What mobile detailing costs in Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR
Quotes in this metro run from about $50 to well over a thousand dollars, and both ends can be fair. Here is what the number is actually made of.
September 3, 2026 · 2 min read · Pricing
Why the range is so wide
Call five detailers in Clark and Multnomah counties and you will get five very different numbers. That is not because four of them are lying. It is because the word detailing covers everything from a careful wash to three days of machine work, and almost nobody says which one they are quoting.
A useful way to read a quote is to ask what physically happens to the car and for how long. Labor is the whole cost structure in this trade. Products are a rounding error next to the hours.
The three real tiers
Almost every legitimate price in this market falls into one of three bands.
- Maintenance, roughly $150 to $250. Two to three hours. A safe hand wash, wheels done properly, an interior reset. This is what a car in good condition needs on an interval.
- Full detail, roughly $300 to $500. Five to eight hours. Everything above plus hot-water extraction inside and chemical and clay decontamination outside. This is the service most people mean when they say they want their car detailed.
- Correction and coating, roughly $900 to $2,500 and up. Two to four days. Machine polishing to remove defects from the clear coat, then a ceramic coating over the corrected finish.
Anything advertised at $60 for a full detail is a wash with a vacuum. That can be exactly what you want. It is not what the word means.
What moves your number
Two variables do most of the work, and an honest detailer will ask about both before quoting.
Size. A three-row SUV is not a sedan with extra seats. More panels to decontaminate, more carpet to extract, more glass to finish. Expect a size step of $50 to $150 between a sedan and a full-size truck or three-row.
Condition. This is the one people forget. Heavy pet hair, a drink spilled into the underlay months ago, or paint that has never been protected in a shaded Portland street all add hours. A quote given without seeing photos is a guess, and a detailer who refuses to revise it after seeing the car is either very experienced or about to cut corners.
Questions worth asking before you book
You are buying labor and judgment, so ask about both.
- Do you bring your own water and power, or do you need my spigot and outlet?
- Is decontamination included, or is that extra on top of the wash?
- For coating work: what level of correction is in this price?
- How long will you have the car, and does that include cure time?
- What happens if the condition is worse than the photos showed?
What we charge
Our own starting prices are published on the packages page rather than held back until a phone call. Maintenance starts at $169, a full Signature Detail at $349, and correction with a ceramic coating at $1,159, all for a coupe or sedan in reasonable condition, with a size step on top.
Those are starting points and we say so. You get the real number before any work begins, and if a cheaper package gets you the result you actually want, that is the one we will quote.