2020_ADN_V5_No3_web

accessories and machines it gets worse.
Simultaneously, some Asian brands are
establishing a presence here, but with
low quality products lots of machines
are sold with little to no manufacturer
warranty. Product options are reduced
to a few global brands such as SONAX,
Meguiar’s, 3M, Menzerna, 3D or Koch
Chemie. Other brands are made available
here but not for an official dealer,
distributor or branch and the products
are highly taxed as well.
On the flip side we have a few local
manufacturers getting into this market.
There´s an Argentinian chemical engineer
that produces a set of detailing
products with decent performance and
our neighbor Brazil has an important
manufacturer that has been historically
a huge player in Carnauba wax
production and now is producing high
performance detailing chemicals with
interesting results.
Approximately how many
detail shops are in
Argentina?
We are about 5,000 detailers in Argentina
now, some detailing shops are shared with
a car wash facility, or some kind of business
related to cars. That number includes a
good amount of part timers that work
on weekends. But one aspect I want to
point out is there could be some thousand
so-called “detail shops” in every city, but
there could be hundreds of guys detailing
cars for dealerships, collectors, going
mobile or even detailing museum cars. We
could count them as detailers as well.
Anything else you can tell
me about the detail market
in Argentina?
A country such as Argentina has its
particularities for instance, you have
subtropical forests in the northeast, high
altitude deserts in the northwest close to
the Andes, and glaciers. High mountains
and blue lakes like Switzerland in the
southwest and plains along the entire
Atlantic coast.
Snow and salt removal is a must in
the extreme south provinces of Santa
Cruz and Tierra del Fuego. Red soil with
high iron rust content can be a nightmare
on car interiors and chassis if you
live in the northern Misiones province.
Sun can really damage a clear coat in
the highlands of Jujuy. Dirt roads in the
Pampas are covered with a thin dust that
can easily pass through your door jamb
rubber seals if they aren’t in good shape,
gravel roads in Patagonia can literally
remove undercarriage protection and
rust your car chassis severely, so for us
detailers it is not always just a polish and
wax. Interiors get very dirty and molds
grow fast if you don’t vacuum your car
properly, as average humidity in the air
is beyond 70% in my region, and bad
odors can easily infect a car interior.
Within Latin America the Argentinean
detailer is much respected as well as all
car-related technicians. We have a strong
car industry and a reputation of being
self-taught people in general.
Argentine customers are very careful
about whom they trust their vehicles
to; they gather information about the
detailer that is going to work on the unit,
and inquire about his/her experience
and reputation.
Some particular types of customers
demand more than just paint correction
and look for what is referred to as
a “full detail” – here that means you
work on each and every part of the car,
and it always includes a high amount of
manhours and this kind of project can
be complex and physically demanding. I
take a few cars for full detail a year and
it’s been mostly high-end or rare units
most of the time.
According to the Pareto Principle, 80
percent of a business income is produced
by 20 percent of the customers. In my
business that rule of thumb is accomplished,
very few customers keep my
business rolling so taking good care of
my customer base is my main strategy.
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VOL. 5, NO.3 • FALL 2020 | AUTO DETAILING NEWS | 31