Cleaning or detailing?

[Ben]

Why do people say that they are detailing their car? To me, that sounds american and as such out of place in the uk. Don't people "clean" or "wash" their car any more? Whats the difference, if any? I've never detailed a car, i've washed and polished cars. Is detailing just making it sound like a bigger job than a wash and polish?

[RickT]

not heard anyone one i kinow deatailing thier car...

Rick

[Captain Answer]

Why do people say that they are detailing their car? To me, that sounds american and as such out of place in the uk. Don't people "clean" or "wash" their car any more? Whats the difference, if any? I've never detailed a car, i've washed and polished cars. Is detailing just making it sound like a bigger job than a wash and polish?

They're morons

The nearest i get to "detailing" any of my cars is driving it through a stream/ford

[Eshrules]

i refer to it as detailing now, after spending many hours reading the many thousands of threads on DW. a detail is, for all intents and purposes, a full valet, its more of an americanism that people pick up. id say a full detail includes the normal clean, inside and out, as well as full paint correction.

i wouldnt agree with the 'morons' comment, i prefer the sound of a 'detail' to a valet

[Ben]

I suppose it's down to individual interpretation, in a moment i'm going to wash my car and clean the alloys as it's not been done in 2 weeks, yesterday i vaccummed out my car by test driving my dads new toy, the prortable dyson car vac, very nifty tool. I won't be cleaning the internal sides of the glass or polishing any of the exterior.

So this weekend it will of had out of a possibel 4 (wash, vac, touch up and polish) only 2, a full wash and vac.

[Ben]

just to let you know i've done my car. i'll post pics in a new thread elsewhere.

[Col]

Clean is the word.

[MalcQV]

Cleaning, washing, or detailing. Its just a word used to describe something you do to your car

[diesel nut]

sorry but ive been in the trade for a very long time
i started with making the cups of tea then worked my way up to a valeter and so on
ive never -never heard of this detailing before
is it not a valet or half valet is it not clean or dirty?
a friend of mine who also drives a golf to which i,ve never seen dirty to this day who is also a member of this forum is regularly ribbed for his impecable presentation of his vehicle
show room standards a must not bad with his three kids which do use the car
is the glass half empty or half full?

you can work this out on your own?
well done rich..golf tdi 02 .. i know you,ve got the cleanest golf that im aware of

[Eshrules]

take a look at

www.detailingworld.co.uk