Convert s/s to automatic?

[Yeti55]

Hey folks,

currently have a 4 bay s/s in a town of about 10k people , one bay was previously an automatic but was removed shortly before I bought it and converted to ss .

How are people deciding when looking to convert a bay / build on if the juice is worth the squeeze or if there is potential to keep an automatic busy once making the investment

there is one other automatic in town which is the only other carwash , it is attached to a gas station up the road and is old and frequently broke .

Any input is appreciated !

 

[Waxman]

i'd say your competition is weak so that is a positive for putting in a new automatic. Then you check your traffic count, how busy your wash is currently with just the self-service bays, and check your finances. A new automatic project could run a quarter million dollars or more.

 

[Keno]

i'd say your competition is weak so that is a positive for putting in a new automatic. Then you check your traffic count, how busy your wash is currently with just the self-service bays, and check your finances. A new automatic project could run a quarter million dollars or more.

Good stuff here, I would guess more than 300k if you need a new pay station also. You have to wash a lot of cars to payoff 250-300k+

There are good used units that hit the market every so often. That maybe the ticket in a smaller market. There's also a lot of junk that hits the market also, so be careful if you decide to go the used route.

 

[Yeti55]

Traffic count is roughly 12,000 cpd , other 4 bays are busy but not always full/cars waiting

 

[Waxman]

In my business plan I used 3/10 of 1% for the capture rate of the daily traffic count. that number was actually fairly accurate for me several years later when I re-loaded my automatic wash. That percentage puts you at 36 cars per day. You could use that as an average and then create a business plan around that. I would also use maybe 42 cars as my high number and 28 cars as my low number and then see how things pencil out when you include all your expenses, both fixed and variable. That's the way to figure out whether or not you should proceed with the project.

Using this capture rate you can also play around with your pricing structure and see if you can get it to show a profit on paper. If you're going to put in a brand new wash and you don't have much competition I think you can be high priced. That's what I did and I am very happy that I went Sky high with my top wash price because over 50% of people choose it! That's what makes the wash make money vs. struggling every month to turn a profit which would be a bummer with a brand new car wash.