Augusta Car Wash Market Analysis
Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC
Data updated · June 9, 2026
Quality-outlier car wash market analysis for Augusta: 298 sites, 26,003 reviews, sharp deviation from chain-category norms. Per-operator damage attribution, format-level quality decomposition, aspect-level customer signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 298
- 82% independent
- Chains
- 9
- lead: Circle K (15 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.55★
- +0.14 vs national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 0.8%
- 1.9× below national norm
- Cancel friction
- 11.1%
- Top format
- express tunnel
- 44% of classified inventory
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 618,022
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 225,591
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 2,074
- near the national MSA median
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 0.8
- in the 0.5–1.0 filling band · classified sites
Key findings
- 298 car wash locations operated by 9 chains and 244 independents across 7 counties.
- Reviewer-reported damage rate of 0.8% runs 1.9× below the 1.6% US-metro median.
- Built from 26,003 Google reviews, 11,186 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
298 car wash locations across 7 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Augusta stands out for operational-quality signals that are below the typical US metro norm. Reviewer-reported damage runs at 0.8% across 298 tracked locations, vs. a peer median of 1.6%. Reading the operator-level breakdown below shows which segments drive the outlier signal.
Weighted Google rating across all locations is 4.55★ — above the 4.41★ US-metro median. Membership-cancel friction at 11.1%. Staff scores 0.89 on the WashIndex -1…+1 scale — the brightest signal here. 26,003 Google reviews underpin the quality cut, 11,186 AI-extracted.
See the top car wash chains in Augusta
Ranked by location count in the metro
The car wash industry in the Augusta metro, officially
Fast-growingthe Augusta metro is one of the faster-growing car-wash job markets: employer establishments grew 29% from 2022 to 2024 — ahead of the ~7% national pace — to 31, now employing about 61 people at a $29,192 average wage.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, QCEW (private, NAICS 811192). Counts car-wash employer establishments, a narrower universe than all physical wash locations — see methodology.
About the Augusta car wash market
How many car washes are in the Augusta metro?
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What is the best-rated car wash in the Augusta metro?
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Which car wash chain has the most locations in Augusta?
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What is the average customer rating in the Augusta car wash market?
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What is the typical household income near car washes in Augusta?
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What kinds of car washes does Augusta have?
Format mix in Augusta isn't where the distinctive story sits — the damage/quality signal at the top of the page is. Still, the per-format breakdown matters because damage rates concentrate inside specific formats (express tunnels typically run highest, hand-finished detail shops typically run lowest).
Highest-rated format: Detail Shop at 4.95★ across 7 locations. Lowest-rated: In-Bay Automatic at 3.94★ (14 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Express Tunnel | 19 | 6.4% | 9,732 | 4.58 | 1.03% | 13.2% |
| In-Bay Automatic | 14 | 4.7% | 337 | 3.94 | 2.00% | — |
| Detail Shop | 7 | 2.3% | 488 | 4.95 | 0.70% | 0.0% |
| Full Service | 3 | 1.0% | 475 | 4.33 | 0.00% | — |
What is the household income near Augusta car washes?
The scatter pairs each car wash's Google rating against the mean IRS AGI per return in its ZIP. Reads of Augusta's quality signal benefit from this overlay — does the friction concentrate in lower-income ZIPs, or does it persist across them?
Pearson r between ZIP income and Google rating across 119 qualifying locations: 0.10 — effectively zero. Operating quality dominates over neighborhood income. Scatter mean: $71K AGI/return, 4.30★.
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 | 5 | 34 | 3,961 | 4.53 | In-Bay Automatic (3) |
| $50K – $75K | 17 | 103 | 9,991 | 4.55 | In-Bay Automatic (9) |
| $75K – $100K | 3 | 45 | 7,342 | 4.48 | Express Tunnel (8) |
| $100K – $150K | 1 | 15 | 3,881 | 4.64 | Detail Shop (3) |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
0 car washes in the highest-income tier at 0.00★ vs. 34 in the lowest at 4.53★. The interesting question for a quality-outlier market like Augusta is whether the damage/rating signal correlates with income — the per-tier breakdown is the cleanest cut on that.
Who operates the most Augusta car washes?
In a quality-outlier market like Augusta, the chain rank below is the cleanest attribution cut: which chains pull the metro damage rate up vs. down, and which sit in line. The damage and cancel columns are the columns to read here.
| # | Chain | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage | Cancel | Upsell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Circle K | 15 | 760 | 3.37 | 0.00% | — | 0.00% |
| 2 | bp | 13 | 327 | 3.95 | — | — | — |
| 3 | LuLu's Car Wash | 8 | 5,500 | 4.50 | 1.17% | 12.3% | 0.86% |
| 4 | Sparkle Express Car Wash | 7 | 8,063 | 4.68 | 0.50% | 9.9% | 0.20% |
| 5 | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 5 | 1,743 | 4.56 | 1.60% | 20.0% | 0.87% |
| 6 | Garden City Car Wash | 2 | 1,525 | 4.59 | 0.31% | 8.1% | 0.00% |
| 7 | Ray Ray's Car Wash | 2 | 239 | 4.24 | 3.31% | — | 0.55% |
| 8 | Citgo | 1 | 35 | 4.10 | — | — | — |
| 9 | Master Car Wash & Detailing | 1 | 24 | 4.40 | — | — | — |
Which counties have the most car washes in Augusta?
Reading the county breakdown below in a quality-outlier market is mainly an attribution exercise: does the metro's elevated damage signal concentrate in specific counties, or is it spread across them?
Cross-county rating dispersion: 0.48★ between the highest- and lowest-rated counties with meaningful sample size.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richmond County | 136 | 45.6% | 8,164 | 4.46 |
| Aiken County | 71 | 23.8% | 6,157 | 4.43 |
| Columbia County | 57 | 19.1% | 9,300 | 4.64 |
| Burke County | 13 | 4.4% | 159 | 4.33 |
| McDuffie County | 11 | 3.7% | 2,139 | 4.81 |
| Edgefield County | 11 | 3.7% | 84 | 4.23 |
| Lincoln County | 1 | 0.3% | 0 | — |
What do customers love and complain about in Augusta?
The aspect grid below is where Augusta's quality-outlier signal decomposes into specific friction points. Each aspect score is (positive − negative) / total, ranging -1…+1.
Where are all the car washes in the Augusta metro?
Locations are ranked by review volume; rating, format, chain, and ZIP income are shown. The sites at the top of this list are the ones whose ratings carry the most weight in the metro-wide average.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shine On Thomson Car Wash 1640 Washington Rd | Thomson, GA | Express Tunnel | — | 4.9 | 1,733 | $56K |
| Sparkle Express Car Wash 3597 Peach Orchard Rd | Augusta, GA | — | Sparkle Express Car Wash | 4.8 | 1,578 | $38K |
| Sparkle Express Car Wash 115 N Belair Rd | Martinez, GA | — | Sparkle Express Car Wash | 4.7 | 1,426 | $113K |
| Sparkle Express Car Wash 4393 Washington Rd | Evans, GA | — | Sparkle Express Car Wash | 4.6 | 1,353 | $113K |
| LuLu's Car Wash 1045 Edgefield Rd | North Augusta, SC | Express Tunnel | LuLu's Car Wash | 4.6 | 1,345 | $84K |
| Sparkle Express Car Wash 5003 Steiner Way | Grovetown, GA | — | Garden City Car Wash | 4.7 | 1,340 | $68K |
| Sparkle Express Car Wash 204 Edgefield Rd | North Augusta, SC | — | Sparkle Express Car Wash | 4.6 | 1,122 | $72K |
| Sparkle Express Car Wash 414 Furys Ferry Rd | Martinez, GA | — | Sparkle Express Car Wash | 4.7 | 1,047 | $86K |
| LuLu's Car Wash 232 Bobby Jones Expy | Martinez, GA | Express Tunnel | LuLu's Car Wash | 4.7 | 936 | $86K |
| LuLu's Car Wash 496 E Pine Log Rd | Aiken, SC | Express Tunnel | LuLu's Car Wash | 4.4 | 851 | $90K |
| Sparkle Express Car Wash 3552 Windsor Spring Rd | Hephzibah, GA | — | Sparkle Express Car Wash | 4.5 | 837 | $49K |
| Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash 2841 Washington Rd | Augusta, GA | Express Tunnel | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 4.5 | 833 | $73K |
| Lulu's Express Car Wash 3129 Peach Orchard Rd | Augusta, GA | Express Tunnel | LuLu's Car Wash | 4.4 | 783 | $38K |
| Sparkle Express Car Wash 5241 Wrightsboro Rd | Grovetown, GA | — | Sparkle Express Car Wash | 4.8 | 700 | $68K |
| LuLu's Car Wash 1456 Jackson Rd | Augusta, GA | Express Tunnel | LuLu's Car Wash | 4.4 | 599 | $73K |
| Classic Collision 3069 Washington Rd | Augusta, GA | — | — | 4.3 | 514 | $86K |
| LuLu's Car Wash 3565 Richland Ave W | Aiken, SC | Express Tunnel | LuLu's Car Wash | 4.2 | 393 | $64K |
| Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash 512 N Belair Rd | Evans, GA | Express Tunnel | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 4.6 | 392 | $113K |
| Moby's Car Wash 421 E Martintown Rd | North Augusta, SC | Express Tunnel | — | 4.9 | 387 | $72K |
| Riverwatch Car Wash 906 Stevens Creek Rd | Augusta, GA | — | — | 3.5 | 325 | $86K |
| LuLu's Car Wash 2212 Gordon Hwy | Augusta, GA | Express Tunnel | LuLu's Car Wash | 4.5 | 325 | $73K |
| Rapid Restoration Auto Detail 3001 River Watch Pkwy | Augusta, GA | — | — | 5.0 | 318 | $86K |
| Rock N' Wash Auto Spa 3853 Washington Rd | Augusta, GA | Full Service | — | 4.2 | 301 | $86K |
| LuLu's Car Wash 735 Mammoth Pass SW | Aiken, SC | Express Tunnel | LuLu's Car Wash | 4.6 | 268 | $90K |
| Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash 96 Old Town Rd | Aiken, SC | Express Tunnel | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 4.5 | 266 | $90K |
Compare Augusta to other GA car wash markets
Each link drills into a full per-metro analysis — operator concentration, format mix, and customer-experience signals against the same methodology.
Data as of 2026-06-09. Pick a format and click Copy.
WashIndex. (2026, June 9). Augusta car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/augusta
WashIndex. "Augusta car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/augusta.
"Augusta car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/augusta.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_augusta_2026,
title = {{Augusta car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/augusta},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC CBSA is determined by point-in-polygon test against the official US Census county boundaries (TIGER/Line, 2024) for the 7 counties that make up the MSA. Each location was verified to fall inside one of those county polygons; lat/lng comes from Google Maps metadata.
Operating-quality signals are derived from 11,186 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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