Moving from weekend warrior to dealer?

[Finemess]

Good day all,
As stated in the title, may have a chance to go to work for a dealer. I enjoy doing my and friends cars, but don't know about doing every Tom, #### and Harry's work. Looking for advice and pitfalls.

[Billy Baldone]

If you value quality, be prepared to be utterly disappointed. Most dealer could care less about quality work

[OTSDetail]

I used to dealership detail. Was my second detailing gig behind an advanced car wash I used to work at. I worked at the southeasts biggest chevy dealer so you can imagine how busy we were all the time. 3 8-hour shifts every day, 5 days a week. The quality is not there for the most part. I mean, our place was very well stocked for everything we ever needed, BUT there's plenty of people who worked there that should not have been detailing. Not saying that I was the best one there, but I was definitely top 10 out of 75+ people. Some people's quality of work just sucks, and detailing isn't something you can really teach people over a few days. As I'm sure most of the pro detailers can all agree, we are always learning new things, how to be more efficient, etc.

So if you're looking at working at a high volume dealership, or any dealer for that matter, don't expect the quality of work to be super high. My dealer was pretty strict on good looking cars, but not every one is the same way.

[TFTADetail]

If you have pride in your work then stay where you are.
If you're looking for a steady paycheck and don't mind turning out work in volume rather than quality then, by all means, go to the dealership.

The high end dealerships hire outside detail techs/businesses for a reason ....... no one wants the dealership to detail their ride.

[whavens]

My son sells cars and called me last night. He told me they had 10 cars that needed to be detailed as soon as possible. Their usual guy was sick. When he told me what they would pay I told him I wouldn't do hack work and cover with glaze for $125 per car to just crank them out. I told him that if they were interested in having them done right, and not give the customer a hologram covered swirled out mess, I would consider it. But not at $125.

Walter

[PA DETAILER]

Years ago, needed a job so worked for a dealership. Washes/details/auction runs etc. Had to put up with for 4-5 years till i could find something better. Pay was crap.( MIN WAGE ) All around a horriable job. Quanity not quality. Dont know if dealership detail dept. have changed since then?

[Billy Baldone]

My son sells cars and called me last night. He told me they had 10 cars that needed to be detailed as soon as possible. Their usual guy was sick. When he told me what they would pay I told him I wouldn't do hack work and cover with glaze for $125 per car to just crank them out. I told him that if they were interested in having them done right, and not give the customer a hologram covered swirled out mess, I would consider it. But not at $125.

Walter

Actually, if they were to bump to 150, for a quality AIO, that isn't too bad at all. 3- 3 1/2 hours per car, unless they want full interior, but if not, I say go for it. Still 1000 times better than they would have got from their guy.

[Ccrew]

Actually, if they were to bump to 150, for a quality AIO, that isn't too bad at all. 3- 3 1/2 hours per car, unless they want full interior, but if not, I say go for it. Still 1000 times better than they would have got from their guy.

Most dealers around these parts would tell you to go to $50 from $150.

It's about what it takes to make it look good to get off the lot and nothing more in dealer lots. Bare minimum in cost and no care what your effort is.

[custmsprty]

If you value quality, be prepared to be utterly disappointed. Most dealer could care less about quality work

Exactly, new car prep takes about 30 minutes

[mswerb]

I did just the opposite. I went from working at a dealership to the weekend warrior. If you take pride in your work, dealerships are not the place to go. They want results FAST. I worked flat rate until I could no longer take it. Banging out cars as fast as I could was now how I wanted to operate. I enjoy working on cars at MY pace and taking the time to get it right. Most dealerships have 18 year old punks "Detailing" cars and not taking the time to do it right.