How to Price Auto Detailing

Start from your hours and your rate

Every detailing price, from a maintenance wash to a ceramic coating, is the hours the job takes times your hourly rate, plus the product it uses up. Get all three from your own records, not from the shop across town.

• The rate is what one billable hour costs you, plus profit: pay, payroll costs, insurance that covers customers' cars in your care, equipment, and the time nobody pays for, such as driving, setup, rain days and redo work. How to set your labor rate walks through the math. You can charge a higher rate for correction and coating hours than for washes and interiors when the skill, tools and risk justify it.
• The hours come from timing every package on every vehicle size for a few weeks. Use the typical time, not your fastest, and count what customers never see: setup, teardown, mats, drying time after extraction and the final walk-around.
• The product is what each job uses up: diluted chemicals, microfiber towels that wear out, applicators, clay and pads. A month of product purchases divided by that month's cars is a fair starting number.

Build a package grid by vehicle size

Price each package in size tiers that follow what drives your time, and list example vehicles for each tier so customers pick the right row themselves. Inside, time follows the rows of seats, the seat material (extracted cloth needs drying time) and the carpeted cargo space. Outside, it follows the painted surface, the roof height and the wheels.

Example: Your labor rate is $60 an hour, and your records for a full detail in average condition look like this. All numbers on this page are made up for illustration.

Size	Hours	Labor	Product	Price
Small	3	$180	$15	$195
Midsize	4	$240	$20	$260
Large	5	$300	$25	$325
Oversize	6	$360	$30	$390

A midsize car in heavy condition takes you 1.5 more hours and $10 more product, so its price is $260 + $90 + $10 = $360.

Keep the menu short: a maintenance wash, an interior detail, an exterior detail and a full detail, with correction and coatings quoted after an inspection. Price add-ons such as extraction, engine bays, headlight restoration and trim the same way, from their own time and product. If you publish "starting at" prices, make the starting price what a small car in average condition really pays. Say on the menu whether prices include sales tax; whether detailing is taxable depends on your state, and how to invoice auto detailing jobs lists the questions to ask.

Price condition separately from size

A neglected compact can take longer than a maintained three-row SUV, so price condition on its own line instead of stretching the size tiers.

• Define two or three levels with photos on your booking page: maintained (cleaned regularly), average (a few months of use, some stains) and heavy (ground-in dirt, stains across the seats, sand, sticky spills, winter salt).
• Price each level from your records: the base package plus the extra hours those cars actually took, as in the example above.
• Ask for photos at booking of the seats, the cargo area, the driver's floor and the worst spot, so you can set the level before you drive out or pull the car in.
• Walk the car before you start. If it's worse than the photos showed, show the customer, quote the new level and get approval first. If they decline, do the booked package and note what wasn't done.

Upcharges for pet hair, heavy soil and odor

Put every upcharge on your menu and booking page with its trigger and its price, so customers see it before they book, and add one to a job only after the customer approves it.

• Pet hair. Hair woven into carpet and cloth comes out slowly, mostly by hand. Price it in levels shown with photos (light, moderate, heavy), or in time blocks with a cap the customer approves.
• Heavy soil and stains. Beach sand, mud, construction dust, food spills and winter salt stains add repeated vacuuming, extraction or steam. Price them as the heavy level or as named add-ons, such as salt stain extraction. Outside, the same goes for tree sap, tar and heavy bug buildup.
• Odor. Sell it as its own service with a stated process: remove the source, clean or extract what absorbed it, then treat. Promise a reduction, not elimination, and price a repeat treatment separately.
• Biohazards and clutter. Decide in advance whether you take jobs with bodily fluids or mold. If you do, price the time, protective gear and disposal on a separate line. Ask customers to empty the car, and say what happens to what's left.

Example: Your records show moderate pet hair adds about an hour to a midsize interior and heavy adds about two. At $60 an hour, that's a $60 and a $120 upcharge, both on the menu with photos. When photos can't show how bad it is, quote $30 per half hour with a cap the customer approves, such as $150.

Let techs add only listed upcharges at listed prices, with the customer's approval by text before the extra work so you both have a record. If you pay per car, pass part of each upcharge to the tech who did the work, so the hardest cars aren't the worst paid; hiring your first detailer covers per-car pay.

Price paint correction by steps and hours

Correction is sold by the number of polishing steps, often called stages, and priced from a timed test spot, never from a glance. Paint correction removes clear coat that doesn't grow back, so the inspection, paint depth readings and test spot in how to quote ceramic coating and paint correction come first. Then:

1. Count the steps. The test spot shows whether a one-step polish gets the result the customer wants, or whether the paint needs a cutting step and a finishing step. Each step is another full pass over every panel.
2. Turn test-spot time into job hours: the time per section, times the sections on the car, for each step, plus the wash, decontamination, clay and taping.
3. Add the product. Pads wear out on every job, and compounds and polishes add up.
4. Price each level as an option, so the customer chooses how much correction to buy.

Sell the steps and the result you showed on the test spot, not a defect-removal percentage the customer can't check, and list rock chips, scratches through the clear coat and failing clear coat as exclusions.

Example: A midsize sedan with heavy swirls, at $100 an hour for correction work. Wash, decontamination, clay and taping take 3 hours. The test spot shows a one-step polish would take 5 more hours, and a two-step correction 10 more. One-step: 8 hours is $800, plus $75 of product, for $875. Two-step: 13 hours is $1,300, plus $100 of product, for $1,400. Show both, with the result each gave on the test spot.

Price ceramic coating by prep, product and bay time

Most of a coating price is the work underneath it. The coating goes over whatever the paint looks like that day, so every coating quote includes the decontamination wash and the correction level the customer picked. Build the price from:

• Prep and correction, priced as above, plus a panel wipe that removes polishing oils so the coating can bond.
• Application: hours per layer, and the product cost per car from how far a bottle goes on that size of vehicle.
• Extras, each priced on its own: wheels, glass, trim, calipers, interior surfaces.
• Bay time. Follow the coating maker's instructions for application conditions and cure time. While the car sits in your bay, that bay can't earn on anything else.
• Follow-up visits you include, such as a first inspection.

If you sell coating tiers by how long they last, use only the durability the manufacturer documents for that product, along with the care it requires. The quoting guide covers what you can claim.

Example: The same sedan with the two-step correction ($1,400) and a coating. Panel wipe and two layers on the paint take 2 hours ($200), and the coating for a car this size costs you $150. Glass and wheel faces add 2 hours ($200) and $50 of product. Total: $2,000 for about 17 hours, or three days in the bay. If an ordinary day in that bay brings in about $500 of detail work, three days would bring in $1,500, so the coating price holds up.

Price memberships from shorter visits

Price a membership per visit from the time a maintained car takes, require a full detail to start, and route members so the drive between them is short.

• Start with a full detail at your regular price, so the first member visit isn't a neglected car at the maintenance price.
• Define the visit, because the scope sets the time: hand wash, wheels, glass, vacuum and wipe-down, door jambs. Stain extraction, more than light pet hair and odor work stay upcharges, and a car that arrives far below maintenance condition gets a reset detail at your posted price.
• Price each frequency from its own hours. A car washed every two weeks stays cleaner than one washed monthly, so its visits are shorter.
• Route members together. For mobile work, give each neighborhood a fixed day. Short drives between members pay for much of the discount.
• Sell coating maintenance as a plan, priced from the time those washes and inspections take, including any records the coating maker's warranty asks you to keep.

Membership billing terms are covered in the invoicing guide linked above.

Example: A one-off maintenance detail inside and out takes 1.5 hours including the drive, so at $60 an hour plus $10 of product you charge $100. A member on your Tuesday route takes 1.25 hours, because the next member is a few streets away and the car never gets far from clean: $75 plus $10, or $85 a visit. Two member visits a month come to $170 at your rate, so a $175 monthly plan saves the member $25 against two one-off visits and still earns your rate.

Mobile travel fees and service zones

A mobile job costs you the drive both ways, the van and setup a shop doesn't need. Recover it with zones priced by drive time and a minimum ticket, and show both before the customer books.

Count what the trip costs you:

• Drive time you pay for but can't bill, plus the van's cost per mile from your own records.
• Water and power: a tank and generator you fill and fuel, or the customer's spigot and outlet. Say which in your booking terms.
• Wash water: if your local rules require you to capture runoff, the mat, pump, storage, disposal and setup time are part of every mobile job. How to start an auto detailing business covers where wash water can go.
• Rain days and the empty slots they leave.
• Site access: apartment complexes, office parks and HOAs may limit washing on their property, so confirm permission when the customer books.

Then set the fee:

• Zones by drive time, not straight-line miles. The core zone is included in the package price, outer zones add a set fee, and beyond that you quote or decline.
• A minimum ticket for mobile visits, so one small job far away doesn't lose money.
• Multi-car pricing at one address, and office or fleet days: one drive, one setup.
• Neighborhood days: a smaller travel fee for booking on the day you're already nearby.

Show the zone map and the fee in the quote and the confirmation text. A trip charge the customer first sees at checkout invites a dispute, and a fee that applies to every mobile job belongs in the package price. Before you add a new fee, ask your state attorney general's consumer protection office how fees must appear in advertised prices.

Example: Zone 2 jobs average 10 extra minutes each way and 10 extra miles round trip; Zone 3 jobs average 25 extra minutes each way and 30 extra miles. At $60 an hour and a van cost of $0.80 a mile from your records, Zone 2 costs you $20 plus $8, so the fee is $30. Zone 3 costs $50 plus $24, so the fee is $75.

Deposits for long jobs

Take a deposit when you book anything that blocks a bay for a day or more or needs product opened for that car: coatings, multi-step corrections and restoration-level interiors.

• Size it to the risk: the product you'll open for the car plus part of the bay time a late cancellation leaves you unable to resell.
• Skip it on short jobs. For washes and standard details, a card on file with a stated no-show fee does the same work with less friction.
• Write the terms before the customer pays. The invoicing guide covers rescheduling and cancellation terms for detailers, and how much deposit to ask for covers deposits in any trade.
• Watch where you sell it. If you sell a coating in a customer's driveway, at their workplace or at a car show, read the Cooling-Off Rule section of the quoting guide linked above before you take the deposit, because the customer may have a right to cancel.

Price dealer and fleet work per unit

Dealers and fleets want one price per car. Build it from the same hours, with a written scope for each service level, and never let volume pull it below your hourly cost; less driving and setup per car is what can justify a lower unit price. Price heavily soiled trade-ins and rush turnaround as their own lines. On net terms, you pay detailers and buy product weeks before the account pays you, so count that wait too.

Check prices against finished jobs

A price grid is only right if it matches the time jobs actually take. Record actual hours by package, size and condition, and compare them with the grid every month.

• If three-row SUVs keep running long, fix that row instead of raising every price.
• Update product costs when supplier prices change.
• Count how often each upcharge gets applied. One your techs skip because it's awkward to raise is work you do for free.
• Review the whole grid before each busy season, and raise prices when your calendar is full weeks ahead.