How often should you get your car detailed?
That depends on the type of vehicle and the way it is used along with your expectations.
A daily driver that puts in a tough commute and is always outside in the elements will need more love and attention than a weekly grocery-getter that is garaged.
Lets take a quick look at what the goal is : To keep your car clean and protected while looking it’s best.
To achieve this, once the surface has been thoroughly cleaned and prepped, a protective coat of some sort is applied. This ranges from traditional carnauba wax to infused waxes and a wide selection of synthetic coatings and sealants.
Once that protective coating is gone, the clearcoat on your paint takes the direct environmental impact in the form of scratches, swirls, etching, and oxidizing.
So the main question to ask when deciding on the frequency of detailing your car is “How long does my protective coating last?”
This answer varies with the way a car is used and stored and what type of protectant was applied.
Traditional carnauba wax offers nice gloss and good, if somewhat short-lived, protection. You may get anywhere from 1 to 3 months of protection on the daily driver example from above. However, the same wax on the same car that is a garaged weekly grocery-getter may well last 6 months.
“Infused” waxes with either ceramic, graphene, or both will tend to last significantly longer, anywhere from 2 to 3 times as long. One of the newer graphene coatings that we’ve been applying in the last year boasts of up to 1 year of protection. (True ceramic coatings can last up to 5 years but come with a different level of expense)
So my suggestion, for a daily driver that commutes and deals with the elements, is a minimum of twice a year with a ceramic infused wax. Quarterly would be ideal but from a protection standpoint, twice a year with the right infused wax will do the job.
In contrast, the garaged weekly grocery-getter with the same ceramic-infused wax applied will be well-protected for the year with a single detail service.
We’re happy to come once a month or more for those who want to seriously pamper their cars, but twice a year leaves the vast majority of our clients well-protected and looking great.