Dealership Car Washing

Thank you Kyle :)

This has never been something we've looked at getting into, however one may have fallen into our lap and if they are willing to pay our price I figure we should take it.

I am assuming water softener will work just as well?
 
Car lots can be a good recurring account. We started with them, and they help put hours on an employees' paycheck. I started with small electric and ended with 8gpm hot machine running 2 hoses. Our first customer began as a 14 hour day twice a week and the last time we did it we were done and driving off the lot within 3 hours. It really drove innovation for us too.
I don't think there is a real good replacement for DI water, but you have to get the water very soft, so your method of softening better me good. It doesn't take much to ruin a lot full of new cars!
 
There are minerals and such in most water that, once the water dries, will leave "water spots". If you plan to wash tomorrow without DI (or maybe RO) water, you need to chamois each car. As the temp is cooling it may be a good time to get started because your helper may better be able to keep up.
There are two ways to test your water... you can fill a five gallon bucket with your water, step in, plug in a hair dryer and drop it in the bucket... if you get shocked, you can't use that water without chamois...there is a little light you can buy from most DI suppliers that essentially checks the same thing with less pain if your water is bad.
The other way to test the water is to wash a car and chamois everything but the windshield. Let the windshield sun dry and you'll see the havoc you can wreak on a whole lot. You can then fix the windshield with some very fine steel wool (not to be used on car paint/clear coat).
 
Thank you Kyle. I think that I will go try the blow dryer method immediately!

We are in the city and our water is not very hard to begin with. It is my understanding that some water softener should do the trick..The car lots are not work that we plan on actively pursuing, so to invest in something like that does not really make sense for us.

We do not have any softener on hand and warned the dealership that they would be somewhat spotty the first wash.

I understand that water not dried can leave spots, I do not understand how spots could ruin a paint job, seems as though a rain would also do this?

Please do not scare me like that, I was waiting for you to tell me about some brand new only at the dealership paint eating component to water...

I do not think that we are going to be washing these cars. They were hoping to have 150 of them washed for 150-200$. We were somewhat over that. We will see what the comp. charges them!
 
Rain water is pure water and will not spot. The only way rain water will spot is if there is dirt in the air or on the car. So if you could capture rain water then it would be perfect for washing cars.

The harder the water the tougher the spot is to get off the car. And at times you can not remover the hard water spot if it has been baked on the car form the sun. Once this happens you will need to buff the car to get it back to normal.

Using DI water very cheap in the aspect of how much it cost to convert the water. If you test your water and the TDS is 60 you will be in great shape and use less of your tank. If your TDS is 400 then you will use more of your tank.

The way the tank works is, the water goes passes through a filteration on one side and comes back out the top pure water. You will need to have the tank recharged when your tester starts reading in the 40-50 TDS range.

The cost per car depends on how hard the water is in the begining should be around .06-.09 per car. Carlots can be very good money makers if you do it right.
We have 28 carlots we wash for on a weekly basis at 1.50 a car. Which is higher then the going rate in OKC. But we do an outstanding job and get paid a higher price for it. We wash a total of 1500-2000 cars per week. $2250.00-$3000.00 per week. And its all done in 25-32 hrs per week.

Whoever said that you cant make money in carlots lied. We do it every week and do it well. With labor and expenses it cost us .43 per car. We net $1605-$2140. Thats just in carlots per week.
 
It is what you make of it. The going rate here in Oklahoma is .90. What these guys are lkooking for is someone to show up every week on the same day. We have developed a systems that allows us to do this. Thats why we get 1.50. And that 1.50 acorss the board. 1-10000 its all the same.

there are not to many guys here with the exception of a few that can say they pull in $8000-$10000 per month every month just in the carlots.
 
bhenson said:
It is what you make of it. The going rate here in Oklahoma is .90. What these guys are lkooking for is someone to show up every week on the same day. We have developed a systems that allows us to do this. Thats why we get 1.50. And that 1.50 acorss the board. 1-10000 its all the same.

there are not to many guys here with the exception of a few that can say they pull in $8000-$10000 per month every month just in the carlots.
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Good point. I think I just get frustrated with all the mobile auto detailing companies in Phoenix. It seems like they are low balling the industry to death. But if you are pulling in thousands of cars for $1 it would be worth it.
 
If you have a TDS around 120 or higher, you can save money by upgrading to a RO/DI filtration system. The RO will bring the TDS to around 10, and the DI will bring it to zero. This keeps you from having to regenerate your DI tank as often, saving you money.

We use DI water to clean windows all the time with our water fed pole. Excellent results.
 
How does the DI work by itself? We have pretty hard water here.
 
It will work, but how long is the question. The harder the water, the shorter the lifespan. I have a TDS of roughly 50, so a cubic foot tank last me over 3000 gallons. If you have a tds of 300, you may only get a few hundred gallons before you need to have the tank regenerated. The regeneration gets expensive - that's when you offset the cost with an RO filter.

Another thing.. A Di tank will pull the water to 0 TDS until the tank is spent. Once the TDS starts creeping up, it doesn't last long at all. Kinda like all or nothing.
 
Never, ever run DI water through your coils. On fleets, NASCAR fleets and the RV's we detail (although this only accounts for less than 5% of our business), we do our final rinsing with water run through our DI tanks. My DI tanks cost me $80.00 to recharge, and I average maybe 400 gallons, per tank. No way could I make the profits I insist on doing dealerships. Doing RV's and the fleets we service, we meet or exceed our base man hour rate each and every time.

The tap water here in Phoenix is as hard as it gets, and will literally etch glass withing 48 hours. I bought another new truck a couple years ago, brought it home. First time I washed he I noticed the hard water spots all over the exterior glass. Took it back to the dealership, they tried everything to restore the glass, ended up replacing every single piece of glass. Now if that cost was a charge back to the car lot fleet washers, I assume that would wipe out a day or two's profit.

My wife worked for Chapman Auto group for a dozen years, a good friend of mine still owns several dealerships here and in Chicago. In Phoenix the average $0.45 to $0.55 per unit, show-up with about 8 illegals with chamois's.

True Bryan, rainwater is pure, until it comes in contact with that cloud of pollution that hovers over each metropolitan area. Then many Al Gore types refer to it as "toxic rain".
 
We once pulled in a great profit on car lots. But, we now have a delinquent teen recovery organization that came in, undercut all reasonable prices. We had some very loyal customers that stuck with us for a long time, but they, too, eventually fell to the cheap guys. I can't compete (not want to) with no labor cost, no tax liability, and no insurance or business license. We've had a few old customers, and new ones, call to let us know their cars are all scratched up and they need someone else doing it. But, we have greatly upped our price, and we'll hold firm until the market corrects itself!
 
Great advice from the Master of Carwashing
bhenson said:
So 3 times a week. That is soap, rinse and dry. Here we charge $5 for that service but we only do it once a month for a couple lots. 3 times a week sound excessive, but that is my opinion. SInce you will be doing it 3 times a week i would drop my price from $5 to around $3.5. The 1st one will be the hardest the rest will be gravy. At the pricing you will be around $630.00 a week give take a few dollars. Don't let them try and talk you down. You are still doing each step everytime. Don't shortcut it at that price, becuz they will know. Be firm and confindent in your pricing. Your in it to make money mnot work your a** off for change.

I would do it like an assembly line. One person soap/rinse, one person washing and one drying. If you dont have to move the cars it should take you no longer then 4 mins a car. But your are hauling a**. Stay positive you can make it work.

Please go to the top of the page where it says USER CP and please fill out your signture. You will get alot more help once we know who you are. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me anytime.

Bryan
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