does it see? What kind of environment is it in? What type/brand of wax/sealant is on it?

There is a million things to consider but its proven that a protected vehicle keeps a better finish significantly longer than a neglected(even relatively) one.

EDIT: FJF your car is friggin NOICE