It doesn`t take an automatic car wash to destroy an antenna. I took my then pride and joy, 1995 Buick Century with 260,000 miles, to a Mike`s Express in north Dallas. They used a rusty pair of pliers to remove the antenna. Instead of turning it, he twisted it. Broke the stud clean off. I couldn`t reattach the antenna. The owner claimed, "We are not responsible for damages to your car by our equipment." It wasn`t the equipment. It was the $6/hour clerk at the wash entrance!
I had to replace the entire antenna, base, cable, and fender grommet. Junkyard cost $35. Four hours of my labor to take apart the lower dash and right front wheel well to access it. All for a $5 car wash.
But back to the topic at hand, 30-minute express details are a small but thriving industry. The el cheapo full service car washes offer hand washes and waxes anywhere from $25 and up. People who take pride in their car but can`t afford $200 every couple of months will use $25-$50 services. They will use them repeatedly and vigorously. So if someone is out there providing quality service at a low price, using volume for profit instead of high service fees, then they will do well. And that`s good.
I expect that when I get started with my car lot, that I am going to have messy cars come in all the time. I will likely spend hours and hours on them, trying to do the impossible. I might as well use this stuff:
But if I found someone in the area who was willing to do a decent job for $25-$50 per car, and could get a lot of cars done at once, it would be worth it to me to have someone else come in and do the cars while I catch up on titlework, advertising, putting the cars on the website, and all those other red tape/busywork tasks.
I do enjoy cleaning cars up and making them look light years ahead of where they were. En masse, it`s worth finding a cheap detailer. For all the Tauruses and Explorers and Focuses. But put a `94 Mercedes-Benz C220 on my lot that I get for $1300 at an impound auction, and I`m going to tackle that one myself because I will want that car selling for top dollar. I might even take it to a really GOOD detailer. Or have them come to me. Because the right cars need the right touch, and I don`t want to have to take $1800 for that Benz if a good quality $300-$400 detail can make it sell for $2800.
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