It depends far more on where the car parks than on how many miles you put on it.
The short answer: For a car parked outside in Las Vegas, a full detail twice a year with maintenance washes in between is a realistic baseline. A garage-kept car can stretch to once a year. What actually drives the interval is sun exposure and hard water, not mileage, which is why a low-mileage car parked in a driveway often needs more attention than a commuter that lives in a garage.
Parking beats mileage
In most of the country, detailing frequency tracks how much you drive. Here it tracks where the car sits when you are not driving it. A car parked outside is under UV for ten hours a day, every day, at temperatures that cook contamination onto the paint instead of letting it sit loose.
That is why a garage-kept weekend car with 3,000 miles a year can look better than a commuter with 20,000. The commuter that parks in a garage is fine. The weekend car baking in a driveway is the one in trouble.
A realistic schedule
This is what we actually recommend to customers, not a schedule designed to sell more appointments. If your car looks fine and washes clean, you do not need us yet.
The Express/Maintenance Wash exists for exactly this reason. It is 1 hour for cars and 1 hour 15 minutes for trucks and SUVs, starts at $85 for cars and $95 for trucks, and it is meant to be the thing you do between the bigger services rather than a replacement for them.
Parked outside, daily driver: full detail twice a year, maintenance wash every two to four weeks.
Garage kept, driven regularly: full detail once a year, maintenance wash monthly.
Garage kept, weekend or collector car: once a year is usually plenty.
Work truck or job site vehicle: interior service more often than exterior, since that is where the wear actually is.
Not sure where your car sits on that scale?
Tell us the year, make, model and where it parks. We will tell you what it actually needs, including if the answer is nothing yet.
Book online or call (702) 302-1800.
What the sun is doing between visits
UV breaks down clear coat. That is what makes older paint look chalky and flat, especially on horizontal panels like the hood and roof, which take the most direct exposure. It is also what dries out leather and cracks a dashboard.
Hard water is the other half of it. Sprinkler overspray and washing in direct sun leave mineral deposits, and in this heat those minerals bake on fast enough to etch a shallow ring into the clear coat before you get to them. Once it etches, washing will not fix it and neither will a spot remover.
When more detailing is the wrong answer
If you are booking a full detail three or four times a year because the car will not stay looking clean, you are paying repeatedly to solve a problem that protection solves once.
Run the math on your own situation. Add up what you spent on detailing in the last twelve months. If that number is climbing, ask us what a ceramic coating would run on your vehicle and we will give you the number. Sometimes the answer is that you are better off as you are, and we will tell you that too.
Interior runs on its own clock
Interior wear here is driven by heat and sun through the glass, not by how often you vacuum. Dashboards crack, leather dries and splits, and plastic trim fades, all from the same UV load.
If the car parks outside, the interior needs attention on the same schedule as the paint. A sunshade is the cheapest protection you will ever buy for a dashboard, and it is worth more than any product we could sell you.
Where to go next
Common questions
Is a detail the same as a car wash?
No. A wash removes what is sitting on the surface. A detail decontaminates the paint, cleans what a wash cannot reach, and addresses the interior properly. Our Express/Maintenance Wash is the bridge between the two.
Can I stretch it if the car looks fine?
Usually yes. Paint that still beads water and feels smooth is doing all right. Paint that feels gritty after a wash is contaminated and is ready for service regardless of the calendar.
Does a ceramic coating mean I stop detailing?
No, but it changes what you need. Coated cars need correct washing and periodic maintenance, not repeated full decontamination. The washing gets easier, which is most of the point.
What if I am about to sell the car?
That is a different job with a different goal, and it is usually worth doing. A car that presents well photographs better and shows better in person.
Do you do interior only?
Yes. Interior Detail Lite starts at $250 for cars and $325 for trucks. There is also a Platinum version for extreme pet hair or anything that needs full sanitizing.