Are they building standalone car washes like crazy in your area too?

[Jim Koepke]

Remember Breaking Bad? Walter needs a way to launder the drug money and buys a car wash. Hmmm

Money laundering was my first thought. We had a self serve car wash that closed here a few years ago. Not sure if the one across town is still in business.

When it rains as much as it does around here, a car wash seems pointless.

jtk

[Ole Anderson]

And the newer car washes seem to have an over abundance of self serve vacuum stations. Our newest one has something like 15. Never seen more than two being used at the same time.

[Jim Becker]

Yes, they are being built in increasing numbers and they are also selling monthly subscriptions. Because they recycle water, they are sometimes the only option in some areas that have water restrictions.

[Brian Elfert]

Here in Minnesota I have never seen a restriction against washing cars at home. We have enough water for that, so far. The issue with recycling water in car washes in the winter is the water turns into salt water. A big reason to wash your car in the winter is to remove the salt. It doesn't do much good to remove salt with salt water.

[Larry Edgerton]

Money laundering was my first thought. We had a self serve car wash that closed here a few years ago. Not sure if the one across town is still in business.


jtk

This makes sense. Cash business. Years ago they built a huge low budget hotel here in the most out of the loop place. Never saw any cars there to speak of. It was owned by a group from Jersey. "Ya, we were filled to capacity every night!"

[Rob Luter]

We have a wealth of car washes in my neck of the woods. They do a brisk business washing off road salt in the winter and bug DNA in the summer. One major chain has built or upgraded several locations in the last few years.

[Ron Selzer]

I keep the two nicest vehicles on monthly plan at Moo Moo car wash primarily for the underbody, secondary for the looks. The vacuums at the one in Lancaster are always in use, just not a lot of people use them. Went thru one in Columbus in yuppieville area, somewhat close to OSU, and Downtown. Lot of older buildings torn down and replace by 3-6 story apartments, etc. last 5 years. The vacuums were over 65% in use not so the car wash. Vacuums are free to use.
Ron

[Dan Friedrichs]

A great Freakonomics podcast covered this, recently: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/car-washes/

Summary: business model changes (monthly subscriptions), increased demand, better tech, and institutional investors.

[Brian Elfert]

I doubt that many people are paying cash for a tunnel type car wash these days. The total self service places with a wash bay and per minute cost to use the sprayer would likely still attract a lot of cash.

[Walter Plummer]

In my area we had several dedicated car wash places. A chain called Flagship came in and built a couple more and bought up almost all the rest of them. WE also have the small gas station ones and a couple of coin operated DIY ones. The main Flagship location is all inside. Basic wash is $14.00. You pay at a kiosk then drive into the wash tunnel then they have an area with vacuums and clean rags if you want to finish it yourself. If you want to spend $36.00 after the wash you drive onto a conveyor and a team washes the mats, vacuums the inside , cleans the windows inside and out etc. They do a really nice job. When they are busy there are three conveyors to handle all the cars passing through.

[Andrew Joiner]

A friend owns two of the Three car washes in my area. No new ones in the last 25 years.
However two years ago he added new equipment to an outdated tunnel wash. He said it cost close to a half million for 1 tunnel wash. It's half the amount of equipment that was there before the remodel. I asked him why so expensive for so little equipment? He said technology and more efficient.
Since then the new more efficient highly technical equipment breaks down often monthly probably. He said its been a nightmare as it's a special tech that must come to repair it. And he loses money for the days and weeks that it takes to get the repair done!
A sad situation for him.
It reminds me of all the electronics in new cars that's very expensive to repair.

[Jim Becker]

This makes sense. Cash business. Years ago they built a huge low budget hotel here in the most out of the loop place. Never saw any cars there to speak of. It was owned by a group from Jersey. "Ya, we were filled to capacity every night!"

None of the car washes I use accept cash except one and the cash slot on the menu system is often broken. No humans are involved with collecting payments.