Used cars dealers

What do you do for the 115$ and the 60$? And how much do you spend on each of those cars?
 
What is everything? If I did "Everything" to a car it would take me 20 hours or more.
 
I have done numerous amount of cars for body shops. If you take 20 hours on a car then they'll be losing money.

One is expected to Detail the car asap and at the same time, do quality work.
 
I am surprised I have to explain this but here it goes. Doing everything doesn't mean a thing.

To me, doing everything means you are doing a full paint correction, repairing chipped paint, removing heavy scratches by wetsanding, polishing, fine polishing, applying a coating, applying a sealant, applying a wax coat, applying a quick wax coat. Repeat for wheels, repeat for Windows (or just about). The go Inside the car, clean everything, shampoo seats and carpets, dress everything, clean Windows. Move to engine bay, clean everything there, detail all the plastic, polish the metal.

For sure he is not doing EVERYTHING and doing 3 cars a day. So what is he doing? Are we talking full wash+wax, quick interior clean? What is everything?
 
I am opening a mobile detailing service in August and I was starting with used car dealers. I believe a detailed car will sell much better at a used car lot. I am going to offer to do a general cleanup all the dealers cars, buff out any scratches, and restore headlights. I believe there is a demand for a mobile detail service at a used car dealer. I'm also going to offer to wash every car on the lot once a week but not sure how much to charge for a wash at a used car dealer.
 
Calendyr said:
I am not interested in doing 20$ détails BTW.

I figured I would give them something like a 25% discount
off my regular price if they could offer some volume.

I have no interest in working for peanuts when I have a job that pays 25$ per hour right now.
Click to expand...
Is your current job's security less than promising?
Nowadays...There are many folks that would kill to have a job that paid $52,000.00 a year...
And, no doubt, one that's probably with a few fringe benefits thrown in the mix.

-Where are you going to find the time to do volume work for "dealers"?
-What's your regular price that you are so graciously offering to discount for "dealers"?
-What kind of "detailing" are you going to perform, even at a discounted-price, that's going to please any dealer? TO WIT:
Calendyr said:
I am surprised I have to explain this but here it goes.

To me, doing everything means you are doing a full paint correction, repairing chipped paint, removing heavy scratches by wetsanding, polishing, fine polishing, applying a coating, applying a sealant, applying a wax coat, applying a quick wax coat. Repeat for wheels, repeat for Windows (or just about). The go Inside the car, clean everything, shampoo seats and carpets, dress everything, clean Windows. Move to engine bay, clean everything there, detail all the plastic, polish the metal.

What is everything?
Click to expand...



Back to your thread's main topic:
Not only these three dealers that you contacted, but most others as well, are in the: Dealers-game because they know:
"The Art of Negotiations"...inside and out...for what they see as their targeted-market (called Suckers by many of these dealers).

They also are known to express these sentiments towards their employees/subcontractors on occasion.
This is a fact, IMHO, that's often overlooked by "non-dealers", as it were.

Bob
 
TheDetailGeeks said:
Agreed. Doing a bunch of $20 details will get old real fast. Not to mention they'll probably try to squeeze every last bit of their money's worth out of you.
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That and they try to sell you liek they do their gullable clients, screwin you on the pay.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, you said you wanted to gain experience. But doin $20 washes, if youre lucky, wont give you any experience but washin.... I understand filling a schedule and if thats what you gotta do to eat and pay the rent who am i to say?

But if your goal is to gain experience, offer services to car clubs. Offer them how to tutorials or to charities to auction off a detail. THEN, when youre there, at a function, you can talk with the people and by just interacting with them they will inherently understand your level of commitment and knowledge to auto care and youll have a great chance at getting some business.

Of course it helps to come prepared with some price packages. Small wash packages, all the way up to full show car jobs to offer a variey. Dont forget business cards, and you could even make a tiny flyer for the event that, if presented to you later, could be for 10-15% off any services over say $150 or any amount you choose.

And dont worry if you just book washes. Hell if i didnt know anything about detailing cars and some new guy said i can do this this and this i wouldnt let him tackle my garage queen first. Id let him do my DD, then if i liked his work, id move him up to my wifes car then to may baby and only THEN would I recommend him to others, after i had full faith.

In the beginning gotta take a hit on rates and do some freebies, but in the end the business youll gain will be MORE THAN WORTH IT.

:dblthumb2:
 
FUNX725 said:
-Where are you going to find the time to do volume work for "dealers"?

-What's your regular price that you are so graciously offering to discount for "dealers"?


-What kind of "detailing" are you going to perform, even at a discounted-price, that's going to please any dealer? TO WIT:


Back to your thread's main topic:
Not only these three dealers that you contacted, but most others as well, are in the: Dealers-game because they know:
"The Art of Negotiations"...inside and out...for what they see as their targeted-market (called Suckers by many of these dealers).

Bob
Click to expand...

I currently work 3 days a week, so I have 4 days available for detailing.

My prices are based on a 40$/hour plan.

What kind of detailing is exactly what I need to know if you look at my messages.

Maybe they are negotiating, I have only talked to one. But if that was negotiation, I don't see it.
 
Car clubs are in my list of things to do. I have to wait for my paperwork to come in from the government because I still don't have a commercial bank account (need the registration for that) and can't accept credit card payment yet either. So once I receive that, I will start to contact clubs. I also have an other market in mind that I think might work well, but again that is retail and I need to be able to accept payments for it.
 
Are you guys saying a Used Car Dealer will pay $20 a wash for each car? Is this the going rate to wash a car? Does anyone ever wash a lot of 30 cars and if so how much would you charge per car using the dealers water and your products?
 
I doubt they would pay 20$ just to wash a car. But ya would be nice to know what was meant. What I am thinking is they are paying 20$ for a wash and quick detail... so 20$ per hour (or less) depending how fast you work. My wash method takes 35 minutes. That's a 5 step wash: Power-rinse, snowfoam coat, power-rinse, handwash, floodrinse. I do the wheels during that time as well. So that would leave me 25 minutes to do the interior... That is not much time at all, takes me a lot longer than that to do a basic interior... so I would probably make something like 10-15$ per hour max if I took 20$ for 1 car with that combo... so ya, not interested.

And I am not even calculating the cost of the soap (about 5 ounces) and interior products (about an other 5 onces). Not too sure how much that represents in terms of money but when you are making 10$ an hour any expense is too high.
 
Real Riders said:
Are you guys saying a Used Car Dealer will pay $20 a wash for each car? Is this the going rate to wash a car? Does anyone ever wash a lot of 30 cars and if so how much would you charge per car using the dealers water and your products?
Click to expand...

Used car dealers don't like to pay for anything. I had a used car dealer that was so adamant about his "other detailer" doing a wash, polish, wax, and interior shampoo for $25, I think he had himself convinced that he was telling the truth.
 
TheDetailGeeks said:
Used car dealers don't like to pay for anything. I had a used car dealer that was so adamant about his "other detailer" doing a wash, polish, wax, and interior shampoo for $25, I think he had himself convinced that he was telling the truth.
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AHAHAHAH my friend ran a used care dealership for a while, then gout out of it because the stigmanand such was bad for career prospects. He felt it and became a successful banker

But for a while he took on the cheap, hide DONT FIX mentality for cars....

He would always tell me, no no no i dont do this for MY cars, wee just flippin these....

im convinced 99.98% of everything youve heard about used ca salseman is true.. because he was pretty damn honest [ive knowhn him most of my life]for the most part.. and id go in and hear salesmen braggin about the fish they hooked.
 
beachkidcb said:
AHAHAHAH my friend ran a used care dealership for a while, then gout out of it because the stigmanand such was bad for career prospects. He felt it and became a successful banker

But for a while he took on the cheap, hide DONT FIX mentality for cars....

He would always tell me, no no no i dont do this for MY cars, wee just flippin these....

im convinced 99.98% of everything youve heard about used ca salseman is true.. because he was pretty damn honest [ive knowhn him most of my life]for the most part.. and id go in and hear salesmen braggin about the fish they hooked.
Click to expand...

I used to be a banker who became a successful detailer lol :D
 
Let me just say that the auction house here charges $75 to detail a vehicle before going through the block. So I quoted my dealership friend $60 and I was in. He has an average of 45 cars a week going to auction. my only problem is finding reliable, quick helpers to get them done, and take car on my clients. I am talking auction/wholesale detailing/cleaning not retail/show detailing.
 
I now do washes for a local dealer for a few hours a day. I washed and dried 16 cars in the last two days.
 
Real Riders said:
I now do washes for a local dealer for a few hours a day. I washed and dried 16 cars in the last two days.
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How much do you charge? I've seen car washers around here that drive through the lot with a huge water tank misting all the cars and then they have a few dudes with large towels come behind and dry. NO SOAP. Wonder why every single car looks so swirled out? I heard they only charge like .75 or 1.00 a car or something crazy though.
 
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