A note on labels first. Census and SBA figures use industry code NAICS 811192, "car washes", which covers every format from self-serve bays to full-service tunnels. The BLS publishes wages only for the wider industry 811190, which also includes oil change and other service shops. BizBuySell's car wash sales often include a convenience store, gas pumps or the land and buildings.
How a car wash makes money
A car wash sells washes, one at a time or by monthly membership. The four formats differ in labor, water and equipment.
- Express exterior (tunnel). The car rides a conveyor through the wash and the driver stays inside.
- Full-service (tunnel). The same, plus staff who clean the interior and dry by hand.
- In-bay automatic. The car parks and the machine moves around it.
- Self-serve. Coin- or card-operated bays where the driver washes the car.
A wash club charges a monthly fee for unlimited washes, billed to a card. At Mister Car Wash, a listed chain, members made up 76% of wash sales in 2025, and it had about 2.3 million of them across 548 sites. It leased 485 of those sites and owned 63. When it sold sites and leased them back in 2025, the starting rent was 5.93% of the sale price a year.
Source: Mister Car Wash, 2025 Form 10-K, pp.2, 23, 27 and 59.
The typical wash sold
BizBuySell, a business-for-sale marketplace, publishes figures for car washes sold on its site in 2021-25. The median took in $555,000 a year and made $191,451 of seller's discretionary earnings (SDE): what the wash makes before paying the owner, the loans and depreciation. That is 34.5% of revenue.
| Sold on BizBuySell, 2021-25 | Lower quartile | Median | Upper quartile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $208,750 | $555,000 | $1,008,750 |
| SDE | $100,750 | $191,451 | $378,686 |
| Sale price / SDE | 3.20x | 5.18x | 6.70x |
Source: BizBuySell, Car Wash Business Valuation Benchmarks.
The median sold wash is far smaller than the averages elsewhere. The 2022 Economic Census counted 19,422 car washes with paid staff, averaging $762,434 of receipts each, with payroll 29.8% of receipts. Mister Car Wash took $1,980,661 per site in 2025, with labor and chemicals together 29% of revenue.
Sources: US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, NAICS 811192; Mister Car Wash, 2025 Form 10-K, pp.2 and 29.
What washes sell for
Half of the washes sold on BizBuySell went for between 3.20x and 6.70x times SDE, with a median of 5.18x. The average multiple was 4.73x in 2025. The median sale price fell from $1,000,000 in 2021 to $700,000 in 2025.
BizBuySell says washes that own their real estate sell at higher multiples than those that lease, but does not say how many of its sales included it. So ask whether the land and buildings are in the price before comparing.
Source: BizBuySell, Car Wash Business Valuation Benchmarks.
What the price does to the loan
Take the median wash on a leased site, bought at the median multiple for $991,716, with 10% down and an SBA 7(a) loan of $894,794 over 10 years at 10%, the most the SBA allows (Prime of 7.00% on 5 Nov 2026, plus 3 points). Payments are $141,897 a year. SDE covers them 1.35x. A lender first takes off a site supervisor's pay ($45,280, the BLS median), and then cover is 1.03x, below the SBA minimum of 1.25x.
The same wash bought at the lower-quartile multiple, for $612,643, borrows $553,629 and reaches lender cover of 1.66x. On the median example's terms, cover reaches 1.25x at a price of about $817,000, or 4.27x SDE.
Real estate changes the term. A 7(a) loan to buy a business runs 10 years at most, but the real estate part may run up to 25. If real estate is 85% or more of the project and the site counts as special purpose property, the whole loan may run 25 years; the SBA's 504 rules list car washes as special purpose property, and for a 7(a) loan the lender decides. On a 25-year term the median example's lender cover would be 1.50x. On a 504 loan for the real estate, you put in at least 15% of it.
Sources: SBA SOP 50 10 8.1; BizBuySell; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, industry 811190. The worked examples are in the buyer's pack, with every input sourced.
How car wash loans have ended
The SBA publishes every loan it backs, including whether it was repaid or written off. Of 7(a) loans approved in FY2010-19 to car washes that had finished by 30 Sep 2026, 5.91% were charged off: 111 of 1,879. Across all 7(a) loans the rate was 7.99%. For 504 loans to car washes it was 1.17% (7 of 596). The average car wash 7(a) loan was $1,109,041.
| Car wash 7(a) loans | Resolved loans | Written off |
|---|---|---|
| under $500K | 801 | 8.99% |
| $500K-$1M | 302 | 5.30% |
| $1M-$2M | 388 | 4.12% |
| $2M and over | 388 | 1.80% |
| Term of 20 years or more | 1,069 | 2.06% |
| Term under 20 years | 810 | 10.99% |
Sources: SBA 7(a) loan file, FY2010-FY2019, as of 30 Sep 2026; SBA 504 loan file, as of 30 Sep 2026. Share of resolved loans charged off, by count.
Short loans did worst. Under current SBA rules only real estate loans may run past 20 years, though the rules when these loans were made may have differed. Two cautions. The rate counts only loans that had finished, so loans still running are left out. And it says how car wash loans ended on average, not whether one wash's price and earnings hold up. The full write-off table compares other business types and sets out the method.
Checks before you buy
- Price. Divide the asking price by SDE. Above 6.70x, the wash costs more than three quarters of those sold on BizBuySell. Below 3.20x, check that the earnings are real.
- Earnings. SDE moved between 29.1% and 45.2% of revenue from year to year in BizBuySell's figures, so ask for more than one year of accounts.
- Payroll. The Census share is 29.8% of receipts. Zero payroll means the seller does the work; after the sale you do it or pay someone.
- Volumes. Retail washes times the average price, plus members times the monthly price times 12, should come close to wash revenue. Ask for monthly sign-ups and cancellations for two years.
- Water. Divide the gallons on a year of water bills by the cars washed. The EPA quotes 30 gallons a car for conveyor washes, 44.8 for in-bay automatics and 15.0 for self-serve. Far above that points to a leak or an overstated car count; far below may mean a reclaim system, which can cut fresh water use by 50% to 83%.
- Lease. If the lease, with renewal options, ends before the loan is repaid, ask for an extension before you buy.
Sources: BizBuySell; 2022 Economic Census; EPA WaterSense at Work, Section 5.4, pp.3-5 and 10.
This guide is education and data. It is not financial, legal or tax advice.