How much does it cost to polish a car?

If you are thinking of having your car professionally machine polished in the UK, you might be confused about the pricing.

The question to this very much depends on what you are trying to achieve and how much you are willing to spend. It can be a complicated question, but we will try to unravel it with some examples.

The TL;DR

We have a range of services and may be asked to polish a car for several different reasons, but regardless of why, we aim to earn garage rates, which at the time of writing is about £78 per hour.

What this works out at is about £100 per pass with a machine polisher. On an average size car in reasonable condition, we can work wonders with two passes of the buffer. However, we need to prepare the car first (washing in detail, clay, etc) and there is no point in polishing a car and then not protecting it with at least a coat of wax, so the total might cost around £300... on an average car in reasonable condition.

However... If you are reading this and thinking of getting your car polished, there is a good chance it's because you don't have an average size car in average condition. There is a good chance you bought a large-ish executive car like a BMW or Mercedes, or maybe you bought that Porsche or Jaguar you always wanted. There is also a fair chance it is looking worse for wear with a lot of wash marks and a few deep scratches.

If this is the case, you might want a four-stage polish. You may also need special paintwork correction on some areas. As polishing a car can reveal problems like door dents, you might also allow for some minor repairs into the price. This would put your spend at nearer £500-£800.

And now your car looks amazing and new again, you will want to keep it looking that way, so we will definitely try to talk you into a ceramic coating. 

It does add up. However, when you compare it to the cost of buying a new car, it makes a lot of sense to restore your old car, or buy a used car and make it like new.

Practical Polishing vs Boutique Car Care

We aren't going to lie, business in the UK has been hard on our industry since 2008, and many detailers have specialized in what might be called 'boutique services', catering to the very wealthy and to enthusiasts who are willing to spend lots of money on their cars to get them picture perfect. They may spend days polishing a car, they may even begin by flatting and polishing the entire car to remove the factory orange peel, so it is smooth as glass. Needless to say, this is very expensive and unless you are showing your car at events, or an Instagram star, it's not really a worthwhile endeavour. 

We wouldn't describe ourselves at the other end of the spectrum, but we aim our services towards the average motorist, so whether you have a Kia, a Volkswagen, or an Aston-Martin, and wish your car looked like it did when it left the showroom, this is the article for you.

Expectations

Unlike the boutique car care companies, we don't chase perfection. This is very time consuming and costly, and considering most cars don't leave the factory perfect (If you look hard enough) it is an almost impossible goal. And even if we gave you a perfect finish, perfection is very difficult to maintain. 

What you can expect is a massive improvement on what you already have at a reasonable price. 

Just a scratch

You don't need to have the whole car polished. You might not need to have the whole car polished. If you have just one issue that's driving you mad, a scratch on a door or bird mess stain on the roof, then we can deal with just that issue using our paintwork correction service. Prices for this range from £30 for a small area to £110 for polishing a bonnet or roof. 

The caveat here is that not everything can be polished out. If the damage is too deep in the paint, then repair-and-repaint is the only option for a repair. The best thing to do is to video the damage and send it to us on WhatsApp, and we will get back to you with an answer. Alternatively, if you are nearby, pop in and show us.

Polishing new cars

You might be surprised to hear that we polish a lot of brand-new cars. They don't polish them at the factory any more, and I doubt anyone but Rolls-Royce has done that since the 1950s. Your new car has been sprayed by a robot, the paint went on raw and rough (on a microscopic scale) and polishing them will actually make the paintwork shinier. It's a noticeable difference.

However, that's not why we do it. Car Paint Protection Coatings make a lot of sense, they keep the paintwork looking new and make it easier to clean. We need to thoroughly prepare the car's paintwork before we can apply these semi-permanent coatings.

Although we advocate that anyone get a ceramic coating, the best time to do it is when the car is new, so you can seal in the goodness from the beginning. It's also considerably cheaper to polish the car when new, protect the paintwork, rather than waiting till the car is five years old and having to restore it.

To polish a new car and put a 3-year ceramic coating on it would cost £580 for a small car, £905 for a large executive sized car or small 4x4.

Polishing cars to sell them

One of the most common reasons people bring their cars to us for polishing, is that they are selling it, and they want to give it a 'tidy up' so that they get more money for it. We can, of course, do this, and we will take a view on the car with this in mind. You don't want to spend a lot of money polishing up a car for somebody else, so we will strike a balance so that you can get a quick sale and get more money, without spending more than they'll get back.

We should caution you, it's at this point that a reasonable number of our customers change their mind and decide to keep their car. It's worth asking yourself why you are buying a new car, and would you keep the one you have if it looked as good as new?

Complete Restoration

On the other extreme of things, you might want an older car restored to its former glory. We have restored a few cars that have been very neglected, but more often it's a 10-25 year old car which is just showing its age.

There's usually going to be more to this than just polishing the paintwork. There's likely to be areas that need repainting, dents removed, wheels that need refurbishment, and very often, leather upholstery repaired and recoloured.

We call this Modern Car Restoration. Rather than strip the whole car down, respray, rebuild the engine and replace lots of parts, as you would on a classic car restoration, with modern cars, the engine and running gear is often very solid, and it's just cosmetic damage and signs of wear and tear which need to be dealt with.

Although the costs can add up, it is often worth it for older but desirable cars, especially as projects like this don't have to be done all in one go. As for the polishing part, it is often desirable to keep the original paintwork, and the cost of polishing is far cheaper than a complete respray.

Costs for this kind of polishing work vary greatly depending on the condition of the car, but are generally between £500-£800. 

This is the kind of work we love to do!

We'd love to hear from you.  Get in touch, request a call back.

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...or send us a video of your car.