How to Make Money on SUV's

waelwell

waelwell

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I recently did my first two SUV's. Two Porsche Cayenne's. Ouch. It took me a long time to detail those vehicles and compared to the time I take and what I charge, SUV's look unattractive cars right now. Here's the data.

I'm currently charging the following for a basic (single step) exterior detail:

[TABLE="class: grid, width: 500, align: left"]
[TR]
[TD]2 or 4 door car[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]$300[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]~3 hours[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Midsize SUV or Minivan[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]$400[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]~7 hour[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Full size (Suburban or similar)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]$500[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]?[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Yeah, I know my rates are higher than most of yours. Don't worry about that part. My customers are fine with it and I'm not the most expensive in my area.

Here's my problem. An extra hundred buck buys me an extra 1 - 2 hours to do an SUV over a car. That means I should be doing the SUV's in 5 hours not 7. Raising my prices will put we out of line with my competition. I know I need a Werner platform to work on the top of the SUV's instead of the small step ladder I currently use. But that's not going to trim an hour or more off my time.

What's your take? Are bigger vehicles just lower margin items?

Thanks,

Bill

Oh yeah, you guys seem to like to see pictures so here you go.
View attachment 51693
 
I usually steer clear of trucks.pickups I will do if there not trashed.Dont worry about time just make it right.speed will come in time and you will find little shortcuts that will knock off 30 minutes to a hr.
 
GSKR - your private inbox is full... send me a message, I'd like to chat with you offline. Bill
 
SUV is bigger, but you should not spend 4 more hours on it (compare to 3 hours that you mentioned)
I usually charge maybe $50 more on it (not paint correction and coating)
 
Sharply Dressed - the basic exterior detail that I'm talking about in this example includes
- Wash the car
- Wash the wheel
- Nanoskin decontamination
- Wax or AIO
- Windows, tire dressing, ...

I'm looking at my notes from this particular customer and the wheels threw me a curve ball and they took a lot longer than they should have. Still, it took me nearly 3 hours to wash the wheels, wash the vehicle, and Nanoskin it. That doesn't look out of hand. The wax application, wax removal, dressing and windows however took 4 hours. Now that I'm looking at my notes, my times for wax application/removal seem to be longer than they should be regardless of the size of the car. Hmmmmmm

Bill
 
My take on SUV's , minivans and tucks is that they usually heavily used and abused thus making them a less likely the best candidate for a heavy correction. Unless they are something special, etc.

Most people with them want a solid detail but corrections.....meh....not enough to justify the time expense. No hard rule mind you but I actually just prefer a good light polishing I f them with no real correction. I make money on them save time doing it and if I sell a coating they are even more profitable for me.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk
 
You cut down on time with small things. Rinseless wash the paint with something like ONR or McKee, use Optimum CarWax or Mckees Fast Wax as clay lube. Wipe off, done. Saved yourself a lot of time in the wax removal, claying and washing period. For wheels, get a drill brush. Cuts down on a lot of time, not sure what you're using as wheel cleaner and tire cleaner, but I use the Gyeon tire cleaner. More expensive, but I find it works fast and quick. Not sure if you tire shine, but something quick and easy would do the job, don't need to go nuts with tire shine. As for rims, I don't know if you currently use iron remover but my process is usually rinse off, apply iron remover and then agitate with a brush. Then spray a mixture of APC and a strong car soap like Reset, and agitate some more, rinse off and then dry.

Basically, you save time by adding the protection in the drying stage so you don't have to go over the car again. Then you can mix in the claying stage as well. As for the roof, I wash the roof first so I don't have to deal with it after. Something the size of a RAV4, I can knock off in about 3 hours, 2 and a half if I really hustle at it. Another thing I use is also
 
Can you explain the 4 hours more to just apply a wax? I can see more time if you are buffing but not 4 hours.

What products are you using. Perhaps you need a more user friendly product.
 
Why do you make $100 an hour doing a car but then make almost half of that ($57) an hour for a midsize SUV or Minivan? Maybe that is why you dont feel like you make enough on an SUV like the Porsches you did. By your sedan pricing if a SUV takes you 7 hours you should charge $700 or so. Why discount it then ask US how to make money on SUV's? Very confusing post. Sorry.
 
dcjredline said:
Why do you make $100 an hour doing a car but then make almost half of that ($57) an hour for a midsize SUV or Minivan? Maybe that is why you dont feel like you make enough on an SUV like the Porsches you did. By your sedan pricing if a SUV takes you 7 hours you should charge $700 or so. Why discount it then ask US how to make money on SUV's? Very confusing post. Sorry.
Click to expand...

This was exactly what I was thinking. Price it on your time and results.
 
waelwell said:
I recently did my first two SUV's. Two Porsche Cayenne's. Ouch. It took me a long time to detail those vehicles and compared to the time I take and what I charge, SUV's look unattractive cars right now. Here's the data.

I'm currently charging the following for a basic (single step) exterior detail:

[TABLE="class: grid, width: 500, align: left"]
[TR]
[TD]2 or 4 door car[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]$300[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]~3 hours[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Midsize SUV or Minivan[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]$400[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]~7 hour[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Full size (Suburban or similar)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]$500[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]?[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Yeah, I know my rates are higher than most of yours. Don't worry about that part. My customers are fine with it and I'm not the most expensive in my area.

Here's my problem. An extra hundred buck buys me an extra 1 - 2 hours to do an SUV over a car. That means I should be doing the SUV's in 5 hours not 7. Raising my prices will put we out of line with my competition. I know I need a Werner platform to work on the top of the SUV's instead of the small step ladder I currently use. But that's not going to trim an hour or more off my time.

What's your take? Are bigger vehicles just lower margin items?

Thanks,

Bill

Oh yeah, you guys seem to like to see pictures so here you go.
View attachment 51693
Click to expand...

One pattern that I come across the most, when it comes to pricing is that most people fall into the category of “not the most expensive in the area.”

What is wrong with pricing correctly and as a result...actually happen to be the most expensive in your area?

SUVs are no joke. You should take time to do it correctly and be compensated for your time. Not trying to make “low margin” work by working faster. Business is a game of margin. Work smarter not harder.

Take interiors for example, for an SUV, I charge a minimum of $280. As a side note I used to charge a minimum of $560 (SUV) for a one-step paint correction then realized fast that I was banking in more per hour just with interiors at my standards of a true one-step.

Logically, $560 for any job sounds good right? But like I said, SUVs are no joke. You wake up sore the next morning. For several more reasons I don’t do jobs just for the sake of $560 when I can book interiors faster and make $700+ in the same amount of time I can crank out a one-step (SUV).

So now I charge $800 minimum for a single stage paint correction just for a small/mod-size car alone. And quite frankly, I kept my margin up even on SUVs. In some cases I make more margin on SUVs than most cars. Again, because it needs to be priced correctly.

I hope this is useful.
 
This is a 4 year old thread. I'm curios if the OP is still chARGING THOSE RATES AND STILL TAKING THAT AMOUNT OF TIME. Sorry for the CAPS
 
Billy Baldone said:
This is a 4 year old thread.
Click to expand...


The first thing I "try" to do anytime I >click< on a thread is first look at the post date for the first post.

There's nothing wrong with bringing back threads from the graveyard because often time there's always great information to be discussed and shared.

Could be OP has moved on to something else or is still chugging away at it.



:)
 
I can’t believe I fell victim to an old thread. Oops. Fortunately, anyone looking into this well into the future will hopefully find it beneficial to their (current & future) business.
 
If it was taking him 7 hours to do essentially a wash, clay and sealant on a mid size SUV as a pro I'm guessing he's no longer in the game.
 
sudsmobile said:
If it was taking him 7 hours to do essentially a wash, clay and sealant on a mid size SUV as a pro I'm guessing he's no longer in the game.
Click to expand...


On a small SUV 2 Row SUV like an escape or Rogue I budget about 6hrs. On a larger 3 row one like an Explorer or Pilot I budget about 7.5hrs. It rarely take me that long though. The budgets for time are there as a guide for me. The goal for me is to at very minimum make $50hr but I'm usually well past that and am in the $80 to $100+ per hour. Sometimes we get vehicles that are much easier to finish than others. Thankfully most are easier. I may tend to make more on the easier to correct stuff and on the tougher jobs like a German SUV, I push coatings because the efforts to correct hard paint not only work me harder but may take me a little longer depending on a number of factors. However, I can then recoup my profitability by doing a coating as they are relatively easy and I can do them quickly. I probably should re-do my time budgets which only I see and base them more on my actual earnings per hour as that 2 Row SUV likely only takes me 3-4hrs vs the 6 but I'm so set in how I have my formulas set up that it's what I still use after all this time.
 
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