Questions about detailing with Upstate Auto Detailing

Your final number comes after we've seen the vehicle, because its condition moves the price. For planning, our Executive Full Detail generally sits at $475-$650. Ceramic coating is $900-$1,550 or more, and the paint correction it needs is what moves it within that range.

For a car that's seen a few Capital Region winters, it usually is. Road salt works down into the backing of the carpet, out of a household vacuum's reach, and our extraction brings it back up with the cleaning solution. Outside, paying to protect good paint costs far less than paying to restore neglected paint later.

It depends on whether you're protecting the paint or cleaning the inside. Protection should go on in late fall before the roads are treated, because sealing over salt already embedded in the finish traps it there. Interiors come up later, and from December through April, getting salt out of carpets is among the most common jobs we do.

You can bring the car to our shop at 40 North Street in Saratoga Springs, or have our van come to your driveway or workplace lot. The van covers the Capital Region, 50 miles or more from the shop, with a travel fee starting past about 25 miles. Ceramic coating and multi-stage correction stay at the shop, where we can control the dust and temperature.

Read a shop's public reviews and ask what paperwork stands behind the work. For us, that's a 5.0 rating on Google, plus warranty-backed ceramic coatings logged on the vehicle's CARFAX record. We hold no BBB accreditation and have no BBB profile, so Google is the place to read what our customers say.

That depends on what you want to stop. For stone chips on the bumper, hood edge and mirrors, choose paint protection film, because its thickness takes the hit. For easier washes and lasting gloss, go with a ceramic coating, knowing it won't stop a chip. Many owners pair them, with film up front and coating everywhere else.

Often, if the scratch stops at the clear coat. Paint correction takes those out by machine polishing, while a filler polish only covers them until the next wash. Run your fingernail across the mark: if the nail catches, it's through the clear coat and polishing won't remove it. We'll go over your marks with you before any work begins.

Mostly limits on what it can do. Paint correction takes a little clear coat off each time, so we measure first and leave alone any panel that's too thin. Some stains won't come out, such as denim dye on light leather. A coating can't stop stone chips either, so it won't replace film on the front of the car.

On our Executive Full Detail, the outside gets a hand wash and dry, wheels, tires and wheel wells, paint decontamination and sealant. Inside, we vacuum and wipe down, extract the carpets and upholstery, and do the glass on both sides. That's the Maintenance Refresh plus extraction, decontamination and sealant, at $475 to $650.