Car Wash Buying Opportunity - Couple of Questions

[OpportunityStrikes]

Hi Everyone,

First off just want to thank you all for being involved in the forum as I learned a good chunk just by the replies.

I saw an opportunity to buy a car wash business located at a strong, highly traffic area. Currently they have a team of employees for hand washing and one machine for automatic washes. Automatic wash is very old, hand wash seems to be a bulk of their income. Rent is $5,000 which includes electricity and property taxes. Water is not included.

With that being said I had the following questions and any help or direction would be appreciated:

1) My initial thought is to remove the hand wash side of the business and solely focus in on putting an automatic Razor touchless machine. To me dealing with employees and customer complaints of the employees not doing their job do not seem to be worth it considering the touchless can effectively reduce my head count to 1. Am I crazy to do that or have others done the same? I do have part time job as CPA along with a strong family family business so I do need the time where possible.

2) The current setup of the automatic car wash is attached the gas station like most car washes. Is it complicated to take out the old equipment and pipes and replace with new equipment and such? I assume with the water hook ups already being there, it shouldn't be as much of big deal but just want to confirm.

3) Starting off, it seems that the way to go is getting a used Razor machine as the cost are lower. Am I wrong to think like that? What's a ballpark range of buying and installing a Razor? I was estimating $25K-$50K for installation and equipment.

4) To break even at an average of $15 per wash, I need to wash 450 cars a month or 15 cars a day. How many cars do you all do in one month just so I can gauge if it is possible.

5) This might be a dumb questions but is there any major risk to running an automatic touchless car wash 24 hours? Have people stolen equipment or damage any of your cash washes add later hours? The car wash is in a good, middle class area.

6) For an average car wash, how often would you be buying chemical products? What are the average cost you spend monthly on chemical products?

7) Do distributors take the time to teach you how the machine runs and what all needs to be done? The osmosis and pumps everyone talks about kind of scares me.

Sorry for all my questions and noobness. I am still learning the game. Thanks everyone in advance.

 

[Wash4Life]

Hi Everyone,

1) My initial thought is to remove the hand wash side of the business and solely focus in on putting an automatic Razor touchless machine. To me dealing with employees and customer complaints of the employees not doing their job do not seem to be worth it considering the touchless can effectively reduce my head count to 1. Am I crazy to do that or have others done the same? I do have part time job as CPA along with a strong family family business so I do need the time where possible.

You're not crazy at all. We have multiple sites, the crown jewel of which is a six-bay, four automatic site where one person runs the whole thing. Our industry, like a lot of industries, has trended toward eliminating as much labor as possible. Our governmental entities value an hour of labor way more than what it really is worth.

To me, it sounds like the automatic touch-free is underutilized if the hand wash is out-doing it.

2) The current setup of the automatic car wash is attached the gas station like most car washes. Is it complicated to take out the old equipment and pipes and replace with new equipment and such? I assume with the water hook ups already being there, it shouldn't be as much of big deal but just want to confirm.

I don't consider it complicated to remove old equipment. However, permit processes are complicated for getting new equipment in.

3) Starting off, it seems that the way to go is getting a used Razor machine as the cost are lower. Am I wrong to think like that? What's a ballpark range of buying and installing a Razor? I was estimating $25K-$50K for installation and equipment.

If you're going to replace what is currently there, I would go new. Used equipment is sold for one of two reasons. Something newer is better, or the equipment does not work well.

Installation and equipment is going to cost way more, probably low six figures.

4) To break even at an average of $15 per wash, I need to wash 450 cars a month or 15 cars a day. How many cars do you all do in one month just so I can gauge if it is possible.

Our top wash is $15, so it's not possible for us to average $15/wash. However, I would say the average suburban middle class town can support more than 450 cars/month.

5) This might be a dumb questions but is there any major risk to running an automatic touchless car wash 24 hours? Have people stolen equipment or damage any of your cash washes add later hours? The car wash is in a good, middle class area.

Yes, there is, and yes, there are. Even if you close it, there are still risks of criminals doing their thing.

6) For an average car wash, how often would you be buying chemical products? What are the average cost you spend monthly on chemical products?

There are too many valuables for me to say. Business performance, water quality and climate make that impossible for me to answer. There are zillions of chemicals, and if you live in a place with four seasons, you're going to be adjusting them. If we get road salt or pollen, we adjust as well.

7) Do distributors take the time to teach you how the machine runs and what all needs to be done? The osmosis and pumps everyone talks about kind of scares me.

In my experience, the distributors are good that way in the beginning, but once the warranty goes, it's pretty much sink or swim. I would definitely try to make business arrangements with employees of the installers. They can be of help later.

 

[MEP001]

You can usually get a service contract to cover maintenance after warranty.

 

[Mattwash]

Hi Everyone,

First off just want to thank you all for being involved in the forum as I learned a good chunk just by the replies.

I saw an opportunity to buy a car wash business located at a strong, highly traffic area. Currently they have a team of employees for hand washing and one machine for automatic washes. Automatic wash is very old, hand wash seems to be a bulk of their income. Rent is $5,000 which includes electricity and property taxes. Water is not included.

With that being said I had the following questions and any help or direction would be appreciated:

1) My initial thought is to remove the hand wash side of the business and solely focus in on putting an automatic Razor touchless machine. To me dealing with employees and customer complaints of the employees not doing their job do not seem to be worth it considering the touchless can effectively reduce my head count to 1. Am I crazy to do that or have others done the same? I do have part time job as CPA along with a strong family family business so I do need the time where possible.

2) The current setup of the automatic car wash is attached the gas station like most car washes. Is it complicated to take out the old equipment and pipes and replace with new equipment and such? I assume with the water hook ups already being there, it shouldn't be as much of big deal but just want to confirm.

3) Starting off, it seems that the way to go is getting a used Razor machine as the cost are lower. Am I wrong to think like that? What's a ballpark range of buying and installing a Razor? I was estimating $25K-$50K for installation and equipment.

4) To break even at an average of $15 per wash, I need to wash 450 cars a month or 15 cars a day. How many cars do you all do in one month just so I can gauge if it is possible.

5) This might be a dumb questions but is there any major risk to running an automatic touchless car wash 24 hours? Have people stolen equipment or damage any of your cash washes add later hours? The car wash is in a good, middle class area.

6) For an average car wash, how often would you be buying chemical products? What are the average cost you spend monthly on chemical products?

7) Do distributors take the time to teach you how the machine runs and what all needs to be done? The osmosis and pumps everyone talks about kind of scares me.

Sorry for all my questions and noobness. I am still learning the game. Thanks everyone in advance.

Unsure of your location but if you are in a high traffic area I would keep the hand car wash. I know someone in Houston who had a gross revenue of $1.2MM last year and the place is nothing special. He is at a busy intersection and focuses on quick turnover.

 

[SHINEWASH]

Regarding your question, as a person in the related industry, it is summarized as follows:
Fully automatic car wash machine even if the price of new equipment is between 15,000-30,000, so there is no need to buy a second-hand machine, and now many factories support customization!
And about the car wash chemicals to buy a car wash machine, they car wash machine factories will give away a part of the machine, has been enough to use for a few months
As for the labor piece, now the technology, you only need a person to watch over it, even now there are former automatic unattended car wash system