Bloomington Car Wash Market Analysis
Bloomington, IN
Data updated · June 9, 2026
3,723 Google reviews across 60 car washes in 2 Bloomington counties. Format mix, operator rank, county breakdown, rating vs. income, aspect-level customer signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 60
- 95% independent
- Chains
- 2
- lead: Crew Carwash (2 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.36★
- -0.05 vs national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 2.4%
- 1.5× national MSA norm
- Cancel friction
- 13.6%
- Top format
- detail shop
- 56% of classified inventory
- Median single wash
- $12
- range $12–$12
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 161,256
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 66,862
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 2,688
- 1.4× the national MSA median — lighter supply
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 0.4
- below the ~0.5 expandable band · classified sites
Key findings
- 60 car wash locations operated by 2 chains and 57 independents across 2 counties.
- Weighted Google rating 4.36★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-metro norms.
- Built from 3,723 Google reviews, 832 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
60 car wash locations across 2 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
No single structural signal jumps out for Bloomington — it's a mid-shape car wash market. 60 locations across 2 chains and 57 independents, distributed across 2 counties. Distinctive patterns show up below at the format and aspect levels.
Average rating across the 60-location market weighs in at 4.36★; damage rate 2.4%; cancel friction 13.6%. Equipment reliability runs as the sharpest friction (-0.69). 3,723 Google reviews drive the analysis, 832 of them processed through the WashIndex LLM extractor.
Published pricing across the 1 of 60 Bloomington locations with menus available: median single car wash $12 (range $12–$12).
See the top car wash chains in Bloomington
Ranked by location count in the metro
What does a car wash cost in the Bloomington metro?
Published menu pricing for car washes in the Bloomington metropolitan area, captured from operator websites and the WashIndex AI calling agent. 1 of 60 tracked locations have usable published pricing (2% coverage).
| Cheapest single car washes in Bloomington | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Green Clean Eco Express Carwash Basic | $12 |
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.
The car wash industry in the Bloomington metro, officially
Low-wageCar-wash wages in the Bloomington metro run about 36% below the national average ($20,961 vs. $32,560), across 6 employer establishments and roughly 36 jobs.
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 Bloomington car wash market
How many car washes are in the Bloomington metro?
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What is the best-rated car wash in the Bloomington metro?
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Which car wash chain has the most locations in Bloomington?
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What is the average customer rating in the Bloomington car wash market?
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What is the typical household income near car washes in Bloomington?
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How much does a car wash cost in Bloomington?
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What kinds of car washes does Bloomington 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. Bloomington's mix sits close to the US-metro median shape.
Highest-rated format: Detail Shop at 4.51★ across 5 locations. Lowest-rated: Express Tunnel at 4.37★ (3 locations).
51 (85.0%) of 60 locations are unclassified — small independents whose websites don't surface enough signal for format assignment. Format-level statistics describe the classified subset only.
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unclassified | 51 | 85.0% | 1,933 | 4.31 | 0.60% | — |
| Detail Shop | 5 | 8.3% | 618 | 4.51 | 2.52% | — |
| Express Tunnel | 3 | 5.0% | 1,150 | 4.37 | 8.72% | 13.6% |
| In-Bay Automatic | 1 | 1.7% | 22 | 3.50 | 0.00% | — |
What is the household income near Bloomington car washes?
19 Bloomington car washes with at least 10 Google reviews are plotted below against the mean IRS AGI per return for their ZIP. The Pearson correlation we compute is one of the cleanest cuts on whether neighborhood income meaningfully shapes wash quality here.
Pearson r between ZIP income and Google rating across 19 qualifying locations: 0.27 — mild positive. Higher-income ZIPs host slightly better-rated washes, but operator execution still dominates. Scatter mean: $76K AGI/return, 4.27★.
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 | 5 | 33 | 2,197 | 4.31 | Detail Shop (4) |
| $75K – $100K | 1 | 4 | 238 | 3.93 | Express Tunnel (1) |
| $100K – $150K | 1 | 8 | 1,139 | 4.46 | Detail Shop (1) |
| $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 Bloomington car washes?
2 chains alongside 57 independents make up Bloomington'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 | Crew Carwash | 2 | 1,134 | 4.38 | 8.76% | — | 1.46% |
| 2 | SmartWash | 1 | 22 | 3.50 | — | — | — |
Which counties have the most car washes in Bloomington?
Bloomington's 60 car washes distribute across 2 counties. Monroe County leads with 55 locations (91.7%). Cross-county rating dispersion is usually narrow at this scale.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monroe County | 55 | 91.7% | 3,643 | 4.37 |
| Owen County | 5 | 8.3% | 80 | 3.88 |
What do customers love and complain about in Bloomington?
Reading the aspect grid: numbers above 0.3 are strong positives; numbers below -0.1 indicate meaningful friction; in between is mixed signal. staff is the brightest spot here. equipment reliability is the pain point.
Where are all the car washes in the Bloomington metro?
Top 25 car washes by review volume in Bloomington. The full set of 60 is available in the underlying dataset.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crew Carwash 3430 W 3rd St | Bloomington, IN | Express Tunnel | Crew Carwash | 4.4 | 1,089 | $71K |
| Royal South Toyota 3115 S Walnut St | Bloomington, IN | — | — | 4.2 | 724 | $100K |
| Ziebart 2440 W 3rd St | Bloomington, IN | Detail Shop | — | 4.1 | 301 | $71K |
| Hoosier Express Car Wash 1215 W 2nd St | Bloomington, IN | — | — | 4.2 | 263 | $63K |
| Highland Village Car Wash 1929 S Curry Pike | Bloomington, IN | — | — | 4.2 | 250 | $63K |
| TKS Mobile Detailing 3446 S Oaklawn Cir | Bloomington, IN | Detail Shop | — | 4.9 | 207 | $100K |
| Ace Pro Detailing Car Detailing Bloomington 2425 S Walnut St | Bloomington, IN | — | — | 5.0 | 189 | $100K |
| Clean Machine Self Services Car Wsh 211 IN-45 | Bloomington, IN | — | — | 4.0 | 170 | $80K |
| The Dent Girl | , IN | — | — | 4.9 | 59 | — |
| Executive Detailing 3131 N Westbury Village Dr #4 | Bloomington, IN | Detail Shop | — | 4.9 | 52 | $71K |
| Everywhere Detailing 2626 N Walnut St | Bloomington, IN | Detail Shop | — | 4.8 | 45 | $71K |
| Crew Carwash 235 S Pete Ellis Dr | Bloomington, IN | Express Tunnel | Crew Carwash | 3.8 | 45 | $80K |
| Ackerman Detail Services 630 S Patterson Dr | Bloomington, IN | — | — | 4.9 | 43 | $63K |
| Spencer Indiana Car Wash 291 W IN-46 | Spencer, IN | — | — | 2.6 | 36 | $62K |
| Detail Dash | , IN | — | — | 4.9 | 34 | — |
| DDI Auto Detailing 203 W 17th St | Bloomington, IN | — | — | 4.4 | 33 | $71K |
| Diamond Detailing | , IN | — | — | 4.9 | 31 | — |
| KB WashWorld 4200 N Kemp Rd | Bloomington, IN | In-Bay Automatic | SmartWash | 3.5 | 22 | $71K |
| Laserwash Touchless Automatic Bay 211 IN-45 | Bloomington, IN | — | — | 3.3 | 18 | $80K |
| Chrome and Foam | , IN | — | — | 5.0 | 18 | — |
| Green Clean Eco Express Carwash 2002 W 3rd St | Bloomington, IN | Express Tunnel | — | 4.1 | 16 | $71K |
| The Shine Shop 6574 W May Rd | Bloomington, IN | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 13 | $63K |
| Indiana Auto Detail 1616 E Smithville Rd | Bloomington, IN | — | — | 4.8 | 11 | $100K |
| Under Pressure Details 124 Allison Ave | Spencer, IN | — | — | 5.0 | 9 | $62K |
| Deckard's Auto Detail Shop Deckard's Auto Detail Shop, 4375 W Delap Rd | Ellettsville, IN | — | — | 5.0 | 9 | $69K |
Compare Bloomington to other IN 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). Bloomington car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/bloomington-in
WashIndex. "Bloomington car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/bloomington-in.
"Bloomington car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/bloomington-in.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_bloomington_in_2026,
title = {{Bloomington car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/bloomington-in},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Bloomington, IN CBSA is determined by point-in-polygon test against the official US Census county boundaries (TIGER/Line, 2024) for the 2 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 832 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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