How to choose a detailer or valeter in Bristol and Bath

Fixed premises, mobile, or hand car wash

Coverage across Bristol, Bath and the surrounding towns splits fairly evenly: 14 of the 24 businesses here are mobile, coming to your home or workplace, and 10 operate from a fixed site. It isn't spread evenly by area, though. Fishponds & Kingswood has six confirmed businesses and Bristol city centre five, while Keynsham & Saltford has only one, WK Professional Car Valet, and even that is a wide-area mobile operator covering Keynsham, Saltford, Bath and several towns further south, rather than a Keynsham-based fixed site. Clifton & Redland, Filton & Bradley Stoke, Portishead & Pill and Bath each have two.

• Fixed sites take the car off the road rather than working in a driveway: The Valet Club's two-bay valeting centre in Bradley Stoke, City Car Valet and Carshine Valeting Services near Lawrence Hill, Trimnells & Trimstean Car Care Centre and Wells Valeting Car Wash around Bedminster and Knowle, Hillfields Carwash, Shop Shine and Valetmaster in the Fishponds and Kingswood area, Hand Car Wash at Morrison's Fishponds, and Fresh Auto Spa & Car Wash trading from Hillier Garden Centre in Bath.
• Mobile detailers and valeters come to you: 1st Class Car Valeting (based in Coalpit Heath, trading since 2004), Sirius Detailing and UK Portable Car Wash around Bristol city centre; Pro Shine Detailing Bristol and Quality Mobile Car Valeting around Henleaze and Southmead; ASP Mobile Valeting and Pro Valet South West around Brislington, Bedminster and Southville; Spencer's Valeting and I Valet Cars around Kingswood and Emersons Green; Night Eagle Car Detailing around Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke; Essential Valeting and Viper Valets around Portishead and Clevedon; WK Professional Car Valet covering Keynsham and towns to the south; and Detail Sixty4, based in Peasedown St John on the edge of Bath.

What the credentials found here mean

None of these is a legal requirement to valet or detail a car, but each says something about the training, membership or track record behind the work.

• Trade body membership: 1st Class Car Valeting is an approved member of the Professional Valeters & Detailers Association, and has traded since 2004.
• Product and manufacturer training: Spencer's Valeting describes its valeter as Sonax-trained; Sirius Detailing uses Gyeon, CarPro and Auto Finesse branded products.
• Trading history: WK Professional Car Valet is a family business run across three generations with more than 30 years in the motor trade; Viper Valets cites more than 25 years of combined staff experience.
• Independently verifiable rating: only one business in this directory carries one. The Valet Club in Bradley Stoke has a Google rating of 4.9 from 219 reviews, linked from its own website. No other Bristol or Bath-area business researched here has a rating from an allowed independent source, so ask to see reviews directly rather than assuming none exist.

Questions worth asking before you book

• Fixed site or mobile - and if mobile, does the detailer bring their own water and power, or do they need yours?
• Eleven of the twenty-four businesses here have no independent website of their own; what's published comes from a local Bristol directory instead: UK Portable Car Wash, City Car Valet, Carshine Valeting Services, Quality Mobile Car Valeting, Trimnells & Trimstean Car Care Centre, ASP Mobile Valeting, Wells Valeting Car Wash, Hillfields Carwash, Shop Shine, I Valet Cars and Hand Car Wash at Morrison's Fishponds. Ring first to check the business is still trading and what a wash or valet actually includes before you turn up.
• Is the quote for a wash and protect, or does it include machine paint correction first? Correction takes longer and costs more, and a ceramic coating over unclipped swirls won't look any better than the paint underneath.
• If you're in Keynsham & Saltford, where only one business is confirmed, or in one of the other thinner areas, Clifton & Redland, Filton & Bradley Stoke, Portishead & Pill or Bath, ask a Bristol-based mobile operator directly whether they travel out to your postcode before booking.