Pre-Sale Detailing

The advert goes live on Sunday. The car has served you well for six years, and now it stands in the driveway with grey footwells, a dull bonnet, and a smell of an old gym bag in the boot. You know it is mechanically sound. The problem is that whoever comes to view it does not know that, and they will use what they see to guess at everything they cannot.

Pre-sale detailing is about removing that guesswork.

What we actually do

This is a full interior and exterior detailing, put together for one specific occasion.

Exterior. Hand wash using the two-bucket method, cold wheel cleaner, wheel arches, chemical iron removal that dissolves brake dust out of the paint, tar and insect remover on the lower panels and front end. Then clay bar treatment over the entire paintwork, until the surface is completely smooth. Next comes 1-step machine polishing: it removes light wash swirls and holograms, and gives the reflection in the bonnet sharp edges again. Finally, wax protection is applied to the whole car, the tyres are given a shine, and dull headlights are polished up on the surface.

Interior. A full deep clean, not a wipe-over. Mats out, compressed air into seams, tracks and vents, brushwork around buttons, the console and joints, door pockets and cup holders emptied and cleaned, seats and rails vacuumed, boot emptied including the well beneath the floor. Interior windows cleaned in two passes, finished with a dry cloth, so there are no streaks when the buyer sits down with the sun in their face.

Engine bay. Gentle cleaning with electronics and air intakes covered. A clean engine bay should not look freshly washed — it should look like a car someone has cared for. We never use a pressure washer here.

Final inspection. We walk round the car with you in daylight before we leave. That is where you see what remains, and there is still time to do something about it.

Why it pays off

A used-car buyer has no way of assessing an engine at a viewing. What they have are signals. Gravel in the footwell means the owner has been in a hurry. A dull bonnet means automatic car washes and little upkeep. A smell means uncertainty. None of these inferences are necessarily correct, but they are made, and they are made before anyone has asked about the service book.

The reverse: a cabin that smells clean, a bonnet with a sharp reflection, and an engine bay without a layer of dust shift the conversation from 'what's wrong with it' to 'when can I collect it'. The photos for the advert also become a different matter altogether — which is why it is worth adding a photo session for kr 1 500 the same day, while the car is at its best.

How often should you have it done?

Once, and at the right time: a few days before the advert goes live, while you still have time to photograph in daylight. If the car is being returned from a lease rather than sold, the Lease Return Detail at kr 2 499 is the option made for that situation.

How long does it take?

Around 10 hours, so a full day. We come to wherever the car is, and need shelter and power for the polishing stage.

See available times and book pre-sale detailing — feel free to add a photo session to the same booking.