Most detailers set prices by looking at what the guy down the street charges, then shaving twenty dollars off. That is not pricing. That is following someone who is probably also guessing.
Here is what mobile detailing actually pays in South Florida in 2026 — by service, by vehicle size, and by the only number that decides whether you have a business or a very tiring hobby.
The number that matters
Your ticket price tells you almost nothing. A $350 job that eats seven hours pays worse than a $200 job that takes two. What you need to know is what each service pays you per hour on site.
Below are the rates and job times from the Detailers catalog in Broward County. These sit at the upper end of published South Florida ranges, deliberately. The right-hand column is the part nobody calculates.
| Service | Vehicle | Price | Time on site | Per hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Detail | Sedan / Coupe | $100 | 1.5–2 hrs | ~$57 |
| Basic Detail | SUV | $125 | 2–2.5 hrs | ~$56 |
| Basic Detail | Large SUV / Truck | $150 | 2.5–3 hrs | ~$55 |
| Wash & Wax | Sedan / Coupe | $150 | 1.5–2 hrs | ~$86 |
| Wash & Wax | SUV | $200 | 2–2.5 hrs | ~$89 |
| Wash & Wax | Large SUV / Truck | $250 | 2.5–3 hrs | ~$91 |
| Full Interior | Sedan / Coupe | $200 | 2–3 hrs | ~$80 |
| Full Interior | SUV | $250 | 3–4 hrs | ~$71 |
| Full Detail | Sedan / Coupe | $250 | 3–4 hrs | ~$71 |
| Full Detail | SUV | $300 | 4–5 hrs | ~$67 |
| Full Detail | Large SUV / Truck | $350 | 5–6 hrs | ~$64 |
| Paint Correction | Sedan / Coupe | $400 | 4–6 hrs | ~$80 |
| Paint Correction | SUV | $450 | 5–7 hrs | ~$75 |
| Ceramic Coating | 1-year | $600 | 4–6 hrs | ~$120 |
| Ceramic Coating | 3-year | $900 | 6–8 hrs | ~$129 |
| Ceramic Coating | 5-year | $1,200 | 8–10 hrs | ~$133 |
Read that table again
The full detail — the job most detailers put at the center of their menu, the one they photograph, the one they call their flagship — is one of the worst paying hours on the board. Sixty-four dollars an hour on a large SUV.
The wash and wax, the job people treat as filler between "real" work, pays forty percent more per hour.
Now add the hour nobody bills for
Mobile means every job carries a tail: drive across Broward, park, run the hose, set up, break down, load the van wet. Call it 45 to 60 minutes per stop, and it is unpaid. Supplies run roughly $12 to $20 on a full detail, plus fuel and wear on the vehicle.
Put that on the two jobs everyone compares:
That is the whole game. The most profitable hour of your day is the one you sell after you have already parked. The drive is a fixed cost — the more revenue you stack on top of a single stop, the cheaper that cost gets per dollar earned.
Price your add-ons like the margin they are
These are the numbers on services sold on site, with no travel attached:
| Add-on | Price | Time | Per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine Bay Cleaning | $100 | 45 min–1 hr | ~$114 |
| Headlight Restoration | $150 | 1–1.5 hrs | ~$120 |
| Ceramic Booster | $200 | 1–2 hrs | ~$133 |
| Glass Polishing | $250 | 1.5–2 hrs | ~$143 |
| Mold Removal | $300 | 2–3 hrs | ~$120 |
Every one of them beats your flagship full detail by a wide margin. If you are not offering them at the door, you are leaving the best hours of your day on the table.
The floor you should never go under
There is always someone advertising a $79 full detail. Run their numbers: three hours on site, an hour of tail, twenty in supplies. That is about $15 an hour before taxes — less than the shop down the road pays an employee to do the same work with someone else's equipment and someone else's insurance.
Work your floor from the bottom up instead of down from your competitor:
- Decide your hourly target. In South Florida, $60 to $75 an hour on site is a working professional. Under $45 you are buying yourself a job.
- Count the real hours. Time on site plus the 45 to 60 minute tail.
- Add supplies and fuel. $15 to $35 depending on the service.
- Add 20% for the invisible stuff — insurance, phone, equipment replacement, the jobs that cancel.
A full detail on an SUV: 4.5 hours on site, 1 hour tail, $65 an hour target, $30 in costs, plus 20%. That is $465. If your market will not carry $465, the honest answer is not to cut the price — it is to cut the hours by tightening your process, or to sell the coating that actually pays.
Charge for condition, not just size
Vehicle size is the easy variable and every menu already has it — roughly 25% from sedan to SUV, another 15 to 20% to a large SUV or truck. Condition is the one detailers keep eating.
Pet hair, mold, sand ground into carpet, a smoker's interior, a work truck that has not been touched in two years — these can double your time on a job you quoted as standard. Quote them as what they are:
- Heavy pet hair: add $50 to $100. It is the single most underquoted condition in Florida.
- Mold or biological: a separate service, not an add-on. $300 and up, and you are entitled to refuse it.
- Excessive sand or salt: add $40 to $75. Beach cars are not normal cars.
- Neglected 2+ years: quote at the next vehicle size up, minimum.
Ask for photos before you quote. Every detailer who has been burned once now asks for photos.
Raising your prices without losing your book
Most detailers are underpriced and terrified to move, because they picture telling a loyal client the number went up. Three things make it survivable:
- Raise on new customers first. Move your published rates today, keep existing clients at their rate for 90 days. You will know within a month whether the new number sticks.
- Change the package, not just the number. A price increase feels like a loss. A new tier with a sealant and an engine bay included feels like an upgrade. Same revenue, different conversation.
- Expect to lose some. If you raise 15% and lose 10% of your book, you made money and got hours back. The clients who leave over 15% were the ones texting you at 9pm anyway.
Where the platform fits
Everything above is your business, priced your way — that does not change whether you take jobs through an app or not. On Detailers you set your own rates and keep your own clients, and the platform only takes a cut on the jobs it actually sends you.
That cut starts at 15% on your first five jobs, moves to 20%, and comes back down as you build volume and rating: 17% at 25 jobs, 15% at 75, 12% at 150. On your own clients booked through your free page, it is nothing. You pay when you earn, and only on business you did not have to go find.
Rates reflect the Detailers service catalog in Broward County, FL — Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, Davie, Plantation, Weston, Miramar, Coral Springs, Sunrise, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach and Coconut Creek — cross-checked against published South Florida market ranges for 2026. Per-hour figures use the midpoint of each job's time on site. Your own numbers will move with your process, your equipment and your zone.