$10.00 hand car wash/detailers

Please pm me where you bought a Diesel pressure washer!!


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Hotsy or karcher pressure washers will give you hot water,but there is always a problem with hose bursting and other problems.
 

Your employees will faint before you do 300 cars a day ,if you look at newly built car washes today there is no labor involved ,they have one guy that's it all computerized and washes from 3.00 to 20.00 on top of that free vacuum free glass cleaner free all purpose cleaner,that 80 percent of what people want quick and cheap,they don't care about swirls,look at all these car washes that built 2 million dollar facilities on speculation and all the labor cost they can't survive.
 
I don't think calling a $10 wash guy a hack detailer is fair

I don't think these guys consider themselves to be detailers

My local carwash does not claim to detail your car for $11.99. They do exactly what is posted on the price menu signage

I am actually surprised by how good the work is for the price. If you charge $60 and it takes you 60 minutes....how much work could you get done in 12 minutes?

If customers weren't satisfied that they were getting what they pay for, there wouldn't be a line every Thursday, Friday & Saturday

Not the business model I would want, but car washes can be very profitable. Remember, a lot of those cars are unsold to more costly packages, that require only a few more minutes of labor
what if it rains Thursday fri sat you've just made zero bad business on washing cars.
 
I remember going to $15-$25 car washes back before I knew anything about detailing. For the money, they weren't that bad if you don't care about swirls.

Frequently they have a line so long that people wait over 1hr just for a wash. They also have a store with snacks, drinks, sandwiches, etc (all overpriced)...

I talked to the owner he once he said they do about 100 cars a day on average. He pointed out that in the summer they can finish them off outside with a few extra guys. Another thing is everyone working there was FOB (fresh off the boat) and were clearly getting less than minimum wage.

So if you're paying 10 guys $5 an hour (plus tips customer give) for 16 hours and they complete 100 cars a day at a $20 average per car (upsells and snacks) that's $2,000 a day -$800 in labor and -$200 for utilities, bills, and supplies per day -> Then the owner clears near $1,000 a day, not to mention the other activities going on in the background...

I for one do not want to run anything like that, but that's how it's done in a profitable way from what I've seen.

There was a article 3 months ago in the New York post about the car wash owners practices like you mentioned,now he has to pay out all that money to the employees.horrible business I can't even imagine the liability you must carry,it's self serve today .
 
Which soap do you use to need only two caps?is it an Rinseless wash?




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I find that hard to believe with one guy doing all that in 15 min ,I will even give you 2 extra guys and that's still pushing it.
 
There was a article 3 months ago in the New York post about the car wash owners practices like you mentioned,now he has to pay out all that money to the employees.horrible business I can't even imagine the liability you must carry,it's self serve today .

Are you saying the owner had to pay for damage done to the cars by his employees?
 
There is no money to be made washing cars period,I don't do them I have 4 customers that I do car washes for,and I get 55.00 and they don't give me a headache.when I first started I did a lot for 25 total waste of time.The only thing you benefit is exposure while being mobile and you can get some detailing jobs.

Are you saying customers pay you $55 to wash their car?
 
So much absurdity in this thread. It's as if basic morality and the value of human life doesn't exist to some people.

So $10 washes aside, how about $85-200 "buffing" jobs? Apply the same principals and critiques of the $10 wash to that and you see the same issues...yet my market is full of them! It's hard to imagine true paint correction at <$20/hr rate.

Basic point: ignore the undercuts. Undercut to build clients but be sure to do great work. Once you've got a reputation, start raising your prices- maybe as high as 25% per quarter. Eventually you'll start to find your market cap, at which case stop. I feel so many people forget to do this in this industry- they undercut and then stay there. It hurts you and everyone else out there!
In the end, it all maxes out between $1k-$3k depending on your market.
 
Are you saying the owner had to pay for damage done to the cars by his employees?

No he had to pay them the difference of 6 dollars and hour to 9 dollars and hour,for almost 2 years back pay on 8 employee
 
Are you saying customers pay you $55 to wash their car?

Yes,the only washes I have are a Tahoe ,mountaineer and 2 Mercedes and a Lexus suv that's all the washing I do for 55 each.The rest is all detailing.I use,to have a 300 gallon water tank and come home with it empty everyday only to find out that I was killing myself blowing thru diesel and chemicals,I had to change my services from not washing at all to just detailing,it took about a year but well worth the decision.
 
So much absurdity in this thread. It's as if basic morality and the value of human life doesn't exist to some people.

So $10 washes aside, how about $85-200 "buffing" jobs? Apply the same principals and critiques of the $10 wash to that and you see the same issues...yet my market is full of them! It's hard to imagine true paint correction at <$20/hr rate.

Basic point: ignore the undercuts. Undercut to build clients but be sure to do great work. Once you've got a reputation, start raising your prices- maybe as high as 25% per quarter. Eventually you'll start to find your market cap, at which case stop. I feel so many people forget to do this in this industry- they undercut and then stay there. It hurts you and everyone else out there!
In the end, it all maxes out between $1k-$3k depending on your market.
I completely understand what you are saying,but the majority of potential client will only pay out max 150 to 200 for a detail,then you get the minor influx of people who want a 3 step so it's sink or swim in this industry but a lot has to do with the demographic locations as well.
 
I have something similar to this around me....I'm just starting out doing this and have only 2 jobs under my belt, both being simple wash, clay and wax with a basic Interior run down....I charged each $60 and each job took me roughly 3 hours to do, so $20 a hour....I had the customers (who were my wife's co workers) leave the cars with me at my house while I did the work....they were both extremely happy and said I will be maintaining the cars for them from now on.

I'm trying to branch out to the car community more since I'm having into it myself, and I see PLENTY of cars that are in desperate need of a good REAL detail....BUT there's a guy out there that's pretty established with quite a few car ppl that's doing wash and wax jobs for $40 (no clay/decon) and also wash/wax AND polish jobs for $50 with just running a rotary over the car.... I haven't seen his work in person, but from some pics it doesn't look all that good
 
I know you're starting out,but for 50 dollars you are extremely low anybody can wash and clay a car with 1 hr of training stray away from 50 and at least get 90.00, it's labor intensive work.
 
I have something similar to this around me....I'm just starting out doing this and have only 2 jobs under my belt, both being simple wash, clay and wax with a basic Interior run down....I charged each $60 and each job took me roughly 3 hours to do, so $20 a hour....I had the customers (who were my wife's co workers) leave the cars with me at my house while I did the work....they were both extremely happy and said I will be maintaining the cars for them from now on.

I'm trying to branch out to the car community more since I'm having into it myself, and I see PLENTY of cars that are in desperate need of a good REAL detail....BUT there's a guy out there that's pretty established with quite a few car ppl that's doing wash and wax jobs for $40 (no clay/decon) and also wash/wax AND polish jobs for $50 with just running a rotary over the car.... I haven't seen his work in person, but from some pics it doesn't look all that good
He is a crackhead ruining the industry with prices like that,and it's sad because the average customer deosnt know better so yes he will stay busy with those prices its ashame.
 
He is a crackhead ruining the industry with prices like that,and it's sad because the average customer deosnt know better so yes he will stay busy with those prices its ashame.

yea the ppl who's cars he's working on just want a shiny car with tire shine to go to the show/meet in....and he looks like he stays busy from posts I see on Instagram frequently.... well see if I can get my name out there and get some cars looking really good
 
local detailer in my small town charges $10 for a basic wash $25 for a basic wash & interior wipe down! He has done my truck many times, & does an awesome job may i add! He does cars for pretty much everyone in our town and does actual "detail" jobs but i believe a majority of his business is the basic $25 wash & wipe down. It is part time and he has a really good full time job though.

nice truck
 
How does one make money on a ten dollar wash?


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How does one make money at all on washes even at 35 a wash need to do a ton everyday and minus your expenses and labor your left worn out and broke.
 
If my neighbors would let me use their water and all they only wanted was a wash and dry i would wash every car in the neighborhood for $10 each . The problem is the customer would want a full exterior detail plus wax and tires dressed for $10. They would not be happy with just the wash and dry for $10
 
If my neighbors would let me use their water and all they only wanted was a wash and dry i would wash every car in the neighborhood for $10 each . The problem is the customer would want a full exterior detail plus wax and tires dressed for $10. They would not be happy with just the wash and dry for $10

Of course not,there trying to take advantage of you,I'm not being mean but you your self created that promblem.To stay in the game and feed yourself or family I would abort that service for so little money and start all over again it's gonna suck but it will payoff from a year or two from now best of luck.
 
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