I love Ridgid vacs, I have a 5 hp 16 gallon one in the house been going strong for over 3 years now cleaning up our 2 house bunnies room every day. Just had to change the power cord out (it got chewed) for $10, and I clean the filter every 3 months by blowing it out with my backpack blower. I also use it twice a year with Ridgid's Gutter Cleaning kit which now makes cleaning my gutters mess free, and I can do the whole house within an hour, with just a regular 6 foot ladder.
I've been meaning to get the portable $80 vac from HD with the pro hose and auto attachments, they also sell one with a separate 6 hp blower on top which is filtered so its not sucking in the dirty air from the vac, as long as you use a separate hose dedicated for blowdrying you technically can use the one vac for exterior blowdrying and interior work.
This is what I'm talking about
:
RIDGID 4-gal. Wet/Dry Vacuum with Detachable Blower-WD4080 - The Home Depot
Or I may just get this one as I'm not always traditional washing:
And maybe a Metro Sidekick just for blowing water out of cracks/crevices (My Redmax EBZ7500 does just fine when I want to blow dry the car)