Do you have your cars detailed?

And if so, how frequently?

I've always cleaned my own cars. I don't enjoy it, but I enjoy the results so I suck it up, spend an hour or so a few times a year and try to keep it reasonably tidy the rest of the time.

I've noticed among friends and coworkers that it's something they routinely pay for and last year suggested that my kids buy a detail package for Mom for Christmas, which she was really happy to get. They do a very nice job, nicer than I do, but I think I'm just too cheap to pay for this service. In ths day and age of increasing affluence am I being an abnormally tight tightwad, or...?

I do my own work, also like you I don't love it and just do it. With that I try to keep it as painless as possible. As a preventative measure I use a spray wax once a month, which only takes about 15 minutes to apply and wipe off. 

When it's time to break out the DA polisher I like using products that are designed to be as quick and easy as possible. Meguiars microfiber line is really good for this and Optimum has a spray polish that's supposed to be effective and easy.

I only polish as needed. If there aren't any swirls or light scratching I leave it be. I've only had to correct and polish my car once in ten years so my excessive use of spray was seems to have worked.

I live where nobody washes their car but me.  I'm the same - I suck it up and do it.  Most times it's not bad.  

I was thinking  mostly interior cleaning

Absolutely enjoy it. It is my ONLY therapy to get away from the wife and kids. I spent usually 10-12 hours on each detail. I spend about 30 hours a month doing it. I usually do it 9pm-1am or so.

Also my cars get a full 15 minute quick detail after each drive. As a result, I wash my cars every 30 months or so, as they never get really dirty. 

It is my only ZEN.

That said, my cars don't need it. All are garaged under covers, daily. All are full 3M clear bra'd. No one ever is allowed to eat in the interior. So most of my "cleaning" is a personal waste of time and money. But aside from racing, I don't have hobbies, so lots of free time, and cheap skateness of not wasting money on other things. 

All our friends/co workers, they do $25 mobile car washes, where they all come to our office and have their cars washed. They do every other month $200 mobile detail.  These people also (the rare non Tesla owners), also have mobile gas, where a guy comes and fills up our gas tanks at work.

If others touched my cars, and scratched up the paint, I would feel like a cuckold, personally speaking.  I have never in my life (53 cars, 13 bikes), ever gone to a car wash or had anybody else detail/wash cars. 

I'm not a fan and thus do it only occasionally, but OTOH detailing a car or bike has a certain amount of Zen.

That said, I have a massive preference for using some of the newer, quick on/off products and am looking into putting ceramic coating onto at least one of the cars if I ever get that one clean enough.

I would enjoy it if I didn't have 6000 other things to be doing instead.

I wash my car probably twice a year.

I typically do it myself once a month or so;  even bought a carpet cleaner machine for the job. Admittedly I'm more on the OCD neat freak end of the spectrum, but I've had a few used car scores that really benefited from tearing the seats out and doing a really intense cleaning to get everything just perfect, with them being much more easy and pleasant to keep up after that.

That said I have paid the pros to do it twice, and I must state if you've never had a real pro detail your car before, that the level of care and finish a pro detailer is capable of absolutely put my home jobs to shame. My jaw hit the floor at how phenomenal the car looked when I had my 300ZX done. It truly presented like a brand new car.

I wouldn't pay a pro to do my daily driver or the typical project, but I would not hesitate to use a pro again for a nicer specimen and definitely found it to be worthwhile.

I can't be bothered doing it myself, and can't really justify paying someone else unless I'm getting ready to sell the vehicle.

I do my own cleaning. I do a full detail when I buy a car  with seat removal, the works to bring it up to my level of clean. From there, I'm too busy to justify breaking out the wash bucket myself for general cleaning, so I run my cars through a quality car wash, a couple times a month,  which also has the nice high power central vacs. I find if I maintain a solid level of clean at all times, I spend generally about 10 min total, vac and wash to have a very clean car. I never allow clutter to build up, even with two young kids.  If there's staining on floor mats I bring those inside and shampoo them as needed. 

 Usually I do an at home  deep clean, wash, claybar and wax on both cars in the spring and late fall. Carpets get shampooed and leather surfaces get cleaned and treated. Buffing and paint correction.....doesn't really happen these days. No time, cars are just daily drivers, not too swirled, and I don't like my current random orbital so I need spend several hundred to buy a Makita with 3M buffing kit. 

I'd buy the kit before paying to have a detail shop do paint restoration if I ever feel the need. 

ProDarwin said:

I would enjoy it if I didn't have 6000 other things to be doing instead.

I wash my car probably twice a year.

I'm 100% with you on the first line.  When I'm retired, maybe I won't mind doing the full detail thing myself.  I don't actually mind the work, I just can't reasonably commit that much of my disposable free time to it.

I wash and vacuum my cars every 3-4 weeks, in my driveway if I can, but in the drive-through (OH THE HORROR) if I can't.  They're tools to be used every day.  I try to be good to them but they exist in the real world.

When I wash them at home I use a chamois and spray wax as I dry.  In the drive through I spring for the all-the-options stuff.

What I don't do as often as I should is paint correct and hand wax them.  Even if I only did the dailies, that's 3 Saturdays X twice each per year, and that's just too much time to spend avoiding some swirl marks.

I'm too cheap to get them detailed professionally, but with 2 nice cars in the fleet, that may start changing.

In the early 80s I briefly did this for a living, I actually made some pretty decent money doing it but hated the work.

Since then I've been gifted a couple of car details, they did a great job but I'm not very particular about my daily drivers being super clean so I just drive through wash and vacuum them out myself.

I flip some cars. The easy stuff I do myself. There's a local business (one man show) who will do cars for $60. He's good for outside and only okay for inside. 

For $90 (and I tip him $10 = $100) I have a college age kid who does them at his parents.  He is great at the inside and the tough jobs. 

I used to really hate it, but I've come to enjoy it. My PCA club has 5 concours events a year, and I keep both of the little Porsches in a state nearly ready to go to an event pretty much all the time. Oddly enough, the concours folks in my club are some of the coolest, chillest, friendliest folks in the club! We have clinics and there's a great coaching corral and our coaches have really taught me how to do things right and enjoy them. (And I've won several 2nds and 3rds with my Boxster now, so it's definitely paid off! No firsts yet, though...)

Now I take delight in remembering to clean inside the fold of the weather stripping and underneath the slats in the side grilles and dust the wires behind the dashboard. :) 

I do it twice a year.  April and October.  Way too frugal to pay someone else to do it.

I am fanatical about originality in my cars. The FRS has the original dirt that came with the car. Will be there when I scrap it.

The Molvo gets washed by a friend who is embarrassed to go to car shows in the car if it is not clean. Tom Sawyer city!

Pete

When the car gets messy and I don't have the time or just don't feel like it I schedule an oil change at the local Merc dealer.  It costs about the same as my local independent where I usually get it done but the Merc dealer does a Q&D detail of my car and a exterior wash.  Win Win as I see it.  I get to sit in the very nice waiting room with free coffee and snacks/pastries or fruit.  Or I get a loaner car if they are backed up so I get 3-4 hours to playing with a newer Merc.  Well worth the $$$ it costs. 

Since I use it as my company car and have clients in it appearances do matter so I like to keep it cleaner than my other cars.  My other cars get a cleaning 1-2x a year and washed when I can not see out the windshield at night.

I've always done it myself. It's a part of the car hobby that I enjoy, and I'm able to convince myself that I'm actually helping preserve the resale value of the cars, too.

I've always enjoyed detailing. I finally got into it so much I was deep into Autopia. Autogeek was my best friend for several years.

I finally burned out. I learned the shortcuts, what to use, what doesn't work, etc.

I can't stand a dirty car, but I wash it when needed. I know what works for me, and that's fine. I'm over the "detailer" phase.

I did have my C7 ceramic-coated, but that's my forever car, so I'm trying to protect it a little more than usual.

Ask me about the time I washed a dirty pickup when it was below freezing! 

Only after buying it. After that i neglect it. Vacuum, pick up trash, and drive through wash every few months. But I drive 20 year old beaters. 

Maybe if I had something really nice. Lol

I detail my gf car for her. Purely for the excuse to use my pressure washer and steam cleaner whenever I can lol. 

I wiped the dust off the head unit in my truck today because I couldn't read it. Does that count?

In a word, no. The DDs I drive and mostly ignore beyond getting the trash out and dumping the dirt out of the floor mats. The G35 stays pretty clean because it seldom gets driven. 

I've had it done several times and have been happy with the results.  Make sure you find a reputable detailer, ask around to your friends and acquaintances for references.   Like anything else, the good detailers may not be the cheapest ones so figure on spending some money for a good job.  

If you factor in what your labor is worth, chances are it will be less expensive to hire it out to someone who is faster and will do a better job.

Lugnut said:

 

Now I take delight in remembering to clean inside the fold of the weather stripping and underneath the slats in the side grilles and dust the wires behind the dashboard. :) 

My twin!!

nothing is more disgusting to see a mint car with disgusting slats ! 

Reading about how particular some are, I can appreciate it. Not enough to do it regularly, but I know when I do a really good job, I do thoroughly enjoy being in the car afterward. It does make a difference

I have a nifty setup for washing my vehicles. I put a 1000L tote under the downspout of my barn, and have it connected to a pressure washer, and have the soap attachments, and scrubbing brushes. It makes doing a nce job pretty quick and easy. I wish I could do that for the interior

For me it depends on the car.

Before covid-19, there was a detail guy who would set up in the parking lot at work twice a month.  I'd often get my daily driver (the Audi) washed by him, because it was super convenient and not terribly expensive.  I would pay him to detail it maybe twice a year.

The FD, Miata, and M3 (caged race car) I wash myself in my driveway when needed.  Theoretically I also wax them occasionally, but it's been a LONG time since I've had the inclination to do that.

The truck goes to the drive-through car wash once a year whether it needs it or not.  It's a functional vehicle. :)

My wife's car I let her worry about.