Where I live, they almost seem to be popping up at prefab-building speed, and they are drive-through with lots of vacuums outside (and probably cost a small fortune for a cycle).
Is this happening anywhere else? There’s one brand (franchise?) with a blue building, and one with a red building.
The PetroMart station in my town has had a wash tunnel for years. Wash was 6, 7, 9 dollars.
Tore it out and rebuilding as a “club car wash”. Monthly charge for unlimited washes. Several levels available I believe, but if you choose a lower level, I don;t know if you can pay for an occasional upgrade.
This is in the county seat of a somewhat rural county. I don’t know if this will work out for them.
We have one down the road. Big vacuum stations outside but they’re free (for now). A bit more expensive but latest wash technology (claim). You can buy discount coupons at Sam’s and Costco to lower costs. Also gift cards. Seems to be a marketing ploy. I’m waiting for the free coffee and pastry to feed my maw as my car is fed into the giant soapy tunnel. Vaguely erotic.
I’m wondering what the OP is actually talking about. I can’t think of a self-drive-thru tunnel at a convenience mart / gas station as “high end”. That’s bottom of the barrel as car washes go.
So OP: care to fill us in on what you’re talking about? Maybe link to an example?
One new one popped up in our town a couple of years ago, adding to one already here. They offer a deal to get unlimited car washes for an annual price. I’d do that if they weren’t all the way on the other side of town. Otherwise, I’ve seen a couple of others advertised around the state.
The ones around here to have a drive through, but for the premium washes their guys clean the interior, scrub the wheels and check for tree sap and the like, drive it through the standard wash and then hand dry and buff to finish off the wax job. Pay them more and they’ll keep shining and polishing, shampooing the carpets and upholstery, etc.
OP didn’t say anything about convenience mart / gas stations. I’m assuming more along the line of a Mike’s Car Wash, Superclean Autowash, Gill’s, etc. Interesting that there doesn’t really seem to be any national brand with big name recognition or even Wikipedia entries. Anyway, you stay in your car but you pay an attendant at the entrance, they manually hose off or pre-wet the car, and you may or may not get some hand wipe-down after the blow-dryer at the end. Vacuums are usually self-service but under cover and plentiful, but that could be provided by the staff as well. With the various hot water, clear coat, hot wax, interior cleaning, and wheel-brightener options, the price for a single wash can be $10-30. It’s no hand-detailing, but it sure beats the time required to do all that stuff yourself.
I’m more interested in the OP’s location. Suburbs tend to have more car washes than cities, or at least more “fancy” ones. But also, drier climates such as California and Arizona seem to be much more car wash heavy than say the midwest. You would think that wetter/snowier climates would be better markets because cars get dirty or salty and need more frequent cleaning, but why pay for a wash when the car is just going to get dirty again the second you drive off?
They’re just finishing up a Tommy’s Express here. I think another one is going up shortly. I have no idea what the price range is or even how they work exactly. I’m sure the minute it opens there will be cars lined up like crazy. During the winter and early spring, as soon as the streets are clear and dry, all of the area car washes are backed up. You wouldn’t even try going to a car wash on a nice weekend afternoon. You’d be in line for hours. We have to rinse off the salt and grime. Headlights get so grimy that they look dull when turned on.
That’s what I’m wondering. How is a drive-through automated car wash “high end”?
Yeah. It’s odd that car wash chains are all local; I’ve never seen one extend past metro boundaries, much less interstate.
To me a standard basic car wash is I drive up, get out, they vacuum the interior and trunk, collect any trash, wash the floor mats, run the car through the automated tunnel where it’s washed, spray waxed, tires scrubbed, underside sprayed, etc. Then a gaggle of 5 folks dries it off, cleans the windows inside, dusts or conditions the interior, conditions the tires, and I hop in and drive away. In 12 minutes flat unless I have to wait my turn.
That’s a normal car wash. And yes, the “menu” has several gradations of service and some levels are available on an all-you-can-eat monthly subscription.
That’s how car washing was done in SoCal 50+ years ago when I was a kid and that’s how it’d done there today, and in FL where I live now. And in Vegas and Phoenix and St Louis where I used to live.
More elaborate detailing is available, but takes anywhere from an hour to a half-day.
The only thing I can think of more high-end than that would be they bring the detailing van to wherever my car sits all day and do it there, or a valet picks it up, takes it to their shop, does it, and returns it later. That would be “high end” service IMO.
Back in St. Louis there was a cool innovation I really liked. I keep my interior neat; don’t eat in the car, throw trash, have kids, dogs, or gardening stuff in there, etc. But the outside gets messy very quickly from rain, snow, birds, trees, etc. One chain of convenience marts had a self-drive unattended tunnel and a subscription that was IIRC $15/mo. A single wash was like $5. The tunnel really did a nice job using hot water, the swaying scrubbers, and giant brushes, hot wax, etc. This wasn’t just a few hoses on a moving gantry. It also included a blow dryer that dried the exterior.
There was one nearby home on my way to the freeway. I timed that I could pull off the street, enter my code at the kiosk, ride while being pulled through the tunnel getting washed and dried, and get back on the street in 4-1/2 minutes total. With a completely cleanly scrubbed car. I did that nearly daily. They only closed down when it was blizzarding or below about 15F. Which was just a few days a year there.
These kinds of quality self-serves simply aren’t found in this part of FL. Shame. The result at my wash is slightly better, but the standing around waiting is a slight negative. Then again, I can read the Dope on my phone, so it’s not a total waste; you folks are always nearby.
Googling, I found a couple of chains of multi-state car washes, including one called Mister Car Wash with 300-something locations. Perhaps this is the next business ripe for consolidation?
We recently returned from staying with my inlaws in Ocala, FL. Within a few miles of their neighborhood, there are 3 car washes where you can either just drive thru, or you can pay extra and they’ll clean the interior for you (for various definitions of “clean.”) Those are what I’d consider to be high-end car washes.
At one point, I went to get take-out for supper from a place down the road in the other direction. Along the way, I passed 2 more of those types of car washes under construction. That will make FIVE within an 11-mile stretch of one road. How dirty are cars in Ocala?
For the record, I took my car to one that my husband had raved about, but between the time he’d gone there and the day I took mine, they changed hands and they did a lousy job. I had to clean the bugs off the front as soon as I got back, and I discovered the interior windows had been given a half-assed wipe-down. Definitely not worth the $32 I paid.
Some of the car washes near me have subscription deals aimed at Uber/Lyft drivers, who are, I think, expected to have spotless cars. And the higher-end ones have people wiping down the car after the wash by hand with towels, cleaning the windows (outside and inside) and dashboard and vacuuming the interior.
Next time I drive by one of these facilities, I’ll take note of the name.
I’m in a mid-sized Midwestern city.
It surprises me how much my standard of a “normal” car wash differs. To me, a normal car wash is a bay with one garage door that can be closed if it’s windy, a coin-operated timer which can operate a sprayer (with some choice of what to spray–wash, rinse, wax, spot-free rinse) or a scrubber (a filthy mop that exudes foamy soap) for a set period of time.
A “normal” automatic car wash is a few gantry-based pressure washers, some different soaps and a high-powered fans.
Anything higher end would be considered “detailing” in my neck of the woods (exurban Philadelphia)
They’re probably all just money-laundering operations for blue-meth chemists.
Our “high-end” car wash got bought out by Mister Mister, and they went downhill since then. It used to be the kind where you got out of the car, and 15 minutes later they opened the door for you (while standing next to the tips box) to a car that was clean inside and out. After a while we noticed the windows were more streaky after the wash was done, as if they were rushing or reusing their rags. The last update was they are now the kind where you sit in the car as it’s pulled through, but at the same price.
I’m in Minnesota, and a new Tommy brand opened nearby, but I go to one that’s not too far. I pay $9 for a basic wash. It’s a pull-through kind, but the cool part (if you have kids) is the rainbow colored shampoos they use; it’s more fun if you have a sunroof.
Those were/are common over most of the country too. I’ve always heard them called a “coin-op car wash” or “DIY car wash”.
I can recall in high school in SoCal when they were 25 cents to wash and a second 25 cents to rinse. If you really hurried you could do the whole job for a single quarter, but a decent job or starting from a dirty car always took two. The last time I used one was around 2008 in an exurban enclave that was being slowly engulfed by suburbia. I think it was $1.50 per timer cycle and they’d shortened the timer vs the old days so 2 cycles were needed for sure; 3 if you were cleaning off winter road salt. Then a convenience market came in with the machine I mentioned above; that was the end of standing out in the cold getting misted by the spray for me. Cheaper, better, faster, and more comfortable; what’s not to like?!
IMO/IME coin-ops are bottom of the barrel; the next step down is using your hose in your driveway.
For darn sure the coin-op type are more common in rural / semi-rural small towns and the more working class areas of suburbia. The full-service long tunnel models have a lot of overhead and need to be processing cars all day to make money. They also don’t seem popular with folks with pickup trucks. Which are, of course, a bigger fraction of vehicles in those areas.
As much as cars in places with real winter really ought to be washed often for safety and corrosion control, most people just won’t do it. As such, the “season” for car washes in snow country is short; too short to support very many of the full-service kind. I’ve lived ~20 years in limited snow country and ~40 years where any snow would be a sign of impending Apocalypse. For sure my experience is colored by that climate difference.
If this is some new phenomenon, I’m not seeing it around here. There are “detailing” places around, but they’re not new. There is one car wash that I’d describe as high-end right next to an upscale grocery that I go to sometimes, but that’s not new, either. I didn’t realize until recently that it’s owned by the same family that operates the grocery. The grocery parking lot is always occupied by Mercedes, Jags, the occasional Lamborghini, Bentley, and Rolls, and sometimes an embarrassingly common everyday car whose owner (that would be me) obviously cannot afford to shop there! 
The kinds of cars seen emerging from the wash are typically the aforementioned Mercedes, Jags, etc. It’s been a long time since I used that wash so I can’t remember all its features, but I think they offer all kinds of options like interior cleaning and exterior hand-waxing and deep-cleaning. As I recall, even the minimum cheapest wash involves a gang of men that descend on the car like locusts after it emerges from the wash and hand-dry it, rather than being air-dried by blowers. But anyway, no, all the newer car washes I’ve seen are ordinary ones, and typically are unmanned and entirely automatic.
It costs me $12 for a Carnauba you-get-it-all wash 'n wax at Tower Car Wash, but I think it’s worth it. I have a new car and, after my first Carnauba with it, you could have put it back on the showroom floor.
Our most expensive type car washes are the type that you get out and they vacuum and as it’s going through the brushes there are a few people inside your car wiping the seats down and cleaning the windows. The cost is $16-30 depending on what you want done. You can also have them do a detail, but I think you have to leave your car there for quite a while. We only have 2 of those in the area. The service is hit or miss. Sometimes you get employees that don’t give a crap and they do a terrible job on the interior cleaning. I’d rather do it myself for free.
An average car wash is part of a gas station/convenience store. The cost is anywhere from $6-$12 depending on which wash you choose. We have lots of these. You drive up, punch in a code that you received when you purchased the car wash inside the store or pay with a card right there. Then the door opens, you drive in and the car wash starts. Most of them have the big brushes some are touchless. There might be a vacuum outside close by, but you have to feed it quarters I think. I’ve never used the vacuum.
There are also the type that you drive in, get out and spray it down yourself. I’ve never used one of these. Not sure what the cost is.
I’m not sure the new Tommy’s Express would be considered high-end. I’m not familiar with how they work or the price. It sure looks fancy from the outside. Shiny red and chrome.