People ask me this every week, usually when they are already booked in for a detail and feel a little guilty about how long they let it go. The honest answer is that there is no fixed number. It depends on how you drive, where you park, and what you can stand to look at when you walk up to the car in the morning.
That said, after a few years of doing this in Surrey, Langley, White Rock, and Delta, I can tell you what tends to actually happen.
If your car lives outside, especially under a tree or near a busy road like 152nd or King George, you are going to want a proper detail roughly every three to four months. Not because the paint is going to die in the meantime, but because everything that lands on a car here in BC is mildly acidic. Pollen in spring. Sap in summer. Tree gunk in fall. Salt in winter. Each of those eats away at the clear coat in a small way over time. Letting a car go a full year without anything more than a drive-through wash is how you end up with that hazy, dead-looking finish on a five-year-old car.
If your car lives in a garage and you mostly use it on weekends, you can stretch that to twice a year and probably be fine. The interior usually picks up less abuse too.
The single best move I tell people who are on the fence: get one good Reset in the spring after pollen season ends, and one in late fall before the salt trucks start. Those two windows do most of the heavy lifting. Everything else is touch-ups.
If you have a kid who eats in the car or a dog that sheds, the interior is a different problem from the paint. That is a six-to-eight week cycle if you want it to actually look clean. The Refresh Interior is what most of those customers book.
One last thing. If you are washing your own car between details, do me a favour and skip the rolling brushes at the gas station car wash. Those things are the single biggest reason cars in this region have swirl marks. A bucket and a wash mitt at home does less damage in five minutes than that wash does in two.
Want to book? Pick a slot at our online booking page or text us at (604) 537-5895.
Our Services: Interior Car Detailing | Exterior Car Detailing | Ceramic Coating | Mobile Car Detailing
Serving: Surrey | White Rock | South Surrey | Langley | Delta | Cloverdale | Newton | Fleetwood | Tsawwassen | Ladner | North Delta | Guildford | Burnaby | New Westminster | Coquitlam