How much does car detailing cost in Brampton?

What you'll actually pay

Prices before 13% HST, priced by vehicle size — you know the number before you book, and we confirm it exactly before any work starts. The one honest caveat: a heavily soiled interior takes longer and may move the price, but we'll tell you that before starting, not after. For the full service details, see our car detailing page.

What's included in a full detail

A proper full detail works inside-out, and "one price covers both" means no upsell ladder between the two:

• Interior deep vacuum. Every seam, crevice and trunk, not just the visible carpet. This is where most of the visible dirt lives.
• Seats and carpets shampooed. Extraction cleaning for fabric; wiped and conditioned for leather. Salt rings and winter slush stains are the usual targets in Ontario.
• Dash, console and trim. Dust and grime off every surface, vents included — the layer that makes a "cleaned" car still feel dirty when it's skipped.
• Glass, inside and out. Streak-free interior glass is the difference between a detail and a car wash.
• Exterior hand wash. Two-bucket wash, not a brush tunnel — swirl prevention starts here.
• Wheels, tires and jambs. Brake dust off the wheels, dressing on the tires, grime out of the door jambs and shut lines.

Paint correction — machine polishing out swirls and scratches — is a separate service, quoted per vehicle based on how much swirling there is and how deep the defects go. It's worth doing before ceramic coating, because coating locks in whatever is underneath.

What changes the price

• Vehicle size. The base pricing is by size for a reason: a truck simply has more interior and more paint than a sedan.
• Interior condition. A car with pet hair, ground-in food, or three winters of salt needs more extraction passes. We assess this up front — a heavily soiled interior takes longer and we'll say so before starting.
• Stains and odours. Spill stains, smoke, and pet odours need targeted treatment beyond a standard shampoo. Quoted honestly when we see the car.
• Add-on prep work. Paint correction, engine bay cleaning, and headlight restoration are separate services quoted per vehicle. The standard detail is the foundation they're built on.

What doesn't change the price: whether you want "interior and exterior". That's one package, not two prices — and get your price within the hour if you want the number for your specific vehicle and condition.

How long it takes

Around two hours for most vehicles, done the same day. Heavily soiled interiors run longer — again, that's communicated before we start. This is the service that makes people realise a "quick car wash" has been lying to them for years: two hours is what it actually takes to clean a car properly, inside and out.

We book same-week appointments most weeks across our three GTA shops — Rosedale, Veterans and Malton in Etobicoke — and the detail is often the entry point to the bigger services: tint, PPF or wraps all start with a properly cleaned car.

Detailing before coating, PPF or a wrap

This matters more than most customers realise: every premium service we install starts with a detail. The sequence is fixed:

• Ceramic coating. The car is detailed, the paint is corrected where needed, then the coating goes on. Skip the prep and the coating preserves your swirls for the next two to three years. Our ceramic coating guide for Ontario covers the full cost math.
• PPF. Film locks in whatever is underneath — contamination under the film becomes a permanent bump. See our PPF cost guide for Brampton.
• Vinyl wrap. Film won't adhere properly to contaminated paint. See what a wrap costs in Brampton.

So a detail is rarely "just" a detail: it's maintenance on its own, and it's the first line item in every protection package. Worth keeping in mind when you're comparing quotes — a shop that includes real prep in its coating or film quote is telling you something about its standards.

How often should you detail in Ontario?

For a daily driver, two to four times a year. The rhythm that makes sense in this province:

• Fall: pre-winter detail — clean the paint properly before salt season and give the interior a reset before slush arrives.
• Spring: post-winter decontamination — get the salt out of the carpets and off the undercarriage before it keeps eating.
• Summer: maintenance detail — UV, pollen and road tar handled while the weather cooperates.

Salt is the real argument. Road salt left on carpets migrates into the fabric and backing; left on paint and wheels it accelerates corrosion. The spring detail isn't cosmetic — it's the one that saves you money on repairs and resale. Ontario's version of car care has a different calendar than California's, and pricing here reflects that: our detailing packages are built around what this province actually does to cars.

What to ask before you book (any shop)

• "Is interior and exterior included?" If they split it into two prices, you're paying an upsell ladder, not a detail.
• "How long does it take?" A full interior-and-exterior detail takes about two hours. A "full detail" finished in 45 minutes missed things.
• "How do you wash the exterior?" Hand wash with a two-bucket method, or a brush tunnel that adds the swirls you're trying to remove.
• "What happens with heavy soiling?" The honest answer: it's assessed up front and quoted before work starts. The dishonest answer: silence until the bill.
• "Is paint correction separate?" It should be — correcting is machine polishing, a different skill from cleaning. A shop that throws it into the base price is polishing nothing.

Where to get it done

We detail cars at all three shops — see the car detailing service — with free quotes and get your price within the hour on most requests. Tell us your vehicle and its condition, and we'll come back with a real number before you book anything.