Never had a car valeted before but our Golf is going into the bodyshop so I thought I’d get it done.
It’s pretty mucky and needs [fabric] seats/carpets doing also.
What sort of price should I be looking at?

Sadly, the word valeted seems to cover a wide range of things, so can go from a wash and a vac at £12, to a deep interior clean, wash, claybar and wax @ ~£70.

What’re they offering?

Our local East European and Kurdish hand car wash blokes will do an excellent job for a tenner. But they’re probably all labour slaves whose gangmaster has stolen their passports.

£50 for full interior clean of big estate car (inc sick off rear seats from Baldman Junior) – mine were in quite a state even without the sick so seemed reasonable and the guy did a good job. Done at house (mobile valet).

How much time/money do you really want to waste on cleaning a car?

We’ve got a place round the corner where some industrious Poles will charge you anything from £6 up to a dizzying £35 for a “valet”. They jet wash/soap it up first, then put it through their automatic carwash, then go over it with grubby wet rags and a Henry, takes then ~ 30 minutes. I’ve had the ~£8 and the ~£13 service and cannot discern any actual difference at the end… but both were more than good enough for my needs.
I just get the basic wash there every couple of weeks now (it’s only £3). Then I take it home, shake the mats out and spend no more than 10 minutes in the foot wells with the vacuum cleaner, life is too short to spend any more time than that cleaning cars IMO…

My next door neighbour spends about 4 hours every other Saturday morning meticulously cleaning his 3 series inside and out (Including the engine bay) and then pays a mobile Valet ~£80 every six months to work some additional magic and make his car extra, doubly clean, shiny and impervious to evil or something…

Horses for courses innit…

I just get the basic wash there every couple of weeks now (it’s only £3). Then I take it home, shake the mats out and spend no more than 10 minutes in the foot wells with the vacuum cleaner, life is too short to spend any more time than that cleaning cars IMO…

Yours obviously hasn’t enough in it.

I never clean a car, so that saves going there in the first place – but you’re only saving a £5 and still having to get the vacuum out 😯

Not sure what they’re offering yet – will find out Monday when it goes there – but I want the seats and probably carpets properly cleaning.
£50 is the figure I’ll keep in mind as a max.

They go faster when they are shiny. 4 hours on a 3 series is a bit keen though, they aren’t even that big.

4 hours on a 3 series is a bit keen though, they aren’t even that big.

He Reeaaaly loves his car, it’s his car not a company one or a lease jobbie…

And like I said he cleans everything the engine bay no blasting it with the jet-washer, he does it by hand with special cloths and stuff, get up under the wheel arches with odd shaped brushes, and has other special brushes and sprays and cloths to get into the little nadgery bits of the trim and stuff, there’s a big tub full of kit, and several buckets he brings it all out to the car and that’s his Saturday morning sorted… might be a generational thing, My Dad’s about the same age and simply cannot tolerate a dirty motor…

But His missus’ car is a dented to shit, grubby, knackered old skip of a Yaris which He couldn’t care less about.

Other than the obsessive car cleaning he’s a really nice, normal well adjusted chap, certainly the best neighbours I’ve ever had.

We used to live opposite a guy who was the same about his car – A red Vauxhall Tigra… Used to spend hours cleaning it inside and out.

Mind you he also used to edge his front lawn with a pair of scissors…

I keep my car clean because I sometimes get random overseas customers phoning me up and saying: “Hey… guess what? I’m at the airport/station! Come and pick me up!”

Our car gets cleaned once a year, when it goes for its annual service and MOT. They do it for free 😉

Anybody know anything about getting a bod to polish out swirl marks in metallic black? The whole thing needs doing. How much, how long, who from?

That chap with the cleaning obsession sounds a bit like me! I have various products for each stage of cleaning (wash, clay, cleanse, Polish, wax) and I do browse Detailing World a fair bit!

Similar with my bikes too. Do try and clean and re-lube after every muddy ride.

I need my vrs interior (the white one) deep cleaning (it is gipping). I thought about hiring a rug doctor for the job, but I don’t whether to just leave it to the pros 😀

I recently found that a clay bar is the perfect glass cleaning tool for removing Daffy Jnr’s fingerprints from the TV and mirrors.

We used to live opposite a guy who was the same about his car – A red Vauxhall Tigra… Used to spend hours cleaning it inside and out.

Mind you he also used to edge his front lawn with a pair of scissors…

Sounds like my exBIL.

He once said to me that he needed new front discs for his car.

“Oh, failed it’s MOT?” says I.

“No”, says he, “When I had my wheels off as usual to clean it properly on Friday I measured them…”

He’s currently overseas working (5 years), and has laid up his house (and car)…, such as cutting off the services and the car is wheels off and on jacks.

I clean mine weekly, wax it monthly, and polish it as and when it needs it to take out swirls and minor scratches.

When I’ve paid a considerable amount of money for something, I tend to look after it.