3 Reasons Self Serve Car Washes are a Dying Business
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
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Take a tour with me of a recently closed car wash as I go through and pickup some valuable items I can use in my own car wash business. In the video I talk about 3 main reasons I believe more and more self serve car washes are closing their doors and selling out.
If you're a business owner in the car wash industry, it's time to re-evaluate your strategy. By understanding these reasons, you can develop a plan to survive and grow your business. As the industry changes, being proactive is the key to success. So take a look at this video and see how you can apply these reasons to your own business!
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100% of the reason is that self serve car washes fail is because most people treat it as passive income and neglect their business. When equipment fails, customers are not likely to return to it. Repeat business is needed for businesses like these and if you fail to take care of your property and keep it in optimum working condition as well as being clean, you will see a drop in revenue.
Very well summed up
I live in a small town, there are 3 car washes here. One of them stole a dollar from me at the change machine. I called the owner to let him know, he said he would fix it within an hour and mail me my dollar and a coupon. I never got my dollar back. I've never gone back to that car wash, and I never will. It's been a couple years.
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@@wantsanewvehicle Kick the car wash to the curb for life over a buck? Interesting…
Yea, self service car washes are a dying business as he goes out to buy more used self service car wash equipment for his own self service car washes.
I have built my entire wash from used equipment out of closed down washes.
@The Revestor but you're still running a self serve carwash
They fail because most owners need the income to live off of and don’t reinvest for maintenance. That means there’s opportunity to buy them, add value, sweat equity and then profit while providing a needed service to people who don’t want to scratch their cars or can’t afford a monthly membership.
It’s snowing outside: “self serve car washes are dying”. Location location location. Where I’m at there’s lots of trucks and off road vehicles and every self serve car wash has auto tunnels as well which also stay busy.
Broooo. What a steal!! Good deal on all that. That bill changer looks fairly decent. Might have to make the 10 hour drive and make you an offer on it.
You should! If you come all this way we will need to make a video. I am going to take the machine into my repair guy and make sure its functioning as it should.
@@therevestor oh videos for sure! Definitely on the books!
Look at those beautiful mountains.
Nice catch! Being local it does not get appreciated enough the beautiful landscape.
Self serve car washes are for two people. People trying to save a buck, or people with a nice car afraid the normal wash will damage their car.
And people who don't want others washing their car, this is more of me.
The other problem I have noticed is A lot of the automatic car washes are very affordable now most of the time it’s $10 for the cheapest and between $20 to $30 for a unlimited membership and you get free vacuums and and they give you towels to dry and so on it’s a much better experience for the customers. Coin car washes it’s easy to spend $10 if you are efficient and cleaning something big like a truck and for that your car doesn’t get dried and you still have to pay to vacuum not mention lots of coin car washes are in poor condition with many features not working
Spot on!
Have you looked into air shammee? It's basically a blower you install in each bay as another function you can use.
I have been considering the air shammee yes
There is a dual function option, blows and sucks. Uses pinch valves to open/close vacuum/blow dry. Bit of a big hit to retro install though. 4" vac pvc run and 2" blow pvc run.
All the self-serve car washes in my area are being converted to membership based tunnel car washes. Now I have to drive 40 mins for the nearest self-serve car wash which gets really crowded.
In my mind I would have 1 self serve wash stall. I’m in Louisiana and it would be nice for ultra muddy trucks to be able to knock off the big mud before going through the Robo wash.
@@Hohmies86 Im here too, what city you're in?
I would go to self service car washes if they had better chemicals and foam canons and whatnot. Most of the time when I go to them the chemicals suck and I have to scrub to get the car clean. And I definitely won’t be using the brush on the wall. Better chemicals will break down the dirt better.
My neighbors pay a monthly fee for the last several years for a mobile car washing and cleaning service. They have about 5 cars and they get a bulk discount. The mobile tech also has a vacuum cleaner which he uses to clean the inside of the car.
* Saves time and money for my neighbor and he gets a job done better than he could do himself.
Thats interesting I havent seen a service like that in my market but I do pay for mobile detailing a couple times a year.
It's too bad mobile detailing is illegal.
Car washes like this in locations that get a lot of rain or snow tends to be more seasonal as to somewhere like Southern California, we have sun 90% of the year and no rain so there’s no seasonal slow periods.
I’ve been in the car wash business for over 50 yrs. All 13 coin-ops in my town are flourishing. It’s not a good absentee business.
I believe its highly dependant on the owner.
I've only been doing it for 41 years.
My self serves/automatic wash is doing awesome so this is fake news LOL this guy doesnt work on shit i can tell
Property values is probably why the local car washes for sale near me are $500k.
Where I live, we have a self service car wash on almost every block. It's kind of unreal and none look like they are going out of business. We also have plenty of full service car washes too, so maybe location has a big reason for success or failure. I live on the east central coast of FL. Not super populated, but a county (fairly big county)of about 400k.
I wonder if he opened up another car wash and different location
Very informative video! Articulate, concise and engaging. Well done!
Sucks..because tunnel washes do a fairly decent job but the scratches just are not worth it to me. I want to do it by hand with the wand. We have a local car wash here.. the building and such was in pretty good shape 4 self serve, 1 touch, and 1 touchless wash. They tore it down and put a tunnel in it's place :( Must really be a lot more valuable to the business when they seen it worth it to tear down a perfectly good building and such to replace it.
Car washes don’t scratch. I can see where you’re coming from, however it’s a common myth. Even when they do scratch it’s far less than when you wash it yourself or with any other method. Hand wash applies here too.
Cant say I have done a lot of research in this area but my opinion is that most car washes that are moderately maintained wont scratch but overtime they will leave swirl marks in the clearcoat that needs to be repaired by a detailer with paint correction. Usually this is most noticeable in black cars.
I have managed a tunnel wash for over a decade. Self serve bays are almost gone..I can think of a few in my area. People are lazy and don't want to wash there own cars.
Agreed! But someone needs to service the offroad vehicles and odd sized vehicles that cant run through the tunnel.
@@therevestor you are correct we turn them away. Off road or mudders get sent away.
You forget one important thing. Auto carwashes reuse the water. If in area where roads are salted, its like driving thru the ocean. Yes car looks clean BUT will rust out quickly.
Where I live at there is only self serve car washes which tends to have 4 bays and 1 automatic bay. I don't know of any car tunnel type wash places within least 40 miles from where I live.
Maybe you have an opportunity in your area for a tunnel. I imagine it will happen soon.
I used to have the same observation but recently moved. In my old area there were alot of single-bay automatic touchless machines attached to gas stations. In my new area there are TONS of these brushed tunnel washes.
Here in my area in Florida, they are dying. The new big car washes are taking over.
If it’s snowing almost half the year what do you expect sir. In California this business are booming always full long lines year round
Pola opposite in the UK, its becoming huge.
Ay, it's the quick quack car wash
Yup or as they have been coined Quick Scratch
Parts are crazy expensive and don't last as they used to. Carwash service providers and chemicals are also too expensive. Also you have to maintain it daily . You can't just leave it alone cause you have other things to do. You can't either pay for employees and still make good income after. So either you learn how to fix it yourself and find none expensive parts and save that money or convine it with other businesses on same spot to stay righ there or... I don't know. I'm carwash maintainance man and I've seen it all. Convenient ir not you have to keep an eye daily
I wish we had a rinse only underbody wash for the salt. Charge me $2 or $3 to rinse both top and bottom to get rid of the salt no soap and I’m good
They make an attachment with rollers to slide under the car and rinse it off but I have seen few car wash owners install them. Maybe not enough bang for the buck.
While the reasons you mentioned have merit. I think you are missing the point/don't understand the target audience of a self-serve car wash. The target audience of the self-serve car wash is the lower income folks that won't/can't afford to pay for those subscription tunnels. But your point about people thinking is easy and then just letting it get run down is why a majority of them fail for sure. Also, car washes being on prime estate is also a good reason as to why someone might hold off to try and get a big payday.
I agree there are more then just these 3 reasons. But I disagree that the target audience of self serve washes is “Low Income”. I know of many self serve washes thriving in affluent communities because their customers enjoy manually washing their high end cars. A big market that I serve is lifted trucks and contractor vehicles.
@@therevestor yeah I think car enthusiasts of many types are a large market for self serve washes. Those brush tunnel washes are putting swirl marks in your paint, but average people don't care about car paint like that. Ppl with high end cars or just ppl who are focused on next-level cleanliness/paint clarity look for touchless & manual wash bays. Trucks too because they want to wash out the truck bed & a tunnel isn't going to do that for them.
Man just the osmosis unit you could flip for 5times that
What’s needed for a carwash loan??
Unfortunately experience is the biggest requirement. Best way to do it is ask the current owner to lease it to you.
What is the average cost of buying a self serve car wash ? I know it might depend on location, I always wanted to own a self serve wash and update all the equipment to a more modern look
The cost will vary wildly across the US. I've seen them go for under $100,000, and I've seen them go for $1.5 million.
That's like asking what is the cost of a house. What kind of house, and where?
@The Revestor Good,may I know if it's ok for you to review our foam cannon S V3.0?Thanks in advance!😊
Also people don’t want to wash car in cold and people want to get the under car
Still doing 120k a year with 4 bays.
Self serve car washing isn't the value it used to be. I can't do a thorough job in the bay for less than 8 bucks (32 quarters). That's before vacuum time costs. If you're a weekly car washer like me, the tunnel is a bargain. They even put rain-x on the glass and shine the tires for me.
Thats why I am going to switch my washes over to $1 coins. Your right 32 quarters is ridiculous.
Good video
Awesome video 💪
Glad you liked it! Looking forward to seeing your dogwash
Owners don't maintian the washes like they should. Customers don't want to do the work themselves.
That nayax reader won’t work anymore because it is on an old network and nayax went to 4g and that one is stuck on 3g
Good to know that. I will look for an update.
Hey. The. Revestor. I. Love. You. 😘❤️🇺🇸🌈
Appreciate the love
First reason is dead on accurate
Where is this
I think TWO of the three reasons are gonna go away Very Soon!! With the current economy and where we’re headed, it will fix two of your reasons and I believe will bring people back to Self Serve. The Tunnel Washes,while Pretty and Fancy are VERY PRICEY!! Most monthly memberships are about $30 and people are canceling recurring memberships in droves due to lack of money and rising costs. And honestly other than the nice vacuums and some other perks, the Tunnels don’t do a very good job getting vehicles clean. Kinda suck really.
Next the commercial land values are gonna drop Dramatically by this fall. Commercial real estate is in TROUBLE even though most don’t see it yet. So hopefully that land value changes soon too!!
I think we will see some very nice tunnels in bankruptcy in the future and be sold for great deals to new investors.
I wouldn't own a ANY type of car wash where it snows in the winter. That is zero income season.
Living in Buffalo ny I can confidently say you’re wrong. We all power wash our plow trucks to knock the salt off them. A black truck can look white with the amount of salt they put down here. And you can’t run a plow truck through a tunnel, and pulling the plow off for a wash is just annoying so we have to go to self serve. Everybody with a seasonal business plows snow in the winters.
@@jcmoney4125 Living in beautiful S. California, it's hard to understand why ANYONE would put with living in Buffalo,NY.
Today (again) it will be 74 degrees clear blue skies....Plow truck? What's that?
@@kendallevans4079 I wouldn’t want to live in cali, but not because of the weather. Buffalo has its moments but sucks for the most part. Grew up here, family here, business here…so I’m stuck for awhile. We just have more and more ridiculous laws passing by the hour. I used to love winter but now that I’m older I can do without it. But as far as washing goes, everybody around here has a blade on the front of their trucks so self serve do pretty well on sunny days in winter since you can’t go through a regular cash wash with a plow on the truck. That and a lot of guys use dump trucks to plow too.
@@jcmoney4125 You are right, the weather is really our only claim to fame out here...other than that, Cali is spinning the drain! Gas is currently $6 for 87 octane! Houses are beyond reach for most and rent is too...
As for self-serve washes, they are popular out here. We are a car culture and most people keep their cars clean somewhat. A regular car wash will run you $25 +tip...
@@kendallevans4079 Trust me NY isn’t much better, we follow California it seems on everything. We’re a blue state yet everybody seems to hate what’s going on. NYC really brings the rest of us down. I will move one day but for now this is where I gotta stay. Atleast I have a nice property, a couple big pole bars, and land. Some areas not 15 min from me are absolutely terrible. As of the cars, there is a great car culture here as well but we only really get to enjoy them for 8 months or so. Plus it rains a lot which stinks too. I’m looking to buy a shut down self serve at a great location just down the road from me. Another once which is the only other self serve in my area just popped up for sale but it’s a total dump for 600k. And I mean total dump. Neither wash is up and running. They have put up so many new tunnels around here lately it’s crazy so I’m racking my brain if trying to buy the one nicer self serve is worth it. It’s been shut down about a year and the owner doesn’t have time or care to run it. Guy has a lot of money from what I can tell and several other businesses. This wash could be something good again with dedication and some rehab though.
Is there a network to find used equipment?
There are a couple FB groups and carwashconsignment.com
This is why automatic washes are a better investment. If I were you, I’d convert all bays into automatic bays.
All 5 bays 🤯
That would be unique. I dont think I have ever seen more then 2 automatics in one location.
You need chemicals? We manufacture them.
Reach out to me at my email on the about section of my channel
That’s in Utah.
Yes sir