If you are going to clean a car do it properly

Hi Martin I think this level of detail is another differentiator between 'Joe Public' and us crazy lot :). We tend to noice these things when entering a car and if they are clean we're impressed because we know it's another level of effort. If it's not done I tend to think shiny suit but dirty shoes! As an aside Martin, what is the dilution rate you use for the Pearl in your sprayer? Thanks again Martin for taking the time to film, edit and upload these vlogs. Cheers, Kevin

Nice job Martin im sure she was well pleased

Cracking job there Martin. Proves the point that caring about the details makes all the difference.

I wish you were my neighbour, my car would love you 😃

👏👏

Great job martin can't believe u did all that in the rain mate

In my opinion you have just demonstrated the difference between a car wash and a car detail. In my bi-annual deep clean on my own cars I include the engine bay and treat the door sills. My engine dresser of choice is Auto Finesse Dressyl and any exposed paint in the engine bay and door sills I polish with Auto Finesse Triple and top with M&K Wax+. When I do a detail on a friends car it always includes the door openings and sills but not the engine bay. That was some amount of tar in a really strange place. I have not ever encountered tar on the doors like that.

Quality job as usual Mate, the car dealership guys are mainly just wash and go very few have the qualifications or experience and they never get the time to do the job, when my wife’s wheelchair van goes near the garage they are warned several times not to wash it as it’s coated and I don’t want them using the industrial paint stripper they call TFR 😂

That's not good martin. I would have taken it back have seen them at Tesco doing the door jams. What gets me, how do you get road tar in the door jam's?,been looking all day for the garage therapy car shampoo could not get it anywhere. I will have to do a bit of travelling as I want to do my van tomorrow have a good weekend and I hope the rain stops😊

Many many years ago I started at a Renault dealership and if memory serves me correct it was literally wash the outside and vacuum the inside for the first impression look on the forecourt. Even when the car was sold it was just a quick once over, doesn't look like much has changed in 30yrs 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️.
Great to see though it's had your attention to detail Martin...another satisfying video 👏👏

Good content as always Martin been a wash out this yr ☔️💦
Hope you feature the puma in a few more videos cheers all the best 👍🏻🇬🇧🍺

It's the attention to detail that makes all the difference and to be honest Martin , It's one of the things i enjoy when you get a new car . Simply cleaning all the bits that the dealership or previous owner has missed , makes your new car even better 👍

That brush around the doors sounds like sandpaper. A cloth might be safer?

Friday treat-video from martin and in shorts😅
They always forget the spare tyre area aswell.
Is HDd ur favourite spray rinse sealant martin? Im surprised GT havent brought one out yet as id but it👍

Lovely little tidy up. Amazing where tar can get into.

🎉👍😊👍

Surprised you allowed the dealer to clean the car. Some of them do more harm than they do good with applying sealants on top of dirty paintwork, making cleaning and decontamination a lot harder than it needs to be. Does this mean the red 1 series is gone now? Great job on the car. Surfex brought up that engine bay nicely and GT did a solid job with all those tar spots. Makes you wonder how exactly did that tar build up there as it’s facing on the inside of the car? O_o how do you find car pro Perl to be Martin? Have you ever found it be patchy in spots like some?

Good morning, Martin. Im at a complete loss regarding that tar build up, I've never seen that, even on my partner's 8 year old whote Juke, it was just grime, no tar, not that it matters, you deslt with it 😊. I like Perl, good for door rubbers in the winter, helps to prevent the doors from sticking with the ice/frost. I also use it on engine bays, usually just 1:3 but, i read the otjer comments so understand why yours was 1:1. Excellent job all round on the Puma, tour daughters and your wife are very lucky to have you. All the best, Martin. 👍

Great video Martin may I suggest silicone spray for all the engine bay parts , it gives a lovely soft finish on the hoses and plastics and lasts ages! I think its even water repellent too

How on earth did that tar get on the inside of the doors?

Hi Martin, lovely job and very satisfying knowing everything is done well. Your daughter must be happy with her new car purchase.
Great episode as always excellent
Thank you

Why wasnt the bonnet sound insulation removed to clean and protect, rather than clean around it and spray water on it?

Oh, and always wear gloves.

Another great video Martin. I agree that dealerships rarely pay that much attention to detail, most likely because they are working to a price per car and can't justify spending what they consider to be too much time on one car. They should however consider it as part of their advertising budget. In that case, they might realise that even though most people are not consciously looking for that level of detail, subconsciously all these overlooked areas will register with them. Many years ago (1987) I bought a five-year-old MK 3 Escort in Sunset Red from a young salesman who was just starting out in the trade. The paint was tired, the old metal number plates with raised plastic letters were grubby, etc. I washed the car, probably with turtle wax shampoo or Fairy liquid (it's that long ago, I can't remember exactly). I bought a bottle of T-Cut and some mutton cloth and set to work on it. I tackled the door jams, engine bay and anywhere I could think of. I finished it with Turtle wax and dressed the plastic bits with STP Son of a Gun. The final step was to change the number plates for some perspex ones.
I met the salesman/garage owner a few years later when I was buying a new Nissan from him, and he told me that the transformation I did on that car, taught him a valuable lesson as if he had presented it in that way, he could have realised some extra cash on it.
I have picked up new cars from many different dealerships since, that were covered in water spots because the valeters have just hosed them down before the handover. My latest car however was handed over gleaming, the dealer kept it inside until I was ready to leave and then drove it around to the front of the dealership, sparkling. There was even a good quality wax on it (decent beading and gloss). The dealer principal then took a photo for their social media page of the handover. I commented to my wife, that this is the first time that I have picked up a car from a dealership, where I have not had to dive straight into cleaning it up and applying some decent protection. I am now twiddling my thumbs waiting for the dealer-applied product to show some level of degradation, to give me an excuse to try out some of the M&K products I bought following your recent reviews.

Any reason you didn’t do the sills (the black parts beneath the painted area) where the lovely clean doors close on to? I’d like to see what you would have used. Saying that you did better than me working in the rain, I’m a fair weather cleaner.

Always good practical detail from you Martin …thanks.

Very Good work here I'm amazed tar has gone inside the door was not aware tar could be deposited inside the door door lip, car must of been freshly driven on new tarmac

That's been my experience too - I think it's about how many cars can they do rather than attention to detail. Most of the time I'd rather the dealer didn't bother, so I know what I'm starting with. Nice job 👍

Good video Martin, i was only just thinking that you seldom see people cleaning those areas. I'm quite sure that most do but i always clean the door shuts, scuttle area etc at the start of my process as it's nice to have a clean & shiny exterior but dirty door jambs etc stand out like a sore thumb. That's an awful lot of tar for a vehicle with such a low mileage though ! .One of the main reasons i like to use a spray & rinse sealant is that it gets into all those areas and adds some protection.

Martin, excellent job! Wheel wells, door jams, engines & trunk areas all are never cleaned by the average Joe. Dealerships use kids because they work cheaply. My daughter bought a brand new car & the dealership wanted $2000 (US) for a ceramic coatings. So I completed it for FREE! All the painted surfaces such as Hood, trunk, wheels, wheels wells door jams, etc were coated. I am quite sure the dealerships would not coat those areas?

Nice car, Martin. Never heard about the new puma... And as always, great job by you! Take care!

Great video, but in all my days I've never seen tar on the inside shut of a door, where did you get your dryer from?

What TLC do you want? Tea and Lump of Cake? Not had that treat during a video for a while 😂

Even for a second hand car, that is not the condition a car should be delivered to a customer.
For the engine protection I would recommend Koch Chemie Motorplast.

Would have been better to do the underside of the bonnet before the engine...so any dirt isn't going to get on the engine after it has been cleaned!

Nice job Martin, I really like cleaning an protecting the areas that no one else sees or care about!!

Great to see some attention to areas often missed/not bothered with when cleaning/valeting a car. Having purchased several used cars from dealers which initially look great its not until you start to check them over after a short while you realise how much they require a proper valet/detail. Most main dealers now use contract cleaners who get paid peanuts to "valet" a car. Proper car valeters rarely exist now at dealers . The best thing to do when buying a car even new is to start from scratch and valet it properly and thoroughly form the start and from then on its and easy job to keep it in pristine condition. When i look back and think what few products there were in the 70s it was very limited so with all the vast array of brilliant products today there really is no excuse to do a second rate job --as you say in the video attention to the normally unseen bits of a car makes the difference to a quality job ..

I love your videos Martin, keep them up, we miss them .

Love the video, love your enthusiasm, but please PLEASE don't say things like 'the bits a dealership doesn't clean' or 'the bits a dealership misses'.
This is stereotyping all dealerships as the same, and trust me they certainly are not.
I worked for a Hyundai dealership, and believe me, the state of some trade ins, cars only 3 years old, full of dog hair, cigarette ash and smell, and just grime everywhere, is typical of people who just get a new PCP deal every 3 years and trade in their old car, which they NEVER wash in the 3 year ownership.
I started as a valeter, and the amount of work it takes to get such a filthy car up to showroom spec is incredible, and I had to do this sometimes 3 times a day.
I could never get away with not washing door shuts, or bottoms, or engines, in fact every car had to be cleaned to the highest standard.
Some dealerships might not be so particular, but please, you have done a disservice to the many amazing dealerships who DO make sure their trade in cars are cleaned properly, so they are just as immaculate as a brand new car, in fact better.
Some of the brand new cars we had delivered, had been used as taxi's for the dock workers and were filthy, and we had to clean them to an immaculate standard.
So, I was slightly insulted by your sweeping statement, as you can tell, because I worked f**king hard to ensure the cars I cleaned were absolutely perfect in every way.

Being my area as such that is sloppy. I know the issue we get here is you get the car and are told the customers are picking it up Thursday at 5, say. The sales department then pushes it forward to get their daily numbers up, and it's rushed and stuff is missed. It does depend on who is doing the job, too, but if you aren't arsed at the start of your work, it's never going to be great. What else bugs me is here we do a photos clean, the car is put on the pitch till it's sold. Now, if I'm spending the money we are asking, it should be 100% on the forecourt before sale. Its the little things we see that makes the job stand out that buyers won't see they just go ooooh shiney

Well done Martin, great to see the attention to detail on the hidden bits

Really surprised how much tar was in them wheel arches, GT tar & glue made light work of em for sure!, great tips Martin, where would we be without spray n rinse protection 😊

The problem is that the majority of dealers now don't employ car valeters, preferring to use Contractors who get paid a fixed fee to clean each car. A lot depends on the original state of the car and the skill quality of the Valeter who's doing the job. Sadly lacking in a lot of cases.

Here's one if your going to charge extra for cleaning a van do the roof it exists as do the door shuts

Hi Martin, your video highlights what some may say is the subtle difference between ‘valeting’ and ‘detailing’. Carpro Perl is a good product. I did squirm a little when you hosed down the engine bay - never been brave enough to do that😊

The Mrs bought a 22 plate Puma ST Line from a Ford Stealer at the start of the year. Had to sit and listen to the salesman trying to get her to buy their car clean,/protection/sealant/barrier/guard whatever it was for £350, even though I told him we'll be Ok with me having a shed full of kit to look after the car. Anyway first proper clean and It was the same story a your daughters. All lower door areas were pretty dirty plus other nooks & crannies especially the interior, that only the likes of us who are into detailing would notice. The car is that flat Grey and comes up a treat when clean after it was properly cleaned and decontaminated. The Mrs doesn't know how lucky she is having me look after her car! 🤣Thanks for another top video again Martin. 🙏🏾