So for a hundred grand you can get a machine that was basically designed 40 years ago. Be still my heart. Oh and the fact that you see them in poorly ran gas stations is just a bonus.
I know what you are saying Mac - it is still a 5 brush rollover with a skeleton like it had in its early days, but the engineering, intelligence and features have changed. Not to mention the wash materials, high pressure functions and chemistry. I know chemistry is not part of the machine design, but we do use it to wash cars and it is a significant contributor to the results. 40 years ago those machines were using cold hard water and not enough
soap to even cover the hood.
There is only so much you can do with brushes that spin in circles, retract and follow the contours of cars. Heck, tunnel equipment still has top brushes, mitters, rockers and wraps that look very similar to what they had in the 70’s also. But the engineering and features have been updated to be safer, easier to maintain and wash better.
As far as seeing Rykos in poorly run in gas stations, I’m not so certain the customer is noticing the style of machine as much as the quality of the wash, which certainly can be terrible at any poorly run location using any machine.
I know you are in Istobal guy and they are great machines too. Not sure of their design history and evolution , but there are several European style three brush machines - like Ceccato, Christ, Karcher etc. that have a three brush design that on the surface looks pretty similar to what it did decades ago, but I’m pretty sure they are different under the hood these days.