tl;dr government interference
Why are there suddenly so many car washes?
111–120 of 615 posts
Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?
#1121) Who is spending $20 a month on car washes? 2) If the problem is that subscription users aren’t paying local sales taxes, why not charge property taxes? (or, Land Value Tax!)
I used to wash my car every few weeks, but with an unlimited model, I now wash it every few days. It literally takes 2 minutes to pull in and through the car wash.
Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?
#113Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?
#1141) Who is spending $20 a month on car washes? 2) If the problem is that subscription users aren’t paying local sales taxes, why not charge property taxes? (or, Land Value Tax!)
Car dealerships are a big source
Don't car dealers often have an automatic wash on site? Unless these are little used-car lots?
Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think generally it should not be allowed. A big component of soap is phosphates, which promote algae growth so you really don't want it in your rivers. Some cities have combined or separated sewer systems. Even if combined, it may be designed to overflow during heavy rain, so it's not a guarantee that car wash water with dirt, soap and oil will not go into into a stream somewhere although in that case you're also s…
> I think generally it should not be allowed. A big component of soap is phosphates, which promote algae growth so you really don't want it in your rivers That's fair, but it doesn't explain why the bylaw won't even let you rinse the mud off your car with nothing but water
I operate an auto detailing shop. As part of that I've done some research and spoken with my local city (100k+ pop.) officials about this. It's actually quite logical.
First, there's a distinction between sewer vs. stormwater. Sewer lines go to a treatment facility that's built specifically to take all the bad stuff out of the water before flushing that treated water into your local streams. Washing your car into a sewer drain, all good.
Stormwater drains shuttle water directly into your streams.
Stormwater drainage is purpose-built to handle the overflow rain during storms, and only that. In fact, the first goal of stormwater management is to not drain it at all! You want the stormwater to flow through your local ecosystem naturally, generally as groundwater. Nonetheless, storms conspire to drench our non-porous surfaces (asphalt, concrete, etc.) at a rate or duration above the designed for drainage of the system, resulting in overflow. Overflow leads to things like flooding or public safety hazards for cars driving on undrained roads, so a secondary goal of stormwater management becomes shuttling excess water out of the local ecosystem.
What's all this have to do with washing the mud off your car? Well, the first goal of stormwater management is to keep it in your local ecosystem. So, if you can ensure the runoff from washing your car goes into your grass or a specifically designed catch basin, then you're all good. But, if you wash it off into the stormwater drain, well then you're using that drain for a purpose it wasn't built to serve. Your water is neither excess nor should it bypass your local ecosystem. As far-fetched as it may sound, that mud may have local nutrients, pollen, chemicals, etc. that could serve your local ecosystem, and by bypassing that you are disrupting your ecosystem's natural cycles.
A note to the astute reader that says well, we already disrupt our ecosystems with other human activities. Yes, you are correct. That doesn't mean that we can't nor shouldn't take actions to minimize or eliminate further disruptions when they are within our sphere of control. We must strive to find a balance in ecological systems.
Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?
#116The real cause - a "turn crank, make money" financial model:
> But the industry’s biggest recent innovation involves its business model, which has increasingly focused on membership and recurring revenue.
...
> Now, washes can take just 90 seconds, labor costs have been automated down, and recurring revenue from memberships has eliminated weather risks. Plus, the tax reforms enacted in 2017 by former president Donald Trump allowed car wash owners to claim 100% depreciation on new equipment — a generous subsidy to further investment. While that incentive was written to shrink over time, the tax proposal currently in Congress would restore the 100% depreciation allowance.
...
> In analyzing usage patterns, the industry soon found that the convenience of wash memberships translated to higher profits. A typical non-member may come in three or four times a year, while a typical member gets that many washes each month. But at $20 a month, that’s a huge jump in annual spending — more than enough to cover the costs of accommodating heavy users who may scrub their SUVs dozens of times a month.
SO - at least where I live, the number of monthly payment/unlimited washes car washes has exploded in recent years. Even so, there's often a line (of very new, very expensive) vehicles waiting at them.
Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?
#117The cynical me says - easy way to launder money (same with nutrition stores).
You don’t have to move much material and you can get large volumes of “sales”
Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?
#118Automated ones are fine, but what I've really missed since I moved to New England have been the ones where a team vacuums the inside, hoses off your mats, wipes your windows and dashboard inside, etc.
Growing up in the West and Midwest, these things were absolutely normal for the first 30 years of my life. Some of them would even change the oil too. But I haven't found anywhere within 50 miles of me that will do it here. I'm not talking "detailing." This was $35 including the oil.
Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?
#1191) Who is spending $20 a month on car washes? 2) If the problem is that subscription users aren’t paying local sales taxes, why not charge property taxes? (or, Land Value Tax!)
> 1) Who is spending $20 a month on car washes?
I've spent $200 - $350 on car detailing as a service several times now. They drive to your home and work on your car for several hours to get it looking brand new.
As someone who drives an SUV, has dogs in the car frequently, and gets my vehicle muddy on the inside, this is a fantastic service.
A bunch of my neighbors use the exact same service.
Re: Why are there suddenly so many car washes?
#120Automated ones are fine, but what I've really missed since I moved to New England have been the ones where a team vacuums the inside, hoses off your mats, wipes your windows and dashboard inside, etc. Growing up in the West and Midwest, these things were absolutely normal for the first 30 years of my life. Some of them would even change the oil too. But I haven't found anywhere within 50 miles of me that will do it h…
Yes, I remember when I first moved to New England, and asked where I could get a hand carwash. No one had heard of such a thing.