I have wanted to compound my c300 and thinking on doing it at Mercedes next week when I will bring her for a service, although I m not sure which is the best option here, the guys I go to wash my car by hand they are very good and they offer a compound for $250, at Mercedes here in Queens NY (Silver Star) on northern blv they asked me just $220 for a compound plus the shampoo inside, at first I thought great deal! cheaper and they do also the interior but to be done at Mercedes the price is very low and I m wondering if they do a good job or not.....has anybody compounded the car at Mercedes? I m sure they should have a good standard in every detailing or job they can do on your car

 

With things like compounding and polishing paint the real trick here is just go ahead and toss all priorities related to minimizing expense right out the window. That's not what you're after. What you want is a superb job, done with real care and attention, taking the time it takes to do it right, with some love, so you get what you pay for and not some lip service, a rushed job with looming overheads that can't break even on the charges, and invariably a subpar result.

I work in a panel shop and my responsibility is the finish on cars. A full cut and polish, in real terms is a 500 dollar proposition. It's a half day minimum, two full measures of compounds with two different pad grades and a swirl remover with finishing glaze on a polishing pad and finally a hand wax buffed clean for best results. Before you even start: just washing the car throughout isn't free and properly is a completely different thing to pumping cars out quick for high profits, followed by a prepsol wash down, then a clay bar, tape up all vulnerable fittings like vinyl/plastic/matte trim and we're talking easily 500 bucks in labour value alone in total, it takes ages to do it right. We'll charge around 300 for a full cut and polish but that's still an undercut and you have to skip steps that compromise the potential of exquisite finish. I go the extra mile because I get paid well and work through breaks and pump as hard as I can to do more for less, but what I'd really like is the customer who is willing to pay for results rather than compare cost with hack jobs that don't reallly cut the mustard. That gives me the leisurely time needed to do it right and it just doesn't compare. The best you can do is a lot more than a competitively priced service, they're not even in the same world. When I started working at this place I showed the managers and proprietors what I can do with cars no holds barred (what anyone can following the full gamit of proper steps using good equipment), and the results are so different they're satisfied granting me a full day to work on a single car when someone asks for a cut and polish, they'll cancel all other duties for me and work at a loss for that car using it for a piece of business advertisement on quality, and use cost-recovery methods in other areas of business to compensate for it. And that's how it's done, but honestly a better way is when customers understand the task at hand and don't think all this is just some minimum wage kids doing a sponge bath and hand wax on your car.

The way you negotiate is not undercutting price. It's by picking the reputable expert location for one, then extrapolating to the representative that okay mate I'll pay that extra hundred or whatever, but I demand an exquisite finish, no skimping, I want you to wash, clay bar, compound, polish and wax taking the time, to deliver me the best results you're capable of with your equipment and detailer, I want the fair price for that but the standard to be that high, and trust me the manager will go to the experienced detailer and tell him, feller take the whole day on this car, pull out all the stops, but it has to be showroom quality. And they'll give him the time, and he'll give you his best, and mate, it's a good 300% up on your regular cut and polish job, which can't be done the way you'd do a show car, because it would cost 500 bucks not 250 to do a show car.

Our regular cut and polish, and we're good mate, we are, 300 bucks and really the buff process can only happen about twice, pushing labour costing trying to squeeze in a clay bar let alone prepwash after soapwash, it's kind of half done...but still a world ahead of a regular detailing shop...being a panel shop, where we rub and buff fresh paint for denibbing all day long anyway. By default panel shops are the best you can find with a buff.

 

thank you, I agree that going cheap it means to get a less quality job, but thinking about get a compound at Mercedes I would think they do a good job although $220 for a compound plus shampoo in the interior at this point like you say it is too cheap to look great, In my area detailing shop I went to, they asked me $250 for a compound. I m actually trying to decide about this, I will have to take her for the service to Mercedes and it would be easier to leave it there for a day more for the detailing, that is what they told me they need for it, plus I would get a good clean on the plastic inside and carpets and I also was thinking that Mercedes must know how to work the best on Mercedes cars, I guess the only way it is to try it

 

Have you considered going to the dealer's detail shop, observe him working on a car, and/or a completed job on another car?

 

hey thanks for shooting two words!, I will go to Benz tomorrow to schedule the service and with the excuse I m there I will ask to talk with the detail manager or who works in that section and ask how they do it and take a look at the work they do, one thing I know is that there was a c300 at the car wash I go to just compounded and they guy told me that it was looking like mine before and they did a good job actually.....I think it is also the headache to leave the car a day to Benz plus another day somewhere else.....if I do everything at Benz I just leave the car one day to them and pick it up after 2.....Actually talking to a friend yesterday we agreed that every time you take the car to a dealer for a service they make it shiny so I guess if I add the compound polishing service they definitely will know how to do it

 

If you in queens go to middle village hand car wash on 69 street and Eliot Ave(maspeth/middle village border). and talk to Brian, you can tell him that Hubert sent you. Show them ur car and tell him what you want done. Or if you want lasting results take a drive to detailers domain in NJ and Phill will make ur car paint better than new and protect it for the future. The dealer will probably send ur car over to some body shop for compound and use some car wash they do business with for wax and shampoo and the first time it rains it will all come off. Trust me on this one.

 

thank you very much I will consider that, I actually brought my baby yesterday to Mercedes but just for the service

 

omg!!! at the end I decided to just do the service there and better in this way!! those animals when they washed my car they made a huge mess!!! scratches all over!! I was so pissed about it!!! now they will actually compound the car at their expensive, although I m not sure what they will do, they were able to scratch even both the plastics where the side mirror attaches....and the rear antenna!!! guess what! it was a Mercedes Benz dealer, I stopped to show the guys I go to wash my car and they told me majority of those scratches wont come 100% out and of course the manager of Mercedes said dont worry they will do a great job.......I m actually worried!!!! can you believe it? you take your car to a Mercedes dealer and you expect your car at least to look like before when you pick it up!

 

This..............

 

ahahah