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

kapinnn said:
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.









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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My comments were in blue.. You and I are saying the same thing.



I quote jobs by the hour.. I feel that is the most equitable way for me to run a business.



If a car takes twice as long to detail I charge twice as much. I will compare this to landscape - I would never say $100 and I'll do your yard.. ther are too many variables to consider for me to give "blanket quotes".



BUT this is the way that works for me, if someone else has a business plan that works for them that is awesome.. I just want to undertand the rationale so i can take best practices to come up with a benchmarked process
 
MotorCity said:
My comments were in blue.. You and I are saying the same thing.



I quote jobs by the hour.. I feel that is the most equitable way for me to run a business.



If a car takes twice as long to detail I charge twice as much. I will compare this to landscape - I would never say $100 and I'll do your yard.. ther are too many variables to consider for me to give "blanket quotes".



BUT this is the way that works for me, if someone else has a business plan that works for them that is awesome.. I just want to undertand the rationale so i can take best practices to come up with a benchmarked process
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Yep our points are the same, I was just replying to Jakerooni using your post as support. Sorry if I confused you. It's edited now!
 
Jason I take no offense to your questioning at all.



Lets see if I can shed a little light here.

Mobil detailers have to have more flexability in doing this line of work where brick and motor places can concentrate purely on the process. So it become more automated. I don't have to keep re-inventing the wheel so to speak wonder how to tackle my work conditions. Just like a painter coming to my house. and a landscaper coming to my yard. They will charge by the hour because each job is completly different.



Not so much in brick and motar establishments. While some will come out of left field and throw you for a loop I would say easily 90% of everything that comes in here is done in the exact same method. Between a car with light dust and a full blown freash out of the mud bog truck the only thing that will take any more time to clean up is a few extra minutes with the powerwasher. You should always prep every single vehicle exactly the same regardless of what needs to be done to it. Therfore it's extreamly easy to have a set rate. Customers walking into a establishment like that. Hearing "x amount per hour" makes people cringe. It leaves room for getting ripped off by shady people. Now if you mobil and you come to them it's easy for them to know if they are getting charged correctly or not. 99% of my customers drop their car and leave. Sometimes they come back same day sometimes it the next day. I make it comfortable for them because they know I don't charge by the hour.



After your example of multiple passes I agree with you on that one. But to me 80% of my time is spent on the prepping of the vehicle. Washing it scrubbing the carpets degreasing the jambs, wheel wells, engine bay. None of that is detailing. Anyone with a pocket full of quaters at a coin op can do all that. But that is what takes the bulk of the time. my details take about 4-6 hours to complete and I would say 2.5-3 hours of that is simply properly preping the vehicle for the detail which if done right make the actual detail process go rather quickly. It all comes down to being able to automate your process. Do every car the exact same way regardless of condition and you'll never miss a thing, you'll gain alot more customers, and you can set a standard price for 95%+ of all your details thus drving in more customers your way who are leary about the charge by the hour guys.



in a very basic sum up Brick and motor guys seem to be intrusted more and Mobil guys actually have to do more to accomodate ever changing conditions. If your mobil your treated and thought of the same as the land scapper and painter that have to charge by the hour. If you have a building you just better have your process down to a science and you'll never be without.
 
That's exactly what I mean. You have your process strealined properly and spend approximately the same amount of time per car. That way I do see charging a fixed price as a possibility. I see something different everyday and I would be either losing money or customers by quoting a fixed price. That's why I offer a free estimate for serious customers. If they are just price shopping I tell them $50/hr and most details run $200-300 for interior and exterior.



As for not scaring customers off charging per hour, how about you do the following? You have a set location so you see the car right away. Take a look around, examine paint condition, size, etc... You can then have an idea of how much it will be, then charge it by the hour. Whatever you quote is the final price. That's what I do... I quote about 4-6 hours on most jobs and the ones that go over in time I don't charge any extra. the only exception is prepping show cars. The owner will usually be with me showing what he wants fixed. In those cases I round the price down to the hour. I still get a decent tip (about $50-$100) on most jobs.
 
F150BOB said:
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
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Just for the sake of friendly debate: At $100K of sales per year, a mobile detailer should have no more than 20% total overhead leaving them $80K to live on. To me, that's a whole lot of money. For a fixed operation owner, overhead is much, much more. Does that mean that mobile prices should be less or the fixed shop prices to be more? I would have to say yes. For example, Mobile fender mender guys are cheaper than body shops. Why is that? Less overhead probably? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to oppress detailers here, I'm just trying to make sense of this with everyone's help. If you're a mobile guy and your income is 10 times that amount, you earn my respect totally. But, please realize your income/prices/rates aren't the "industry norm" and could realistically differ from most.



If you go to a dealership, the labor rates in the service department are wayyyyy more expensive (twice if not more) than the body shop? Why is that? Mechanics that are ASE Master certified make as much as a body tech that is ICAR Gold Class certified (sometimes more, sometimes less). The fixed costs (utilities) are the same for each department, but the variable expenses are tons more for the body shop and they charge less? Why is that? If you model/compare the detail industry against the body shop industry based on skill level and training (almost apples to apples) and difficulty of labor, body shops should charge more. There's alot less overhead, continued education/certification and regulations(federal/state) for a detail operation compared to a body shop. If look think about everything involved with operating a body shop, a detail shop pales in comparison. For that reason, I feel that detailers should charge less than body shopsfor their services.

Again, if you have a niche market like Hennessey / Foose / WCC / Paul Dalton:grinno: , that's awsome!! More power to you:2thumbs: . But please recognize that as not the industry norm. Just becasue you've marketed and grown your business sucessfully, doesn't make every other hard working peron in thee same industry justify modeling themselves or their business after you.
 
David Fermani said:
Just for the sake of friendly debate: At $100K of sales per year, a mobile detailer should have no more than 20% total overhead leaving them $80K to live on. To me, that's a whole lot of money. For a fixed operation owner, overhead is much, much more. Does that mean that mobile prices should be less or the fixed shop prices to be more? I would have to say yes. For example, Mobile fender mender guys are cheaper than body shops. Why is that? Less overhead probably? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to oppress detailers here, I'm just trying to make sense of this with everyone's help. If you're a mobile guy and your income is 10 times that amount, you earn my respect totally. But, please realize your income/prices/rates aren't the "industry norm" and could realistically differ from most.



If you go to a dealership, the labor rates in the service department are wayyyyy more expensive (twice if not more) than the body shop? Why is that? Mechanics that are ASE Master certified make as much as a body tech that is ICAR Gold Class certified (sometimes more, sometimes less). The fixed costs (utilities) are the same for each department, but the variable expenses are tons more for the body shop and they charge less? Why is that? If you model/compare the detail industry against the body shop industry based on skill level and training (almost apples to apples) and difficulty of labor, body shops should charge more. There's alot less overhead, continued education/certification and regulations(federal/state) for a detail operation compared to a body shop. If look think about everything involved with operating a body shop, a detail shop pales in comparison. For that reason, I feel that detailers should charge less than body shopsfor their services.

Again, if you have a niche market like Hennessey / Foose / WCC / Paul Dalton:grinno: , that's awsome!! More power to you:2thumbs: . But please recognize that as not the industry norm. Just becasue you've marketed and grown your business sucessfully, doesn't make every other hard working peron in thee same industry justify modeling themselves or their business after you.
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Very good points throughout. We (most of us) should not consider ourselves the industry norm.



One thing you forgot to add about the mobile guy. We are charging "extra" in a way for the customer's comfort of having their car detailed at their house. That makes a big difference to a lot of my customers who don't wanna drive and be without a car for a day or two. Also works well for multiple cars.
 
I can not justify $50 per hour to most of my customer's. Usually the only time I charge per hour is for paint restoration or paint touch-up type work. Even then, the rate is around $40 per hour. For my packages, the rates are pretty much fixed, however, the price changes for different sized vehicles. Like some of the others have stated, I go over the same steps on each car, depending on the package.
 
David Fermani said:
So if you do a full service wash and vac which takes 2 hours, you charge them $100?
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Yep. I would if I did those. The minimum I do is the full wash, vac, seal/wax car and wheels. Usually runs at $100-150
 
David Fermani said:
So if you do a full service wash and vac which takes 2 hours, you charge them $100?
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Yep. I would if I did those. The minimum I do is the full wash, vac, seal/wax car and wheels. Usually runs at $100-150



I do wash/vac for 1 customer but he has 3 cars. Well, 2 and a truck. I charge $200 for all 3 as it takes me about 4-5 hours. That includes a spray wax.
 
kapinnn said:
Yep. I would if I did those. The minimum I do is the full wash, vac, seal/wax car and wheels. Usually runs at $100-150



I do wash/vac for 1 customer but he has 3 cars. Well, 2 and a truck. I charge $200 for all 3 as it takes me about 4-5 hours. That includes a spray wax.
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Sounds like you give him a discount because he giving you 3 vehicles? Wash & waxes are somthing that can be pretty profitable when doing them in volume. I use to charge dealerships $50 to do new car preps. A newbie could do 2 of them an hour all day long.
 
David Fermani said:
Sounds like you give him a discount because he giving you 3 vehicles? Wash & waxes are somthing that can be pretty profitable when doing them in volume. I use to charge dealerships $50 to do new car preps. A newbie could do 2 of them an hour all day long.
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Definitely, specially with our friends OCW and AW.
 
Jakerooni #1 thank you for not taking my inquiries as questioning your business practice I just needed some more info to comprehend and, now that I do I see how a strict price structure will work for your business.



I offer packages as well as ala-carte, all packages and ala-cart are calculated based on an hourly rate SO, in a sense "Joe" can call and say "I want what my buddy Bill purchased" and expect a ball park quote.



I say ball park because even my packages have price ranges to account for different size vehicles and different levels of paint damage.



I also inspect before giving a firm quote. With no phone call I can only give a price "range" and I advise that they count on the higher end because everyone thinks that their own paint is in "decent" condition.



Thanks for elaborating.
 
David Fermani said:
They won't charge $75/hr for body work
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OK. Maybe that is why the body shop crew left my newly painted truck with holograms and swirls when they "finished" it. Basic skill.



It is interesting that many service professions have inconsistent in costs per hour. Some charge a min charge (usually $50 to $75) for the first hour and then drop to something lower plus parts (also they make a profit on this) such as plumbers. It is often just having that special tool you would not normally have.



Personal care people barbers/beauty shops seem to have a different pay scale. If there is any "art" involved you can demand a lot more and I think detailing is one of them. You will find a lot of people willing to pay a lot. Yes, there are a large number too that do not want to pay more than $25 for a wash/wax too....Very flexible pricing.
 
David Fermani said:
Just for the sake of friendly debate: At $100K of sales per year, a mobile detailer should have no more than 20% total overhead leaving them $80K to live on. To me, that's a whole lot of money.
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David,



For the sake of friendly debate, not being in the business, I accept that you can operate on a 80% gross profit. However, the taxes on 80K are $34,282.52 combined, here in CA. (Unless you live in TX or FL or a couple of other states, you tax rates are really not that much different.) That leaves the detailer, who can bill for 8 hours a day for 50 weeks a year, $45,717.15 in net. It is over 100 degrees here in CA today. Why would a skilled person, skilled heck, many of the detailers on this board are almost artists, spend the day working hard under those conditions for less than that? It does not make any sense to me.



Why would you subject yourself to the potential hazards faced by a self-employed person for so little monetary reward. Even if you do it as a labor of love, you need to get paid.



By the way, with travel time and other issues that invariable arise, I think it might be hard to bill for 6 hours a day on average for a year. But, that is another issue.



Anyway, enjoy the weekend. I am going to detail my neighbors 1982 Collector's Edition Corvette!:woot: I will do it for the shear pleasure of it, but if he had more, I would charge the heck out of him!:2thumbs:



BOB
 
I would quote them $150. They could take it or leave it. Twenty years ago i would have done it for $65.
 
$150 sounds good if you are in a good mood. How can some people drive and live like that? I go nuts if there is a speck of dust on my dash...
 
I would charge at least $150.00. Around my area the body shops charge $80.00/hr and mechanics charge at least $85.00/hr. I live in the Hills and there are about 60,000 people in the general area. If you want to get anything cheaper you have to drive at least an hour and a half to the next major city. Around my area everything is expensive and there are not many choices. That is why i am starting to do detailing on the side. I have seen the work that shops around my area have done and it is not what i consider a GOOD job. People are paying $250.00 for a detail on new cars with no need for paint restoration. Just wash, wax, interior wipe down, vaccumm, clean windows, spray underhood plastic with protectant, and tire dressing.
 
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