Merced, CA Car Wash Market Analysis
Part of the Merced, CA MSA.
Data updated · June 9, 2026
2,461 Google reviews across 10 car washes in Merced. Format mix, operator rank, county breakdown, rating vs. income, aspect-level customer signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 10
- Chains
- 3
- lead: Mister Car Wash (4)
- Avg rating
- 4.24★
- -0.17 vs MSA median
- Damage rate
- 4.3%
- 2.8× MSA norm
- Top format
- express tunnel
- 50% of classified
- Median single wash
- $10
- range $5–$29
- Median unlimited
- $22.99/mo
- cheapest $19.99/mo at Super Shine Car Wash and Vacuum
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 156,705
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 50,400
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 15,671
- 8.1× the national MSA median — lighter supply
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 1.0
- in the 0.5–1.0 filling band · classified sites
Key findings
- 10 car wash locations operated by 3 chains and 4 independents.
- Weighted Google rating 4.24★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-market norms.
- Built from 2,461 Google reviews, 529 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
10 car wash locations in Merced, CA · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
No single structural signal jumps out for Merced — it's a mid-shape car wash market. 10 locations across 3 chains and 4 independents. Customer-experience signals across 529 AI-extracted reviews produce the distinct read on this market.
Average rating across the 10-location market weighs in at 4.24★; damage rate 4.3%; cancel friction 16.3%. Staff is the brightest aspect signal (0.76/+1). Per-operator and per-format cuts below are more informative than the aggregates.
Published pricing across the 6 of 10 Merced locations with menus available: median single car wash $10 (range $5–$29), median unlimited membership $22.99/month (range $19.99–$39.99/mo). The cheapest unlimited membership in the city is $19.99/mo at Super Shine Car Wash and Vacuum (Basic Membership).
See the best-rated car washes in Merced, CA
Ranked by Google review rating
What does a car wash cost in Merced, CA?
Published menu pricing for car washes in Merced, captured from operator websites and the WashIndex AI calling agent. 6 of 10 tracked locations in the city have usable published pricing (60% coverage).
| Cheapest unlimited memberships in Merced | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Super Shine Car Wash and Vacuum Basic Membership | $19.99/mo |
| 2 | Mister Car Wash BASE | $22.99/mo |
| 3 | Mister Car Wash BASE | $22.99/mo |
| 4 | Mister Car Wash BASE | $22.99/mo |
| 5 | Mister Car Wash BASE | $22.99/mo |
| Cheapest single car washes in Merced | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Super Shine Car Wash and Vacuum Self Serve | $5 |
| 2 | Mister Car Wash Base | $10 |
| 3 | Mister Car Wash Base | $10 |
| 4 | Mister Car Wash Base | $10 |
| 5 | Mister Car Wash Base | $10 |
Pricing scraped from operator websites where published; the WashIndex AI calling agent rings up locations that don’t publish menus online to capture pricing directly.
Car wash financing in Merced, CA
Since 2010, the U.S. Small Business Administration has backed 5 car-wash loans in Merced, CA worth $6.3M, at a median of $1,632,000 per car wash. About 60% funded brand-new or startup car washes.
FY2026 annualized from its first 6 months.
- New build / open60% · $1.6M
- Expansion / improvement40% · $1.3M
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration 7(a) & 504 FOIA datasets (NAICS 811192), data through 2026-03-31. See the Car Wash Lending Tracker for national figures and methodology.
About Merced, CA
How many car washes are in Merced, CA?
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What is the best-rated car wash in Merced, CA?
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Which car wash chains operate in Merced, CA?
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What is the median household income near Merced car washes?
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What is the average car wash rating in Merced, CA?
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How much does a car wash cost in Merced, CA?
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How much does an unlimited car wash membership cost in Merced, CA?
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What is the cheapest car wash in Merced, CA?
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What kinds of car washes does Merced have?
Format counts below split Merced's 10 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: Detail Shop at 4.94★ (3 locations). Lowest: Express Tunnel at 4.11★ (5 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Express Tunnel | 5 | 50.0% | 1,361 | 4.11 | 7.61% | 16.7% |
| Detail Shop | 3 | 30.0% | 172 | 4.94 | 0.00% | — |
| Full Service | 2 | 20.0% | 928 | 4.29 | 2.99% | 15.8% |
What is the typical household income near Merced car washes?
10 Merced car washes with at least 10 Google reviews are plotted below against the mean IRS AGI per return for their ZIP. The Pearson correlation we compute is one of the cleanest cuts on whether neighborhood income meaningfully shapes wash quality here.
Pearson r between ZIP income and rating across 10 qualifying locations: -0.54 — mild negative. Higher-income ZIPs host slightly lower-rated washes on average, which is unusual. Scatter mean: $65K AGI/return, 4.35★.
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 | 1 | 87 | 5.00 | Detail Shop (1) |
| $50K – $75K | 1 | 4 | 833 | 4.08 | Detail Shop (2) |
| $75K – $100K | 1 | 5 | 1,541 | 4.28 | Express Tunnel (4) |
| $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 1 sites across 1 ZIPs at 5.00★ 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 Merced car washes?
The table below ranks the top 25 chains operating in Merced by location count. Each row shows per-chain Google rating, damage rate, and cancel friction — the cleanest side-by-side cut on operator quality in the market.
| # | Chain | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage | Cancel | Upsell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mister Car Wash | 4 | 1,350 | 4.11 | 7.65% | — | 0.51% |
| 2 | Super Shine Car Wash | 1 | 11 | 3.90 | — | — | — |
| 3 | The Wash Shop | 1 | 648 | 4.50 | 1.25% | — | 0.00% |
What do customers love and complain about at Merced car washes?
The aspect grid below summarizes 529 AI-extracted reviews across 10 Merced car wash locations. Each aspect lands on a -1…+1 scale (negative = customers complain more than they praise; positive = the reverse).
Where are the 10 car washes in Merced, CA?
Top 10 car washes by review volume in Merced. The full set of 10 is available in the underlying dataset.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mister Car Wash 930 W 16th St | Merced, CA | Express Tunnel | Mister Car Wash | 4.1 | 677 | $76K |
| The Wash Shop 23 E 23rd St | Merced, CA | Full Service | The Wash Shop | 4.5 | 648 | $76K |
| Mister Car Wash 1800 W Olive Ave | Merced, CA | Express Tunnel | Mister Car Wash | 4.1 | 468 | $56K |
| Merced Mall Car Wash 870 Loughborough Dr #2643 | Merced, CA | Full Service | — | 3.8 | 280 | $56K |
| Mister Car Wash 3690 G St | Merced, CA | Express Tunnel | Mister Car Wash | 4.2 | 149 | $76K |
| Amaros Wash & Detail 335 Grogan Ave Suite F | Merced, CA | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 87 | $45K |
| Mister Car Wash 2905 G St | Merced, CA | Express Tunnel | Mister Car Wash | 4.1 | 56 | $76K |
| King’s Classic Detailing 3376 N State Hwy 59 A | Merced, CA | Detail Shop | — | 4.8 | 51 | $56K |
| Ultra Car Care 1275 Wildcat Dr | Merced, CA | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 34 | $56K |
| Super Shine Car Wash and Vacuum 820 W 16th St | Merced, CA | Express Tunnel | Super Shine Car Wash | 3.9 | 11 | $76K |
Data as of 2026-06-09. Pick a format and click Copy.
WashIndex. (2026, June 9). Merced, CA car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/merced-ca
WashIndex. "Merced, CA car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/merced-ca.
"Merced, CA car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/merced-ca.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_cities_merced_ca_2026,
title = {{Merced, CA car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/merced-ca},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for Merced, CA is sourced from the WashIndex national car-wash place index, filtered to places whose Google-Maps-reported city matches Merced, 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 Merced MSA dataset is established by point-in-polygon against the official US Census county boundaries (TIGER/Line, 2024).
Operating-quality signals are derived from 529 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.
Machine-readable: JSON ↓ · API root
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