Recommending a decent, not high-end valeter/detailer in London

[DaveLondon]

I should preface this by saying I'm no great lover of car washing. Many years ago I went down the 'two-bucket and box full of products approach', but my time is now more precious and my facilities (living in a top-floor flat, with on-road parking) less accommodating.

I have a great bunch of Albanian guys at Clapham North who do an excellent job of washing/cleaning my car for a tenner every other week - highly recommended. However, having just bought a new car and wanting slightly more for its 'first clean', I don't feel like spending £40 to upgrade to a 'mini-valet' with these guys will leave me with what I want.

What I'm looking for is a slight upgrade from the Albanians, without spending £150 for the bottom-end services of a 'detailer' (based on my web research) - i.e. a decent clean, polish and wax, without using products made from unicorn foreskin.

From what I could see, my £150 at a detailer basically gets the same as my Albanians do (albeit at far higher quality), plus hoovering my airvents. With the best will in the world, the car has enough imperfections that a proper detail would be completely wasted, and probably do nothing other than make them stand out more.

Does anyone have any thoughts, or anyone that they might recommend?

 

[efunc1]

For me it's a fiver at ASDA for a very good jet wash and shampoo, or £250 for a 3 stage machine polish from professional detailer. I've done both. I will justify the machine polishing cost by saying that I didn't have to wash the car for another 8 months because the dirt just dropped off in the rain! Honestly i can't recommend it enough. However if you want something inbetween you may have to do it yourself, perhaps rent a hour in a diy jetwash station.

(BTW, I used Rob at Magic Detailing in Ascot. It was well worth the trip out of London for a great service).