[gk1234]

Car wash stops are dime a dozen in the locality I live in, and The Detailing Mafia is one of them. Its on the Thammanam Pullepady Road (google maps link here: ), they offer several car detailing services, apart from ceramic wash and steam wash. My car was parked out in the open for the better half of two days, and birds of all kinds were happy to graffiti my car with their precious droppings.

It was an eyesore, to say the least:











Although I had heard of steam wash cleaning previously, I hadn't found an occasion to try the same on my car until today, at The Detailing Mafia:



I hadn't known that "The Detailing Mafia" is a brand with presence in many states, and was curious to know that many services are offered here. I took a snap of their services menu:





I was interested in trying only their steam wash today, and the supervisor attending the floor quoted 750 rs for the job, which would include interior vacuum, followed by pressure wash on the outside, and then foaming, before cleaning it off with steam, both inside the car (with special focus on the A/C vents) and out. Oh, and they clean the engine bay also. Its a long process, and be ready to wait either in the upstairs "AC lounge" (no thank you, during these covid times), or on the cleaning floor near the reception. Sinan, the supervisor attending to my car, was cordial and helpful, (and I suspect it was partly due to the fact that it was my first visit and he hoped that I would be a returning customer. The team-bhp miscellany visible on the car must have also helped).

I am not sure if this is how they attend to all cars, but those boys sure knew how to impress me. 4 of them were working on my car in tandem, and yet it took nearly 2 hours to complete the cleaning process, and I was impressed that so much effort was put in to cleaning my car.

Here are some visuals:











I also managed to grab a pic of their steam washing equipment:



The car felt clean, although there was a slight odour inside the cabin that lingered for a few moments after cleaning. My biggest worry was that all the steam would play havoc on the electricals and the AC, but to my relief, everything seemed to be working fine. I only wish those boys had worn masks. Not one of them bothered with masks.

Interestingly enough, a few minutes before the job was completed, two guys dressed in red tshirts, presumably working for The Detailing Mafia, turned up near the car, looking for the owner on whom they could unload their membership scheme. It was a voucher booklet going for 999/- rs, and it was packed with several coupons redeemable at the shop. I wasn't keen on it, but since I was happy with their services this evening, as a means of acknowledgment, I gave in and bought the coupon booklet. Although they promised me that they will not spam me with offers and whatnot while jotting down my phone number, I am pretty certain I am going to be bombarded with sms offers starting tonight.

Here's how the booklet looks:





I tried to redeem the free steam wash coupon against the current wash, and they promptly told me that I can use that coupon only the next time I visit them. Smart kids. I did get 100 bucks off the wash rate, so in effect, I paid 1649/- rs for the steam wash and the coupon booklet (the worthiness of it all remains to be seen).

As to the steam wash itself, it was nice to see them invest a lot of time on my car, and I am happy with their services this time. Whether the coupon booklet actually works, remains to be seen. And I am also keen to find out if they will keep up the good work on display for me today.

I am also hoping that all that steam doesn't set off a bunch of errors of my infotainment screen tomorrow. Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

[TrackDay]

Plenty of car washes have come up in the recent 2-3 years in Kochi & With the lockdown and job losses the numbers have only gone north.

Could you share some pictures of the Interior ? Would like to see the seat and upholstery.

[gkveda]

The title of the thread is misleading. At first I thought another Mafia has started in Kerala involving some politicians.

But after going through thread, I got to know the creativity of the owner of the shop.

Nonetheless, liquid cleans up the dirt on a surface due to 2 reasons

1. Due to adhesivity of the liquid, dirt sticks to the liquid and get eroded from the surface

2. Due to pressure exerted by the liquid on the dirt, it gets eroded from the surface.

Now, coming to steam cleaning, I don't see both above phenomena happening at the contact between dirt and surface.(steam may have pressure due to which it may erode some dirt but since liquid density is definitely higher than steam density and hence liquid is better).

So, I think it is not as effective as liquid cleaning, at least in theory.

Secondly, the cost of producing steam gets added to the price. Am sure it will be costly as compared to liquid wash(water wash)

Please let us know what, in practice, did you notice about quality of cleaning. And what are the benefits of steam cleaning over water cleaning.

[gk1234]

Originally Posted by TrackDay

Could you share some pictures of the Interior ? Would like to see the seat and upholstery.

Here you go, for what its worth. Sorry for the poor quality pics. Had to make do with sub-par lighting in the basement.















I am glad you asked for the pics, because it got me to check the interiors properly this morning. I'm not sure if its got anything to do with the steam cleaning process, but the driver seat doesn't look completely clean. Perhaps they were hesitant to do much scrubbing since I had cautioned them against using abrasive chemicals on the seats, lest they interfere with the seat ventilation function. The door pads and handles look clean, though. I must also admit that maintaining beige colour interiors hasn't been easy, especially the driver's seat. It doesn't bother me a lot, as there is only so much I can do to prevent wear and tear of leather upholstery. It also doesn't look so bad in person as it does in the photos.

Originally Posted by gkveda

The title of the thread is misleading.

Open to suggestions for a better title...

Originally Posted by gkveda

Nonetheless, liquid cleans up the dirt on a surface due to 2 reasons

I'm sure you're right, but doesn't steam = heat = effective cleaning? I'm trying to use the same logic as washing heavily stained clothes in warm water as against cold, tap water. Sure, steam may not be as effective as hot water to dislodge dirt on/in your car, but then you'd also sustain a higher risk of damaging your car's internals, especially the electricals if you use liquids directly. Steam, therefore, appears to be a decent compromise for car cleaning.

Originally Posted by gkveda

Please let us know what, in practice, did you notice about quality of cleaning. And what are the benefits of steam cleaning over water cleaning.

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with yesterday's steam wash, but for some reason, I felt the A/C in the car was bone-chilling effective today, so much so that I was running the A/C at half the fan speed than I usually leave it on. Like I said, still not sure if it had anything to do with the cleaning, but I'll let you all know when I know more.

Initial Impressions: Benefits of steam cleaning over water? I don't know much, either. I tried it last night because I was curious. Google results say that its easier on the environment in addition to less room for water damage to the electricals in the car. I don't agree with the eco-friendly part of the argument, though: the steam generator used by these guys ran on diesel. Safeguarding the car's electricals? Like I said before, I guess I'll just have to wait and find out if that bit is actually true.

I am interested in trying their ceramic wash the next time I visit them. Apparently that gives a hydrophobic coating that could help with cleaning the car during the monsoon.

[adisan]

Originally Posted by gk1234

Car wash stops are dime a dozen in the locality I live in, and The Detailing Mafia is one of them.

Thanks for sharing. Does the steam wash package includes underbody washing also?

[lurker]

for steam cleaning to clean upholstry, you must agitate the upholstry while steaming with a soft microfiber or brush. Steam will dislodge the dirt temporarily which will need to be picked up.

[neil.jericho]

I had a really poor experience with the Detailing Mafia, Kochi. Hopefully this helps others make an informed decision, while hunting around for a good detailer in Kochi.

+ Very good reputation in the city. A friend frequently gets his cars and bikes washed there and only had great feedback about them.
+ One of the partners offered to provide an alternate car, because of the inordinate delays in getting my car ready.
+ Said partner also gave me the freedom to collect my car, bring it back later, so that they could finish the work, and settle the bill, then.
+ Initial output was great for taking Instagram pictures from 8 feet away.
- Initial output was terrible for taking Instagram pictures from 2 feet away.
- Zero quality control.
- Sub par workmanship. Most of what was done, was incomplete. Some of the items that were part of the selected package, were forgotten.
- The team was unable to spot tar marks, soiled seats, paint spots, even 2+ hours into the delay. They certainly need to be trained on the basics.
- Sales team's pitch vastly differs from the service team's actual work.

Background
Thanks to all the lessons learnt from the car detailing threads on TBHP, I have done a fair bit of claying, polishing and waxing, on my car and bikes. In recent years, I havent had the time or the inclination to do a lot of it, as compared to earlier.

The front bumper with dust and paint spots

The apartment that I stay in, was getting repainted. Due to carelessness of the workers, several cars, including my Honda Jazz, ended up with easily removable paint spots all over them. The beige interiors of my car also needed some deep cleaning.

Deciding on a detailer
I went around to different detailing studios, to understand which was best equipped to remove the paint spots, do a proper polish and wax job, and also, make the interiors look as good as new.

The initial quote from the Detailing Mafia was Rs 7,750 for the exterior work and Rs 1,500 for the interior work. Total quote was Rs 9,250.

This was higher than all the other places, which quoted in the range of Rs 7,000 to Rs 7,500 for the Honda Jazz. In comparison, my friend, who has an Innova, with the same paint spots, was charged Rs 9,000 for the same work on his car, by another prominent detailing studio.

While talking to TBHP Moderator Crazy_Driver, he mentioned that the Detailing Mafia stores offers packages, which I wasnt informed about. I visited the Detailing Mafia a second time, to ask about this. This is when I was told that there is an "Al Capone" package that did everything which I was looking for. The total cost was Rs 7,500, with the interiors being cleaned as a complimentary service.

The explanation of how things went from Rs 9,250 to Rs 7,500, when the customer knew about the packages, was fuzzy at best.

Experience
I dropped my car off on Monday, and was informed that it would be ready by Wednesday evening. On Wednesday, I was told that the car could be picked up. I reached by 5:15 PM. The service manager quickly wheeled the car out. Within a few minutes, I realized that the team had missed a wave of paint spots on the left side of the roof. I asked for the car to be wheeled back into the work area, where I could examine it under the lights. Immediately, I realized that not only had they missed removing paint spots from the roof, they had also not removed multiple paint spots from around the car

Next, I realized that they had only washed the wheels. They hadnt even bothered to remove any mud, or tar spots from the alloys.

This led me to check the lower panels and bumpers for tar spots. As expected, they hadnt bothered to remove any tar spots, as well.

1.5 hours in, the team looking at the easily noticeable tar spots which I found

Bear in mind that they already applied sealant over the body panels. So not only did they have to remove these underlying issues, but they also had to apply sealant, all over again.

After this, I checked the interiors. The beige seats werent properly cleaned at all.

Later, I checked the glasses, for hard water marks and deposits. Sure enough, they hadnt done anything on that, either.

At least 6 times, the service manager came and told me that the car was ready. Within 30 seconds, I was able to identify multiple issues which they had missed . This points to nothing but untrained staff, working on detailing vehicles.

After almost 2 hours, one of the partners came and apologized profusely for the delay and promised to get the car ready in 10 minutes. He asked if they can keep the car for one more day and finish the work on it, while I take one of their cars. I politely declined his offer of an alternative car, as I wasnt comfortable with the arrangement. To his credit, he rolled his sleeves up and got to work, with the other staff.

The said gentleman also asked if I can take the car back today, and bring it back, whenever I had time, for them to work on it. He also insisted that I only pay, then. I politely declined this offer, as it would involve more time wastage for me, and more cab expenses (~ Rs 400).

After 3 hours, a second partner arrived on the scene. This helped speed up the work on the car.

I shared some concerns with the partners about the difference between what was committed and what was actually done. For example, as per the sales manager, the preparatory work involves using 2 separate pads. As per the service manager, they use only one pad for the Al Capone package. It is only for the nano-ceramic coating, that they use 2 pads for preparation.

The Al Capone package involves "Alloy protection". I just saw them removing the tar spots and wiping the alloy clean. When I asked about the protection part, I was told that cleaning the alloys with brushes, constitutes "protection". Im pretty certain that they skimped on providing a protective layer for the wheels.

The beige seatbelts havent been touched either. After 3+ hours of waiting there, I didnt notice that the seatbelts were ignored by the team from Detailing Mafia over the 3 days.

Overall, the staff are untrained and there seems to be no oversight from the management. If an amateur DIY like me, can find out massive gaps in the output, which the technical team is incapable of doing, then something is in drastic need of improvement!

As mentioned earlier, I have heard good things about the washing services at this branch of the Detailing Mafia. However, my experience with them, when it comes to more labour intensive work, that requires a degree of skill and patience, has shown that the quality of workmanship is clearly not up to the mark. Hopefully the team can improve upon these shortcomings and are open to take honest customer feedback, and strive to improve upon their quality of services.

As things stand, it is hard to recommend the Detailing Mafia in Kochi, for anything other than a basic car wash.

[Apex1815]

Sorry to hear about the ordeal you have faced. Personally, I feel that the car detailing outlets are quite gimmicky where in they charge you exorbitant prices for the work they do. I have owned Three cars till date and only once I took my car to 3M outlet for interior cleaning in the year 2017.

As expected the job was quite shabby, infact the interiors were looking more soiled. The service person did not mask the music system and the other controls (Eg AC Switch etc) while spraying the cleaning solution , as a result of which the cleaning solution had entered deep inside the controls which can actually lead to malfunctioning of the controls.
Also, The black interiors of my car had become white stained after their cleaning job.
When I exhibited my concern, the Store manager scolded the service persons. Also, 3M accepted their fault of conducting a shabby job and did not charge me anything for that interior cleaning.
So, after that day I have maintained my car by myself (washing, deep cleaning interiors) and always stayed away from the detailing outlets.

[rosh_aveo1.4]

Oh. I rather had a very good experience with them on the ceramic coating done on my car. Still looks shiny even after a year of work (I choose the 1 year warranty one just to try it out) It was 12k and added another 1.5k for the interior cleaning. And I also gave my other car for interior cleaning which they did a fab job. Not sure what happened in your case though. The partners of the place are usually good to talk to with your concerns. They did take extra time for my car during the ceramic wash but I felt that was better than simply hurrying it up.

[one-77]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

I had a really poor experience with the Detailing Mafia, Kochi.

This place promotes itself widely on social media by offering free ceramic coating to YouTube celebrities etc and getting them to post positive reviews on their channels.

Most of these places (and many other businesses) also get people to post fake 5 star reviews on Google by offering discounts on their bills. It’s very difficult to find honest reviews.

Thank you for posting your experience.

Personally I’ve found the work of most detailing studios to be substandard for the prices they charge.

[AJ56]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

I had a really poor experience with the Detailing Mafia, Kochi.

Being in the same field of high end auto detailing, I can tell you the main problem many such shops face is the skewed cost-price ratio. I’ll explain-

(I don’t know about rentals and salaries in Kochi so I’ll take numbers for Gurgaon)

The operating costs per hour for a midsize 1600-1800 sq.ft shop with 4-5 employees and 1 manager will run upwards of 1400-1800/hour depending on location, this is before any margins.

Now, for 2 step machine polishing on paint + alloys + glass + sealant + interior dry cleaning you’re looking at around 1.5-2 days of labour, around 60-75 man hours.

So any shop charging less than 16-18,000 at the very least is cutting corners in one or more areas, in your case it was skipped machine steps and no proper tar decon done on the wheels and body panels.

Also, if your paint didn’t have heavy swirls/scratches and only had paint and tar contamination, a proper chemical decon + clay and a single machine polishing step would be more than enough.
This would lower the time the shop spent, lowering the costs to the customer with a very satisfactory result.

I also don’t understand the need for 2 managers, why do they need separate sales and service managers in such a small setup, just raises operating costs.

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by AJ56

Being in the same field of high end auto detailing, I can tell you the main problem many such shops face is the skewed cost-price ratio. I’ll explain-

Originally Posted by AJ56

I also don’t understand the need for 2 managers, why do they need separate sales and service managers in such a small setup, just raises operating costs.

Thanks AJ56, that was very useful. The number of years of experience of either manager would probably not stack up against their counterparts in other, more professionally run setups, both in Kochi and in other cities.

In fact, I doubt that the 2 managers would come anywhere close to a decade of combined experience in the high end auto detailing industry!

[Born 2 Be Wild]

A complete car detailing, done properly inside and outside takes 48 hrs minimum, add to it the labour involved, 8k is robbery, the man is simply cutting corners! As a consumer we must be aware of what is possible and promised. A decent detail job inside outside is 15-20k which includes complete interior cleaning leather conditioning, trim treatment, exterior tar/iron decontamination/ mdr as well as water spot removal, claying, swirl removal, polishing and sealant application. It is naive to think this can be done for under 10k.

Detailing mafia is a chain lesser said the better i know the owner personally he was 21 when he opened his 1st store in 2013, i have rented out one of my properties to him which was his 2 nd store in 2013. Now he has 125 outlets. Great guy knows his stuff, sadly franchisees that he sells want to make a quick buck. Thats why good brands never sell franchisee's like dominoes maybe.

[Samfromindia]

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. This is the reason I always opt for a basic package from a new detailer and if satisfied, then only opt for higher end ones. The price you paid definitely doesn't do justice to the work done. This post will surely warn potential clients to think twice while visiting Detailing Mafia or keep a close supervision in case they end up going there.

[neil.jericho]

Update 1
A couple of weeks after my experience with Detailing Mafia, the manager called me to ask if they could collect the car and do a proper detailing job on it. I was surprised that it took them 2 weeks to decide to remedy the situation but was told that they had a lot of vehicles come in, and hence they called as soon as a slot was available. Due to my prior commitments, I wasnt able to give them the car at that time. In good faith, we agreed to work around a schedule that worked for both sides.

Update 2
Last week, the story was posted on the TBHP Instagram account and that is when the branch caught wind of the review on the forum. Shortly after that, I received a call from the manager and I told him that they could pick the car up this week.

Update 3
Since I was heading out of town, I informed the manager and told him to do whatever they planned to do on it, over the next 3 days. They picked it up and dropped it back at my residence. When I checked the car, I found that
- the passenger seatbelt was still not cleaned (they had missed out on it in the earlier instance, as well)
- there were multiple tar spots on each of the wheels
- they had removed and refitted the wiring for the dash camera and left it hanging in plain sight

Update 4
They will come tomorrow to resolve these issues.

If this is the quality of output when they are trying to rectify an already poor customer experience, then I dont know what else is left to be said about the Detailing Mafia store in Cochin. The Rs 7,500 that I spent, seems to have been a real waste of money

Still not cleaned


Why mess around with a hidden dashcam wire when doing a detailing session???