washing cars at dealers
- Thread starter MIKE FP
- Start date
Russ Johnson
Equipment Expert
$1 to $1.50 around here...
MIKE FP
Member
i guess it adds up but you also have to figure 2 people drying.
MIKE FP
Member
whenever i see someome doing fleets(car dealers) they dry the whole car.
a dollar per vehicle here. ive never dried any off before. In the past, I just soaped down five or ten, brushed the white vehicles and all windshields, and rinsed them off. This takes a long time though. Charge 2 dollars per car if you can get it. I was told for a dollar per vehicle, I could get four dealerships but never had anything in writing and they never let me wash them again unless I called and called and called. It wasnt worth it to me.
Russ Johnson
Equipment Expert
car lots
I have been doing car lots for about 3 years now. I currently charge $1.25 a car and use di i water. You have to do alot of cars to make any money at it. We currently do about 1,400 cars a week and it keeps growing. Hand drying is out of the question if they are not willing to pay at least $2 a car.
I have been doing car lots for about 3 years now. I currently charge $1.25 a car and use di i water. You have to do alot of cars to make any money at it. We currently do about 1,400 cars a week and it keeps growing. Hand drying is out of the question if they are not willing to pay at least $2 a car.
Welcome to the Board Bears.
PowerWash Pros
Member
$1.00 here and they hand dry them. 1 company does the entire metro area it seems like. I see them at a different dealership almost everyday. One day their truck caught on fire and they were trying to put it out with the pressure washer. I cant touch that price and honestly I dont want too
The Cleaner
Vetran Washer 30 Years Plus
I rather stay home.They are 1.00 a car because there are idiot's out there that will do it !!
Russ Spence
Commercial Pressure Wash Expert
I would rather stay at home too !
I think some of you are missing the point. At $1.00 or so a car you CAN stay at home. I send a 2 person crew out 5 days a week to do car lots at $1.25 a car. I dont have to baby sit them...they just go out and make me money while i am out doing the jobs that take more experience.
SUPERIORLLC
New member
I did it for years!
Unfortunately you wont be able to keep it steady for your workers because of rain bad weather etc. not to mention you cant trust these types of guys, I mean they are idiots after all, and they WILL end up going to home depot and buying their own or working for one of the dealerships where they see the lazy asses not doing anything for 8-10 $ an hour. You wont be able to keep two or three people washing thousands of cars a week because it is really physically demanding, unless you have a revolving door at the hiring office, forget it the kids will be blowing pin striping off the cars scratching them with the hose too risky. I had this type of service for a long time, detail shop too. I started when I was 19 . Now the money was good, you can do 100k easy but you will have to babysit every job, these dealers watch you like hawks, especially when its slow, I know been there done that, Its not bad if you do one or two on your own though, that will make you 50k a year with about 10 hours a week, but good luck getting in and once you do the guy that hired you will be gone. Here In Chicago I've seen it again and again. Any schmuck can do it, so because of that, that part of the industry is ruined, as well as the fleet washing, I mean just think of all those "smart" people sitting at home going " if i charge 8$ a truck then do 5 an hour i will be making 40$ an hour, instead of the 9$ I make now...or i can do that whole dealership (350 cars) and make 200$ today! Unlike a business man like myself that knows my experience and knowledge is valuable and.... "hey a car wash charges me 10-15 to wash my SUV truck and i gotta drive there"! Lets raise the bar and charge more! I do tractors at 19- and trailers at 29- Garbage trucks 40- period end of story,and it might go up... its 2008 people!!! We all have to eat but i will sit on my ass before lowering my prices, if we all did that the industry would weed out all the desperate drug addicts and crack heads!! ..!
Unfortunately you wont be able to keep it steady for your workers because of rain bad weather etc. not to mention you cant trust these types of guys, I mean they are idiots after all, and they WILL end up going to home depot and buying their own or working for one of the dealerships where they see the lazy asses not doing anything for 8-10 $ an hour. You wont be able to keep two or three people washing thousands of cars a week because it is really physically demanding, unless you have a revolving door at the hiring office, forget it the kids will be blowing pin striping off the cars scratching them with the hose too risky. I had this type of service for a long time, detail shop too. I started when I was 19
. Now the money was good, you can do 100k easy but you will have to babysit every job, these dealers watch you like hawks, especially when its slow, I know been there done that, Its not bad if you do one or two on your own though, that will make you 50k a year with about 10 hours a week, but good luck getting in and once you do the guy that hired you will be gone. Here In Chicago I've seen it again and again. Any schmuck can do it, so because of that, that part of the industry is ruined, as well as the fleet washing, I mean just think of all those "smart" people sitting at home going " if i charge 8$ a truck then do 5 an hour i will be making 40$ an hour, instead of the 9$ I make now...or i can do that whole dealership (350 cars) and make 200$ today! Unlike a business man like myself that knows my experience and knowledge is valuable and.... "hey a car wash charges me 10-15 to wash my SUV truck and i gotta drive there"! Lets raise the bar and charge more! I do tractors at 19- and trailers at 29- Garbage trucks 40- period end of story,and it might go up... its 2008 people!!! We all have to eat but i will sit on my ass before lowering my prices, if we all did that the industry would weed out all the desperate drug addicts and crack heads!! ..!
Biodude
Moderator
As much as I'd like to agree with you Amber, I can't. While I would love to continuously charge what you do and not have competition from the wanabees, but the fact of the matter is that your pricing invites people like that to try fleetwashing even more. So now instead of having to wash the 5-6 trucks to make a decent wage, they only have to do 2-3, which is a lot easier to do when you have the Home Depot equipment. So then they try to wash the 5-6 in an hour and can't which makes us look like world beaters and the customers fall in love with us. But if the prices are lower it isn't as attractive to these sort of fellows. It also keeps our customers wanting to go a lot more regularly which means consistent money coming in the door and brings in customers that wouldn't get washed at all if we always charged what you would recommend. As far as dealerships are concerned, I wouldn't touch that. I agree, the risk is too great.
Chris Tharpe
New member
Regarding the Car dealerships, here in mississippi I get anywhere from 1.10 per to 1.75. I use a RO to make spot free water and haul 1000 gallons with me to a lot. It is pretty expensive but while only servicing 6 lots per week I am able to profit around 5k a month after the help is paid. The key to washing cars at lots is not drying them, but to use a mit while rinsing and wipe the car down where its bad (any surface that faces the sky, hood, trunk, top of bumpers, and top) then if there are areas on the sides of the vehicle that have black lines going down it then you will have to wipe that area as well to ensure you cannot see where you did a half a** job. We actually hand wash alot of vehicles at this point to make a decent living and to be honest with you its alot more work than it is worth here in town. To make a vehicle look correct you have to mit the car then rinse.
After this is said and done and the cars are not really dirty when you get there except for the dust and pollen there is only one way I have found to get 99% of the dust off of. If anyone is interested in that way Pm me about it. Washing for car lots is purely for the fender flapping home depot machines and I am no longer persueing other accounts, I will service the accounts I currently have and if others call the price will be 2.00 per car to have it done correctly.
After this is said and done and the cars are not really dirty when you get there except for the dust and pollen there is only one way I have found to get 99% of the dust off of. If anyone is interested in that way Pm me about it. Washing for car lots is purely for the fender flapping home depot machines and I am no longer persueing other accounts, I will service the accounts I currently have and if others call the price will be 2.00 per car to have it done correctly.