Waterford Township, MI Car Wash Market Analysis
Part of the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI MSA.
Data updated · May 20, 2026
2,764 Google reviews across 22 car washes in Waterford Township. Format mix, operator rank, county breakdown, rating vs. income, aspect-level customer signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 22
- Chains
- 6
- lead: Imperial Auto Wash (2)
- Avg rating
- 4.32★
- -0.09 vs MSA median
- Damage rate
- 2.8%
- 1.8× MSA norm
- Top format
- detail shop
- 55% of classified
- Median single wash
- $22
- range $11–$40
- Median unlimited
- $20/mo
- cheapest $15/mo at Zax Auto Wash
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 70,148
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 30,633
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 3,189
- 1.6× the national MSA median — lighter supply
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 1.3
- above ~1.0 — contested · classified sites
Key findings
- 22 car wash locations operated by 6 chains and 14 independents.
- Weighted Google rating 4.32★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-market norms.
- Built from 2,764 Google reviews, 930 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
22 car wash locations in Waterford Township, MI · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Waterford Township sits near the center of the US-market distribution on concentration, format mix, and rating. 22 locations across 6 chains and 14 independents. Distinctive patterns show up below at the format and aspect levels.
Headline numbers sit near US-market norms: rating 4.32★, damage 2.8%, cancel friction 29.3%. Staff strong (0.79); equipment reliability weak (-0.76). 2,764 Google reviews drive the analysis, 930 of them processed through the WashIndex LLM extractor.
Published pricing across the 6 of 23 Waterford Township locations with menus available: median single car wash $22 (range $11–$40), median unlimited membership $20/month (range $15–$22/mo). The cheapest unlimited membership in the city is $15/mo at Zax Auto Wash (Fusion Bath).
See the best-rated car washes in Waterford Township, MI
Ranked by Google review rating
What does a car wash cost in Waterford Township, MI?
Published menu pricing for car washes in Waterford Township, captured from operator websites and the WashIndex AI calling agent. 6 of 23 tracked locations in the city have usable published pricing (26% coverage).
| Cheapest unlimited memberships in Waterford Township | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zax Auto Wash Fusion Bath | $15/mo |
| 2 | Mister Car Wash BASE | $19.99/mo |
| 3 | Imperial Auto Wash Bronze Exterior Wash | $20/mo |
| 4 | Clean Express Auto Wash The Basic Bee | $22/mo |
| Cheapest single car washes in Waterford Township | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clean Express Auto Wash The Basic Bee | $11 |
| 2 | Mister Car Wash Platinum | $22 |
| 3 | Zax Auto Wash BUY ONLINE | $40 |
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 Waterford Township, MI
How many car washes are in Waterford Township, MI?
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What is the best-rated car wash in Waterford Township, MI?
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Which car wash chains operate in Waterford Township, MI?
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What is the median household income near Waterford Township car washes?
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What is the average car wash rating in Waterford Township, MI?
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How much does a car wash cost in Waterford Township, MI?
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How much does an unlimited car wash membership cost in Waterford Township, MI?
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What is the cheapest car wash in Waterford Township, MI?
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What kinds of car washes does Waterford Township have?
The table below lists every operating format we classify, with locations, reviews, average rating, damage rate, and membership-cancel friction broken out per format. Waterford Township's mix sits close to the US-city median shape.
Highest-rated format in this market: Detail Shop at 4.79★ (12 locations). Lowest: Self-Serve Bay at 3.60★ (1 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detail Shop | 12 | 54.5% | 1,050 | 4.79 | 0.20% | — |
| Express Tunnel | 4 | 18.2% | 674 | 3.92 | 8.43% | 29.7% |
| Full Service | 3 | 13.6% | 795 | 4.21 | 3.08% | 27.8% |
| In-Bay Automatic | 2 | 9.1% | 95 | 3.91 | 0.00% | — |
| Self-Serve Bay | 1 | 4.5% | 150 | 3.60 | 0.00% | — |
What is the typical household income near Waterford Township car washes?
Each ZIP in Waterford Township 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: -0.00 — effectively zero. Operating quality dominates over neighborhood income here. Scatter mean: $74K AGI/return, 4.45★.
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 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
| $50K – $75K | 2 | 17 | 1,881 | 4.34 | Detail Shop (10) |
| $75K – $100K | 1 | 6 | 883 | 4.26 | Detail Shop (3) |
| $100K – $150K | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
Income band spread: 0/0.00★ at the highest tier; 0/0.00★ at the lowest. In a balanced market, the per-tier read is most useful as a sanity check on whether the operating quality is income-uniform or income-stratified.
Who operates the most Waterford Township car washes?
6 chains run sites in Waterford Township; 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 | Imperial Auto Wash | 2 | 499 | 4.10 | 3.67% | — | 0.00% |
| 2 | bp | 2 | 95 | 3.91 | — | — | — |
| 3 | Carsmetology Self Service - Pontiac | 1 | 55 | 4.40 | — | — | — |
| 4 | Zax Auto Wash | 1 | 179 | 4.30 | — | — | — |
| 5 | Mister Car Wash | 1 | 24 | 3.90 | — | — | — |
| 6 | Clean Express Auto Wash | 1 | 120 | 3.40 | — | 35.5% | — |
What do customers love and complain about at Waterford Township car washes?
Seven aspects, 930 reviews, 22 locations. The grid below gives a quick read on which dimensions of the experience Waterford Township's car wash market does well at and which generate friction.
Where are the 22 car washes in Waterford Township, MI?
22 car washes are tracked in Waterford Township; below is the top of the list by Google review count. Locations with fewer than 10 reviews are excluded from the rating column.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imperial Auto Wash 521 Elizabeth Lake Rd | Waterford Township, MI | Full Service | Imperial Auto Wash | 4.1 | 462 | $70K |
| Forster & Son's Autowash 4820 Dixie Hwy | Waterford Township, MI | Express Tunnel | — | 3.9 | 351 | $87K |
| Miller’s Auto Wash 4379 Dixie Hwy | Waterford Township, MI | Full Service | — | 4.4 | 296 | $87K |
| OMG Auto Spa | Professional Detailing | Ceramic Coating | Revivify 5805 Dixie State Rte | Waterford Township, MI | Detail Shop | — | 4.6 | 192 | $87K |
| Zax Auto Wash 7020 Cooley Lake Rd | Waterford Township, MI | Express Tunnel | Zax Auto Wash | 4.3 | 179 | $67K |
| Clean Vision Detailing | Window Tinting • Ceramic Coatings • Icon Rocklear • Paint Protection 5420 Highland Rd | Waterford Township, MI | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 153 | $67K |
| Spray & Wash 1400 Airport Rd | Waterford Township, MI | Self-Serve Bay | — | 3.6 | 150 | $67K |
| Titan Auto Detailing 2850 Alliance Dr B | Waterford Township, MI | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 135 | $70K |
| Clean Express Auto Wash 4300 Pontiac Lake Rd | Waterford Township, MI | Express Tunnel | Clean Express Auto Wash | 3.4 | 120 | $70K |
| ZTech - Rhino Linings of Waterford 6367 Highland Rd | Waterford Township, MI | Detail Shop | — | 4.8 | 104 | $67K |
Compare Waterford Township to other car wash markets in the Detroit 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 2026-05-20. Pick a format and click Copy.
WashIndex. (2026, May 20). Waterford Township, MI car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/waterford-township-mi
WashIndex. "Waterford Township, MI car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified May 20, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/waterford-township-mi.
"Waterford Township, MI car wash market analysis." WashIndex, May. 20, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/waterford-township-mi.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_cities_waterford_township_mi_2026,
title = {{Waterford Township, MI car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {May},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/waterford-township-mi},
urldate = {2026-05-20},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for Waterford Township, MI is sourced from the WashIndex national car-wash place index, filtered to places whose Google-Maps-reported city matches Waterford Township, 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 Detroit MSA dataset is established by point-in-polygon against the official US Census county boundaries (TIGER/Line, 2024).
Operating-quality signals are derived from 930 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
Free tools: membership break-even · site opportunity · ROI calculator