Pretty tough question to answer

[Dustinw]

I am closing on a rundown car wash. In fact I can't believe its still open. It has a High Velocity and a Ryko Velvet touch both from the 1990s and neither maintained. Anyways I am going to rebuild the high velocity just to get by while I rip out the Velvet touch and replace with a Petit.

I have currently have a wash with a Petit on a road without a ton of traffic but this new wash has a traffic count of 15k a day. How are you guessing at how many cars per day you will wash. I have seen proformas from the equipment guys and they are way off IMO.

As far as what this site is doing with these 2 machines that are down most of the time, it seems to wash about 400 cars a month, granted the top wash is 7 bucks and all washes are $5 on Tuesday.

I am thinking I can wash 800 a month through the Petit without breaking a sweat. Currently wash pass with old machines avg about 7 min. My Petit runs a 5 pass in 2:40

 

[Keno]

I've seen anywhere from 0.4% down to 0.1% used as capture rate on proforma. Depends on how aggressive you want to be with it

 

[Waxman]

When I built my wash I used 3/10 of a percent daily traffic flow as my goal. So you take the daily traffic count and multiply it times .003. 20 years later I finally reached my number!

 

[Keno]

When I built my wash I used 3/10 of a percent daily traffic flow as my goal. So you take the daily traffic count and multiply it times .003. 20 years later I finally reached my number!

Did you hit the number because traffic counts went up in front of your wash or because you are actually now at 0.3% of the current traffic count?

 

[Waxman]

I hit the number because I installed a new WashWorld razor in place of my original superior side track. The razor is much faster and loads the car while the car in the bay is pulling out underneath my blowers which are outside. I haven't remeasured the traffic count or looked into it recently. Doesn't really matter to me at this point.

A more reasonable capture rate for my original business plan would've been 2/10 of a percent. But I was brand new at everything and just guessing. It was an educated guess because I did my homework before I was able to get financing. But it was still just a guess.

 

[washnshine]

The velvet touch is a conveyorized system. Is the conveyor still installed and functioning?

 

[Blanco]

I am thinking I can wash 800 a month through the Petit without breaking a sweat. Currently wash pass with old machines avg about 7 min. My Petit runs a 5 pass in 2:40

At the 400 cars a month it’s doing and even at your projected 800 speed is not even relevant.

You also certainly do not need two automatics.

I’d look into a wash world razor if I were you. A little bit slower maybe around 5 min top wash but that’s a good thing. Customers will feel like there really getting there moneys worth, it’s a great machine, and you will save money.

 

[Keno]

I hit the number because I installed a new WashWorld razor in place of my original superior side track. The razor is much faster and loads the car while the car in the bay is pulling out underneath my blowers which are outside. I haven't remeasured the traffic count or looked into it recently. Doesn't really matter to me at this point.

A more reasonable capture rate for my original business plan would've been 2/10 of a percent. But I was brand new at everything and just guessing. It was an educated guess because I did my homework before I was able to get financing. But it was still just a guess.

Gotcha, I was asking mainly for my own projections. We are considering adding 1 or maybe 2 petits with membership at one of our washes.

 

[Waxman]

I did three sets of cash flow projections 20 years ago when I was planning my wash. Worst case scenario, best case scenario, and hopeful average.

 

[Dustinw]

At the 400 cars a month it’s doing and even at your projected 800 speed is not even relevant.

You also certainly do not need two automatics.

I’d look into a wash world razor if I were you. A little bit slower maybe around 5 min top wash but that’s a good thing. Customers will feel like there really getting there moneys worth, it’s a great machine, and you will save money.

looked at them and like them but the issue I have is the county took about 50 feet of the property about 10 years ago so I am limited on space. I can wash 1 and stack 2 max so I need to get them in and out to capitalize on busy days

 

[Blanco]

looked at them and like them but the issue I have is the county took about 50 feet of the property about 10 years ago so I am limited on space. I can wash 1 and stack 2 max so I need to get them in and out to capitalize on busy days

I dont know what your property looks like but can you reverse the flow when you install a new machine. Make entrance the exit and vice versa.

 

[Dustinw]

I dont know what your property looks like but can you reverse the flow when you install a new machine. Make entrance the exit and vice versa.

I looked at that but unfortunately the property is too tight, I would lose the use of one bay

 

[Blanco]

OK so I googled the street view to get a better look and that is a wild build the way it is. I cant believe someone built that with no stacking space. This is just my opinion but personally I would not worry about losing the bay. Unless you're running close to 2000 cars a month theres no need for a second automatic. I would reverse the flow put the auto in the far bay and use the other bay as a SS or pet wash. You'd be able to stack a lot of cars. With that setup speed won't be a necessity but if you still want for future growing then an oasis typhoon can wash the amount of cars that two automatics can properly wash in a single bay but I would still keep the razor in mind with that set up because speed won't be a factor. Hope this helps.

 

[Dustinw]

Nm

 

[OurTown]

Capture rate is just one of several numbers to use as a tool to estimate potential. There are many other things to look at. I'm not in the Express Exterior business, but I wonder what they use for a capture rate, if they even use it. The newly built landlocked corporate 150-foot EE in our town, with three pay lanes and 28 vac stations, is accessed by a 7K ADT road and can be seen from a 13K ADT road. Even if they used a full 1% and used the higher ADT road that doesn't have access to it they would be at 130 cars per day which is not going to support a $6MM wash. I'm not sure how they duped their investors into this one.

 

[getnbusy]

Id load from the back one way or another. From the posted pics, I think at this site the customer will feel better facing the road during the wash process and on the way out. And the traffic on the road will see the clean car exiting and on their way

 

[Dustinw]

Id load from the back one way or another. From the posted pics, I think at this site the customer will feel better facing the road during the wash process and on the way out. And the traffic on the road will see the clean car exiting and on their way

Looked at it but as you can see it’s a right hand turn that’s kinda tight and you lose the use of that other bay.

 

[Dustinw]

OK so I googled the street view to get a better look and that is a wild build the way it is. I cant believe someone built that with no stacking space. This is just my opinion but personally I would not worry about losing the bay. Unless you're running close to 2000 cars a month theres no need for a second automatic. I would reverse the flow put the auto in the far bay and use the other bay as a SS or pet wash. You'd be able to stack a lot of cars. With that setup speed won't be a necessity but if you still want for future growing then an oasis typhoon can wash the amount of cars that two automatics can properly wash in a single bay but I would still keep the razor in mind with that set up because speed won't be a factor. Hope this helps.

They didn’t, I think I spoke about it in this thread but the road was 2 lanes until about 15 years ago, when they made it 4 lanes they took all that from the car wash. They use to be to stack 7-8 at each lane

Place was washing over 2500 a month back then.

Traffic count is 15k a day on that little road.

Also I looked at what you said with self serve but there wouldn’t be anyway to do it with traffic reversed. Self serve customer would have to pull straight in and back out.