‘Health Spas for Cars’ : For Auto Cleaning Franchise, 1st Detail Is $45,000

It was probably inevitable.

Car detailing, the art and science of getting a car really clean, has become a franchise industry.

Steve’s Detailing Inc., operator of detailing shops in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, will graduate the first class of franchisees today and has another group ready to begin the two-week training course May 1.

“This is actually real fun,” said Steve Marchese, 35, chairman of Steve’s Detailing and a lifetime car nut who appears to be on the leading edge of America’s next growth industry: “health spas for cars.”

Since his first franchise opened in New York City in November, 1976, investors have plunked down checks for $45,000 each to become a Steve’s franchisee. A dozen of them are completing training this week; other franchisees will be trained through the rest of the year and another 60 franchisees are expected to be signed in coming weeks. Inquiries for franchises also are coming in from Australia, Hong Kong, Canada and Europe.

This first crop of franchisees will return to Miami, Dallas, San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Westwood and Century City to open Steve’s Detailing shops. Employing the same meticulousness to franchising as they have to detailing, the company gives each new shop owner inventories of “everything from what washing machines to use to what brand of paper clips to buy,” said Chuck Milden, president of the company and Marchese’s first paying detail customer 13 years ago.

Marchese hopes to pass along the essentials of his years of car detailing experience to the franchisees, who divide their training time between a recently completed classroom at his Newport Beach shop and practical experience at Steve’s two Orange County shops.

Those who think a car is clean after being vacuumed, washed and polished haven’t seen a car detailing crew equipped with cotton swabs, toothbrushes and rags poking at every conceivable hiding place for dust, dirt and grime.

Franchisees learn how to use the various elixirs, potions and compounds that make a car sparkle and also pore over manuals, learn how to operate a computerized customer recall system and fuss over details such as how to clean the heater control on a turbo Porsche without breaking the $500 unit.

The typical customer, who pays $135, has a Mercedes, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce or some other brand of expensive car, but Marchese says the growing price of even the ordinary family sedan is prompting their owners to visit a detail shop for an occasional treatment.

Detailing was born in the spotless world of car shows but apparently was given a big boost by the Internal Revenue Service. Recent changes in the tax laws which extend the depreciation period means owners tend to keep luxury cars longer and yet want to keep them looking young. That’s where Steve comes in with his exhaustive knowledge of automobile health.

People are buying more expensive cars and keeping them longer, he said, but still want an aged car to look good. “We can take an old Mercedes and make it look like it rolled off the showroom floor,” he said.

Marchese plans to capitalize on the quickening interest in detailing by opening two new shops in Irvine next month, two more in Irvine by June 1 and two each in Santa Ana and Orange next year.

At daily capacity, each of Steve’s shops will do 10 full-detail treatments, which cost about $135 and includes hand washing and polishing, thoroughly cleaning the interior and windows, treating all the rubber, vinyl, leather and wood, and bathing the engine with a degreaser.

“It’s like a beauty treatment for your car,” explained Marchese.

In addition to the detailing, Marchese expects a typical Steve’s Detailing franchise will hand-wash another 10 to 40 cars a day.

Like Marchese, the franchisees are car enthusiasts and already successful enough not be perturbed by the $45,000 investment to get a franchise.

If the last recession is any guide, they will not have to fret about sagging business in any future economic downturns. In 1982, at the depth of the most recent recession, Marchese said his business expanded by 50%. Some BMW and Jaguar owners may not have been able to come in for the full treatment as often as they liked, but the shops’ business of cleaning repossessed vehicles and luxury cars before their owners sold them increased.

As might be expected, Marchese can spin endless tales of finicky customers. Pat Patrick, the oil company executive and auto racing magnate, flew Marchese and his wife, Joni, to Detroit two years ago to detail his Mercedes. Patrick was so pleased with their work that he then flew the Marcheses off to Florida for a week’s vacation. In all, Marchese reckons Patrick spent $4,000 to get his car cleaned.