What Does A Full Car Detail Include

A full car detail should cover the whole vehicle, inside and out, in stages, ending with protection on the paint. The problem is that no two operators define it the same way, so the word alone tells you almost nothing about what you are buying.

Here is what the stages actually are, why each one exists, and what to check before you compare two quotes.

Stage One, The Exterior Wash

Wheels, arches and tyres come first, always. They hold the most aggressive contamination on the car, and washing them after the paint means carrying brake dust and road grit up onto the panels.

Then the paint itself: a pre-rinse to take off what is loose, followed by a contact wash with clean media. The pre-rinse is the part that gets skipped when someone is working quickly, and it is the part that stops grit being dragged across your clear coat.

Doing this at a customer's home in Auckland is where most mobile operators hit a wall, because runoff reaching a stormwater drain is restricted. Titan's no drainage system captures and contains every drop on site, so the full wash happens on your driveway rather than being downgraded to a wipe down.

Stage Two, Decontamination

This is the stage most cars have never actually had, and the one that separates a detail from a wash.

After washing, run your fingertips over the paint through a thin plastic bag. If it feels like fine sandpaper, that roughness is bonded contamination: iron particles from brake dust, tar from the road, tree sap, industrial fallout. None of it comes off with soap.

Decontamination removes it chemically and, where needed, mechanically. Skip it and everything applied afterwards sits on top of contamination rather than on the paint, which is why cheap protection fails early.

Stage Three, The Interior

A proper interior stage is front to back and top to bottom: seats, carpets, mats, console, vents, door cards, boot, and every surface a hand touches.

The materials in a modern cabin all want different things. Perforated leather, Alcantara, piano black trim and matte plastics do not share a cleaner, and using one product across all of them is how trim ends up shiny, streaky, or marked.

Stage Four, Glass

Inside and out. The inside of a windscreen collects a film off the dash that you only notice driving into low sun, and it is the single most common thing left half done on a cheap detail.

Stage Five, Protection

Clean paint with nothing on it starts collecting contamination immediately. A protective layer means dirt sits on top of the protection instead of bonding to the clear coat, so the next few washes are easier and the finish holds its gloss.

What goes on depends on the car and how it is used. A daily driver parked outside wants something different to a weekend car under cover.

What A Complete Detail Costs

Titan's complete detail starts from $349, down from $549, and covers all of the above at your home or workplace anywhere in Auckland. Final pricing depends on the size and condition of the vehicle, because a neglected seven seater is genuinely more work than a tidy hatchback.

How To Compare Two Quotes

Ask these and the differences appear immediately:

• Is decontamination included, or just a wash
• Are wheels, arches and door jambs done separately
• What protection goes on at the end, and how long is it expected to last
• Is there a size or condition surcharge, and when does it apply
• How long is the car allowed to take

A quote that cannot answer those is not cheaper, it is smaller. Tell us what you drive and what is bothering you about it, and we will tell you exactly which stages your car needs.