Personal Consumer Issues • Are car washes necessary?

Our local car wash allows us to be members for $30 a month. This gets you unlimited trips through the car wash. This includes rinsing the under carriage. For another $15 a month we can add a second car. So, for $22.50 a month per car both my wife and I can have clean cars. If a bird poops on the car, go through the car wash. If it snows, go through the car wash. Back window dirty? Car wash…

$540/year on car washes. Nope!

There must be two dozen of these places within a few miles of my home and one is being constructed directly across the street from my neighborhood. Quick Quack is the newest one, there's at least five that have gone up in the last few years that are within walking distance of my house. I agree, $30/month on car washes is nuts; look at the opportunity cost compared to other subscriptions you likely pay for (streaming TV or music, etc.). But, I think that's about what these places cost. IMO, the value proposition is just not there. Maybe if I valued a nice daily driver car I'd think differently.

Many have popped up in my area over the last few years. Not sure how busy they are, but I'll never go to one for the price. One is called something like "The Magic Tunnel." The people that work there all wear white button down shirts and bow ties. Maybe the idea is to make getting the car washed fun like an amusement park ride or something.

Also, in my area, there are virtually no car washes where you can get out and use a spray wand anymore. They are much cheaper and can do the job adequately. Might even be better for spraying under the car.

I turned onto the entrance road for one of those new, fancy, amusement-park type car washes thinking I could just use one of their vacuum cleaners. I discovered that there were no provisions for that. A person had to go thru the car wash first. There wasn't even an easy way to exit without using anything. They actually had to move a barricade so that I could get out without going thru the "Magic Tunnel."

Statistics: Posted by OpenMinded1 — Sat Jan 20, 2024 7:22 am — Replies 74 — Views 5350

---