Car Wash Lending Tracker: SBA 7(a) & 504 Loan Data
Since 2010, the U.S. Small Business Administration has backed 5,807 car-wash loans worth $6.83B — roughly 380 loans a year at a median of $774,800 per car wash. About 4% of resolved loans charge off. Counting the full record back to 1991, the SBA has financed 12,972 car-wash loans totaling $10.09B.
7(a) vs. 504: the two SBA loan programs
Car-wash financing runs through two very different SBA programs, and they behave nothing alike — so the charts below split them apart. Knowing which is which is the key to reading them.
SBA 7(a) — flexible, general-purpose
- One bank loan; the SBA guarantees 75–85% so the lender takes less risk.
- Use it for almost anything — buying an existing wash, equipment, working capital, refinancing, partial buyouts, or real estate.
- Up to $5M, usually a variable (prime-based) rate, roughly 10% down.
- Faster and more flexible to close.
SBA 504 — fixed-asset real estate
- Three parties: a bank (~50%) + an SBA-backed CDC (~40%) + the borrower (~10%+ down).
- Fixed assets only — owner-occupied real estate and major equipment. No working capital or inventory.
- A long-term fixed rate on the CDC portion (often below market), over 10–25 years.
- Car washes are “special-purpose” property, so down payments run higher (~15–20%).
Key findings
- 5,807 SBA-backed car-wash loans since 2010, worth $6.83BAcross the SBA 7(a) and 504 programs, the median modern car-wash loan is $774,800 (7(a) and 504 combined), and the average is $1,176,622.
- Default risk has fallen sharply as the industry institutionalizedPre-2010 car-wash loans charged off at 13.7%; modern (FY2010+) loans charge off at just 4.4% — while the median loan size grew from $332,000 to $774,800.
- 39% of modern loans fund brand-new or startup car washesThe rest finance existing operators and changes of ownership — making SBA approvals a useful leading indicator of where new supply is being built.
- Loan sizes have split sharply by program since 2023504 loans (ground-up real estate) now run a median near $1.3M, while the 7(a) median fell to about $428K as small equipment, working-capital, and acquisition loans surged after the SBA's 2023 reforms — so the blended median understates what a new build actually costs.
- CA, TX, and FL lead car-wash lendingCA alone accounts for 786 modern loans ($1.21B); the busiest metro is Los Angeles with 331.
- Tommy's Express is the most SBA-financed car-wash franchise58 loans totaling $156M, at a median of $2,149,500 per location.
Lending volume & loan size over time
SBA car-wash approvals run ~380 loans a year combined — about 73% 7(a) and 27% 504 (the latest fiscal year is annualized for comparison). Volume and loan size both behave differently across the two programs, so each chart below is split into 7(a) and 504. Watch the divergence after 2022: 504 (new builds) holds up while the 7(a) median drops as smaller equipment and acquisition loans surge.
FY2026 annualized from its first 6 months for comparison.
FY2026 is a partial year; medians aren’t annualized.
From risky small business to institutional asset
The full FOIA record back to 1991 shows the car wash maturing into a far safer, more capital-intensive asset class. Loan sizes more than doubled while the charge-off rate fell by roughly two-thirds.
| Era | Loans | Total approved | Median loan | Charge-off rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-2010 (1991-2009) | 7,165 | $3.26B | $332,000 | 13.7% |
| Modern (2010-present) | 5,807 | $6.83B | $774,800 | 4.4% |
What the money is for
The SBA doesn’t publish a use-of-proceeds field, but a loan’s business-age, term length, revolving-credit flag, and collateral together infer it. Across modern loans, roughly 33% fund a brand-new car wash, 8% an acquisition of an existing one, and 47% an expansion, improvement, or refinance by an existing operator. Only about 10% is working capital — and those loans are tiny ($25K median), confirming the split is real, not noise.
- New build / open33% · $1.2M
- Acquisition8% · $1.3M
- Expansion / improvement47% · $786K
- Working capital10% · $25K
- Unclassified2% · $163K
This mix is the useful part for reading a market: a metro skewed toward new builds is an expansion frontier, one heavy on acquisitions is consolidating as operators sell, and an unusually high working-capital share can signal margin pressure rather than growth. Each of the 115 metros with enough SBA lending to chart carries its own mix on its market profile.
Top metros by car-wash lending
Modern (FY2010+) SBA car-wash loans by metro. 90% of modern loans fall inside a tracked metro; the rest are in smaller / rural counties. Each metro links to its full market profile.
| Metro | Loans | Total approved | Median | Charge-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | 331 | $592M | $1.5M | 2.6% |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | 317 | $648M | $1.8M | 1.1% |
| Atlanta | 250 | $444M | $1.5M | 4.0% |
| New York | 216 | $229M | $750K | 10.9% |
| Chicago | 205 | $242M | $867K | 5.0% |
| Houston | 194 | $284M | $1.1M | 4.5% |
| Riverside | 138 | $211M | $1.3M | 4.0% |
| Detroit | 121 | $93.1M | $415K | 0.0% |
| Denver | 118 | $128M | $695K | 2.9% |
| Philadelphia | 106 | $126M | $858K | 3.9% |
| Miami | 98 | $145M | $945K | 10.2% |
| Phoenix | 93 | $105M | $963K | 10.9% |
| Tampa | 75 | $100M | $1.2M | 0.0% |
| Columbus | 74 | $46.3M | $459K | 6.7% |
| Boston | 71 | $42.5M | $369K | 2.9% |
Most-financed car-wash franchises
Loans tagged to a franchise brand in the SBA data (all years). Brands with a WashIndex profile link through.
| Franchise | Loans | Total approved | Median loan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tommy's Express | 58 | $156M | $2.1M |
| SUPER WASH | 27 | $12.7M | $338K |
| DETAILXPERTS | 16 | $2.4M | $150K |
| ISHINE EXPRESS CAR WASH & DETAIL | 14 | $36.6M | $2.8M |
| GOO GOO 3 MINUTE CAR WASH | 13 | $15.6M | $884K |
| Prime Car Wash | 13 | $18.1M | $1.4M |
| No-H2O | 7 | $1.1M | $150K |
| KWIK KAR WASH | 4 | $2.2M | $509K |
| Fleet Clean | 4 | $2.7M | $601K |
| MOBILE CAR CARE NETWORK, INC. | 3 | $126K | $49K |
| KWIK KAR OIL & LUBE | 3 | $2.5M | $652K |
| CAR WASH GUYS | 3 | $170K | $50K |
About car wash financing & SBA loans
How much does it cost to finance a car wash?
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What percentage of car-wash SBA loans default?
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How many car washes get SBA loans each year?
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Which states and metros have the most car-wash lending?
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Which car-wash franchise gets the most SBA loans?
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Data as of 2026-03-31. Pick a format and click Copy.
WashIndex. (2026, March 31). Car Wash Lending Tracker — SBA Loan Data. https://washindex.com/blog/car-wash-lending-tracker
WashIndex. "Car Wash Lending Tracker — SBA Loan Data." WashIndex. Last modified March 31, 2026. https://washindex.com/blog/car-wash-lending-tracker.
"Car Wash Lending Tracker — SBA Loan Data." WashIndex, Mar. 31, 2026, https://washindex.com/blog/car-wash-lending-tracker.
@misc{washindex_blog_car_wash_lending_tracker_2026,
title = {{Car Wash Lending Tracker — SBA Loan Data}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Mar},
url = {https://washindex.com/blog/car-wash-lending-tracker},
urldate = {2026-03-31},
} Built from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 7(a) & 504 FOIA datasets, filtered to NAICS code 811192 (Car Washes) and updated quarterly. Loans are joined to WashIndex metros by project county, to cities by borrower city, and to chains by franchise name. Data through March 31, 2026.
Live market figures use FY2010-present loans only. Pre-2010 car-wash loans describe the pre-express-tunnel industry — roughly half the loan size and about three times the default rate — and are used only for the cumulative and maturation-trend figures, never blended into current per-metro stats. SBA financing skews toward independent operators and franchisees; the largest private-equity-backed chains typically use conventional financing and do not appear here.
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