how long does car detailing take

Short answer: a quick wash and interior tidy takes about 1–2 hours. A proper full detail—interior shampoo, decontamination, machine polish—usually runs 3–6 hours. Add paint correction and you’re looking at 6–12 hours for a single-stage job, while multi-stage correction can stretch to 1–2 days. Ceramic coating? Application is 3–6 hours, then allow 12–24 hours of curing under cover. Big SUVs/utes, heavy pet hair, or red-dust country cars can add 30–50% to those times. If a “cheap and cheerful” operator promises it in 45 minutes, expect cheerful—less so the detailing.