can someone give me some price guidlines?

[4pbears]

after detailing my friends, relatives cars for a number of years know, i am about to start my own detailing business, but i need an idea of how much to charge for each service.

for example what would you charge to do an exterior of a car or suv with
heavy swirl marks, oxidation etc.
medium swirl marks little oxidation and
little or no swirl marks, basically a vehicle that is no more than 2 years old. and finally,

what would you charge to do the complete interior
just the seats.
just the carpet.

i am just looking for ball park figures so to speak but if you can give me you actual prices on any or all of the above mentioned items, i would greatly appreciate it.


Thank You.


Dave Pursey.

[J.J.]

This is totally dependent upon what you feel your time and energy are worth. The quality of work you provide as well as the quality of work desired by the client will also be important in your pricing.

I'm sure there will be other who chime in with their prices, but remember, when all is said and done, you need to be satisfied with the payment you receive for the work that you do.

Perfect detailing is very hard work IMO. Make sure you are paid accordingly.

[todd@bsaw]

Instead of giving you a long list of subjective prices, here's a good way to determine pricing when you're just starting out. Figure what you need to make per hour compared to how long it will take you to complete the job, and charge accordingly.

For an example, I figure my skilled work is $70 per hour. It takes me about half an hour to clean and extract carpet/mats. Therefore, my individual pricing to shampoo carpets is $35.

There's been tons of topics lately considering pricing and advice for people deciding to start up a detailing business. Just search around in this forum and you'll get lots of tips and advice.

Welcome to Autopia!

[PhaRO]

How quickly you can complete the job can have a huge impact on what you can charge. It will also affect how easy a particular service may be to sell. Person #1 charges $100 for a simple wash and wax, completing the job in 2 hours. He laughs at the clown down the street that is charging $75 for the same service. The clown though completes the job in an hour. $100 at first seems like it's better but when you figure out per hour the guy charging $75 is making 50% more. Now there are other things to consider than just hands on time. Other things consider are how close will your appointments be and how much money do you need to live on. Some people carry massive amounts of debt and need more just to survive each month. Although I do almost only washes now when I am doing more than a wash I shoot for $60 an hour hands on time. My travel time / distance between appointment is very small.