just had me car detailed
Discussion
api330 said:
Just had this done by my mate who is a car detailer. What do you reckon?
He charges £160, does a fantastic job, if you want yours doing I can give you his contact details. (Northamptonshire)
For one horrible moment there, first two pictures, I thought that he'd left you with swirl marks all the way down the nearside He charges £160, does a fantastic job, if you want yours doing I can give you his contact details. (Northamptonshire)
I have to say, that 'detailing' seems a bit of a con.
A £60-£70 valet, done by someone who knows what they are doing, is 99% as good, for a fraction of the outlay.
I know some detailers charge £1,000, for cars like Ferraris, etc. but again, someone charging £200 would make the car look as good.
FFS, the first time you drive the thing/the wind blows/the local Herring Gull flies over/it rains/more than 30 minutes goes by (dust)/whatever, it's going to lose the last few per cent of 'detailing' anyhow!
A £60-£70 valet, done by someone who knows what they are doing, is 99% as good, for a fraction of the outlay.
I know some detailers charge £1,000, for cars like Ferraris, etc. but again, someone charging £200 would make the car look as good.
FFS, the first time you drive the thing/the wind blows/the local Herring Gull flies over/it rains/more than 30 minutes goes by (dust)/whatever, it's going to lose the last few per cent of 'detailing' anyhow!
Beemer-5 said:
I have to say, that 'detailing' seems a bit of a con.
A £60-£70 valet, done by someone who knows what they are doing, is 99% as good, for a fraction of the outlay.
I know some detailers charge £1,000, for cars like Ferraris, etc. but again, someone charging £200 would make the car look as good.
FFS, the first time you drive the thing/the wind blows/the local Herring Gull flies over/it rains/more than 30 minutes goes by (dust)/whatever, it's going to lose the last few per cent of 'detailing' anyhow!
to be fair detailing is not a con.A £60-£70 valet, done by someone who knows what they are doing, is 99% as good, for a fraction of the outlay.
I know some detailers charge £1,000, for cars like Ferraris, etc. but again, someone charging £200 would make the car look as good.
FFS, the first time you drive the thing/the wind blows/the local Herring Gull flies over/it rains/more than 30 minutes goes by (dust)/whatever, it's going to lose the last few per cent of 'detailing' anyhow!
It's very easy to tell a car which has had a good valet as to one which has been fully detailed. A good valeter will wash, polish and wax the car. I can guarantee you that he will not remove swirling. The polishes a valeter uses are trade polishes and contain fillers which mask RDS and swirling for a very short period of time. If you're lucky, you'll get a trade wax (normally a paste wax) on top, which will look good for about a week as they do not have the durability of a good carnauba wax.
To get a good finish, you need to prep the paint. An absolute waste of time putting wax on a car if it hasn't been properly prepped. Same rule as putting a top coat of paint on. If the prep is no good then you're wasting your time.
BMW has a notoriously hard paint (similar to VAG paint) and there is no way even the best valeter is going to remove any amount of swirling by hand. Using polishes such as 3M or Menzerna is the only way as they are the only polishes designed to remove the swirling in the ceramiclear top coat used.
Show me a detailed car and a good valeted car and I will point out at least 100 imperfections.
If you then maintain the finish by using the correct washing techniques (2 bucket method etc etc) then you can maintain the finish for as long as you have the car. Just wash it correctly and top up the wax every month.
I have a few cars which I maintain (some concours winners) and even a year after doing them, they still look showroom fresh (and the cars I'm on about are between 30 and 40 years old each!!). I wash them regularly then apply a further coat of wax.
To some it may seem obsesive but I love the cars I do and the ones I own and take pride in their appearance! After all, It's my hard earnt money that bought them in the first place!
Edited by Coxy914 on Thursday 28th February 23:17
I wouldn't say it was a con. As long as they spent a full week on the car and did a really good job, what price a mans wages for the week eh? If one is incredibly wealthy, has a fleet of cars, and one has neither the time nor the inclination to keep them all up to scratch, then fair enough. £1000 a pop isn't unreasonable. It's these one day detailers that charge £300 - £400, clean the paint and bung some Zymol on, and dont so much as take the wheels off that I reckon are a con. If it takes a day rather than a week, it's a valet, not a detail. I would barely expect to be able to remove and clean four wheels and the inner arches properly in a day, let alone the whole car too.
I give my car a proper clean twice a year, it takes me a full week. Once a month it gets a minor clean, which is still 8 hours all day Sat and 8 hours all day Sun. But the labour rate is zero, and that is really what you are paying for with detailing, the labour. Not so much the process or the materials.
And as Beemer says, you get down the road, you may as well not have bothered
I give my car a proper clean twice a year, it takes me a full week. Once a month it gets a minor clean, which is still 8 hours all day Sat and 8 hours all day Sun. But the labour rate is zero, and that is really what you are paying for with detailing, the labour. Not so much the process or the materials.
And as Beemer says, you get down the road, you may as well not have bothered
as i said he is a mate so i paid nothing (although did bung him some cash for meterials) but if i had paid £160 (which is what he normally charges) i would have been very pleased with his work. my cars are always cleaned and polished by me as i am a car nut but it is so much better than any thing i have ever done and i have spent a lot of hours cleaning cars .
To say its a con is an absolute insult to a good detailer. Whether its a waste of money for you personally is subjective and depends on your financial situation and what your priorities are. Personally I would do it myself as I enjoy cleaning my car but I would consider using a good detailer come resale time.
Gassing Station | Midlands | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff