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Road Trip

Bill Manke

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Well I went on a trip to Jackson Hole Wy. Got there and had so much ice on truck and trailer thought I would rinse it off and try the local Carwash that we always go by and I always thought looked pretty good. First trying to get into the place is a little tight but that is okay,you build on what you can. Get the trailer in the bay, gather up enough quarters to get it going. Turn to HP Soap has pressure, no soap, no hot water. It is about 18 deg. outside. Finally gave up after my hands about froze off. Later dropped the trailer came back thought I would give it a try on the truck to get the ice off the mirrors and just wash the windows so that we could see. Well tried another bay thinking maybe this one would be different but wrong. No soap, no hot water,no wax. Went inside the gas station that is part of this wash and talked to a kid working at the counter. I told him they didn't have any soap, hot water or wax. Well he said to me they used a soap that you couldn't see. I couldn't believe it. It kinda caught me off guard. I just looked at him and said I own a Carwash and that was a bunch crap. I walked out to my truck got a business card and gave it to him. Told him to give it to the owner. Well I haven't got a call probably never will. When I got in my truck my wife asked if I had made a new carwash friend and I said probably not. This is the ownly self-serve in town.I came back to my washes and just looked at them an thought about how good they are compared to that wash. Sometimes you need an experience like this to realize that you are running a good wash.
 

mac

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I think another lesson is that competition is actually good for the consumer. If there was another place in that town, the situation would change. You can also safely bet that that owner doesn't visit this site.
 

MEP001

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I used to travel a lot, and would stop at washes I would see and try them out. In 15 years I don't think I ever tried one that fully lived up to my expectations of what a quality self-serve should be.
 

RykoPro

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I used to travel a lot, and would stop at washes I would see and try them out. In 15 years I don't think I ever tried one that fully lived up to my expectations of what a quality self-serve should be.
I rarely use SS on my cars but I have been to one that went beyond my expectation. This was about 20 years ago in the winter time in Des Moines, Iowa. Although the ice was 10" thick at each end of the bay, the wash worked great. If you put in a quarter, it came back through the return but was somehow counted the quarter. You could wash all day with one quarter and you even got to keep it after you were done!

On the another note my wife talked me into buying a 96 cavalier convertible. It was in nice shape and I wanted to make sure I got ALL the salt from the wheel wells. For some reason Chey thought it was a good idea to install the CPU behind the passanger side wheel well! This caused the car to have an itermitant starting problem that always seemed to happen when you were not at home. After a few tow truck bills (always stared once it got home) we stopped driving the car. After about a year and a half of this, the local chevy tech finally found the CPU connector was corroded. I did get to learn more about the PASS2 system than I ever wanted to.
 

soapy

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That you even found a SS wash in Jackson hole Wy. is a miracle. I know the one you are talking about. The value of the land that the SS bays sit on is worth well over a million dollars. The towns building department would make it impossible for anyone to build a wash to compete with it.
 

JMMUSTANG

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That type of wash/(owner) is what is wrong in our industry.
Everytime a customer experience a wash like that it hurts all of us.
The next time they need a wash they might not go to a self service or tunnel wash thinking they'll get another crappy wash.
 

Bill Manke

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Soapy

Soapy.
Your washes are in Idaho Falls aren't they? I was wondering where they were when we went through there. Maybe one of our trips up to Jackson we will stop in. Bill
 

RykoPro

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Sorry I got off topic, I am a driveway washer and have very few memorable self serve experiances. With the current cost of gas I have seen alot of 30 MPG Cav's on the road and thought I would share this info about the problem I encountered.
 

soapy

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I do have 4 washes in Idaho falls. If you ever come back give me a call and I will show you around the town.
 
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