I brought my car in for the typical pre-sale detail, and while overall the car looks ready to show off, there are a few details that really bugged me.
First the good: The interior looks really good, and the exterior is shiny and clean. There are a few places that they couldn't restore with simple cleaning, but it's a five-year old car that I used to carry a dog around in, so I can't really blame them for that. Their service is friendly, and they're happy to give you a ride to and from the MAX station so you can get home easily without a car.
The bottom line is I got a car that looks good enough to sell, and that was my goal. Despite my complaints below, I'm sure the car will move given how nice it looks, and honestly knowing what I know now, I'd still go back to them if I needed a car detailed to sell. But these are a few things that happened to me that can prepare you for your experience with them.
The bad: For a detail shop, they flubbed a few details that are frustrating. First: I noticed when I saw the car was that one of the wheel-well mouldings was peeling off, they guessed from the pressure washer. It's not that it happened, it's that I'm the one that had to point it out before they fixed it. They gave it a quick fix, and we'll see if it holds up, but it was a pretty glaring problem when I picked up the car.
Second, I have an aftermarket bluetooth system installed that has a little remote underneath the e-brake. Well, they knocked off the little control knob off of the remote, and I pointed it out. A shrug and "oh well" was all I got. The system still works, and I probably should have pushed them to drop the price on the sale, but I didn't bother. If it didn't work, I would have been a lot more vocal, but I figured the knob was lost and there really wasn't much to do about it.
Third, they didn't dry the car adequately. Water streaks were still on the trunk lid and near the wheel wells when I went to pick up the car. Seems like if I'm going to drop my car off at the shop for 8 hours, it should be dry when I pick it up.
I haven't gone over it with a microscope just yet (it was 5:30pm when I picked up the car, and too dark to really scrutinize the job), but I didn't notice anything else worth writing about.
A final note, make sure you get a quote over the phone. If they don't give you one, they will ask you at the shop what they quoted you. This is a negotiating tactic, don't be a sucker like me and tell them you didn't get a quote, because then they'll charge you as much as possible. I probably could have saved $50 if I had just started at a lower price point when they asked. read more