Help with pricing

dbinott

dbinott

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Been a while since posting since I only detail in summer. Anyway, usually just do family cars for free, but since I am jobless I will be taking on paying customers. First one is going to be a Yukon Denali, black and tan. Will be full interior and exterior paint correction. It's not filthy, but it's dirty. Paint seems too be mostly holograms and spider webs.
What would a fair price be in this monster? He will have more for me as well. Bentley, Ferrari, 67 Vette, Hellcat, SRX and others.
 
Never price something on the promise of more cars because let me tell you people use that line a lot but don't always deliver. Or the jobs turn into "hey, instead of doing a full paint correction and detail, just wash the Hellcat." If they are really going to do a lot of cars, you can discount them on the back end. Or they can sign a contract and pay half up front for the full package you're offering.
 
This question comes up fairly often and my answer is typically the same: This forum spans the world, from Dubai to Thailand, from Maine to Washington State and everywhere in between. It's made up of folks with many different business models, some do it all, some only do specialties and some only take certain clientele and vehicles. Only you know your business model, what you'll accept and how much you'll charge.

If you're just starting out it's obvious that you need business. Because detailing is so unregulated this tends to be difficult, but my suggestion would be to get three competitive quotes on the types of services you want to offer by looking at local detailers in your area. Packages will never be equal across the board, but try to see what the competition does in YOUR LOCAL AREA, then set your prices accordingly. Remember, competition is good, however lowering prices drastically from the competition is bad for your local economy.

Calculate on a per-vehicle basis your: overhead costs, costs of assets, cost of asset maintenance, product costs, and costs of incidentals (things that get worn or tossed after a detail, such as gloves, spent applicators, etc..). Don't forget to include utilities (water/electricity) and laundry costs. Then factor in your hourly rate, and there my friend is your answer.
 
Are you applying a coating after the paint correction?

Just cleaning the wheels, tires, wheel wells, washing, claying, drying, on that size vehicle, for me, about 2 hours.

If it's black paint and has holograms and swirls, it will most likely need at least a two step process - compound & polish.

The compounding step alone could take 6 to 8 hours, if you're fast.

The polishing step another 4 to 6 hours.

If applying a coating, then another 1 hour for wipe down and 1 to 2 hours for applying the coating.

So you're looking at about 14 to 19 hours just for the exterior.

How much are you looking to make per hour?

I would say $1200 - $1500 is fair for a two step (compound & polish) paint correction alone on that size vehicle and in that condition.

If a coating is to be applied, add another $200 to $300.

For me, that's not including the interior.
 
@LSNAutoDetailing - makes sense, thanks.

@FrankS - wow, it will for sure take me longer than that too. I'm sure it's not a deal breaker, but will have to run it by him.
 
If he's been paying someone to detail these cars I assume he's used to paying. A lo an friend washed a Porche, sorry I don't remember the model. He priced the guy 100.00. The customer told him his prices were too low. He told him that was a300.00 wash. Keep in mind when you price someone you can always come down on price, not as easy to raise the price once you've quoted. It would be a good idea to price him an hourly rate and give him an estimated range of hours you estimate. If a few hours in you discover something that is going to be more time consuming than you thought communicate with him. I would assume quality of work is more important than how much it costs judging by the vehicles he owns.
 
Do you have a paint thickness gauge meter? It's a little insurance when working on high end cars. Then do you have an insurance if something goes wrong? There is always a risk when detailing cars and even if it's not happens anything it's for if it would happen. It can get costly. Just some thoughts when reading what cars you may be doing in the future.

As for priceing look up what your local rates are. This looks like a test and if you are successfull you get to work on some great cars. The Yukon Denali you are gonna do seems to be in the middle of either doing a one step polish or a 2 step correction. And then it depends on what kind of LSP you are going to apply too. If you are going to apply a ceramic coating you can use a primer polish as the finishing polish. Then if you count that in you still get a 2 step correction with the total cost.

What kind of results are the customer expecting? Is it a daily driver and he wants to shine it up with a one step correction and get as much of correction as possible from that. Or do he want a full correction with as much of defects you can correct. Which often is a 2 step correction. It's much of finding out what the customer wants and or what the budget they are haveing to reach that goal. Detailers have a range of packages that suits different customers.

If you have the option to do a test spot to see what it takes to take out the defects would be great. Do a 2'×2' section on the lower back of the side of the car.
 
I started on it yesterday. Did the interior. Was not really dirty at all. Started the paint today. After a wash, the paint actually looked pretty good. I went with an AIO, HD speed. It is his daily driver so he's not too concerned about getting a show car finish on it. It's turning out really nice.
I don't have the paint thickness meter unfortunately. Might be his wife's SRX next, if not then the Bentley.
 
Why are you stringing out one car over multiple days? If you're doing this for a living now, you can't turn a car into a career.
 
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