Modesto, CA Car Wash Market Analysis
Part of the Modesto, CA MSA.
Data updated · May 22, 2026
6,340 Google reviews across 22 car washes in Modesto. Format mix, operator rank, county breakdown, rating vs. income, aspect-level customer signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 22
- Chains
- 5
- lead: Mister Car Wash (5)
- Avg rating
- 4.21★
- -0.20 vs MSA median
- Damage rate
- 3.4%
- 2.2× MSA norm
- Top format
- detail shop
- 41% of classified
- Median single wash
- $10
- range $10–$23.50
- Median unlimited
- $22.99/mo
- cheapest $17/mo at Skylab Ceramic Details
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 218,614
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 72,418
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 9,937
- 5.1× 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
- 22 car wash locations operated by 5 chains and 11 independents.
- Weighted Google rating 4.21★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-market norms.
- Built from 6,340 Google reviews, 1,275 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
22 car wash locations in Modesto, CA · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Modesto sits near the center of the US-market distribution on concentration, format mix, and rating. 22 locations across 5 chains and 11 independents. Customer-experience signals across 1,275 AI-extracted reviews produce the distinct read on this market.
Weighted rating 4.21★; damage 3.4%; membership-cancel friction 14.1%. Facility cleanliness strong (0.84); equipment reliability weak (-0.44). 6,340 Google reviews drive the analysis, 1,275 of them processed through the WashIndex LLM extractor.
Published pricing across the 13 of 22 Modesto locations with menus available: median single car wash $10 (range $10–$23.50), median unlimited membership $22.99/month (range $17–$29/mo). The cheapest unlimited membership in the city is $17/mo at Skylab Ceramic Details (GET A QUOTE).
See the best-rated car washes in Modesto, CA
Ranked by Google review rating
What does a car wash cost in Modesto, CA?
Published menu pricing for car washes in Modesto, captured from operator websites and the WashIndex AI calling agent. 13 of 22 tracked locations in the city have usable published pricing (59% coverage).
| Cheapest unlimited memberships in Modesto | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Skylab Ceramic Details GET A QUOTE | $17/mo |
| 2 | Fast Bay Car Wash GOOD | $19.99/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 Modesto | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mister Car Wash Base | $10 |
| 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.
About Modesto, CA
How many car washes are in Modesto, CA?
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What is the best-rated car wash in Modesto, CA?
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Which car wash chains operate in Modesto, CA?
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What is the median household income near Modesto car washes?
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What is the average car wash rating in Modesto, CA?
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How much does a car wash cost in Modesto, CA?
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How much does an unlimited car wash membership cost in Modesto, CA?
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What is the cheapest car wash in Modesto, CA?
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What kinds of car washes does Modesto have?
Format counts below split Modesto's 22 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 4.77★ (9 locations). Lowest: Full Service at 3.96★ (3 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detail Shop | 9 | 40.9% | 1,037 | 4.77 | 0.54% | — |
| Express Tunnel | 7 | 31.8% | 3,794 | 4.16 | 5.69% | 14.8% |
| Full Service | 3 | 13.6% | 1,411 | 3.96 | 5.36% | 0.0% |
| In-Bay Automatic | 2 | 9.1% | 80 | 3.72 | 8.33% | — |
| Self-Serve Bay | 1 | 4.5% | 18 | 4.50 | 0.00% | — |
What is the typical household income near Modesto car washes?
Each ZIP in Modesto 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 22 qualifying locations: 0.13 — mild positive. Higher-income ZIPs host slightly better-rated washes; weak but present. Scatter mean: $79K AGI/return, 4.34★.
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 | 4 | 453 | 4.41 | Detail Shop (2) |
| $50K – $75K | 3 | 6 | 2,647 | 4.20 | Express Tunnel (3) |
| $75K – $100K | 1 | 3 | 1,394 | 3.96 | Express Tunnel (2) |
| $100K – $150K | 1 | 9 | 1,846 | 4.36 | Detail Shop (6) |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
The highest-income tier ($150K+) contains 0 car washes across 0 ZIPs at 0.00★, against 4 sites across 1 ZIPs at 4.41★ 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 Modesto car washes?
The table below ranks the top 25 chains operating in Modesto 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 | 5 | 2,859 | 4.04 | 6.78% | 15.1% | 1.08% |
| 2 | 76 | 2 | 80 | 3.72 | — | — | — |
| 3 | Five Minute Car Wash | 2 | 719 | 4.12 | — | — | — |
| 4 | So Fresh & So Clean Auto Detailing | 1 | 51 | 4.70 | — | — | — |
| 5 | Ceramic Garage Inc | 1 | 500 | 5.00 | 0.30% | — | 0.30% |
What do customers love and complain about at Modesto 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 22 car washes in Modesto, CA?
The complete inventory of car wash locations in the Modesto market is captured in the underlying dataset; the table below shows the highest-review-volume sites for at-a-glance comparison. Each row shows operator, address, format, chain affiliation, rating, review count, and the IRS mean AGI for the ZIP.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mister Car Wash 448 McHenry Ave | Modesto, CA | Express Tunnel | Mister Car Wash | 4.3 | 1,002 | $61K |
| Vintage Car Wash Inc 1801 Standiford Ave | Modesto, CA | Full Service | — | 3.8 | 692 | $64K |
| Mister Car Wash 1736 Oakdale Rd | Modesto, CA | Express Tunnel | Mister Car Wash | 3.8 | 610 | $77K |
| Mister Car Wash 4120 Dale Rd | Modesto, CA | Express Tunnel | Mister Car Wash | 3.9 | 574 | $106K |
| TipTop Express Car Wash 1623 Yosemite Blvd | Modesto, CA | Express Tunnel | — | 4.7 | 560 | $61K |
| Ceramic Garage Inc 500 Glass Ln suite c-3, d-4 | Modesto, CA | Detail Shop | Ceramic Garage Inc | 5.0 | 500 | $106K |
| Five Minute Car Wash 1109 Oakdale Rd | Modesto, CA | Full Service | Five Minute Car Wash | 3.9 | 409 | $77K |
| Fast Bay Car Wash 2101 Sylvan Ave | Modesto, CA | Express Tunnel | — | 4.3 | 375 | $77K |
| Mister Car Wash 1800 Prescott Rd A | Modesto, CA | Express Tunnel | Mister Car Wash | 3.9 | 360 | $64K |
| Mister Car Wash 3520 McHenry Ave | Modesto, CA | Express Tunnel | Mister Car Wash | 4.1 | 313 | $106K |
Compare Modesto to other car wash markets in the Modesto metro
Cities in the same metro, ordered by closest comparable size. Each link runs the same operator concentration, format mix, and customer-experience analysis.
Data as of 2026-05-22. Pick a format and click Copy.
WashIndex. (2026, May 22). Modesto, CA car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/modesto-ca
WashIndex. "Modesto, CA car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified May 22, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/modesto-ca.
"Modesto, CA car wash market analysis." WashIndex, May. 22, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/modesto-ca.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_cities_modesto_ca_2026,
title = {{Modesto, CA car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {May},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/modesto-ca},
urldate = {2026-05-22},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for Modesto, CA is sourced from the WashIndex national car-wash place index, filtered to places whose Google-Maps-reported city matches Modesto, 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 Modesto MSA dataset is established by point-in-polygon against the official US Census county boundaries (TIGER/Line, 2024).
Operating-quality signals are derived from 1,275 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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