Full Detailing for West Bend, Wisconsin

From our shop

About 20 minutes

Cars

$200

SUVs & trucks

$250

Common job

Trade-in prep

What an appraiser is actually pricing

A dealer appraiser is not a buyer and not an inspector. They are estimating one number: what it will cost to get this car onto the lot. Every item they see that the recon crew will have to deal with comes off the offer, and they estimate generously in their own favour because they are pricing risk.

So the things that move a trade-in number are the things that would cost the dealer time. A smell, because odor is the recon item that fails most often and takes longest. An interior that needs more than a vacuum. Paint that will need more than a wash to photograph. Each one is a line the appraiser mentally adds, and a car that arrives with none of them is a car they do not have to think about.

What a full reset removes from that estimate

A full detail done a day or two before the appraisal takes the recon estimate to close to zero. The cabin smells of nothing, the driver's quarter has been worked, the paint has been decontaminated and reflects in the lot. The appraiser walks around a car that is ready to list and their number reflects it.

The effect is smaller than in a private sale — an appraiser is also pricing the wholesale market and their margin — but on most vehicles it is larger than the cost of the detail. On a higher-value trade it is not close.

What not to bother with

Do not fix what is honestly worn. A worn driver's bolster on a twelve-year-old car is priced as a twelve-year-old car; trying to hide it costs more than it recovers. Do not pay for correction on a modest trade unless the swirls are obvious in the lot at noon. Decontamination and protection is usually enough for the paint to photograph.

And do not apply a fragrance before the appraisal. Appraisers have smelled a thousand masked cars and they price a fragranced one as a car with a smell underneath.