GsLex02

Dors the Lexus dealership do a good job on their car detailing? Looking to get a full detail and wasn't sure if I should go to Lexus or somewhere else. Lexus quoted $199 here in NJ so price isn't bad

Rudiculous

iTrader: (15)

You need to ask who they use as a detailer and research them

djrabbi

iTrader: (2)

Don't do it... Mine came back with more scratches

SW17LS

Run....run screaming away.

Find a good independent detailer, get references. Pay more than $199.

GsLex02

Damn this is kind of what I figured, that they would do a ****ty job. Guess I'll look elsewhere

Sevn86

I wouldn't trust a dealer to do any type of paint detail work. One of my local dealers can't even do a free carwash without scratching the hell out of the paint. I forgot to tell them not to wash it once, and it came back swirled up.

mjn88

Do not let the dealer detail the car. They do not treat your car well.... Go find a real detailer in the area. I made the mistake of letting them handle my car and got swirls all over

GsLex02

Yea well part of my problem is I hand waxed my car a few weeks ago and apparently I'm terrible lol. I have swirls all over. Guess I'll have to find an auto detailed near me. If anybody knows a place near Point Pleasant NJ that be awesome ha

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

My answer is a bit different than the above.... it depends. A good friend of mine runs the outsourced detail group that services our local Lexus dealer. He's a former Lexus employee, a real detailing enthusiast and trains his staff to do the job right (I lend him my LS every now and then to run a training session on). Very interested and up to speed on the latest products, etc.

IF you're just "taking the package" the dealer offers you, you are likely to get a nice clean car but not a lot of paint correction.

If you ask to speak to the dealer's detail manager (might work for the dealer, might work for a subcontractor to the dealer) and talk about what you want, products they use, concerns you have (don't start off this detail by running it through your crappy carwash, etc). you can end up with a pretty good job. The benefit of this detail is that if they screw it up, the Lexus dealer has your back in getting it fixed. Picking an independent if you don't have strong personal recommendations local to you, you're dealing with a small business, egos, etc.

SW17LS

Thats a unique situation based on my experience. Most dealers (not just Lexus dealers, dealers in general) don't subcontract out their detailing, they have "detailers" in house that they pay a low hourly wage to, these are the same people that do new car prep, etc. They pay this guy $10 an hour to detail a car, it takes him 2 hours, so $20 and they sell you a $200 detail, thats pure profit. If dealers source it out they're going to get a small % of that $200, maybe 20% so $40. You can see why dealers don't want to do that.

The other side of it, even if the dealer does subcontract it out, really good detailers won't work for dealer prices...they don't have to. Somebody like say, zmcmcgovern he's getting paid high 3 figures low 4 figures for a full correction detail with coating, and he has customers that will pay that...dealers can't sell that service, they need to be able to offer a "full detail" for $199. You're never going to get somebody like him to do that job and pay the dealer's overlay.

Now...you don't need to pay that much to get a good detail, he's an example of an elite detail, but you need to pay more than $200 to get a good full detail that includes paint correction for sure. Some of this also depends on location, I know you're in NC. It may be that where you are there isn't enough high paying detail business so that quality detailers do have to do dealer work...but thats not the case here or where the OP lives.

I have always been a hobbyist detailer (less so now because I don't have the time), and for a couple years I actually detailed professionally. Spent a lot of time on the detailing forums on the net for both professional and hobbyist detailers. Car dealer "detail" repairs are a huge source of business for quality professional detailers. Unless you have first hand experience that your particular dealer does quality detailing, I would always assume that is not the case.

As for the Lexus dealer "having your back", my experience there sadly also is different. Just a few years ago I had my Lexus dealer wash my then GS in the winter against my instructions and absolutely destroy it. They proceeded to "polish it out" and hacked it up even more. Bear in mind I had been a sales and service customer for 15 years leading up to this of this particular dealership. The tone of the response of the service manager to what they had done to my car was frankly shocking. They refunded my $250 service bill, but only after I caused a scene in the service lane in front of all the other customers (and that was not my first, second or even third attempt at reaching a resolution). They were rude, indignant, totally uninterested in making good with me about what they had done...and I was like I said a long time customer.

In short...the preponderance of the evidence is that dealers are not a source of quality detailing in general...so I would look elsewhere. The OP is in a fairly well to do area of NJ, should have no issue finding a detailer, he's even close enough to go to somebody like Detailers Domain in NY where we know the quality of the work is excellent.

charley95

For the few times I've had warranty work done on my RX at the dealer, I take a sheet of paper and stick to the dash "DO NOT WASH CAR" in black Sharpie. So far it's worked.

ccatx

I just had to take my car in for service for the first time and made a point to let them know I preferred to wash my car myself and wanted to opt out of their complimentary wash.

They honored my wishes, but I learned I'll have to make every effort to pick my car up before closing in the future instead of leaving it overnight as the hood, trunk, and roof were covered with dew and tree pollen droppings as there are very few spots in the lot that are not under trees…which seems a rather poorly thought out decision for a luxury car dealership lot in my book. Anyhow, all that to say…in asking them not to wash my car, I ended up picking up my car looking far worse than when I dropped it off and had to immediately drive it through the nearest decent touchless wash to get all that crap off before driving to work so it wouldn't sit on my car all day. Lesson learned: don't leave the car there overnight if it isn't absolutely necessary and ask them to park it away from trees and sprinklers if possible.

EnvyDiz

iTrader: (3)

never let the dealer detail or wash your car i mean never!

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

Sorry but you are incorrect. Outsourcing that service (among many others like reconditioning process, wheel repair, tinting, etc) is absolutely not anywhere close to 'unique'. Very significant percentage of dealerships do this. As I said I've got a close friend in this exact business and know what large dealerships he covers across the country.

Not the topic for this thread so suggest we not derail it.

SW17LS

That hasn't been my experience in this area at least at all. My experience isn't incorrect...its just clearly different than yours. Regardless of who is doing the detailing, one only has to look at threads on any forum, whether car related or detailing related to see the horror stories that come from dealership detailing...just look at the overwhelmingly negative responses just in this thread. Like I said, if you have a quality detailing business you can stay booked doing much higher profit work than dealer work, and personally I want a detailer that wants to do quality work not volume work, so I want a smaller boutique type detailer and thats what I recommend to people.

Not to say that its impossible to have quality work done from a dealer, I'm sure it is possible, I would personally air on the side of "its going to be a disaster" unless I had first hand knowledge that particular dealership does good work, as you do of yours. People have different definitions of what "quality work" is too, might be that the OP would be satisfied with what the dealer would do for $200, but I wouldn't be probably.