I must admit that I normally wash and hoover both my own car and SWMBO's on a Sunday and take the company one to the carwash.
I have always considered the professional valets as expensive - the local Honda Main Agent would always wash & valet the car after a service but at Honda prices I think it is not a bargain...Even the local shopping centre car park valet is £25 for the same service.
As these guys have just started up a garage business and cafe as well as I wonder if its a loss leader to get business in and then they'll put the prices up.
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Went out today and bought 20 quid's worth of Autoglym's premium stuff - the car wash, wax, and "extreme shine". Was on offer at Halfords.
It's now sitting on the kitchen worktop but will probably never get used by me! TBH the vomit yellow of my car looks slightly more bearable with a thick layer of grime on it.
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I have paid £10 for Silk Roller machine wash and leather chamois - this is all motoring related by the way.
So cracking value at £12 for all that.
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I pay about 4 quid for hand wash, wax and wheels in Makro car park in Warsaw. For double that they do the inside too and they do a fantastic job. I tip another 4 quid normally if I have change on me, I think it?s well worth it, because I live in an apartment, there?s nowhere to wash my own car even if I wanted to.
When I was back in the UK a few weeks ago I drove around Cheshire for an hour trying to find either the equivalent or an automatic car wash. Couldn?t find a single one, all the once I used to use had closed or changed into the hose type. Seems that the Cheshire set are washing their cars themselves these days.
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There seem to be a number of these places appearing on old filling stations, or sites awaiting development.
The one in Luton, on London Road, next to Shell station, looks a similar set up. The vehicles leaving there,appear to have been well presented.
I suggested this was an ideal business opportunity for our workshop & valeters, to earn themselves some £$£$ using our place, on a Saturday, when we had the yard.
They declined - must have something to do with a slightly different work/play attitude, or need, than our Brazillian friend!!
VB
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Moor St car park, Birmingham. £5 external only, cracking job.
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Lymington under old petrol station canopy, £9 for outside + inside door frames, including polish and painted wheels - looks showroom and lasts for weeks. Haven't had interior done as have son for that!! Eastern Europeans.
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Lee Green in S London. Sounds like an equivalent service, full valet inside and out, £10. An absolute bargain!
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Haven't been there recently since I no longer live nearby but the roof of the Asda car park at Roehampton on the A3 used to have a hand car wash for a fiver (£10 including the interior, £15 for the full works) that did an excellent job.
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I wouldnt let anybody near my cars.The dealers look at me like im from mars when i tell them not to valet my cars after a service.Doesnt take long to know why i dont want them anywhere near it though when they see the condition of my cars.Simple thing to say is that it takes me three hours for a basic vacuum,wash and dry!!
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Best hand car wash in the UK is Great American Car Wash on the outskirts of Manchester city centre. £10 gets almost the same as the OP and £12 gets more. The throughout and quality are high.
However £12 is good value and the mobile ones who come near to my office are much more expensive than Great American who have higher overheads.
I keep thinking how handy it would be to have the car done in the office car park, but I can't bring myself to pay £20 to a guy in a van, who takes an hour, whereas for £10 I can get it done in 15 minutes.
--
Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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Don't know what they charge, but our £9 lot advertise they will collect your car from work/home and return it - and have insurance to cover this. Perhaps you should ask at the Great American if they offer this?
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Well I took SWMBO's Yaris in today and got it back beautifully presented as before.
It sounds as though Deepwith and Gordon M are getting similar value.
Apart from my Brazilian team who seem to be legit ,it seems to me to be East European gangmaster controlled labour who are cornering the wash and valet market in supermarket car parks.
I wonder how much tax is being paid and how legitimate some of the workforce are.
I suppose if BBD can get a similar job done in Warsaw for £4 these guys charging £12 probably think they are ripping off us gullible English.
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Well one of the other car forums i'm a member of have just posted a link to a new valet service in hinckley called bubbles-n-babes.
I won't post the link as it's not exactly family friendly but suffice to say they encourage you to remain in the car as it's washed and polished by some young ladies wearing not a lot.
Rates start at £15.
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The URL can be found by doing a Google search.
Looks like fun!
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Around my way car wash in Chatham hand wash by lots of east europeans is £ 6 or in local industrial unit is £ 5, this is for basic external wash, full monty inside & out starts at £ 14
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Indeed.
But try explaining to 'er Indoors WHY your 6-year-old Mondeo needs wash-and-polishing 6 times a month...
There was not dissimilar 'business' run here for a while.
While your car was downstairs in the service bay, you were welcome to use the upstairs 'waiting room', where scantily clad young ladies would "attend to your every need", with the neccessary 'work' being fudged through the invoice - naturally for the driver's company to pay.
The business did rather well until some accountant types started querying why their servicing bills were so high ...
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Best in my area is a bunch of chaps in the car park at Chelsfield Lakes Golf Club (near Orpington, Kent). Inside & out, cracking job, for £10. Best part- perfect excuse for a quick 9 on their par 3. "just popping out to get YOUR car washed, dear"...
A.
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Dr Alex Mears
MG BGT 1971
If you are in a hole stop digging...unless
you are a miner.
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I heard a scare story about valeting, which I didnt believe but my ex-colleague insists in true.
He was measuring up an industrial unit and there were some blokes round the back valeting cars. They started on an old Rover 800, one of them opened all the doors and started jet washing the interior upholstery, then another one came along and hoovered the water out with a big industrial wet/dry vacuum cleaner!
He said the interior had been completely soaked. The bloke let him feel the seats and they felt touch dry, but what about the electrics, speaker cones, etc., and the wet bits the hoover didnt get to? He did not ask whether they were customers cars or they were going to auction...
If the valeters seem a bit dodgy, maybe best to keep an eye on them?!
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"If the valeters seem a bit dodgy, maybe best to keep an eye on them?!"
As in this warning, passed on to me by e-mail from a friend, and somewhat sanitised for the forum:
There have been reports of a growing number of thefts targeted at single men parking their cars in local supermarket car-parks. The drivers are approached by two attractive young women who offer to clean their windscreen and windows. Whilst cleaning, they allow the front of their jackets to fall open revealing their bosoms whilst they smile and flirt with the driver.
They then offer to clean the inside of the windscreen and, on entry to the car, one of them cleans the car whilst the other offers an even more personal service whilst simultaneously removing his wallet. The girls then leave the poor confused driver and disappear. You may find this too far fetched to believe but I can vouch for its authenticity because my informant has had his wallet stolen on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, twice on Thursday, and during his lunch hour today.
Jack
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*puts on best Benny Hill voice*
"Sounds like a load of wallets to me."
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A few years ago I was looking for a second hand Corsa for my wife & I visited one of the main Vauxhall dealers in the Bristol area. One 2 year old Corsa I looked at had no boot trim, carpet spare wheel or tools. The salesman told me (without a glimmer of embarrassment) they take out the boot mat etc & jet washed (not steam cleaned) it & the boot, then hang all the bits up to dry! He assured me all the bits would be found by the time I wanted the car! Needless to say I passed on that one!
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I heard a scare story about valeting, which I didnt believe but my ex-colleague insists in true. He was measuring up an industrial unit and there were some blokes round the back valeting cars. They started on an old Rover 800, one of them opened all the doors and started jet washing the interior upholstery....
This is not at all unusual. Indeed it almost common practice with very mucky cars. They keep the water off the dash.
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>>Simple thing to say is that it takes me three hours for a basic vacuum,wash and dry!!
Words fail me.
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