Car Wash & Auto Detailing in Downtown Montreal
LUXOPLUS provides hand car washes, auto detailing and mobile detailing for downtown Montreal. Our 5300 Van Horne shop is about 15 minutes away, or we can detail your vehicle where it’s parked.
Our shop at 5300 Van Horne is about 15 minutes from downtown when traffic is light. You can drive the car up for a hand wash or a detail, or have the van come to you for a mobile detail. Mobile work costs the same flat price anywhere in Greater Montreal, with no travel fee.
Hand washes, paint correction and ceramic coating need our bay, so those only happen at the shop. Whichever you pick, you book online in about a minute and we text you to confirm.
Where the car actually lives
Crescent Street, downtown Montreal
Almost nobody downtown has a driveway. The car goes down a ramp under a condo tower or an office building and spends most of the week a few levels below the lobby. For a lot of downtown drivers, the easy answer is to bring it to us. An Express hand wash takes about 20 minutes.
If you’d rather have the work done where the car sits, the van can come for a mobile detail, but only if your building is fine with it. Ask management whether an outside detailer can work in the garage, and check that a van clears the entrance. Some downtown garages have low ceilings and tight ramps, and it’s better to find that out before you book than on the day.
The van brings its own water and power. If the building says yes and the van fits, all we need is a bit of room around the car. If either answer is no, call us at 438 817-8172 and we’ll work out the shop visit with you.
What a downtown winter does to a car
Salt is the big one. The streets get salted all winter and the car carries it home in the wheel wells and along the bottom of the doors. Parked outside, that slush would freeze and mostly sit there. In a heated garage it melts, and the salty water stays on the metal for days while the car waits for the weekend. Salt does its damage fastest when it’s warm and wet, and a heated garage keeps it that way from December to March.
Inside the car, it comes from the sidewalks. You walk Sainte-Catherine in winter boots, get in, and the salt works into the carpet and the seams of the floor mats, where it dries into white rings.
If you commute out of downtown, the Ville-Marie tunnel adds another layer. It’s wet with slush and spray all winter, and the back of an SUV or a hatchback comes out the far end noticeably greyer than it went in. In summer the problem is dust. Sainte-Catherine west of Peel is being rebuilt, and a car parked anywhere near it wears a fine grey coat after a couple of days.
Up the mountain, down to the Quartier
Walk north past Sherbrooke into the Golden Square Mile and the city goes quiet fast. The old stone mansions climb the slope toward Pine Avenue, and the Museum of Fine Arts has buildings on both sides of Sherbrooke.
Keep going up Peel and you’re on the mountain. The stairs at the top of the street take you up to the Kondiaronk lookout, where you look straight back down at the towers you live and work in. It’s a good climb in any season, and in winter people bring cross-country skis and snowshoes up there.
Back down on Sainte-Catherine, the holidays start with the Santa Claus parade and the lit-up shop windows. When it’s too cold to enjoy any of that, there’s the Underground City. You can walk from Place Ville Marie to the Eaton Centre and on to Place des Arts without ever putting on a coat, which may be why so many downtown cars barely move from November to April.
Then June comes and the Quartier des spectacles fills up. The Francos open the summer and the Jazz Fest follows, with a lot of the best shows free on the outdoor stages at Place des Festivals. In February it’s Montréal en Lumière, with Nuit blanche keeping the whole area up until morning.
Downtown Montreal questions
Before you book
My office tower has a garage. Can the van do my car while I’m at work?
Maybe. That’s your building’s call, not ours. Ask property management whether an outside detailer can work in the garage, and check that a van clears the entrance. If both answers are yes, book a mobile detail for that address. If not, the shop is about 15 minutes away.
I take the metro everywhere and the car barely moves. Does it still need a detail?
Less often, but yes. A car that sits in a garage for weeks keeps whatever it came in with, and in winter that’s salt on the paint and in the carpets. Book one when the salt season ends so it doesn’t sit on the car all summer.
I drive through the Ville-Marie tunnel every day. Is that hard on the car?
Mostly in winter. The tunnel stays wet with slush and spray, and the lower doors and the back of the car pick up a salty grey film fast. A hand wash every couple of weeks keeps it from building up. If the paint already looks dull, ask us about ceramic coating next time you’re at the shop.
Is a membership worth it if I’m coming up from downtown?
If you’re in every couple of weeks through the winter, it usually is. LUX Essential gets you unlimited Express washes at the shop, and members pay less on detailing and coatings too.
Nearby areas
Around downtown
Not listed? Mobile detailing covers most of the island — ask us.