Dealership Detailing
- Thread starter hitenp07
- Start date
The bad thing about dealership work is 95% of them don't want to pay for what it actually takes to do the job...if YOU can come to terms with that, and give only the work they're paying for and THEY are willing to except your level of work for what they want to pay, then you may do well!
Real Riders
New member
- Jul 18, 2013
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I think the dealer is a good idea. The dealer always has work that needs to be done. Another great place to find detail work is at an auto auction
refreshauto
New member
- Feb 19, 2014
- 1,158
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Dealerships dont want to pay get a car detailed, all they are worried about is moving units
Sent from my SPH-D710 using AG Online
Sent from my SPH-D710 using AG Online
mswerb
New member
- Sep 5, 2010
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I used to detail at a few dealerships and all of the above comments are true. They will want cars done as fast as possible and won't pay much. Dealerships that send their cars out to be detailed pay about $80-$100. I was paid flat rate, 4 hours to do a totally destroyed mini-van. No way. That is why I got out of working at dealerships.
beamerstrumpet
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- Jun 14, 2013
- 1,031
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the biggest dealer in town just moved in next to me. having a beer with him I ask him about it. he contracts with a company that does spray aond wipes to the lot and the new car stuff and I know he isnt paying a lot. He totally glossed over any hint of me trying to get sny work from him and told me about all the other guys in town who were GREAT but took way to long. It was a bit discouraging. I love this and ill keep trying but its a tough market in a small town. I was hoping to get the neighbor to give me a chance. but like all dealers,, he just wants to move product and do it cheap. I even told him where to go for interior upholstery fixes!
jaxtalonturbo
New member
- Sep 1, 2014
- 51
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I think this comes back to a bit of what Mike (Phillips) was saying in a thread I was reading last week about production detailing and evaluating customer (dealership) needs.
It seems everybody here is an enthusiast. Everybody wants to put in 10/10 on each job. And that's all fine and dandy, but time is money, and dealerships are counting on getting that car in for as little as possible, putting as little into it as possible, and selling it for the largest amount of money. YOU are an expense that must be justified be it via cost or time or both.
I come from primarily a mechanical background, and started getting into detailing a few years back on the side when I would clean up "special" customers' cars who were deserving or who were spending big money on a big job (engine swaps, etc).
In the mechanic world, you are not appreciated at all for the job you do, much less so than a detailer is. The customer does not care about the difference in quality between OEM gaskets and aftermarket junk, or how much you cleaned out the grime on the subframe prior to putting the engine in... they just want it to run and be cheap.
The same goes for customers' cars in detailing. The VALUE in your work has to be tailor suited for your target demographic. Dealers need fast and cheap, so do fast and cheap and take their money.
Production detailing is actually a part of the business I don't think I hear about as much as I'd like to despite it being what 80% of the general population and business sector of this market caters to. In the future I'd like to hone in on the craft to be good and fast enough to justify giving them a cleaned up trade in with only 90-130 a unit profit. There has to be a way.
It seems everybody here is an enthusiast. Everybody wants to put in 10/10 on each job. And that's all fine and dandy, but time is money, and dealerships are counting on getting that car in for as little as possible, putting as little into it as possible, and selling it for the largest amount of money. YOU are an expense that must be justified be it via cost or time or both.
I come from primarily a mechanical background, and started getting into detailing a few years back on the side when I would clean up "special" customers' cars who were deserving or who were spending big money on a big job (engine swaps, etc).
In the mechanic world, you are not appreciated at all for the job you do, much less so than a detailer is. The customer does not care about the difference in quality between OEM gaskets and aftermarket junk, or how much you cleaned out the grime on the subframe prior to putting the engine in... they just want it to run and be cheap.
The same goes for customers' cars in detailing. The VALUE in your work has to be tailor suited for your target demographic. Dealers need fast and cheap, so do fast and cheap and take their money.
Production detailing is actually a part of the business I don't think I hear about as much as I'd like to despite it being what 80% of the general population and business sector of this market caters to. In the future I'd like to hone in on the craft to be good and fast enough to justify giving them a cleaned up trade in with only 90-130 a unit profit. There has to be a way.
Real Riders
New member
- Jul 18, 2013
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I worked at a Chrysler Dealer for 21 years and they would send out some of the used cars to get detailed. If I remember correctly in 1983 the dealership paid $50 to get a car detailed, and when the dealership closed in 2004 they were paying $70
jaxtalonturbo
New member
- Sep 1, 2014
- 51
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For you guys who've done dealership work, can you describe some experiences? What did you see the most of? Are you guys just doing a 1 step cleaner/wax and letting it go down the road, or do you guys sometimes not even have to do paint correction at all? Interiors: are all of them getting extracted and full details or are most of the dealers cool with spot cleaning, vac and wipedown?
From my experience, interiors need to be CLEAN. Exterior at least washed, dressed, waxed, no waterspots, shinyish "improved" paint
I do the same level of work for 3 used car lots.
Here's what I do
Hyper quick vacuum, like very very quick
Air purge interior really quick
Revacuum
Prespray carpet and upholstery chems and agitate
Pre spray engine bay with apc, agitate, rinse
Prespray tires, wheels, wheel wells, door jambs with apc, quickly agitate, rinse
Spray Meg's wheel brightener on wheels, agitate quickly, rinse
Rinse whole car, wash, rinse, blade dry
Lay down carpet/upholstery shampoo from bucket, then extract
Blot carpet and lift extra dirt
Clean leather with apc and da brush if necessary
Spot clean headliner
Wipedown all panels with apc/dressing mix
Clean inside glass
Final vacuum
Dress tires, wheel wells and some trim
Wax exterior via da or quick all in one via da and polish foam pad or quick all in one via rotary and foam polish pad
Clean exterior glass
Final touch ups (don't leave wax, bugs, dirt on paint, ultra wet interior, streaks on plastic in interior, dirty wheels, etc)
I've improved my time by making shortcuts and on most days I can knock out 3-4 wholesale cars a day by myself. It isn't autogeek style AT ALL but it pays the bills and is fun to do bc you don't have to worry so much about the quality. But don't get me wrong, the overall improvement of the car is still spectacular every time. Especially since the cars are usually nastier than retail cars. You get to challenge yourself The worse that can happen is they send it back to do extra stuff to it.
I do the same level of work for 3 used car lots.
Here's what I do
Hyper quick vacuum, like very very quick
Air purge interior really quick
Revacuum
Prespray carpet and upholstery chems and agitate
Pre spray engine bay with apc, agitate, rinse
Prespray tires, wheels, wheel wells, door jambs with apc, quickly agitate, rinse
Spray Meg's wheel brightener on wheels, agitate quickly, rinse
Rinse whole car, wash, rinse, blade dry
Lay down carpet/upholstery shampoo from bucket, then extract
Blot carpet and lift extra dirt
Clean leather with apc and da brush if necessary
Spot clean headliner
Wipedown all panels with apc/dressing mix
Clean inside glass
Final vacuum
Dress tires, wheel wells and some trim
Wax exterior via da or quick all in one via da and polish foam pad or quick all in one via rotary and foam polish pad
Clean exterior glass
Final touch ups (don't leave wax, bugs, dirt on paint, ultra wet interior, streaks on plastic in interior, dirty wheels, etc)
I've improved my time by making shortcuts and on most days I can knock out 3-4 wholesale cars a day by myself. It isn't autogeek style AT ALL but it pays the bills and is fun to do bc you don't have to worry so much about the quality. But don't get me wrong, the overall improvement of the car is still spectacular every time. Especially since the cars are usually nastier than retail cars. You get to challenge yourself The worse that can happen is they send it back to do extra stuff to it.
U.C.D.L.L.C.
New member
- Aug 8, 2013
- 22
- 0
They expect everything. Full correction, carpet cleaned, leather cleaned, engine cleaned, headliner, odor removed, don't forget the headlights etc. All this for $100. Thats crazy.
SYMAWD
New member
- Feb 10, 2013
- 1,667
- 0
Keep in mind in addition to detailing, a lot of money goes into a used car. They have to pay technicians for frame and safety inspections plus any work and parts that have to be done. On top of that, they pay for paintless dent repair, alloy wheel restoration, getting bumpers resprayed, windshield repair if necessary, and interior restoration such as replacing torn arm rest fabric, etc. On top of all of that, they don't want to pay a lot for detailing.
Silverhorse84
New member
- Aug 7, 2014
- 25
- 0
I have yet to get my feet wet with this kind of work as I am planning to get into the detailing business as a new detailer and while I am at it, I would like to dedicate only a small portion of my business. say 5-10 cars a week, to selling my services at wholesale to dealerships as I've heard that there are risks in dealing with dealers such as the dealers sometimes being slow to pay their bills and demand a lot for a little. While I'm not how true either of these two problems are, I could see how they could be real issues since a lot of dealerships rely on credit to run their operations and can sometime stretch credit terms out their limits if means effectively leveraging their operating capital to their own benefit at the expense of the vendors.
As for your question though, I've always heard that one-step paint correction is the way to go for high volume work and seems to produce a good result. I would expect that the service provided has to be good enough to address the issues that would be noticeable to a prospective buyer who may have basic to slightly better than average expectations of what a clean car should look like. Just from all the research I've done on working with dealers, I would say that spot cleaning to address glaring issues would primarily be the way to go unless it absolutely comes downs to putting in lots of "sweat equity" to make the car look decent and keep the dealer shopping with you for your services. I know my plan is to do as much spot cleaning as possible and only use tools such as extractors that will speed up cleaning time as necessary and max out the dollars earned per hour at every chance possible. If I'm wrong in that mind set though, can someone correct me as I definitely don't want be doing signature level details for quickie mart prices.
-Silverhorse84
"Sometimes being big enough to admit when you're wrong wins more customers than the expert that is right even when their wrong":buffing:
I love doing dealer work. they are often times less picky than regular clients. once you figure out what parts are most important and what parts less, you can knock them out in 4 hours usually. interiors very important, engine also, then just AIO the outside with Megs M66. no claying, just quickly DA and dress everything.
the large dealership I get overflow from pays flat $150, sometimes a bit more when its huge, extra dirty, or want scratches removed, etc. doing 2 full details in a day, making $300 isn't bad at all, at least where I live with very low cost of living, and doing this at my house without any shop overhead. I'll take $300 8 hour days all week ($35 an hour after gas/materials).
the large dealership I get overflow from pays flat $150, sometimes a bit more when its huge, extra dirty, or want scratches removed, etc. doing 2 full details in a day, making $300 isn't bad at all, at least where I live with very low cost of living, and doing this at my house without any shop overhead. I'll take $300 8 hour days all week ($35 an hour after gas/materials).