Dealership Detailing

[hitenp07]

I am looking to amp up my detailing business and have started to go to dealerships around me.

Does anyone have a dealership detailing business proposal that I can take a look at to get some ideas on what to write in mine?

[99monguse]

The bad thing about dealership work is 95% of them don't want to pay for what it actually takes to do the job...if YOU can come to terms with that, and give only the work they're paying for and THEY are willing to except your level of work for what they want to pay, then you may do well!

[Real Riders]

I think the dealer is a good idea. The dealer always has work that needs to be done. Another great place to find detail work is at an auto auction

[refreshauto]

Dealerships dont want to pay get a car detailed, all they are worried about is moving units

Sent from my SPH-D710 using AG Online

[mswerb]

I used to detail at a few dealerships and all of the above comments are true. They will want cars done as fast as possible and won't pay much. Dealerships that send their cars out to be detailed pay about $80-$100. I was paid flat rate, 4 hours to do a totally destroyed mini-van. No way. That is why I got out of working at dealerships.

[beamerstrumpet]

the biggest dealer in town just moved in next to me. having a beer with him I ask him about it. he contracts with a company that does spray aond wipes to the lot and the new car stuff and I know he isnt paying a lot. He totally glossed over any hint of me trying to get sny work from him and told me about all the other guys in town who were GREAT but took way to long. It was a bit discouraging. I love this and ill keep trying but its a tough market in a small town. I was hoping to get the neighbor to give me a chance. but like all dealers,, he just wants to move product and do it cheap. I even told him where to go for interior upholstery fixes!

[jaxtalonturbo]

I think this comes back to a bit of what Mike (Phillips) was saying in a thread I was reading last week about production detailing and evaluating customer (dealership) needs.

It seems everybody here is an enthusiast. Everybody wants to put in 10/10 on each job. And that's all fine and dandy, but time is money, and dealerships are counting on getting that car in for as little as possible, putting as little into it as possible, and selling it for the largest amount of money. YOU are an expense that must be justified be it via cost or time or both.

I come from primarily a mechanical background, and started getting into detailing a few years back on the side when I would clean up "special" customers' cars who were deserving or who were spending big money on a big job (engine swaps, etc).

In the mechanic world, you are not appreciated at all for the job you do, much less so than a detailer is. The customer does not care about the difference in quality between OEM gaskets and aftermarket junk, or how much you cleaned out the grime on the subframe prior to putting the engine in... they just want it to run and be cheap.

The same goes for customers' cars in detailing. The VALUE in your work has to be tailor suited for your target demographic. Dealers need fast and cheap, so do fast and cheap and take their money.

Production detailing is actually a part of the business I don't think I hear about as much as I'd like to despite it being what 80% of the general population and business sector of this market caters to. In the future I'd like to hone in on the craft to be good and fast enough to justify giving them a cleaned up trade in with only 90-130 a unit profit. There has to be a way.

[Real Riders]

I worked at a Chrysler Dealer for 21 years and they would send out some of the used cars to get detailed. If I remember correctly in 1983 the dealership paid $50 to get a car detailed, and when the dealership closed in 2004 they were paying $70

[jaxtalonturbo]

For you guys who've done dealership work, can you describe some experiences? What did you see the most of? Are you guys just doing a 1 step cleaner/wax and letting it go down the road, or do you guys sometimes not even have to do paint correction at all? Interiors: are all of them getting extracted and full details or are most of the dealers cool with spot cleaning, vac and wipedown?

[Kengo123]

From my experience, interiors need to be CLEAN. Exterior at least washed, dressed, waxed, no waterspots, shinyish "improved" paint

I do the same level of work for 3 used car lots.

Here's what I do

Hyper quick vacuum, like very very quick
Air purge interior really quick
Revacuum
Prespray carpet and upholstery chems and agitate
Pre spray engine bay with apc, agitate, rinse
Prespray tires, wheels, wheel wells, door jambs with apc, quickly agitate, rinse
Spray Meg's wheel brightener on wheels, agitate quickly, rinse
Rinse whole car, wash, rinse, blade dry
Lay down carpet/upholstery shampoo from bucket, then extract
Blot carpet and lift extra dirt
Clean leather with apc and da brush if necessary
Spot clean headliner
Wipedown all panels with apc/dressing mix
Clean inside glass
Final vacuum
Dress tires, wheel wells and some trim
Wax exterior via da or quick all in one via da and polish foam pad or quick all in one via rotary and foam polish pad
Clean exterior glass
Final touch ups (don't leave wax, bugs, dirt on paint, ultra wet interior, streaks on plastic in interior, dirty wheels, etc)

I've improved my time by making shortcuts and on most days I can knock out 3-4 wholesale cars a day by myself. It isn't autogeek style AT ALL but it pays the bills and is fun to do bc you don't have to worry so much about the quality. But don't get me wrong, the overall improvement of the car is still spectacular every time. Especially since the cars are usually nastier than retail cars. You get to challenge yourself The worse that can happen is they send it back to do extra stuff to it.