How Often Should Your Car Be Detailed

One of the most common questions I get asked after a detail is “when should I have you come back?” The answer to this is quite tricky as ideally you would have your car detailed as often as possible (once or twice a week) but most people cannot afford their time or money to go towards maintaining their cars. Because of this I will usually recommend once or twice a month for a basic maintenance detail inside and out.

That is however if your cars only cleanings come in the form of a detail. If you clean your own car regularly yourself, or take it through an automatic wash (Don’t do this) you may not even see the value in a detail once a month. For these customers I will recommend quarterly at the very least as most people who clean their own cars tend to miss some parts of the car.

Some criteria I look for when recommending detailing regularity is:

1) how often and how much do you drive your car

Someone who drives their car every day for tens to hundreds of miles per day is going to accumulate much more harmful road grime than someone who drives their car once or twice a month. It is very important to keep a daily driven car clean as road grime can be much more harmful to a car than dust from sitting in a garage.

“Road grime” is a catchall term that covers bird droppings, brake dust, tar, sap, tire rubber, etc.

2) what type of driving do you do

Do you take your Jeep off-roading regularly? Do you take your car to the track or on mountain roads every weekend? If so, your car is going to accumulate dirt very quickly and the longer that dirt stays on the car the harder it is to get off.

Other driving scenarios that would cause frequent detailing to be necessary include: Long distances on highways, driving in rain or through puddles regularly.

3) how passionate you are about your car

Someone who is not passionate enough to justify spending hundreds on having their car cleaned every month isn’t going to be sold on having their car detailed very regularly. Those people may only want their car detailed once or twice a year.