Exterior detailing on a sedan starts at $110. Interior starts at $120. A deeper interior clean with seat shampooing starts at $170.
Those are our real starting prices, not a national average, and they are the honest answer to a question most detailing websites dance around. The fuller answer is that what you pay depends on the size of your vehicle and the state it is in when we arrive. So here is the whole picture, including the parts that push a price up.
What car detailing costs in New Jersey
We publish our starting prices by vehicle size:
| Package | Time | Sedan / coupe | Midsize SUV or truck | Fullsize SUV or truck |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exterior Express | 1-2 hrs | $110+ | $130+ | $150+ |
| Interior Deluxe | 1-2 hrs | $120+ | $140+ | $160+ |
| Interior Ultimate | 1.5-3 hrs | $170+ | $210+ | $250+ |
Every vehicle is inspected on arrival and a final price is presented before any work begins. The prices above are starting prices, and the price could go up depending on the condition of the vehicle. Prices don’t include tax.
Full detail packages, which cover inside and out in one visit, sit alongside every package and add-on we offer. Ceramic coating is quoted after that same inspection rather than carrying a flat starting number.
What you get for the money, and which one you need
The gap between the packages isn’t padding. It’s specific work, and knowing which step you actually need is the difference between a $120 job and a $170 one.
Exterior Express covers a pre-rinse, a hand wash with pH-neutral soap, drying with microfiber towels, rims and tires cleaned, tire dressing, windows cleaned inside and out, and a spray-on sealant that adds gloss and makes water bead off the paint. It suits a car whose paint is fundamentally sound but has stopped looking cared for, and it is the one to book after a winter of road salt.
Interior Deluxe covers a full vacuum, a deep clean of the console, dash, doors, door jams and plastic trim, windows inside and out, and leather seats scrubbed where the car has them. What it does not include is shampooing. It suits leather and vinyl interiors, and cloth ones that are dusty rather than stained.
Interior Ultimate is everything in Deluxe plus shampoo and extraction of the cloth seats and carpets, lifting dirt out of the fabric rather than off it. That single step is the $50 difference on a sedan between the two interior packages, and it is why the package needs cloth seats to make sense. It suits spills, ground-in dirt, and cars that carry kids or dogs.
If you want both inside and out in one visit, that’s a full detail, and it’s priced as its own package rather than as two bookings.
Morris County, NJ
Want a real number for your car?
Message us first, and you’ll get the final price once we’ve seen the car.
Why we won’t quote a firm price over the phone
This is the part that frustrates people, and it deserves a straight answer.
Two cars of the same size can be an hour apart in work. A sedan that has been garaged and cleaned every few weeks is a different job from the same sedan after a winter of school runs with a dog in the back. Neither the make nor the model tells us which one is sitting in your driveway.
So we look at the car first, tell you what it will cost, and then start. You hear the final number before anything happens. A quote given blind over the phone is either padded to cover the worst case or it’s a number that quietly changes once work is underway. The second one is what people mean when they say they got burned by a detailer.
What actually pushes the price above the starting figure
Most of the variance comes from a short list, and in New Jersey the list has a seasonal shape to it.
Road salt and winter grime. North Jersey roads are salted and brined from December through March, and that mixture collects in the places a quick rinse doesn’t reach: wheel wells, the underside, along the rocker panels. Getting it off properly is slower work than washing a car that has only been rained on, so an exterior detail after a winter parked outside is more likely to sit above the starting figure than one booked in September.
Tree sap and pollen. Plenty of North Jersey driveways sit under mature trees, which means sap on the paint and pollen packed into vents and door seals through spring. Sap that has been baking on a panel for a month has to be softened and lifted without damaging the clear coat, which is careful work rather than fast work.
Pet hair. Woven into carpet and upholstery, it doesn’t vacuum out. It has to be lifted in stages, and a heavy-shedding dog can add real time to an interior job.
Smoke and lingering odors. Smoke gets into the headliner and soft trim, not just the seats. It’s an involved job and it’s honest to say so before quoting it.
Stains, spills and how long they’ve sat. A coffee spill from last week and one from last spring are different problems.
How long since the last detail. This is the biggest one. A car detailed twice a year mostly needs maintaining. A car that hasn’t been detailed since it was bought needs recovering first, and recovery costs more than upkeep.
Car had a rough winter, a dog in the back, or a spill that set in? Tell us what you’re dealing with before you book.
Why a detail costs more than a car wash
An express tunnel wash is cheaper than any of this, and it should be. It’s a fraction of the work. Machine brushes pass over the paint in a few minutes, nothing touches the interior, and nothing is decontaminated, sealed or extracted. It gets a car wet and takes the top layer of dirt off.
Detailing is hand work on a car that stays in one place for hours. If all you need is the loose dirt gone before a weekend, a tunnel wash is the right call and we’d say so. If you’re weighing the two as a running cost, we’ve broken that down in detailing versus repeat car washes.
Does mobile detailing cost more?
It removes a cost most people forget to count.
We come to your driveway across Morris County and nine more New Jersey counties: Essex, Hudson, Bergen, Sussex, Warren, Passaic, Union, Somerset and Middlesex. Nothing is needed from you, because we bring our own water and power, so there’s no outdoor tap to find and no extension cord to run.
The saving is your Saturday. A shop detail means dropping the car off, arranging a ride, and going back for it. On a two-hour job, that is most of a morning. Mobile detailing happens while you get on with the day.
The cheapest way to own a clean car
The most expensive detail is always the first one after a long gap, because it’s a recovery job. Recovery is where the hours go.
If you keep a car on a regular schedule, each visit stays closer to the starting price instead of climbing. Two details a year, one after winter salt and one before it, keeps a car out of recovery territory. For drivers who want it on a schedule, our maintenance plan follows a full detail with regular visits, usually monthly.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a car detail cost in New Jersey? Our exterior work starts at $110 and interior work at $120, rising with the size of the vehicle. Genuine hand detailing is priced by package and by the condition of the car, not by the hour. So when you compare quotes, compare what’s actually included. A price well below the range above is usually an express wash rather than a detail.
Why can’t you tell me an exact price before you see the car? Because condition drives the price more than the vehicle does. We inspect on arrival and give you the final price before any work starts.
Is mobile detailing more expensive than going to a shop? We bring our own water and power, so there’s nothing to arrange at your end, and you’re not giving up a morning to drop the car off and collect it.
How much does interior detailing cost on its own? Interior Deluxe starts at $120 for a sedan or coupe. Interior Ultimate, which adds shampoo and extraction of cloth seats and carpets, starts at $170.
Get a real price for your car
If you want to know what your car costs rather than what an average car costs, message us first, then book a slot and let us look at it. We inspect on arrival and tell you the final price before we start. If we can’t agree on it, there’s a $50 fee, the same as a late cancellation, so it’s worth mentioning anything unusual about the car when you get in touch.
