Your vehicle is cared for in its “everyday” garage, on your schedule — it never leaves the property, and you never rearrange your day. We are working daily to establish a service location wherever you park your vehicle indoors, partnering with both residential and commercial office buildings to accommodate your vehicle’s needs.
01 — The arrangement
Having a car properly cared for normally costs you a morning — the drive over, the wait, the drive back. And it is the drive back that undoes the work. The work itself is usually done indoors. Then the moment the car is finished you take it straight out into Chicago: rain, snow, salted slush, and every puddle between there and home. The car is compromised before it is safely back in its space. We will never ask you to rearrange your day to accommodate us. We accommodate your life and respect your time.
No drive home
The car is finished in the garage it lives in, then parked in its own space. It never has to travel back out through weather the moment the work is complete — and it never has to leave the property.
Your routine
Book a window on your schedule and leave the car where it sits. No drop-off, no shuttle, no waiting room, no morning surrendered.
Where you park
We partner with both residential and commercial office buildings to bring the service to their residents and tenants. If we are not in your garage yet, introduce us to your management — and special accommodations can be made.
Who does the work
Every service is carried out by an individual who has completed our rigorous ninety-day training programme, so our proven processes are followed properly on every vehicle, every time.
Car detailing · Chicago
If you are searching for car detailing in Chicago, you will find shops, vans and drive-through lanes. Excellence Auto Salon is none of those. We operate a fixed bay inside the enclosed garage where your vehicle already lives, and we work to the standard of a concours preparation rather than a car wash with extras.
The difference
Conventional car detailing in Chicago ends with a drive home through rain, salt and slush. Ours ends when the car goes back to its own space, still finished.
The standard
Every service restores the vehicle to the way it looked and felt when it was new. Satin exterior trim, matte interior surfaces, supple leather. No silicones, no gloss.
The menu
Four services — The Wash, the Interior Detail, the Exterior Detail and the Concours — every price stated for a sedan or an SUV. Specialist work is assessed in person and quoted on the condition of the car.
02 — Our standard
Nothing we clean, dress or condition with contains silicone, and every product we carry is researched and chosen for the surface it will treat. Exteriors finish satin, interiors finish matte — factory-correct, both. Gloss is the enemy. It is the surest indication of an inferior product, and it does the car an active disservice: silicone seals rubber and trim so they cannot breathe or release heat, so they hold it instead and break down faster.
Tyres & exterior trim
Interior surfaces
Leather & hides
The objective is to return the vehicle to the way it looked and felt when it was brand new — not to bury it under artificial surface coatings. Where a client asks for a durable protective coating, that is a separate, deliberate treatment quoted on its own, and it is never part of routine cleaning or conditioning.
03 — The standard behind it
Thirty years. Virtually every marque there is. The same hands on every car we take on.
Excellence Auto Salon has been in this business since 1996. That time was spent on show-car preparation and vehicle-delivery presentation — including work directly with Ferrari, preparing cars for the moment they are first seen and first handed over.
That work sets a particular standard. A delivery car is not shined; it is presented exactly as the factory intended it to look, with nothing added that the engineers did not put there. Every car we touch is finished to that same reference, whether it is a collector piece or the car you take to the office.
Our clients are professional athletes, business leaders and physicians — people for whom privacy matters as much as the result. The work happens quietly, in your building, and it looks like nothing happened at all except that the car is right.
04 — What we use
This trade rarely does. It should. Almost every mark on a well-kept car — the swirls under the garage lights, the scratched grain on a dash — was not put there by dirt. It was put there by whatever someone wiped it with.
Interior brushes
Soft enough that it cannot scratch a surface, fine enough to lift dust out of grain, vents, switchgear and stitching where a cloth simply pushes it around.
Cloths
Made to our specification for interior work. The inexpensive towel from the accessory shelf is the single most common cause of fine scratching on a car.
Formulations
Our cleaning, dressing and conditioning products are water-based and silicone-free, brought in from England. Nothing is purchased from a retail shelf, and nothing is rotated in because it happens to be in fashion.
One surface, as an example
It sits beneath glass in direct sunlight and bakes. It is the most UV-punished surface in the car, and it is why dashboards fade, go chalky and eventually crack — damage that cannot be undone once it has started.
What goes on it here is an SPF 50 protectant built for surfaces that live outdoors in unrelenting sun — the same class of product specified for theme-park ride surfaces that sit in it all day, every day. It is water-based, it leaves no shine, and its purpose is to prevent the damage rather than to conceal it.
That is one surface. Every product we use was chosen the same way: researched against the alternatives until it was the best available for the specific material it touches. Ask about any area of your car and we will explain precisely why we use what we use there. There is no part of this we cannot explain.
This is what I did for Ferrari. It is why I was given the show cars.
The range we use is the same one used in the preparation and presentation of vehicles at Bentley, Ferrari and Aston Martin. Knowing exactly how one range behaves on every paint system, hide, plastic and alloy is worth more than a shelf of products nobody has learnt properly.
Show-car preparation does not forgive shortcuts. A car going onto a stand, or being handed to its owner for the first time, is inspected under lighting designed to find every flaw. You learn very quickly which tools and which formulations can be trusted on a finish you are not allowed to damage — and then you use those, and nothing else, on every car afterwards.
That is the whole philosophy. We hold no lesser grade of work in reserve for smaller jobs. There is one standard, and every vehicle receives it.
Which formulations we use is proprietary — it is the result of thirty years of narrowing down what can be trusted. Should you wish to know precisely what is to be applied to your car before it touches the paint, simply ask. We will take you through it in person.
05 — What we know
A drive-through wash does not remove dirt from a car. It drags it across the paint. So does a hand wiping a dry, dusty panel. The scratches under your garage lights almost never came from the road.
Paint
Clear and deep, as though it were still wet. Fine spider-web scratching is what takes that away, and it can be corrected — but only by someone who knows how much clear coat is there to work with.
Leather
Vat-dyed, surface-dyed and surface-painted leather are three different materials that need three different approaches. Treating them identically is how bolsters come to be cracked and finishes stripped.
Engine bay
An engine bay can be presented beautifully or ruined quickly. Knowing what may go on which component, and what must never be sprayed at all, is the entirety of the discipline.
A car of this calibre is rarely a purely practical purchase. People commit that sum because the car means something to them.
Our standard is simple to state and difficult to meet: care for the vehicle the way the factory that built it would care for it. That is the reference, and it is why the understanding matters as much as the products — the technique, the materials and knowing exactly what you are working on.
It is also why most of our clients settle onto a monthly arrangement rather than calling us once the car has been allowed to deteriorate. A car kept correctly never requires rescuing.
06 — Services
Four services, each priced for a sedan or coupé and for an SUV or larger vehicle. The price you are given is the price on the account. Paint correction, ceramic coating and other specialist work are assessed in person and quoted on the condition of the car — the full menu is on the services page.
Upkeep
$99SUV & larger $129
Foam pre-soak, hand wash, wheels to the bolt recesses, tyres and trim finished dry satin, exterior glass, hand-dried. The foundation of every exterior service.
Interior
$199SUV & larger $239
Extraction throughout, every surface cleaned and finished matte, leather cleaned and conditioned into the hide, dashboard protected, glass cleared.
Exterior
$239SUV & larger $289
The Wash, then kaolin clay cleansing, a resin machine polish that makes the paint read wet again, and a sealant to hold it through Chicago weather.
Inside and out
$369SUV & larger $439
The Interior and Exterior Details together in one visit. $438 taken separately for a sedan — the Concours saves you $69. Nothing further appears on the account.
Signature & bespoke work
For exotics, collector cars and anything asking for more than the menu covers, we inspect the vehicle with you in person. We walk the car together, you tell us what you are seeking, and it is priced on what it truly needs.
A separate signature menu is being built for this work. Until then, the consultation is the starting point.
Our commitment
If you are not happy, we are not happy. We do not present an account until the vehicle is finished to the standard and you have said so yourself. Should something not be right, we make it right before anything is billed. That is the whole of it.
We are not here simply to clean cars. We are building relationships with the people who own them, over years rather than appointments — which is why the arrangement has to be worth keeping on both sides.
07 — Coverage
We operate inside partner buildings across Chicago, and we service private homes and personal garages as well. If your building is not yet on our list, tell us where you park — an introduction to your building management is generally all that is required.
08 — Membership
Reserved for residents and tenants of partner properties. A standing arrangement rather than an appointment you must remember to make.
The Monthly Package
The full Concours on a fixed monthly rhythm, at member rates. The car never falls behind.
The Fortnightly Package
The Wash every two weeks, for cars driven daily through Chicago winters, with an Interior or Exterior Detail added whenever the car calls for it.
The Concierge Package
Priority scheduling, recurring appointments and bespoke management of a car or a collection. The matter is taken off your hands entirely.
09 — For properties
Excellence Auto Salon operates as a concession inside your facility. Your residents, tenants and guests receive a high-end amenity they will use repeatedly. The property receives a new revenue line from floor area that presently earns nothing.
Questions we are asked
Yes. Excellence Auto Salon provides luxury car detailing across Chicago, performed inside the enclosed garages of partner residential towers, Class A office buildings, hotels and private clubs. Every service is carried out by a technician who has completed our ninety-day training programme.
We come to the vehicle, so in that sense yes — but nothing is done from a van at the kerb. We operate a fixed, weather-protected bay inside the garage where the car is parked. The vehicle never leaves the property and never makes a drive home after it is finished.
The menu is four services, each priced for a sedan or coupé and for an SUV or larger vehicle. The Wash is $99 or $129. The Interior Detail is $199 or $239. The Exterior Detail is $239 or $289. The Concours, inside and out in one visit, is $369 or $439. Paint correction, ceramic coating and other specialist work are assessed in person and quoted on the condition of the vehicle.
We operate wherever a partner building gives us an enclosed bay, and we are adding locations across the city. If your building is not yet a partner, call (312) 998-9400 — special accommodations can be made, and we will speak with your property manager.
The objective is to restore the vehicle to the way it looked and felt when it was new, using water-based products chosen for the exact surface they treat. No silicones, no wet-look gloss. Satin on the exterior, matte on the interior, and leather that feels the way it did the day the car was delivered.
10 — Contact
We confirm availability in your garage and hold the window. The price you are quoted is the price on the account.
For residents, building management and property partnership enquiries.
Booking
Select your services and hold a date and time for the vehicle to be cared for.
Chicago’s premier luxury automobile care, delivered where you park.