Detailing-How much?

I just moved back into NYC last month. There is a detailer that comes to my parking garage and charges $400-$600 for a full detail and $300-500 for an exterior only.



Depending where you are on earth, prices and quality vary greatly. $anything under $150 for an exterior only sounds like a chop-shop to me.
 
Here's what I include on my exterior:



Wash with NXT via 2 bucket and pressure washer and Shmitt

Bugs/Tar removed with Stoners or Megs Body solvent

Wheels cleaned with DP wheel gel

Tires and fender wells cleaned with Purple Power 1:1

Hand dried w/ Guzzler

Clayed and re-dried

Wheels clayed and waxed with AW

Tires shined with a gel

Fenderwells dressed

Taillpipes cleaned and polished

Paint polished viz PC w/ XMT or Optimum polishes. I do as many steps as it takes for a flawless finish. Paint waxed with DP MaxWax, PB's NB, or Souveran.

Glass cleaned with DP Krystal Vision glass cleaner

Front windshield protected with Klasse AIO

Any chrome polished

All black exterior trim protected with 303



Exterior Detail Price: $110 for car, $135 for small SUV/truck, $160 for everything large



I believe that's it.



I can also do Engine cleaning and dressing, headlights and tailights polished also upon request, but I do not include this in my detail.
 
Full detail on cars start at $175 and trucks/SUV's and mini vans start at $275.

Extras inlclude windshield polishing, polishing insides of rims and headlight/taillight polishing.
 
Depends on the car....



Black C6 Corvette with bad swirls.... 400 to start

Black Ferrari F430 with moderate swirls.... 200 to start



The reason I selected these two vehicles because from my experience they are opposite on the spectrum of paint hardness. Ferrari paint is very easy to correct and thus takes less time. Corvette's have some of the hardest clearcoat known to man, and if they have even moderate swirling, you can expect to spend a long day on them to get them moderately better.
 
Rick, idk if you already got the car detailed or not, but my advice would be to see what the $100 guy can do... simply have him tape off a 2'x2' section on your hood, roof, or trunk, and do everything he intends to do with the whole car... this way you can see what he can do and if you should pay up or not

good luck
 
You have to remember locations plays a BIG role here. I know one person commented that it would be minimum $250 and you need to raise your prices or you will starve or something like that. It may be the fact that you have to go lower to get any business at all and that is what it takes to survive. I thought about doing some local detailing on the side but around here but it isn't worth it. No one is willing to pay and I'm definately not working for free. I take pride in everything I do and if they don't want to pay, they are more than welcome to go to the local "detail" shop and have their car marred up from using palmolive and a cheap bath cloth. Oh, not to mention the gallon of Armor All that is on the dash and everywhere else. Sorry about the rant.....anyway, like everyone else said, get the guy to do a section and see what he can do.
 
Just for your information. I took a Black 2003 E500 to a local detailer, with a shop, on Long Island in NY for a quote on full detail two years ago. Inside and outside. The inside was clean: the outside needed work. Swirls etc. Fee was $400. I did not go for it as I was selling car and did a decent job myself. This guy does a great business. It is all about market and how set yourself up. This guy advertises him self as high end only. And by the way he using house no name stuff.
 
I would do it for $250-$300, plan on $300 if its black. I always do an inspection first and a test section if the person agrees to let me do it.
 
Why do you guys charge more for black?



I could see it being more logical to charge more for a BMW than a Honda (2x more haha) but, unless it's white or light grey, I really don't see a difference in work load and results whether it's red, light green, or black...

Oh and I like doing black because the results are most impressive...



Also, how does the extra charge go over with the clients?... I imagine I would be a bit confused when I'm "punished" for having a black car....



This isn't meant against anyone, just curious to hear the reasons and client response... thanks
 
lecchilo said:
Why do you guys charge more for black?



I could see it being more logical to charge more for a BMW than a Honda (2x more haha) but, unless it's white or light grey, I really don't see a difference in work load and results whether it's red, light green, or black...

Oh and I like doing black because the results are most impressive...



Also, how does the extra charge go over with the clients?... I imagine I would be a bit confused when I'm "punished" for having a black car....



This isn't meant against anyone, just curious to hear the reasons and client response... thanks
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I 100% agree with you.
 
I don't believe I've ever posted that I 'charge more for black', however I do charge for more work above and beyond the average detail.

I typically quote black cars an extra $50-100 just to give myself a "buffer" (haha) zone if the detail needs to be more in depth than I initially thought. My goal on a detail is to make the client happy, not myself. If the later were the case, I'd spend 10 hours on every car I detail! Sure swirls and micro-marring still show on good reds, blues, and greens, but not typically so much to make the client unhappy when they see their vehicle after I'm completed.



And SUV's are "punished" an extra $10-20 over my typical prices for taking more of my time... black cars are not any different.
 
todd@bsaw said:
I don't believe I've ever posted that I 'charge more for black', however I do charge for more work above and beyond the average detail.

I typically quote black cars an extra $50-100 just to give myself a "buffer" (haha) zone if the detail needs to be more in depth than I initially thought. My goal on a detail is to make the client happy, not myself. If the later were the case, I'd spend 10 hours on every car I detail! Sure swirls and micro-marring still show on good reds, blues, and greens, but not typically so much to make the client unhappy when they see their vehicle after I'm completed.



And SUV's are "punished" an extra $10-20 over my typical prices for taking more of my time... black cars are not any different.
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Yea I understand the swirls and marring showing more on black, but it's not TOO dramatic of a difference, considering they're the same size swirls, etc.



I do understand the SUVs though, at least $50 more for me... many don't realize but the SUVs are sometimes almost 2x as large as the avg. sedan
 
on a full detail u need to have a base price for those that dont know about swirls or dont care. averaging $200 for a full $125 for a exterior only( this would be clay, mild polish, glaze, wax) that would get u better than any "dealership detail". if they want paint correction u should estimate by how many pads u use to correct and wht u think u r worth. again the going rate for a detailer who knows what he doing is $50 an hour or $50 per pad. hope that helps u out some.
 
PhatHoodDetail said:
on a full detail u need to have a base price for those that dont know about swirls or dont care. averaging $200 for a full $125 for a exterior only( this would be clay, mild polish, glaze, wax) that would get u better than any "dealership detail". if they want paint correction u should estimate by how many pads u use to correct and wht u think u r worth. again the going rate for a detailer who knows what he doing is $50 an hour or $50 per pad. hope that helps u out some.
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I don't understand the pad part... you make it sound like you throw your pads out after every detail?
 
The only black cars I charge more are for Vettes. Especially if they are in rough shape. The only good thing about restoring black, it is easier to see what you are doing. Most of you that have worked on Vettes know what I am talking about.



For rates my exterior packages start at $200.



Vettes I start at $400 and up depending what is needed for correction and the condition of the vette. I have been doing quite a bit of them and they are the hardest clear by far.



SUV's ext. packages start at $300



Int. start at $75



I have higher prices, but I also have higher paying customers that are willing to drive 100 miles just to drop there car off to me. In the end they are very happy and send me other work. Most of the time I get $50-100 tip. All in all it is a lot of work. I love the look on there face when I open my garage door and they see there car all done. Most of them almost faint and just say WOW!



There is more money in doing 1 or 2 steps though if you have the volume work. I just enjoy what I do for the most part and it is a nice part time gig.



It all depends on your skill, experience, process, time, knowledge, products, etc. in order for what you can charge.
 
Just like oral sex - location, location location! Look at house prices in a rural area and in a gated community next to a city, same size, double or triple the price. As long as there are guys doing 75-100 jobs at a car wash, you're going to have trouble getting top dollar - until you tap into that upper class cliental that appreciates your craftsmanship and will gladly pay for it. I'm still trying to find that group myself!
 
lecchilo said:
I don't understand the pad part... you make it sound like you throw your pads out after every detail?
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ok say u look at a car and u can tell u need to start with a compound. 1- compound with a compound pad, if u fix everything and depend on how u work 2 polish with the compound pad, 3 polish wth a polish pad, 4 glaze with a glaze pad, 5 wax with a finishing pad. 5x50=250. so add that to your base price which full detail 200 or and exterior job 125 u get the total quote of 450 or 375. every1 works a little different but that just base way of estimated for customers. yeah sometimes it hard to get those prices but dont sell yourself short. we al do hard work and they pay u for what u know not how fast u do it. Think of it like u got cancer, do u want to go to county doc who always sends u to the a doc in the inner city or do u want to go that doc who leading cancer specialist on the east coast? u get what u pay for. if ur even average 0 times out of 10 ur better than most dealership detailers. at least around here guys r getting payed 7 dollars an hour to detail for ford, can u believe that?
 
I think this thread illustrates why some business-minded members are frustrated and want to start these "educate the consumer" campaigns so they can justify to the customer a $200+ detail, while others here are saying that they get laughed off for a $125 price.



There is just no way that the average or even high-end car owner will repeatedly pay hundreds of dollars for a detail when they wreck it the next weekend taking it through the tunnel wash. "Crap, I just paid $250 to get my black car detailed a week ago and it looked great, but it didn't last...I'm not doing that again."



There are members here who are very successful at cultivating a clientele for which they can polish and then do maintenance (washing) on a regular basis to keep the car nice. But IMO you pros who think the difference between those customers and everyone else is a little education are way off. There will never be a mass market for an Autopian-level detail.
 
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