Your Thoughts On This?

Beemerboy

Beemerboy

Just One More Coat
In light of Todds recent thread on high end detailing, (done very well) that got me thinking about something. Are we suppose to treat expensive cars like the exotics with more attention than a regular cars like Chevy's and Fords, let say of equal years?

Its obvious there is a difference in quality of materials and paint jobs. For me when I approach a detail. I do one level of work and that's it. Its not about the cost of the car its about the pride in my work.

Every aspect of any car I work on is cleaned and conditioned to the best of my ability.

Any who I'm going to throw this one out and see what others think.

Thanks
 
As I understand, it Todd said he was referring to detailing focused on quality so not inexpensive (high price end). It is not high end (expensive) cars.
 
i don't detail cars for a living but in my daily work as a plumber i consider my work and the result thereof as my signature. so its always done to the best of my ability and left clean and neat.
 
I completely understand how you feel, you take on a job whether its a beater, a luxury car or even an exotic, you put the effort in and you want it to look good cause your giving it the time and effort and some jobs come easier than others but you hate attaching your name to a job that you know you could have done better on but sometimes it comes down to owner wanting to pay or not.
 
My attention to quality does not vary from vehicle to vehicle. Your Honda or Chevy gets the same amount of attention and respect. It is not the vehicle but the amount of work that dictates the price.
 
Concours.John said:
My attention to quality does not vary from vehicle to vehicle. Your Honda or Chevy gets the same amount of attention and respect. It is not the vehicle but the amount of work that dictates the price.
Click to expand...

Same here. I do have a few different packages to fit different budgets, but I refuse to cut corners and do so so work. My cheapest package is still more than what most around here offer.
 
Strange that you posted this at this time Dave. Last week a customer with a 2009 Dodge Ram pick-up asked me to take a look at a paint transfer spot that he claims someone bumped into him.After a quick look I told him I cound take out most of the scratches but a couple were down through the clear and base coat. It was a black with a blue flake in it. He asked me to go ahead and throw some touch-up on it. I said I would be more comfortable with something like Dr.ColorChip. He told me to just throw some solid black on it and nobody would notice. I mention I would know the difference and when anyone asked who repaired that ,I didn't want my name attached to this kind of work. He wasn't very happy but if its worth doing its worth doing right IMO.
 
Principals are principals. Whatever level of attention you give car A will probably be carried out on car B despite a price difference of even $100k. If you do poor work on a Honda you probably will do poor work on a Maserati!

If anything the difference in your work may be "heightened" due to a particularly high priced car or something that is extremely rare/irreplaceable. I think subconsciously people may rinse their wash mitt a few more times when working on a very expensive car just to ensure nothing damages the paint despite knowing their wash mitt is still clean to begin with, heck I'll admit to that one :redface:

Its not exactly that they are taking better care of that car its just that the repercussions of something bad happening to a certain car (rare or priceless) could be MORE devastating to ones business and reputation.

Extreme example: burning paint on a new Ferrari that a customer waited 2 years to get will probably become a very big issue compared to the same accident occurring on a Lexus or Audi (cars that people dont generally wait 2 years to get).

If you damage a part on a car that is made by a boutique company it may take weeks or months to get repaired where many common vehicles can be fixed at local dealers in a short time frame for not a tremendous amount of money.

Also even the smallest factors such as re-sale play a role in this as well. A repainted bumper on a Ferrari will have a more serious affect on resale compared to a repainted bumper on a Lexus or Audi. Again this is a lot of subconscious thinking but it is something that sticks in the back of my mind. Yes I am confident in my abilities as a detailer to work on almost any type of car/paint etc. yet I am aware of other factors (listed above) and that could easily affect how I go about detailing a car.

Very good thread, my $0.02 :bigups
 
I think what David said is exactly right. The ramifications of a mistake on an exotic can be exponentially worse than on a DD, thus a little extra care might be taken. But the standard for the final product should not vary except as dictated by the customer.

I can do a heck of a job to make a DD look great and blow the mind of the owner, but I still know I could have easily put an additional 10-15 hours into it working on tiny details. In most cases, however, I might ultimately be the only person to even notice those details. In reality the owner of a DD BMW or Lexus is not as likely to be willing to pay for those extra hours and details, but an owner of an exotic is much more likely to be willing to pay the extra, and that is where the difference really comes in.
 
Loving this thread. Does anybody have that thread by Todd about detailing high end cars I haven't seen it and would love to give it a read. Thanks!
 
I really like this thread as well as Todd's.

I think the quality you put into every car should be the same. The only difference is what the customer is willing to pay for...


One question I have: Do you change your pricing just because the care is worth more than an everyday DD? IMO I don;t think that is right but I'm not in the High End car market yet and I don't know.
 
Beemerboy said:
In light of Todds recent thread on high end detailing, (done very well) that got me thinking about something. Are we suppose to treat expensive cars like the exotics with more attention than a regular cars like Chevy's and Fords, let say of equal years?

Its obvious there is a difference in quality of materials and paint jobs. For me when I approach a detail. I do one level of work and that's it. Its not about the cost of the car its about the pride in my work.

Every aspect of any car I work on is cleaned and conditioned to the best of my ability.

Any who I'm going to throw this one out and see what others think.

Thanks
Click to expand...

When ever I am selling a detailing package I am not focused on the type of the car it is but the quality of work that I will be performing.

There are times, such as working on an original paint Lambroghini Miura or the only original paint Shelby Cobra left that require special consideration. You certainly cannot be blind to the car you are working on, but for the most part the work that I am going to to do and the quality I am going to perform has little to do with the type of vehicle but rather a combination of my client's expectations and my expectations of myself.

I think, from the outside, working on exotic cars is viewed as different or 'high-end'. The reality is that many people perform sub par work on these types of cars everyday. When you are working on one, they are no longer these mythetical creatures that exist in only in magazine's and youtube videos. Instead they are cars, with paint, that in many cases is hammered.

I have done so many 360/430 Ferraris (likely over 100) that this is regular car for me, I know them inside and out. I get more excited to do a Civic SI to be honest, but if the client is willing to pay for the same level of service, they will get the same quality of work. To be honest, I may take my time more on the Civic because I am unfamiliar with their nuances.
 
TroyScherer said:
I really like this thread as well as Todd's.

I think the quality you put into every car should be the same. The only difference is what the customer is willing to pay for...


One question I have: Do you change your pricing just because the care is worth more than an everyday DD? IMO I don;t think that is right but I'm not in the High End car market yet and I don't know.
Click to expand...

I have heard (and agree) with both sides of the argument. If you goal is to maximize income then you may have to drop your price on regular cars to fill off-days.

I have always valued my time (and set most of my services by the hour). The materials I use and my attention to detail (as well as my reputation for quality) remain the same, so for me to change my pricing level would reflect (to me) that I am either over charging people based on the assumption they have money or I am under charging people on the assumption they don't have as much.

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer, it is a gray area.

 
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