How Much Would You Charge?

[seanbreaux]

Hi i wanted to know what someone would charge to do this to a whole car:

wash car and rims
clay car possibly rims
wax car and rims and shine tires
vacuum interior and wipe it all clean with int. quik detail. clean condition leather.
clean windows possibly rainx

Separately:

How much would you charge for doing m80 or m83 to the whole car with a DA?

Headlight restoration?

How much for engine cleaning?

This would be mobile detailing
In Los Angeles.

Thanks

Sean

[CWM3]

Re: How Much Would You Charge?

Dude, I have seen people charge upwards of $3-500 for that in LA. Depends if you are that good and the customer is willing to pay.

Alternatively, you could charge by the hour.

[Hemin8r]

Re: How Much Would You Charge?

What car is it?

[carguy1234]

Re: How Much Would You Charge?

I charge by the hour usually $ 40 to $ 45 dollars a hour, paint correction $ 50 to $ 55 a hour using a rotory buffer there could be 2 or more steps to that process. Hope this helps.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: How Much Would You Charge?

For the exterior alone around $150 to $300.00, basically you want to try to get top dollar for your labor.

For the interior if you're just vacuuming, windows and dressing surfaces then somewhere between $50.00 to $75.00 is good. More when you get into carpet cleaning either by hand or machine.

Let us know where you end up.

[seanbreaux]

Re: How Much Would You Charge?

WOW! i cant imagine charging someone that much especially friends. People will really pay that much for non-rotory work? I guess i need to find some rich customers

[Sprzout]

Re: How Much Would You Charge?

I've been trying to price it out for the work that's being done, and in some cases, I think that either people don't know what some detailers really do to their car and are getting fleeced, or they see detailing as being a status symbol, or they themselves don't have the time and figure it's easier to pay someone else to do the deed. I see detailers that will charge $35 for a hand wash & wipe down, spraying some tire dressing on the tires, and vacuuming the car.

To me, that just seems exorbitant...But again, it's the price that people are willing to pay to have a "professional detailer" wash their car, possibly because of the aforementioned reasons.

And you have to think that, if you're going and doing a $300 detail, as Mike is saying, you're going to be doing a pretty thorough detail, where you're probably going to be spending 6 hours washing, claying, cleaning, polishing, and waxing the car. That's still $50/hr, which is pretty darned good money. People want something that looks really good, so that they can drive down the street and have people look at them; that's what they're buying in a $300 detail job - satisfaction.

[Superior Shine]

Re: How Much Would You Charge?

Here is a job almost exactly how you described your looking for - $360 full detail on a newer vehicle - http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/sho...ighlight=white

Here is a $600 exterior only - http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/sho...ighlight=lexus

Here is a "make it perfect" $1600 exterior only - http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/sho...n+black?LAM+2=

[Superior Shine]

Re: How Much Would You Charge?

To me, that just seems exorbitant...But again, it's the price that people are willing to pay .....................

I see a Mustang in your avatar. I think that is a $20,000 - $25,000 car isn't it? I could have gotten you a car much cheaper - http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/car/611837889.html


See my point. Btw we get $45 to $85 for our wash here.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: How Much Would You Charge?

I charged $125 for the black Cobra and $300 for the Ferrari 360 in this thread --> http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums...ad.php?t=22530

The Cobra was very straightforward and just the first of many cars I'll be doing for this company. Looking at other cars that were done here they are getting a much better finish out of me than they did their previous service, and I'm only charging them $10 more.

Now look at the "before" pictures of the Ferrari. That was the condition "before" I polished it but "after" another detailer did his work on it just 10 days prior! The car had been driven once and covered the rest of the time in those 10 days. The guy who detailed it and left all those swirls charged the same $300 I did. Looking at the difference either I should have charged $1000 or the first guy should have charge $1.

There are too many hacks out there - how many times have we seen pictures on this forum of a car that was just "professionally detailed" and it's full of buffer swirls and other issues? Guys like Joe Fernandez, Kevin Brown, Mike Phillips, etc get paid very good money to polish paint because they have the talent to bring out optimum results. Bottom line - they're worth it.

[Superior Shine]

Re: How Much Would You Charge?

Guys like Joe Fernandez, Kevin Brown, Mike Phillips, etc get paid very good money to polish paint because they have the talent to bring out optimum results. Bottom line - they're worth it.

Can I get that put up on a bill board somewhere next to a busy freeway?

[Hemin8r]

Re: How Much Would You Charge?

I charged $125 for the black Cobra and $300 for the Ferrari 360 in this thread --> http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums...ad.php?t=22530

The Cobra was very straightforward and just the first of many cars I'll be doing for this company. Looking at other cars that were done here they are getting a much better finish out of me than they did their previous service, and I'm only charging them $10 more.

Now look at the "before" pictures of the Ferrari. That was the condition "before" I polished it but "after" another detailer did his work on it just 10 days prior! The car had been driven once and covered the rest of the time in those 10 days. The guy who detailed it and left all those swirls charged the same $300 I did. Looking at the difference either I should have charged $1000 or the first guy should have charge $1.

There are too many hacks out there - how many times have we seen pictures on this forum of a car that was just "professionally detailed" and it's full of buffer swirls and other issues? Guys like Joe Fernandez, Kevin Brown, Mike Phillips, etc get paid very good money to polish paint because they have the talent to bring out optimum results. Bottom line - they're worth it.

Hey Mike, I know we discussed this in person and how low my pricing is. Time for me to up my price.

[Mike Pennington]

Re: How Much Would You Charge?

Can I get that put up on a bill board somewhere next to a busy freeway?

I was traveling the 5 Freeway the other day and snapped this....sorry it is a bit blurry, traffic was moving pretty fast

[Hemin8r]

Re: How Much Would You Charge?

It's everywhere.

[Sprzout]

Re: How Much Would You Charge?

I see a Mustang in your avatar. I think that is a $20,000 - $25,000 car isn't it? I could have gotten you a car much cheaper - http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/car/611837889.html


See my point. Btw we get $45 to $85 for our wash here.

Right, and I'm not trying to discount what you're doing. You probably do a GOOD job on that wash. But what I see the guys here do for $30 is silly. They run some water over the car with a basic car wash, spray some tire dressing on the tires (they don't wipe it on or anything, just spray it on and move on) and vacuum out the car. It's no better than the local automatic car washes do, and they charge half the price.

And I think that's where it falls onto the detailer to educate the customer on what they're doing for the money, because if not, customers may just go, "Why should I pay you $45 for a car wash that I can get for $10 down the street?" or "Why should I pay to have the swirls polished out? Wax will just fill in those swirls so that I won't see them.." I'm sure many detailers have heard these arguments before, and good ones will be able to justify their answers, to say why they charge what they charge.