116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Older car washes in Iowa fight to compete with new tunnel, subscription washes
Jan. 28, 2024 5:00 am
Iowans have likely noticed new car washes popping up over the past few years, many of them offering tunnel-style, subscription-based washes — some within blocks of each other.
It’s a statewide and national trend that has owners of some older car washes worried about keeping up.
In Iowa, the number of car wash businesses increased 26 percent between 2017 and 2021, going from 228 to 289, according to the U.S. Census.
In the five years before that, from 2012 to 2017, the number of car washes increased 7.5 percent, going from 212 to 228, according to the census.
So, why the increase?
Car washes can be a somewhat low-cost investment that don’t require a large workforce. The majority of the car washes in Iowa in 2021 — 187 of them — had fewer than five employees, according to census numbers.
In the past, the low staffing costs were offset by the irregular revenue that car washes provide since fewer people wash their cars during the winter.
But in the past few years, monthly car wash subscriptions have become popular, meaning the businesses have a consistent revenue stream, whether their services are being used or not.
“It’s the gym membership style where the top 10 percent of users you don't make a lot of money on, but as it winds down you get people washing two or three times a month that you do better with,” said Brett Arends, one of the owners of the Blue Lagoon Car Wash in Cedar Rapids and the Awesome Car Wash in Clinton.
Tunnel vs. self-serve
Arends and family members do business as Quest 5, which bought the Blue Lagoon Car Wash, 288 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE, in 2019.
The Blue Lagoon car wash has five self-serve car wash bays, where customers pull in, grab a wand and spray down their cars themselves. It also has two automatic bays, where customers pull in and machines move around the car to clean it.
Arends said the Blue Lagoon hasn’t started a subscription service because it would be difficult to keep up with the demand that a subscription creates.
“It can be difficult for in-bay automatics to do a subscription just because for our top wash, it takes about six-and-a-half minutes to get your car washed,” Arends said. “Whereas, one of the tunnel washes, they can run through 50 or 60 cars a minute in some cases.”
Arends said the Blue Lagoon probably wouldn’t be able to keep up with the tunnel car washes in Cedar Rapids if it didn’t have an adjacent storage facility.
“Income is very irregular with a car wash,” he said. “One month we’ll do really well, the next month you'll have freezing weather and lots of snow, like we're having right now.
“We have consistent storage income year-round, and that helps us weather the peaks and valleys of the car wash business. … We also have a really nice location on Blairs Ferry Road, but a lot of the small guys I know have been hurt fairly significantly by the tunnels.”
Hand washes
Despite the convenience and speed of tunnel car washes, some people still prefer to have their cars washed by hand, according to Manny Garcia Perez, who bought Johnny Boy’s Car Wash, 1317 First Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids, three months ago.
Johnny Boy’s, which opened in 2000, offers hand washing and automatic washes as well as detailing.
Garcia Perez said he’s seen an increase in customers looking for hand wash services since the increase in automatic car washes in the city. Many of those drivers, he said, own sport or luxury cars and wish to avoid possible paint damage in automatic washes.
“At the new car washes, you have to vacuum yourself,” he said. “At our car wash, we vacuum and clean the inside for you while you wait in our lobby.
“Most of our clients say, ‘I’m glad that you guys are still around and that you can hand wash my car, because I don’t want the paint getting ruined or getting scraped or anything.’ ”
Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com
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