Community Highlights: Meet Steve Haley of Precision Auto Detailing

Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Haley.

Hi Steve, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started detailing in 1998, working for a shop on West Alexis — the same building I run Precision out of today. I did that until 2005, then took a factory job. Steady work, decent pay, but it was never where I wanted to be.
I still detailed nights and weekends the whole time. It was the one thing I couldn’t walk away from.
In 2013 my grandmother passed away and left me some money. I used it to buy equipment and chemicals, and in June of 2014 I opened Precision Auto Detailing. She never saw what it became, but honestly none of this exists without her.
I was still working 50 to 60 hours a week at the factory. Detailing was nights and weekends until I built up enough returning clients to justify the leap. In 2016 I quit the factory and went full-time with Precision.
It grew fast — faster than I expected. We were doing over 100 vehicles a month out of my garage with a full staff. Most people don’t believe that when I tell them. In 2017 I moved into my first real shop, 6,500 square foot . By 2023 I had a second location.
Then a partnership went bad. I trusted the wrong people, and it cost me. By the end of 2025 I was back to one location. I scaled down on purpose — stopped chasing volume and refocused on producing a consistent, high-end product with the right team around me.
I’ve been voted best detail shop in Toledo twice. I hold multiple industry certifications. And now at 46, after 28 years in this trade, I’m focused on building something that runs without me in the middle of it every day.
That’s what this next chapter is about.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, it hasn’t been smooth. Not even close.
There were stretches in the early years where I was almost homeless. Days I went hungry. Weeks where I came close to walking away from all of it. Nobody talks about that side of running a business, especially a luxury business. People see the nice cars and the ceramic coatings and assume it’s all good. It’s not always good.
I moved the business multiple times trying to find the right fit. I outgrew spaces, made mistakes, and learned things the hard way more often than I’d like to admit.
The hardest lesson was learning who’s actually in your corner. When you’re struggling, people leave you alone. When you start winning, some of those same people disappear — or worse, they start working against you. I had a partnership go bad that did real financial damage. Trusted someone I shouldn’t have, and it cost me a second location and years of work.
Twelve years in business for myself. Plenty of people have tried to take me out. I’m still here.
That’s not me being bitter about it. It’s just the truth of building something. You find out who people really are, you take the hit, and you keep going. I don’t know any other way to do it.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Precision Auto Detailing?
Precision Auto Detailing isn’t a wash-and-wax shop. We do paint correction, ceramic coatings, and full detail work on vehicles that people actually care about. If you drive something you’re proud of, this is where you bring it.
What we’re probably most known for is how we handle the process before any work even starts. We educate every client on what they actually need before they pick a package. That means by the time we’re done, you know exactly what you purchased, why we recommended it, and what to expect. No surprises, no buyer’s regret. That sounds basic, but it’s rare in this industry.
Detailing has a reputation problem. There’s a lot of misleading information out there, a lot of shops overselling products and underdelivering results. We’ve built Precision around being the opposite of that — from the first phone call to the follow-up after the job is complete. The goal is trust, and we work for it every time.
Over 80% of our clients come back. In the service industry, that number doesn’t happen by accident. It means people felt taken care of, got what they were promised, and trusted us enough to return. That’s the metric I’m most proud of.
I hold four industry certifications, including certifications from world-renowned ceramic coating manufacturers. We’ve been voted best detail shop in Toledo twice. Our ceramic coating content has pulled over a million views on social media, which tells me people are hungry for honest information about this stuff.
The team makes all of this possible. I don’t call them employees — they’re my teammates. I couldn’t do this without them and I make sure they know it every single day. We’re a high-five culture in that shop. People who feel appreciated do better work, and better work is the whole point.
We’re not trying to be the biggest shop in the city. We’re trying to be the best one — consistent work, high standards, and an experience that makes people want to come back and send their friends.
That’s what we’ve built. That’s what we’re protecting.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I don’t think luck is the main character in my story. I’ve had some, sure. But mostly I’ve had to fail my way to where I am. Every time something went wrong I learned something I couldn’t have learned any other way. That’s not luck, that’s tuition.
The closest thing to good luck I can point to is that when opportunities showed up, I was ready for them. I had the skills, I had the work ethic, and I had enough stubbornness to say yes when it counted. Luck might open a door, but you still have to walk through it.
The bad luck has almost always come from the same place — trusting the wrong people with something I built myself. That’s a hard lesson to learn more than once. I’ve handed trust to people who didn’t deserve it and paid for it in real ways. Lost money, lost time, lost a location. If I’m being honest, that’s the thing that has set me back more than anything else in twelve years. Not the market, not the economy, not competition. People.
What I’ve figured out is that bad luck and bad judgment can look a lot alike from the outside. The difference is what you do next. You can let it define you or you can let it teach you. I’ve tried to let it teach me.
I’m still here. That’s not luck either.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.precisionautodetailingtoledo.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Precision365
• Youtube: @precisionautodetailingllc4688
• Other: https://app.urable.com/virtual-shop/BnwlvHBrZMiXU7THYI3e