Confessions of a Frustrated detailer

mattk

mattk

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So recently I started detailing at a very nice Porsche dealership, and can honestly say it's no better than any other dealership or hacks out there. Here's just a few things wrong..

1. Wash brooms :( all the Porsches are scratched. (Yes new ones 60-150k) where the microfiber mitts ??

2. No one knows how to finish down cars. Compound or a one step with a rotary buffer - cutting pad, wax and lets take wax off with a rotary buffer!:awman:

3. When I fine polish cars down, all the detailers laugh and don't understand true power of a DA polisher; they really have NO clue.

Disappointed. Frustrated.
Feed back please

Matt
 
Lol you're expecting too much of people, just start your own business and take all of the business doing proper work
 
Why do you expect them to care if they are probably making minimum wages working at a dealership in the detailing department. Yeah if they got $1000 in their own pocket for every correction detail, they would take the time and do things right.

The dealership expects them to work quickly and turn over a bunch of cars. They are not paid what Paul Dalton gets paid to do details.
 
And it's not all about the money either. At the end of the day, it's the dealership that stands behind the work their employees produce. If this type of detail is OKAY by the dealer manager and he doesn't tell his workers to do a better job, they never will.
 
A 120k dollar Porsche should be delivered with no holograms. This is Porsche. Not Honda. We aren't paid minimum wage there's benefits and what not too, but yea not getting rich either...

I'm the type of person who lives by " Do things right or don't do them at all." At the end of the day It affects my work.. And my work is a reflection of me. No pun intended :)

I want to have my own business, there's obviously a need for proper detailing , but I'm 21 and living on my own moved to Los Angeles and having my own business isn't really an option right now.
 
mattk said:
A 120k dollar Porsche should be delivered with no holograms. This is Porsche. Not Honda
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LOL!, so a Honda should be delivered with holograms? Tell that to the owner of a 90,000 dollar Honda NSX, see how that works out for you.

All my vehicles are worked with the same pride and dedication regardless of vehicle make.
 
Lol like Porsche owners know about holograms more than a Honda owner.... get real dude. Dealerships don't give a sht.

They can't allocate 10+ hour details split between two or three guys on one car and charge the customer around $175-$300 or whatever "high end" dealerships charge on average expecting them to roll off the floor in flawless condition. After it's all said and done, it's a service offered by the dealership and they need to make their cut too, otherwise they wouldn't be offering it as a service. Any job you'll work you're not gonna agree or like 100% of how it's run. It's simple, if you believe you can do better (which is not that hard to do better work than most dealerships), just start off as a side business on the weekends. You don't need to quit your job. Look at it as side income. Eventually, if you're as good as you say, it will pay off and you can build a client base to where you can do it full time. In CA you can do it year round without needing an indoor facility wit ha drain in the winter so it's even easier for you.
 
The dealership expects them to work quickly and turn over a bunch of cars. They are not paid what Paul Dalton gets paid to do details.
Click to expand...

Since when does Porsche sell a "bunch of cars"? Last time I checked Porsche was selling less than 30k a year in the US.. How many Hondas got pushed out last year?

CM8 6MT said:
LOL!, so a Honda should be delivered with holograms? Tell that to the owner of a 90,000 dollar Honda NSX, see how that works out for you.

All my vehicles are worked with the same pride and dedication regardless of vehicle make.
Click to expand...

Awe, c'mon, you know what he meant and the youngin has a danged good point! Same thing at my shop, though the difference is the detailer knows he's doing "low end production work". It's just not in the cards to correct the paint on the "cheaper" DD's people buy, for several reasons.. The least of which being that the customer doesn't care! lol

I am of the opinion that ANY new auto should leave the dealership looking, well, NEW! Sadly it doesn't happen, but we (the consumer) have very few to blame but ourselves. We insist on every dollar of discount that we can get, we intentionally place ourselves in adversarial relationships with the people who sell and service the second most costly investment that most of us make, up to and including misleading them and "getting one over on them" when it's time to trade in!

Exactly what do we, the almighty consumer, expect?

And yeah, the standards are a bit higher on an uber-luxury product that isn't a "DD".. Like a daggum Porche.

Rant over, back to your regularly scheduled programming.
 
Fishincricket said:
I am of the opinion that ANY new auto should leave the dealership looking, well, NEW! Sadly it doesn't happen, but we (the consumer) have very few to blame but ourselves.
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It doesn't happen because it would require tremendous care for it to happen. Honda paint is so soft (like many of today's paint) that it's near impossible to deliver a perfectly finished car. The average person, hell MOST people have no idea how detailing works. They are not aware they are damaging the paint as they wash the car. Even the most experienced detailers sometimes struggle to maintain acceptable results. How is someone at BMW supposed to deliver a car painted Jet Black in perfect shape? You can have the best detailer in the country correct it, make it perfect....the car sits on the lot for a few weeks and they lightly wash it before delivery and BAM swirls and sht everywhere. It's too much of a hassle.
 
Kaban said:
It doesn't happen because it would require tremendous care for it to happen. Honda paint is so soft (like many of today's paint) that it's near impossible to deliver a perfectly finished car. The average person, hell MOST people have no idea how detailing works. They are not aware they are damaging the paint as they wash the car. Even the most experienced detailers sometimes struggle to maintain acceptable results. How is someone at BMW supposed to deliver a car painted Jet Black in perfect shape? You can have the best detailer in the country correct it, make it perfect....the car sits on the lot for a few weeks and they lightly wash it before delivery and BAM swirls and sht everywhere. It's too much of a hassle.
Click to expand...


Maybe they should quite installing cheap ass paint on their cars, then?

But that would cost more money and the average consumer wouldn't pay it..

Face it, it's all our fault. lol

I'm just kicking dirt.. Don't mind me.
 
Fishincricket said:
Since when does Porsche sell a "bunch of cars"? Last time I checked Porsche was selling less than 30k a year in the US.. How many Hondas got pushed out last year?
Click to expand...

Yeah I was not talking about selling anything. We are not talking about selling cars.
 
I would rather take delivery of a new car with swirls than had a hack team of dealership "detailers" who buffed it multiple times...
 
Kaban said:
Yeah I was not talking about selling anything. We are not talking about selling cars.
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Well what other reason would the detailer have for needing to "turn over a bunch of cars" at a Porsche dealership? What are they doing with them, if not selling them? :scratches_head:
 
Fishincricket said:
Well what other reason would the detailer have for needing to "turn over a bunch of cars" at a Porsche dealership? What are they doing with them, if not selling them? :scratches_head:
Click to expand...

I never worked at a dealership but my brother has for many years with many good dealerships... last he worked at Lexus... all new Lexus have soft paint and he would tell of the nightmare stories from detailers burning through, not being able to finish down, etc.

Just because Porsche doesn't sell in the volume that Honda does, doesn't mean their business is slower than Honda in the service department. Heck, Lexus doesn't exactly sell as many 80k LS460's as Honda does Civics but there always plenty of them in service whether it's an oil change or free car wash that all Lexus dealers offer (at least in the midwest). Most of the dealership profit comes from service, not sales, especially new car sales lol.
 
Fishincricket said:
Since when does Porsche sell a "bunch of cars"? Last time I checked Porsche was selling less than 30k a year in the US.. How many Hondas got pushed out last year?



Awe, c'mon, you know what he meant and the youngin has a danged good point! Same thing at my shop, though the difference is the detailer knows he's doing "low end production work". It's just not in the cards to correct the paint on the "cheaper" DD's people buy, for several reasons.. The least of which being that the customer doesn't care! lol

I am of the opinion that ANY new auto should leave the dealership looking, well, NEW! Sadly it doesn't happen, but we (the consumer) have very few to blame but ourselves. We insist on every dollar of discount that we can get, we intentionally place ourselves in adversarial relationships with the people who sell and service the second most costly investment that most of us make, up to and including misleading them and "getting one over on them" when it's time to trade in!

Exactly what do we, the almighty consumer, expect?

And yeah, the standards are a bit higher on an uber-luxury product that isn't a "DD".. Like a daggum Porche.

Rant over, back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Click to expand...

I agree with you and you have some interesting points.
 
My apologies if my comments on this subject seem caustic, I assure you I don't intend to anger anyone.. This just hits close to home for me all the way around, cause I feel the same as the OP.

Thanks all for not flaming me. :(

Most of the dealership profit comes from service, not sales, especially new car sales lol.
Click to expand...

Yup, shameful but true.
 
Fishincricket said:
My apologies if my comments on this subject seem caustic, I assure you I don't intend to anger anyone.. This just hits close to home for me all the way around, cause I feel the same as the OP.

Thanks all for not flaming me. :(
Click to expand...

Your a good guy man no worries :D
 
Thanks for everyone chiming in haha...

Every new car should be delivered new. But lets face it, if we were to expect any dealership to do that, it would be Porsche. Major volume dealership like Hondas sell high volume, they have automatic car washes etc.

Porsche sells less but we do get busy.. People out here have money. And plus its not like our customers are picky or anything..haha

We had a guy bring back his 911 because their was a spot on his engine cover and maybe a few plastic residue marks the size of a pen tip so he wanted a redo detail..

Also , we don't do details for customers, only what gets put through our showroom.

Some guy came to our dealership with a 2 day old Bentley with holograms on the trunk.. Sigh..
 
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