How much should i charge for a car wash?

[Romym]

I am 16 and am starting a car wash as a summer job (as some of you may already know) and I was wondering how much should I charge? I will be using a pressure washer with a foam cannon, wash the exterior, rims/dress tires, interior, vacuum, and spray wax.

I was thinking maybe $20. is that too low? too high? How much would you be willing to pay someone to wash your car? What would you expect from them for that price?Feed back please

 

[c8n]

How much would you be willing to pay someone to wash your car?

Umm... I think that's a bad question on AG because you would have pay me for anyone else to wash my car!

Joking aside... I think $20 is pretty fair for a good proper hand wash.

 

[af90]

Too low in my opinion, depending on your area. An average of $30-40/hr for your time and products is pretty standard. Adjust your prices for that accordingly, and make sure your customers know it's an estimate and changes for large or extremely dirty vehicles.

 

[sproketser]

As someone wrote , it should be $ 40 for an hour of work .

An suv s pretty large , more of everything mate .

 

[Chris@AutoCleanse]

Definitely you would want to check out the condition of the car before giving a price out. If it is somewhat maintained it will be a quick job, if it is trashed it could be a all day affair, do you really want to detail a car for 20 dollars, and it take you all day. Just sayin.

 

[Romym]

But what if it it takes less than an hour? The car wash will probably be in front of my mom's pizzeria, a bar, a salon, and a 7- eleven most of the time and a lot of people want it cleaned in about 45 mins. since the guys that used to wash cars there left, I will take their old customers that where charged $20 for cars and $30 for trucks and SUV's but they used cheap products and really really crappy cleaning techniques.

 

[Romym]

And its not really a detail. Just a somewhat simple car wash mainly aimed at people that want there car washed at a convenient location and a convenient price but I do not know what that price is.

 

[Chris@AutoCleanse]

I am 16 and am starting a car wash as a summer job (as some of you may already know) and I was wondering how much should I charge? I will be using a pressure washer with a foam cannon, wash the exterior, rims/dress tires, interior, vacuum, and spray wax.

I was thinking maybe $20. is that too low? too high? How much would you be willing to pay someone to wash your car? What would you expect from them for that price?Feed back please

It is going to be tuff to do all that you have listed above in less than a hour, in my opinion.

 

[Romym]

It is going to be tuff to do all that you have listed above in less than a hour, in my opinion.

It probably will. But if i do exterior only for some customers, it should take less than an hour. hopefully

 

[dc52nv]

It takes me more than 30 minutes alone to properly clean my wheels and tires.

Will you be utilizing the 2BM? Windows? Trim area? Which products will you plan on using?

 

[Chris@AutoCleanse]

It takes me more than 30 minutes alone to properly clean my wheels and tires.

Will you be utilizing the 2BM? Windows? Trim area? Which products will you plan on using?

The customers that will be utlitlizing his service probably just want the dirt knocked off and to get down the road. Definitely can not do a q-tip job in less than a hour.

 

[Romym]

Yes I will use the 2 bucket method, and I will clean the trim and windows. I'm going to soak the exterior with Mr. Pink Super Suds Shampoo using a foam cannon (to loosen bugs and dirt), then I will clean it using Optimum Power Clean, and spray some Optimum Car wax to the Exterior.

 

[af90]

The customers that will be utlitlizing his service probably just want the dirt knocked off and to get down the road. Definitely can not do a q-tip job in less than a hour.

Agreed. If I was you I would foam the car, use a spray and rinse type wheel/tire product to speed up, 2BM the car, wipe down glass, and vacuum the interior tops.

 

[jimjc]

Frankly I think you should offer 3 washes. $20/30/40. 1. $20 exterior with floor vacuum. 2.$30 the above with inside door step plates and a detail spray wipe down. 3. The above plus vacuum seats, wipe dash inside windows. Have a extra $10 liquid spray wax it doesn`t take much longer than a detail wipe down. All washes should include a few spritzes of new car smell, it`s cheap and people will like it. This is just a quick put together some more thought should be done.

 

[Romym]

Agreed. If I was you I would foam the car, use a spray and rinse type wheel/tire product to speed up, 2BM the car, wipe down glass, and vacuum the interior tops.

That's pretty much what I am doing. But I might scrub the mats & carpets with Griot's Garage carpet cleaner. I'm still deciding wether I should or not

 

[Sfoster]

At $20 per car you should get plenty of customers, but I think that might be a little low, $30 sounds better!

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[Infiltrator]

Frankly I think you should offer 3 washes. $20/30/40. 1. $20 exterior with floor vacuum. 2.$30 the above with inside door step plates and a detail spray wipe down. 3. The above plus vacuum seats, wipe dash inside windows. Have a extra $10 liquid spray wax it doesn`t take much longer than a detail wipe down. All washes should include a few spritzes of new car smell, it`s cheap and people will like it. This is just a quick put together some more thought should be done.

+1

 

[Romym]

Frankly I think you should offer 3 washes. $20/30/40. 1. $20 exterior with floor vacuum. 2.$30 the above with inside door step plates and a detail spray wipe down. 3. The above plus vacuum seats, wipe dash inside windows. Have a extra $10 liquid spray wax it doesn`t take much longer than a detail wipe down. All washes should include a few spritzes of new car smell, it`s cheap and people will like it. This is just a quick put together some more thought should be done.

Thats actually a good idea. and what do you mean by "detail spray wipe down?" Do you mean spray the interior with interior cleaner or leather cleaner if needed? Or do you mean wax the exterior or something?

 

[Lexi65]

I am 16 and am starting a car wash as a summer job (as some of you may already know) and I was wondering how much should I charge? I will be using a pressure washer with a foam cannon, wash the exterior, rims/dress tires, interior, vacuum, and spray wax.

I was thinking maybe $20. is that too low? too high? How much would you be willing to pay someone to wash your car? What would you expect from them for that price?Feed back please

A lot depends on your demographics... Also what did the $20 include from your predecessor?

 

[Romym]

A lot depends on your demographics... Also what did the $20 include from your predecessor?

I honestly don't even know. They hardly spoke English but what I saw them do was a simple 2BM that left streaks sometimes and they scrubbed your cars paint with some sort of deck scrubbing brush and vacuumed the interior.