Anyone Own A Car Wash?

That photo reminds me of a story my friend told me on one of the washes he services (actually he had several... including a woman who got a new mercedes somehow parked sidewides in the middle of an automated wash).

He got a call for an emergency service... and as he rounded the corner near the wash encountered a 3' high wall of suds... the full width of the street and halfway down the block.

Somebody at the wash had hooked up a high pressure supply hose to the bank of soap barrels.... and when he activated the wash, he started emptying them quickly. And was afraid to go back into the wash and shut it down....

Again - weird - I was just thinking of this the other day.

At a full-service wash, I'm guessing the overhead would be crazy. I was a manager at a car wash like that in gainesville FL for a couple years. IIRC, boss man told me the equipment was $1mil. Plus, we had 6 - 10 employees vacuuming, cleaning windows, cleaning interior, drying, etc. Plus, if I had to guess, the liability insurance would be pricey...especially after you roll the first car into the reclaim pond (happened once while I was there.) So yeah, overhead.

Like others have said, though, at the right location, one should be able to pull in some decent coin. Washes ranged from $5 to $25. I'd guess our average ticket was $10. On a REALLY busy summer day, we'd roll 300 cars...which is why this seems physically impossible:

JFX001 wrote: I worked at one in MI while I was in college. One guy to take the money, 2 to do the rinse/pre-soak and send them through and 2 to dry with towels at the end. Winter was suckage, weekends had 120-130 cars per hour. Minimum wash was $4.95. You split the tips.

Anyway, that's $3k/day on the busy days. Probably $500-$600 in labor. Not sure what the chemicals cost per day or the vacuums cost to run.

Cleaning the pit ain't so bad. I did it every week; as there was a 10 dollar bonus for whoever did it, and everyone else was too lazy/pussified to get dirty. I also stayed late on Saturdays and dug through the vacuum bags. That was usually an extra $7-$10 for a half-hour of dirty work.

poopshovel wrote: Again - weird - I was just thinking of this the other day. At a full-service wash, I'm guessing the overhead would be crazy. I was a manager at a car wash like that in gainesville FL for a couple years. IIRC, boss man told me the equipment was $1mil. Plus, we had 6 - 10 employees vacuuming, cleaning windows, cleaning interior, drying, etc. Plus, if I had to guess, the liability insurance would be pricey...especially after you roll the first car into the reclaim pond (happened once while I was there.) So yeah, overhead. Like others have said, though, at the right location, one should be able to pull in some decent coin. Washes ranged from $5 to $25. I'd guess our average ticket was $10. On a REALLY busy summer day, we'd roll 300 cars...which is why this seems physically impossible:

JFX001 wrote: I worked at one in MI while I was in college. One guy to take the money, 2 to do the rinse/pre-soak and send them through and 2 to dry with towels at the end. Winter was suckage, weekends had 120-130 cars per hour. Minimum wash was $4.95. You split the tips.

Anyway, that's $3k/day on the busy days. Probably $500-$600 in labor. Not sure what the chemicals cost per day or the vacuums cost to run. Cleaning the pit ain't so bad. I did it every week; as there was a 10 dollar bonus for whoever did it, and everyone else was too lazy/pussified to get dirty. I also stayed late on Saturdays and dug through the vacuum bags. That was usually an extra $7-$10 for a half-hour of dirty work.

Poop,

It was Michigan...in the Winter. The wash was/is Soft-Shine on Novi Road (right next to Kim's Chinese restaurant for the MI peeps.). Great location, just a wash, there were self-service vacuums.

JFX001 wrote:

poopshovel wrote: Again - weird - I was just thinking of this the other day. At a full-service wash, I'm guessing the overhead would be crazy. I was a manager at a car wash like that in gainesville FL for a couple years. IIRC, boss man told me the equipment was $1mil. Plus, we had 6 - 10 employees vacuuming, cleaning windows, cleaning interior, drying, etc. Plus, if I had to guess, the liability insurance would be pricey...especially after you roll the first car into the reclaim pond (happened once while I was there.) So yeah, overhead. Like others have said, though, at the right location, one should be able to pull in some decent coin. Washes ranged from $5 to $25. I'd guess our average ticket was $10. On a REALLY busy summer day, we'd roll 300 cars...which is why this seems physically impossible:

JFX001 wrote: I worked at one in MI while I was in college. One guy to take the money, 2 to do the rinse/pre-soak and send them through and 2 to dry with towels at the end. Winter was suckage, weekends had 120-130 cars per hour. Minimum wash was $4.95. You split the tips.

Anyway, that's $3k/day on the busy days. Probably $500-$600 in labor. Not sure what the chemicals cost per day or the vacuums cost to run. Cleaning the pit ain't so bad. I did it every week; as there was a 10 dollar bonus for whoever did it, and everyone else was too lazy/pussified to get dirty. I also stayed late on Saturdays and dug through the vacuum bags. That was usually an extra $7-$10 for a half-hour of dirty work.

Poop, It was Michigan...in the Winter. The wash was/is Soft-Shine on Novi Road (right next to Kim's Chinese restaurant for the MI peeps.). Great location, just a wash, there were self-service vacuums.

Word. I'm sure self-service vacuum cuts down on the time a lot...and saves your back! Still, 120-130 cars and hour with 5 guys is HUSTLIN'!!! Nice work!

poopshovel wrote: Again - weird - I was just thinking of this the other day. At a full-service wash, I'm guessing the overhead would be crazy. I was a manager at a car wash like that in gainesville FL for a couple years. IIRC, boss man told me the equipment was $1mil. Plus, we had 6 - 10 employees vacuuming, cleaning windows, cleaning interior, drying, etc. Plus, if I had to guess, the liability insurance would be pricey...especially after you roll the first car into the reclaim pond (happened once while I was there.) So yeah, overhead.

Park Place on Tower Rd, just south of Newberry Rd? If so, interestingly, they added a full self-serve set up next door to the existing facility!

dyintorace wrote:

poopshovel wrote: Again - weird - I was just thinking of this the other day. At a full-service wash, I'm guessing the overhead would be crazy. I was a manager at a car wash like that in gainesville FL for a couple years. IIRC, boss man told me the equipment was $1mil. Plus, we had 6 - 10 employees vacuuming, cleaning windows, cleaning interior, drying, etc. Plus, if I had to guess, the liability insurance would be pricey...especially after you roll the first car into the reclaim pond (happened once while I was there.) So yeah, overhead.

Park Place on Tower Rd, just south of Newberry Rd? If so, interestingly, they added a full self-serve set up next door to the existing facility!

And a nice sturdy railing/wall to keep cars out of the retention pond.

dyintorace wrote:

poopshovel wrote: Again - weird - I was just thinking of this the other day. At a full-service wash, I'm guessing the overhead would be crazy. I was a manager at a car wash like that in gainesville FL for a couple years. IIRC, boss man told me the equipment was $1mil. Plus, we had 6 - 10 employees vacuuming, cleaning windows, cleaning interior, drying, etc. Plus, if I had to guess, the liability insurance would be pricey...especially after you roll the first car into the reclaim pond (happened once while I was there.) So yeah, overhead.

Park Place on Tower Rd, just south of Newberry Rd? If so, interestingly, they added a full self-serve set up next door to the existing facility!

Nah. Used to be "Archer Rd. HandY." It looks all weird now, like some funky tiki bar thing...though it's apparently still a car wash. Looks like the old man either kicked it or retired.

Its threads like this that make me love this forum. As I myself have looked at opening one, this is good infomation. And the stories you guys tell always have me chuckling.

As far as my little town, we don't get bad snow, but after it does, the next nice day all the washes are way backed up. Theres two washes owned by a so-called chain, two privatly owned. And only one attached to a gas station. Needless to say, the market is very saturated here.

There's always this option.

Seriously, interesting stuff. I'm going to start paying more attention.

Back from the dead

... by paddle.

Canoe deleted.

I'm glad I read it, because I was just about to start in on a long post that would have retreaded what I already wrote above.

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It could be a money making operation

^ Hungarian

(and not that far off from "normal" either)

This zombie thread has me thinking about owning car washes again. And also trying to figure out what that tattoo is.

In reply to PeterAK:

a target?

Only if you've got really bad aim.

Who aims?

Buddy of mine bought an existing car wash last year. It's fairly well established, open 6 days a week from 8AM-5PM. Guy makes BANK, charges $15 and up, does the whole vacuum, run it through an automated draw through wash dealie, has a couple of high school/just out of high school girls drying the cars off as they come out. 99% sure he doesn't do details. Costs me a total of about $5 to run my crap through if I feel like getting my front lip ripped off. The car wash is pretty swamped year round and does lots of high end cars.

I guess the secret is to buy something existing, in a nice part of town, charge a bunch for washes, hire cute girls to dry cars off, sit back, and rake in the dough. Not a bad business to own when you're 25 years old.

Not a ton, actually. I think somewhere in the neighborhood of around $300K. It brings in money FAST though, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the place paid off pretty quickly.

Duke wrote: Only if you've got *really* bad aim.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UFIYGkROII

Superman. Nuff said.

beans wrote: Not a ton, actually. I think somewhere in the neighborhood of around $300K. It brings in money FAST though, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the place paid off pretty quickly.

But if it's such an easy cash cow why would someone sell it?

You don't have to be Richard Castle to think up lots of reasons to sell. Owner makes extremely foolish investments and has to liquidate other assets. Owner is old and has no heirs, and would rather leave his favourite charity cash than a car wash. Owner is old and does have heirs but he knows they will do nothing but argue if he leaves the business to them or one of them. Owner is not old but did just get the opportunity of a lifetime on the other side of the country IF he can come up with some capital. Owner has no special reason to sell except that he has decided if he sees one more filthy car he will lose his freaking mind. Et cetera.

I have actually been thinking about starting a mobile detailing business. Around these parts there really isn't anyone doing that sort of thing. However there are some folks that have some damn nice cars. There is one fella with a shop full of 50+ Corvettes and classics stretching back to the 20's and a couple before that.