Williamsburg, VA Car Wash Market Analysis
Part of the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC MSA.
Data updated · June 9, 2026
2,649 Google reviews across 11 car washes in Williamsburg. Format mix, operator rank, county breakdown, rating vs. income, aspect-level customer signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 11
- Chains
- 7
- lead: bp (3)
- Avg rating
- 4.37★
- Damage rate
- 1.9%
- Top format
- detail shop
- 27% of classified
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 15,564
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 4,973
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 1,415
- 1.4× denser than the national MSA median
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 6.0
- above ~1.5 — heavily built · classified sites
Key findings
- 11 car wash locations operated by 7 chains and 2 independents.
- Weighted Google rating 4.37★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-market norms.
- Built from 2,649 Google reviews, 700 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
11 car wash locations in Williamsburg, VA · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Williamsburg's car wash market reads as US-market-typical in shape; the distinctive cuts are at the format and aspect levels. 11 locations across 7 chains and 2 independents. Distinctive patterns show up below at the format and aspect levels.
Weighted rating 4.37★; damage 1.9%; membership-cancel friction 13.2%. Equipment reliability runs as the sharpest friction (-0.61). 2,649 Google reviews drive the analysis, 700 of them processed through the WashIndex LLM extractor.
See the best-rated car washes in Williamsburg, VA
Ranked by Google review rating
Car wash financing in Williamsburg, VA
Since 2010, the U.S. Small Business Administration has backed 5 car-wash loans in Williamsburg, VA worth $4.7M, at a median of $360,000 per car wash. About 33% funded brand-new or startup car washes.
- New build / open20% · $610K
- Expansion / improvement60% · $360K
- Unclassified20% · $163K
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 Williamsburg, VA
How many car washes are in Williamsburg, VA?
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What is the best-rated car wash in Williamsburg, VA?
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Which car wash chains operate in Williamsburg, VA?
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What is the median household income near Williamsburg car washes?
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What is the average car wash rating in Williamsburg, VA?
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What kinds of car washes does Williamsburg 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. Williamsburg's mix sits close to the US-city median shape.
Highest-rated format in this market: Detail Shop at 4.96★ (3 locations). Lowest: Self-Serve Bay at 3.60★ (1 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detail Shop | 3 | 27.3% | 458 | 4.96 | 0.34% | 0.0% |
| Express Tunnel | 3 | 27.3% | 1,428 | 4.53 | 3.00% | 15.6% |
| In-Bay Automatic | 3 | 27.3% | 43 | 3.70 | 0.00% | — |
| Full Service | 1 | 9.1% | 294 | 3.90 | 4.17% | 0.0% |
| Self-Serve Bay | 1 | 9.1% | 426 | 3.60 | 2.86% | 0.0% |
What is the typical household income near Williamsburg car washes?
Read together with the format mix above, the income scatter below tells you whether car wash quality in Williamsburg tracks neighborhood income, format mix, or neither. Operating quality usually dominates this picture.
Pearson r between ZIP income and rating across 11 qualifying locations: 0.68 — mild positive. Higher-income ZIPs host slightly better-rated washes; weak but present. Scatter mean: $109K 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 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
| $50K – $75K | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
| $75K – $100K | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
| $100K – $150K | 2 | 12 | 2,649 | 4.37 | Detail Shop (4) |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
The highest-income tier ($150K+) contains 0 car washes across 0 ZIPs at 0.00★, against 0 sites across 0 ZIPs at 0.00★ 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 Williamsburg car washes?
7 chains alongside 2 independents make up Williamsburg's car wash supply. The chain rank below shows the multi-location operators' position; the per-location detail near the bottom of the page captures the independent layer.
| # | Chain | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage | Cancel | Upsell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | bp | 3 | 43 | 3.70 | — | — | — |
| 2 | Autobell Car Wash | 1 | 294 | 3.90 | — | — | — |
| 3 | Sam's Xpress Car Wash | 1 | 486 | 4.60 | — | — | — |
| 4 | Svt Auto Detail | 1 | 11 | 4.90 | — | — | — |
| 5 | Mega Auto Spa | 1 | 530 | 4.50 | — | — | — |
| 6 | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 1 | 412 | 4.50 | 3.38% | — | 2.03% |
| 7 | Royal Rinse Car Wash | 1 | 426 | 3.60 | — | — | — |
What do customers love and complain about at Williamsburg car washes?
Seven aspects, 700 reviews, 11 locations. The grid below gives a quick read on which dimensions of the experience Williamsburg's car wash market does well at and which generate friction.
Where are the 11 car washes in Williamsburg, VA?
11 car washes are tracked in Williamsburg; 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mega Auto Spa-Williamsburg 5117 John Tyler Hwy | Williamsburg, VA | Express Tunnel | Mega Auto Spa | 4.5 | 530 | $111K |
| Sam's Xpress Car Wash 305 Bypass Rd | Williamsburg, VA | Express Tunnel | Sam's Xpress Car Wash | 4.6 | 486 | $111K |
| Royal Rinse Car Wash 6950 Richmond Rd | Williamsburg, VA | Self-Serve Bay | Royal Rinse Car Wash | 3.6 | 426 | $104K |
| Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash 6640 Mooretown Rd | Williamsburg, VA | Express Tunnel | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 4.5 | 412 | $104K |
| Autobell Car Wash 336 2nd St | Williamsburg, VA | Full Service | Autobell Car Wash | 3.9 | 294 | $111K |
| Auto Love Pro Detailing LLC ( Mobile Service) 400 Whitworth Wy #107 | Williamsburg, VA | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 160 | $111K |
| Simply Car Detailing - PPF Paint Protection Film, Ceramic Coating, Window Tint 309 Cheeseman Rd | Williamsburg, VA | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 105 | $111K |
| bp 6384 Richmond Rd | Williamsburg, VA | In-Bay Automatic | bp | 2.7 | 19 | $104K |
| bp 1102 Penniman Rd | Williamsburg, VA | In-Bay Automatic | bp | 4.4 | 14 | $111K |
| Smurf's Auto Detiling 701 Merrimac Trail | Williamsburg, VA | Detail Shop | Svt Auto Detail | 4.9 | 11 | $111K |
Compare Williamsburg to other car wash markets in the Virginia Beach 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 2026-06-09. Pick a format and click Copy.
WashIndex. (2026, June 9). Williamsburg, VA car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/williamsburg-va
WashIndex. "Williamsburg, VA car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/williamsburg-va.
"Williamsburg, VA car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/williamsburg-va.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_cities_williamsburg_va_2026,
title = {{Williamsburg, VA car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-cities/williamsburg-va},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for Williamsburg, VA is sourced from the WashIndex national car-wash place index, filtered to places whose Google-Maps-reported city matches Williamsburg, 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 Virginia Beach MSA dataset is established by point-in-polygon against the official US Census county boundaries (TIGER/Line, 2024).
Operating-quality signals are derived from 700 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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