Augusta, GA Car Wash Market Analysis
Part of the Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC MSA.
Data updated · May 22, 2026
A read of Augusta's car wash market built from 3,187 Google reviews across 13 locations. Format mix, operator rank, geographic distribution, income overlay, customer-experience signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 13
- Chains
- 4
- lead: bp (4)
- Avg rating
- 4.39★
- Damage rate
- 1.6%
- Top format
- in-bay automatic
- 38% of classified
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 201,504
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 73,493
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 15,500
- 8.0× the national MSA median — lighter supply
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 0.7
- in the 0.5–1.0 filling band · classified sites
Key findings
- 13 car wash locations operated by 4 chains and 4 independents.
- Weighted Google rating 4.39★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-market norms.
- Built from 3,187 Google reviews, 933 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
13 car wash locations in Augusta, GA · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Tracked at 13 car wash locations, Augusta matches the structural profile of the typical US city market of comparable size. 13 locations across 4 chains and 4 independents. Distinctive patterns show up below at the format and aspect levels.
Headline numbers sit near US-market norms: rating 4.39★, damage 1.6%, cancel friction 13.6%. Facility cleanliness strong (0.85); equipment reliability weak (-0.48). 3,187 Google reviews drive the analysis, 933 of them processed through the WashIndex LLM extractor.
See the best-rated car washes in Augusta, GA
Ranked by Google review rating
About Augusta, GA
How many car washes are in Augusta, GA?
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What is the best-rated car wash in Augusta, GA?
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Which car wash chains operate in Augusta, GA?
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What is the median household income near Augusta car washes?
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What is the average car wash rating in Augusta, GA?
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What kinds of car washes does Augusta have?
Format counts below split Augusta's 13 car wash locations by operating concept. Each format serves a different customer occasion — express tunnels for throughput, full-service for staffed convenience, detail shops for hand-finished work — and the rating column lets you read whether each format is meeting its own expectations here.
Highest-rated format in this market: Express Tunnel at 4.43★ (5 locations). Lowest: In-Bay Automatic at 3.88★ (5 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In-Bay Automatic | 5 | 38.5% | 146 | 3.88 | 3.70% | — |
| Express Tunnel | 5 | 38.5% | 2,690 | 4.43 | 1.60% | 13.6% |
| Full Service | 2 | 15.4% | 329 | 4.22 | 0.00% | — |
| Detail Shop | 1 | 7.7% | 22 | 5.00 | 0.00% | — |
What is the typical household income near Augusta car washes?
Each ZIP in Augusta is joined to IRS Statistics-of-Income (tax year 2022) and to the per-location Google rating dataset. The scatter below sizes dots by review volume and colors them by format.
Pearson r between ZIP income and rating across 13 qualifying locations: -0.18 — mild negative. Higher-income ZIPs host slightly lower-rated washes on average, which is unusual. Scatter mean: $66K AGI/return, 4.22★.
Car wash count and quality by income tier
Blue bars: location count per tier. Orange tick marks: average Google rating (same y-axis).
| Income tier (mean AGI/return) | ZIPs | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Top Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $50K | 1 | 3 | 830 | 4.40 | Full Service (1) |
| $50K – $75K | 2 | 8 | 2,046 | 4.42 | Express Tunnel (4) |
| $75K – $100K | 1 | 2 | 311 | 4.18 | Full Service (1) |
| $100K – $150K | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
The highest-income tier ($150K+) contains 0 car washes across 0 ZIPs at 0.00★, against 3 sites across 1 ZIPs at 4.40★ in the lowest. Middle-income tiers typically host the densest express-tunnel concentrations — the part of the income curve where that format's unit economics are strongest.
Who operates the most Augusta car washes?
4 chains run sites in Augusta; the top 25 are listed below by location count, with their per-chain operating-quality numbers next to them. Useful for narrowing competitive-set considerations or for M&A evaluation.
| # | Chain | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage | Cancel | Upsell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | bp | 4 | 136 | 3.90 | — | — | — |
| 2 | LuLu's Car Wash | 3 | 1,707 | 4.42 | 0.74% | 11.8% | 0.18% |
| 3 | Ray Ray's Car Wash | 1 | 150 | 4.20 | 4.76% | — | 0.95% |
| 4 | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 1 | 833 | 4.50 | 2.17% | 18.8% | 0.43% |
What do customers love and complain about at Augusta car washes?
Reading the aspect grid: numbers above 0.3 are strong positives; numbers below -0.1 indicate meaningful friction; in between is mixed signal. facility cleanliness is the brightest spot here. equipment reliability is the pain point.
Where are the 13 car washes in Augusta, GA?
Top 10 car washes by review volume in Augusta. The full set of 13 is available in the underlying dataset.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash 2841 Washington Rd | Augusta, GA | Express Tunnel | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 4.5 | 833 | $73K |
| Lulu's Express Car Wash 3129 Peach Orchard Rd | Augusta, GA | Express Tunnel | LuLu's Car Wash | 4.4 | 783 | $38K |
| LuLu's Car Wash 1456 Jackson Rd | Augusta, GA | Express Tunnel | LuLu's Car Wash | 4.4 | 599 | $73K |
| LuLu's Car Wash 2212 Gordon Hwy | Augusta, GA | Express Tunnel | LuLu's Car Wash | 4.5 | 325 | $73K |
| Rock N' Wash Auto Spa 3853 Washington Rd | Augusta, GA | Full Service | — | 4.2 | 301 | $86K |
| Ray Ray's Car Wash 820 Cabela Dr | Augusta, GA | Express Tunnel | Ray Ray's Car Wash | 4.2 | 150 | $73K |
| bp 3745 Wheeler Rd | Augusta, GA | In-Bay Automatic | bp | 3.9 | 66 | $73K |
| bp 2013 Walton Wy | Augusta, GA | In-Bay Automatic | bp | 3.8 | 32 | $66K |
| Fletcher & Sons Truck & Car wash center 2700 Mike Padgett Hwy | Augusta, GA | Full Service | — | 4.4 | 28 | $38K |
| Southern Detail Co. 3125 Damascus Rd Suite D | Augusta, GA | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 22 | $73K |
Data as of 2026-05-22. Pick a format and click Copy.
WashIndex. (2026, May 22). Augusta, GA car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/augusta-ga
WashIndex. "Augusta, GA car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified May 22, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/augusta-ga.
"Augusta, GA car wash market analysis." WashIndex, May. 22, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/augusta-ga.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_cities_augusta_ga_2026,
title = {{Augusta, GA car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {May},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/augusta-ga},
urldate = {2026-05-22},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for Augusta, GA is sourced from the WashIndex national car-wash place index, filtered to places whose Google-Maps-reported city matches Augusta, and further restricted to places whose format the WashIndex LLM classifier identified as a car wash (excluding dealerships, gas stations, and other auto-related businesses that don't primarily operate a car wash). Inclusion in the parent Augusta MSA dataset is established by point-in-polygon against the official US Census county boundaries (TIGER/Line, 2024).
Operating-quality signals are derived from 933 customer reviews processed through WashIndex's 55-field LLM extraction pipeline. Format classification comes from a separate per-location website-reading classifier. ZIP-level income data is from the IRS Statistics of Income (tax year 2022) — mean Adjusted Gross Income per tax return, which is directionally aligned with ACS median household income but available without authentication.
See our full methodology for the extraction pipeline, validation samples, and aggregation logic. Term definitions in the glossary.
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