gye
07-11-2013, 10:18 PM
Although I’ve only been into this hobby for just a couple of months, I thought I would share some of the things that I’ve learned so far. Keep in mind that my daily driver is a minivan, which got my “manhood card” revoked a few years ago and disqualifies me from being a car guy :laughing:
1) Professional Detailers don’t charge enough. One of the things that motivated me to get into the hobby is thinking that detailing was expensive and that I could do it myself. I found inconvenient to leave my car with detailers for such a long time and I thought they were keeping the car in the shop longer than needed just to justify the high time estimate. Oh boy, was I wrong! After dropping a few benjamins in Autogeek’s pockets, I can tell you that with the amount of time, expertise and costly materials that go into detailing, professionals deserve every cent of what they charge. I don’t regret having spent this money because I truly enjoy the hobby and I can now do a much better job than hack detailers.
2) Online reviews cannot be trusted blindly. Even people with thousands of posts sometimes overhype some brands. Some people give you really good advice on how things are done but they also make you wonder if they get extra perks from the vendors/manufacturers of the products they recommend. One of my favorite reviewers is Roshan, because he’s one of the few people that will tell you that a product sucks or that it’s great but not worth the price premium compared to cheaper alternatives. People like him earn credibility in my book.
3) It’s best to avoid cheap products. You’ll be spending lots of hours in this hobby; you might as well enjoy it with the right tools/products. I bought a Viking drying towel on the famous online store (based on glowing reviews; see point 2), mostly because I didn’t want to spend $15+ in a towel. Then I got some Sonus Der Wunder drying towels and they run circles around the Viking towels. As soon as a good deal on good drying towels come up, I’ll get a couple more and the Vikings might go to door jamb duty or something like it.
4) Most premium products are not worth the extra cost. If you can tell the difference between a $200 wax and a $50 wax (some might even say a $10 wax) you are in a very small percentage of the population. Most of us mere mortals only “think” the premium product is better because we won’t admit to having overspent on it. I bet most people wouldn’t be able to tell two waxes apart in a blind test. If you can tell the difference, more power to you, and also a much leaner wallet.
If you’re a newbie, what have you learned so far?
1) Professional Detailers don’t charge enough. One of the things that motivated me to get into the hobby is thinking that detailing was expensive and that I could do it myself. I found inconvenient to leave my car with detailers for such a long time and I thought they were keeping the car in the shop longer than needed just to justify the high time estimate. Oh boy, was I wrong! After dropping a few benjamins in Autogeek’s pockets, I can tell you that with the amount of time, expertise and costly materials that go into detailing, professionals deserve every cent of what they charge. I don’t regret having spent this money because I truly enjoy the hobby and I can now do a much better job than hack detailers.
2) Online reviews cannot be trusted blindly. Even people with thousands of posts sometimes overhype some brands. Some people give you really good advice on how things are done but they also make you wonder if they get extra perks from the vendors/manufacturers of the products they recommend. One of my favorite reviewers is Roshan, because he’s one of the few people that will tell you that a product sucks or that it’s great but not worth the price premium compared to cheaper alternatives. People like him earn credibility in my book.
3) It’s best to avoid cheap products. You’ll be spending lots of hours in this hobby; you might as well enjoy it with the right tools/products. I bought a Viking drying towel on the famous online store (based on glowing reviews; see point 2), mostly because I didn’t want to spend $15+ in a towel. Then I got some Sonus Der Wunder drying towels and they run circles around the Viking towels. As soon as a good deal on good drying towels come up, I’ll get a couple more and the Vikings might go to door jamb duty or something like it.
4) Most premium products are not worth the extra cost. If you can tell the difference between a $200 wax and a $50 wax (some might even say a $10 wax) you are in a very small percentage of the population. Most of us mere mortals only “think” the premium product is better because we won’t admit to having overspent on it. I bet most people wouldn’t be able to tell two waxes apart in a blind test. If you can tell the difference, more power to you, and also a much leaner wallet.
If you’re a newbie, what have you learned so far?