Syracuse, NY Car Wash Market Analysis
Part of the Syracuse, NY MSA.
Data updated · June 9, 2026
3,208 Google reviews across 13 Syracuse car washes — a detail shop-dominant market. Format dominance breakdown, per-format quality, operator rank, customer-experience signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 13
- Chains
- 2
- lead: GO Car Wash (1)
- Avg rating
- 4.44★
- Damage rate
- 2.4%
- 1.5× MSA norm
- Top format
- detail shop
- 62% of classified
- Median single wash
- $10
- range $9–$10
- Median unlimited
- $15/mo
- cheapest $10/mo at Mr. Suds Car Wash
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 146,211
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 59,286
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 11,247
- 5.8× 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 2 chains and 11 independents.
- Detail shop dominates: 61.5% of formally-classified locations.
- Built from 3,208 Google reviews, 869 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
13 car wash locations in Syracuse, NY · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Syracuse's car wash supply is structurally tilted toward detail shop. 61.5% of formally-classified locations operate as detail shop; the other formats appear at long-tail volume. Operating-quality signals below are best read as a study of detail shop's execution.
Average rating 4.44★; damage 2.4%; detail shop averages 4.62★. Aspect-level: Wash quality strong (0.77), equipment reliability weak (-0.79). 3,208 Google reviews back the analysis, 869 LLM-extracted across 55 dimensions.
Published pricing across the 4 of 14 Syracuse locations with menus available: median single car wash $10 (range $9–$10), median unlimited membership $15/month (range $10–$15/mo). The cheapest unlimited membership in the city is $10/mo at Mr. Suds Car Wash (Basic).
See the best-rated car washes in Syracuse, NY
Ranked by Google review rating
What does a car wash cost in Syracuse, NY?
Published menu pricing for car washes in Syracuse, captured from operator websites and the WashIndex AI calling agent. 4 of 14 tracked locations in the city have usable published pricing (29% coverage).
| Cheapest unlimited memberships in Syracuse | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mr. Suds Car Wash Basic | $10/mo |
| 2 | GO Car Wash Tier 4 | $15/mo |
| Cheapest single car washes in Syracuse | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mr. Suds Car Wash Basic | $9 |
| 2 | GO Car Wash Tier 4 | $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 Syracuse, NY
Since 2010, the U.S. Small Business Administration has backed 7 car-wash loans in Syracuse, NY worth $2.8M, at a median of $198,400 per car wash. About 40% funded brand-new or startup car washes.
- New build / open29% · $170K
- Acquisition14% · $1.3M
- Expansion / improvement29% · $235K
- Working capital14% · $20K
- Unclassified14% · $754K
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 Syracuse, NY
How many car washes are in Syracuse, NY?
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What is the best-rated car wash in Syracuse, NY?
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Which car wash chains operate in Syracuse, NY?
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What is the median household income near Syracuse car washes?
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What is the average car wash rating in Syracuse, NY?
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How much does a car wash cost in Syracuse, NY?
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How much does an unlimited car wash membership cost in Syracuse, NY?
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What is the cheapest car wash in Syracuse, NY?
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What kinds of car washes does Syracuse have?
Format dominance is the structural story here. 8 of the 13 car washes in Syracuse run as detail shop. The mini-table below shows how the rest of the market splits.
Highest-rated format in this market: Detail Shop at 4.62★ (8 locations). Lowest: In-Bay Automatic at 4.00★ (1 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detail Shop | 8 | 61.5% | 2,100 | 4.62 | 0.63% | 0.0% |
| Express Tunnel | 4 | 30.8% | 831 | 4.16 | 7.94% | 25.0% |
| In-Bay Automatic | 1 | 7.7% | 277 | 4.00 | 0.00% | 0.0% |
What is the typical household income near Syracuse car washes?
Because Syracuse is detail shop-dominant, the income scatter below mostly reads as a study of how that one format ranges across income tiers. The other formats show up as small splotches at the long tail.
Pearson r between ZIP income and rating across 13 qualifying locations: 0.37 — mild positive. Higher-income ZIPs host slightly better-rated washes; weak but present. Scatter mean: $57K AGI/return, 4.55★.
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 | 4 | 7 | 2,280 | 4.39 | Detail Shop (4) |
| $50K – $75K | 2 | 5 | 243 | 4.78 | Detail Shop (4) |
| $75K – $100K | 1 | 2 | 685 | 4.51 | Detail Shop (1) |
| $100K – $150K | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
Highest vs. lowest income tier: 0 sites/0.00★ vs. 7 sites/4.39★. Where the dominant format runs 61.5% of classified sites, the per-tier breakdown mostly reflects how that single format ranges across income levels.
Who operates the most Syracuse car washes?
2 chains compete in Syracuse, with the top names typically being heavy detail shop operators. The damage and cancel-friction columns below tell you which chains do this format well and which do it poorly.
| # | Chain | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage | Cancel | Upsell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GO Car Wash | 1 | 56 | 4.10 | — | — | — |
| 2 | Valet Auto Wash Syracuse | 1 | 387 | 4.10 | — | — | — |
What do customers love and complain about at Syracuse car washes?
Aspect averages below are heavily shaped by Syracuse's dominant format. Since 61.5% of formally-classified locations operate as detail shop, the aspect mix is closer to a detail shop read than to a multi-format average.
Where are the 13 car washes in Syracuse, NY?
The location table below is shaped heavily by Syracuse's format dominance — most high-volume sites operate as detail shop.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ziebart 980 Hiawatha Blvd W | Syracuse, NY | Detail Shop | — | 4.4 | 1,135 | $43K |
| Valet Auto Wash Syracuse 2027 Park St | Syracuse, NY | Express Tunnel | Valet Auto Wash Syracuse | 4.1 | 387 | $39K |
| Upstate Imports Auto Repair Syracuse LLC 2221 Erie Blvd E | Syracuse, NY | Detail Shop | — | 4.7 | 356 | $85K |
| The Sudsy Bucket Car Wash 2425 Erie Blvd E | Syracuse, NY | Express Tunnel | — | 4.3 | 329 | $85K |
| North Salina Car Wash 1600 N Salina St | Syracuse, NY | In-Bay Automatic | — | 4.0 | 277 | $39K |
| Photo Finish Detailing & Paint Protection 521 Horan Rd | Syracuse, NY | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 104 | $73K |
| Diamond Detailing 3835 S Salina St | Syracuse, NY | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 80 | $41K |
| Empire Custom Paint and Body 948 Spencer St | Syracuse, NY | Detail Shop | — | 4.8 | 62 | $43K |
| Mr. Suds Car Wash 3835 S Salina St | Syracuse, NY | Express Tunnel | — | 3.8 | 59 | $41K |
| GO Car Wash 5643 Bear Rd | Syracuse, NY | Express Tunnel | GO Car Wash | 4.1 | 56 | $62K |
Data as of 2026-06-09. Pick a format and click Copy.
WashIndex. (2026, June 9). Syracuse, NY car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/syracuse-ny
WashIndex. "Syracuse, NY car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/syracuse-ny.
"Syracuse, NY car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/syracuse-ny.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_cities_syracuse_ny_2026,
title = {{Syracuse, NY car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/syracuse-ny},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for Syracuse, NY is sourced from the WashIndex national car-wash place index, filtered to places whose Google-Maps-reported city matches Syracuse, 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 Syracuse MSA dataset is established by point-in-polygon against the official US Census county boundaries (TIGER/Line, 2024).
Operating-quality signals are derived from 869 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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