What would you charge for this DISGUSTING Sebring Sedan interior detail?

David Fermani said:
I don't know how ANY detailer can justify charing anyone $50 per hour for their time? High end body shops that have bodymen that are I-CAR certified don't charge anything close to that to perform premium body repairs. I'm not knocking the skill level of detailers, but a certified experienced bodyman has a much greater skill set than detailers and they make & charge less? I think alot of people complain how cheap some customers are when in actuallity we may be somewhat unrealistic. (I'm not talking about the people that only want to pay $50 for a complete detail)$150 for a job that takes 4 hours is certainly on the high end. If a vehicle takes longer, then charge accordingly. No matter if the vehicle is clean or dirty, I still clean every square inch of it. If I have to do extra work like remove seats or do extra steps, then I charge accordingly per my time. If a dash board is covered in grime, it takes me the same amount of time if it was clean. I still scrub it and blow out the crackes/crevises no matter what.
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I'm not sure how prices are where you are, but you can't really get a good body shop, mechanic, or paint shop to charge less than $40-50/hr around here. I charge $50/hr rounded down (so 4:40 would be 4 hours) and most jobs end up being $200-$400. I gotta cover, gas, vehicle, insurance (business and car), and supplies. I don't think it's that bad, for real. I only do 2 cars or so a week since I'm part time, but I'm thinking about opening a shop in the next few months and go full time.
 
Jakerooni said:
Man I wish half my details that come in were that clean. That's an easy one. It's real easy to clean filth because just by doing the simplest things like vaccumming you've made it look a 1000 times better. that would be a simple $65 out the door fee here at my shop. (sometimes I think you guys are spoiled on here with the gravy boats you all seem to get all the time LOL)
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WOW $65, that is a steal!!



For my time = $40 an hr. - I would quote a 3-4hr job.



Aside from the initial the grossness of the dirtness I would actually enjoy this job.. Good money, great results and I would be gauranteed a customer "WOW, that's amazing" response.



I totally agree with you on the fact that it wouldn't take much to make it look substantially better. I find that is takes more skill to WOW a customer that brings me a new car as opposed to one that is thrashed.
 
David Fermani said:
I don't know how ANY detailer can justify charing anyone $50 per hour for their time?
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From what I have seen, if you want any kind of semi-skilled labor it is usually at least $50/hr. They do not pay the worker this but the rest covers profit, taxes, insurance, expenses, medical, etc.



An auto dealership will easily charge $75/hr minimum for anything......
 
abnot said:
An auto dealership will easily charge $75/hr minimum for anything......
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They won't charge $75/hr for body work. The most expensive dealer I know which is Mecedes dealer near me chares $130 per hour for mechanical work in their service department, but their body shop charges $38 per hour for body repair. I'd have to say that body work labor is closer to detailing than mechanical labor is.



On a side note, there is a Ferrari authorized body repair shop down here (1 of 4 or 5 in the country) and they get $85 per hour. Their techs go to Ferrari in Italy semi-requlary for training. They are aluminum / magnisium / carbon fiber certified too.
 
David Fermani said:
They won't charge $75/hr for body work. The most expensive dealer I know which is Mecedes dealer near me chares $130 per hour for mechanical work in their service department, but their body shop charges $38 per hour for body repair. I'd have to say that body work labor is closer to detailing than mechanical labor is.



On a side note, there is a Ferrari authorized body repair shop down here (1 of 4 or 5 in the country) and they get $85 per hour. Their techs go to Ferrari in Italy semi-requlary for training. They are aluminum / magnisium / carbon fiber certified too.
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My VW dealership charges $95 an hour.



A boring townhouse without any land right off a busy road will run you over $800K!



My $50 an hour charge is more than justified.



It all depends on where you live.



m2c
 
I guess we all have to charge what they will reasonably pay. The full time detail shops in my area are 175-250 for a full interior/exterior detail. I'm lucky to 75-85 for a detail, but - if it's anything other than a basic wash, compound/polish and wax with a clean and vac the interior, then the price goes up. Someday I hope to own a carpet extractor and then the price will climb!
 
tdekany said:
My VW dealership charges $95 an hour.



A boring townhouse without any land right off a busy road will run you over $800K!



My $50 an hour charge is more than justified.



It all depends on where you live.



m2c
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I'd be willing to bet that VW dealership charges $95 per hour for mechanical labor, not body labor. Big difference there.



I agree that different areas of the county, the cost of living is much different. Living in Palm Beach county, it's rediculous! (probably *one* of the most expensive places to live - I hate it!) But, labor on a whole is pretty much comparative throughout the country in respect to auto repair. If you can get $100 per hour to detail someone's vehicle without justification, that's great, but it's not the justifiable based on the norm. Get what you can get for as long as you can. I have no problem with that.
 
David, you have go to be kidding. $50 an hour is more than fair. After you take out your materials and overhead and taxes, you don't get to keep much of that. It costs a lot to be in business and you have to charge enough to make it worth while. We can't all work for the shear pleasure of it.



By the way. I do not own a detailing business and I don't charge my friends for detailing, but if I did, I would at least charge that much.



$50 X 2000 hours = $100,000. (Assuming you can bill 100% of your time.) That would be a good living, but start taking out gas and truck payments and insurance and taxes and materials and maybe rent and the cell phone and the advertising and all of a sudden you are not really making a whole lot of money.



You have got to get paid and you DESERVE to be paid.:wall



Sorry for the rant.



BOB
 
I think Dave here hit the nail on the head. Regardless of how dirty or clean a car is I do the exact same thing each and every time to every single car that comes through it. It's how a solid reputation is built. Trying to pick and choose what needs to be cleaned and what dosen't makes your process sloppy and you miss stuff eventually. That's why some customers will be all "WOW awesome!!!" and others will be like" Umm damn hacks look at all this stuff they missed" You have to do every single car weather is a brand new rolling off the showroom floor or it's a 20 year old POS that's been sitting outback up to the rockers in mud for the last decade. The more automated your process the better results you get. I get something like that in and I smile. Because I know what the customer is going to say. I worry more about someone bringing in something new in clean good shape. I always have to ask myself "This thing is really clean why on earth would someone want to pay $65 for this little amount of work??" Those or the super anal rentive a$$ clowns that will double check every stich in the seats to make sure. The filthy one you know full well the customer really dosen't care about their car so they just get amazed and usually give big tips when it's done.



Which is why I state again.. that right there is a $65 job out the door and I do 5-10 of those quality and worse every single week with no regrets or frets. I say bring em on.
 
David Fermani said:
I don't know how ANY detailer can justify charing anyone $50 per hour for their time? High end body shops that have bodymen that are I-CAR certified don't charge anything close to that to perform premium body repairs. I'm not knocking the skill level of detailers, but a certified experienced bodyman has a much greater skill set than detailers and they make & charge less? I think alot of people complain how cheap some customers are when in actuallity we may be somewhat unrealistic. (I'm not talking about the people that only want to pay $50 for a complete detail)$150 for a job that takes 4 hours is certainly on the high end. If a vehicle takes longer, then charge accordingly. No matter if the vehicle is clean or dirty, I still clean every square inch of it. If I have to do extra work like remove seats or do extra steps, then I charge accordingly per my time. If a dash board is covered in grime, it takes me the same amount of time if it was clean. I still scrub it and blow out the crackes/crevises no matter what.
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We've had this discussion so many times. It's the market. If you can charge "$x/hr" and be busy, then you are either right in, or lower than what you're market will pay, period. Toronto is expensive, but not nearly as expensive as SF, LA, NY, Chicago, Miami, etc... and most shops here charge well into the $80/hr+ range for body work, and it's usually not even that good. Most dealerships charge well over $100/hr for mechanical, with a slight discount for body.



I guess I look at it like this; if in your area no one can find someone that will do the quality of work you do for less, then you're not charging too much. If they can they will go to the cheaper place and you will have to lower your prices.
 
First things first, how long did they leave the top down when they went to the city dump? I'm no pro, but I wouldn't touch it for less than $150. I did a minivan for a friend once and had to take out the seats. There was melted crayon all in the carpet. I spent hours just getting that out, not to mention all the various remnants from fast food drive throughs.
 
To picus's point yes I agree your piticuler market will set the price. My market is $65 for full interiors. I would not charge a dime more for dirty filthy cars. To me this in unethical and just plain bad business. If you local market supports $200 interior jobs by all means that's what you charge. But Customers shouldn't be bringing me clean cars. I expect them to be dirty. To change my prices based on how dirty your car is like being a crooked used car salesman. And word of mouth will definatly get around. Customer A will tell his close freinds and family that you charge "X" amount. so one of his freinds comes to you with this car fully expecting a service that customer A told him about. Now you turn around and tell him that it's doubled because it's not a clean car. Guess what happens? Yup he's going around telling everyone how you're basically bating customers in on a low price only to raise the price up when they get there. Unethetical..... For now I don't think it's illegal but it's definatly not a good way to get any sort of good reputation.



The only time I would charge extra is if something made me change my process tremdously. For instance I charged an extra $10 for extreame dog hair. I mean you couldn't even see the seat. A long hair lab and it had riding in it daily and it had been a couple years since a cleaning. Took me about 6-1/2 hours to do. I know full well I lost money on that piticuler clean up but that car was so impressed he told a bunch of people and I actually got 3 more clean ups on his referal so it paid off for me.
 
Jakerooni said:
To picus's point yes I agree your piticuler market will set the price. My market is $65 for full interiors. I would not charge a dime more for dirty filthy cars. To me this in unethical and just plain bad business.
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It is bad business if you annouce you clean any interior for $65 and period. However, I only quote prices upon seeing the car and tell them it will be $50/hr regardless of the job. That interior would easily take me 3-4 hours; if it was clean, probably 1-2 hours. Why would I charge the same to spend half a day vs an hour or two in an interior? Same thing goes for exterior. Most cars take me 3-5 hours (4-6 with interior) just on the exterior. The occasional black swirled car will take me 10 or so hours. I'll give the customer a break, but it will still cost more than the car I spend 4 total hours on.



Now, if you are charging a fixed price because you streamlined a process and always spends the same amount of time in all vehicles then it makes sense to charge a flat rate for interiors. The way I see my price structure is, the customer that keeps his car clean is rewarded with a much lower price. By keeping a fixed price I would get burned some times on dirty cars and make extra money on clean cars. Keeping it by hour allows me to charge for what I'm actually doing. Either way it balances out to about the same, provided you get a 50:50 mix of bad and good cars...



Anyway, just food for thought...
 
tdekany said:
My VW dealership charges $95 an hour.



A boring townhouse without any land right off a busy road will run you over $800K!



My $50 an hour charge is more than justified.



It all depends on where you live.



m2c
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Agreed!!



Here is some info on a place im looking to get... 1 lift, 2 bays, parking for a good 30+ cars (really, not needed), busy avenue with lots of traffic right in front of it, and just a couple miles away from one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Denver, Chery Hills, but $699k!!!!



How can I not charge about $50/hr and afford having this place? Specially after having to hire a small crew.



(moved file to http://autopia.org/forum/profession...ible-fixed-location-need-help.html#post984575)
 
I see what Jakerooni is saying, and it makes sense based on his business. For me, I charge hourly. Will a filthy interior take longer? Yes, not really based on my doing more, but if I am extracting the carpets it will move slower with extremely soiled carpets. I guess it really depends on your business model and area.



FWIW, I don't charge more hourly based on a clients wealth/car/whatever. It's always the same price hourly.
 
I can see mobil detailers charging by the hour.



I guess an example in my case is if you relegiously go to an oil change place every 3000 miles or if you don't get until 8000 miles do they charge you extra for an oil change?



Same way with a touchless car wash or cloth wash. (heven forbid people still use them LOL) if you have a light dusting on your car or you just went to the mudbog is the price any different? Nope sure isn't.



If your mobil though you definatly have to factor in different variables. and you can have a set rate. (say your $50/hour) in that case to me it would become unethical for you to say to someone that'll be $65/hour because your car is filthy. Same principals different variables.
 
Just some honest questiosn Jake:



I can see mobil detailers charging by the hour. Why would a mobile detailer be ok to charge by the hour and not a brick and mortar? If anythiung the B&M shop has more overhead. Just wondering the rationale



I guess an example in my case is if you relegiously go to an oil change place every 3000 miles or if you don't get until 8000 miles do they charge you extra for an oil change? Not only is the same process used but the same amount of supplies and it takes the same amount of time to change an engine going on 15,000 mile OCI's or 3,000 mile OCI's so I am confused on this one as well



Same way with a touchless car wash or cloth wash. (heven forbid people still use them LOL) if you have a light dusting on your car or you just went to the mudbog is the price any different? Nope sure isn't. The cleaner car could pass through once and be acceptable to the onwer ($4 a pass). The mudd caked car may take 3 passes through to get the same level of cleanliness (4*6=$12).



If your mobil though you definatly have to factor in different variables. and you can have a set rate. (say your $50/hour) in that case to me it would become unethical for you to say to someone that'll be $65/hour because your car is filthy. Same principals different variables. I think services are more aduequately applied when a per hour rate is used.





Don't take my questions as looking to stir the pot, I am really just trying to understand the logic
 
MotorCity said:
Just some honest questiosn Jake:



I can see mobil detailers charging by the hour. Why would a mobile detailer be ok to charge by the hour and not a brick and mortar? If anythiung the B&M shop has more overhead. Just wondering the rationale



I guess an example in my case is if you relegiously go to an oil change place every 3000 miles or if you don't get until 8000 miles do they charge you extra for an oil change? Not only is the same process used but the same amount of supplies and it takes the same amount of time to change an engine going on 15,000 mile OCI's or 3,000 mile OCI's so I am confused on this one as well



Same way with a touchless car wash or cloth wash. (heven forbid people still use them LOL) if you have a light dusting on your car or you just went to the mudbog is the price any different? Nope sure isn't. The cleaner car could pass through once and be acceptable to the onwer ($4 a pass). The mudd caked car may take 3 passes through to get the same level of cleanliness (4*6=$12).



If your mobil though you definatly have to factor in different variables. and you can have a set rate. (say your $50/hour) in that case to me it would become unethical for you to say to someone that'll be $65/hour because your car is filthy. Same principals different variables. I think services are more aduequately applied when a per hour rate is used.





Don't take my questions as looking to stir the pot, I am really just trying to understand the logic
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I agree with Jason, above.



If washing all vehicles took me 1 hours, 2 to polish, 1 for the interior then I would have no trouble charging a fixed per car rate. However, every car is different, paint, condition, size, all play a factor. It is far easier to just set a price than to try to quote jobs per hour but I still believe the per hour works better.



I too am confused with your analogies. Washing a dirty car does take longer than a clean car. Same goes for interior, engine, polishing, etc... Do you take the same time to detail a Honda civic and an Audi A8L? I don't.





Jakerooni said:
If your mobil though you definatly have to factor in different variables. and you can have a set rate. (say your $50/hour) in that case to me it would become unethical for you to say to someone that'll be $65/hour because your car is filthy. Same principals different variables.
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I agree, upping your per hour charge makes no sense. I will already be charging more because the job takes longer.



Not trying to be rude or anything; just discussing different point of views on the same subject.
 
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