Duluth Car Wash Market Analysis
Duluth, MN-WI
Data updated · June 9, 2026
127 car washes, 9 chains, 1,576 AI-extracted reviews — concentrated more than the typical US metro. Per-chain ratings vs. footprint, format mix, customer-experience signals across the chain-heavy market.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 127
- 76% independent
- Chains
- 9
- lead: Kwik Trip (16 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.34★
- -0.07 vs national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 2.5%
- 1.6× national MSA norm
- Cancel friction
- 14.0%
- Top format
- detail shop
- 40% of classified inventory
- Median single wash
- $8
- range $5–$40
- Median unlimited
- $22.99/mo
- cheapest $10/mo at Splash Xpress Car Wash - Hibbing
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 280,710
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 119,183
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 2,210
- near the national MSA median
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 0.3
- below the ~0.5 expandable band · classified sites
Key findings
- 127 car wash locations operated by 9 chains and 97 independents across 3 counties.
- Top 10 chains control 23.6% of locations — above the 11.4% US-metro median, led by Kwik Trip (16 sites).
- Built from 6,306 Google reviews, 1,576 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
127 car wash locations across 3 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Duluth runs as a chain-consolidated car wash market. Across 127 tracked locations, the top ten operators control 23.6% of supply — above the 11.4% US-metro median, with Kwik Trip the largest at 16 sites. The 97 independent operators left in the market function more as a residual layer than a competitive force.
Average rating 4.34★ across 127 sites; damage 2.5%; cancel friction 14.0% of mem-discussing reviews. Staff is the brightest aspect signal (0.80/+1). Because the operator mix is concentrated, those numbers behave more like chain averages than market averages.
Published pricing across the 25 of 128 Duluth locations with menus available: median single car wash $8 (range $5–$40), median unlimited membership $22.99/month (range $10–$24.99/mo). The cheapest unlimited membership in the metro is $10/mo at Splash Xpress Car Wash - Hibbing (Basic).
See the top car wash chains in Duluth
Ranked by location count in the metro
What does a car wash cost in the Duluth metro?
Published menu pricing for car washes in the Duluth metropolitan area, captured from operator websites and the WashIndex AI calling agent. 25 of 128 tracked locations have usable published pricing (20% coverage).
| Cheapest unlimited memberships in Duluth | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Splash Xpress Car Wash - Hibbing Basic | $10 per mo |
| 2 | Mister Car Wash BASE | $22.99 per mo |
| 3 | Tanner's Express Car Wash Standard Shine | $22.99 per mo |
| 4 | Tommy's Express® Car Wash QUALITY | $24.99 per mo |
| Cheapest single car washes in Duluth | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Duluth Carwash Company Self-Service Wash | $5 |
| 2 | Kwik Trip Standard | $8 |
| 3 | KWIK TRIP #572 Standard | $8 |
| 4 | Kwik Trip Standard | $8 |
| 5 | Kwik Trip Standard | $8 |
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 Duluth metro, officially
Low-wageCar-wash wages in the Duluth metro run about 24% below the national average ($24,646 vs. $32,560), across 11 employer establishments and roughly 83 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 Duluth car wash market
How many car washes are in the Duluth metro?
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What is the best-rated car wash in the Duluth metro?
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Which car wash chain has the most locations in Duluth?
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What is the average customer rating in the Duluth car wash market?
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What is the typical household income near car washes in Duluth?
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How much does a car wash cost in Duluth?
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How much does an unlimited car wash membership cost in Duluth?
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What is the cheapest car wash in Duluth?
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What kinds of car washes does Duluth have?
Because chain operators have consolidated supply here, format counts below skew toward the formats those chains build at scale. The lowest-rated format is usually a long-tail mix of small operators rather than a meaningful share of the market.
Highest-rated format: Detail Shop at 4.88★ across 10 locations. Lowest-rated: Full Service at 3.80★ (1 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detail Shop | 10 | 7.9% | 839 | 4.88 | 0.51% | 0.0% |
| In-Bay Automatic | 6 | 4.7% | 319 | 4.37 | 0.00% | — |
| Express Tunnel | 4 | 3.1% | 713 | 4.26 | 10.73% | 14.5% |
| Self-Serve Bay | 4 | 3.1% | 256 | 4.08 | 0.00% | — |
| Full Service | 1 | 0.8% | 446 | 3.80 | 3.77% | — |
What is the household income near Duluth car washes?
In a chain-consolidated market like Duluth, ZIP-level income tells you more about where chains chose to deploy capital than about how customers actually rate the wash. Rollups tend to anchor expansion in the $75K–$150K AGI band; below that range, supply is thinner.
Pearson r between ZIP income and Google rating across 62 qualifying locations: -0.16 — mild negative. Higher-income ZIPs in this market host slightly lower-rated washes on average, which is unusual. Scatter mean: $70K AGI/return, 4.25★.
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 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 4.80 | Detail Shop (1) |
| $50K – $75K | 14 | 64 | 3,749 | 4.36 | Detail Shop (8) |
| $75K – $100K | 7 | 29 | 1,926 | 4.17 | Express Tunnel (3) |
| $100K – $150K | 1 | 4 | 119 | 4.40 | Detail Shop (1) |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
0 car washes in the top income tier (0.00★ avg) vs. 1 in the bottom (4.80★). Chain rollups gravitate toward middle-income suburbia — the part of the income curve where express-tunnel unit economics actually work.
Who operates the most Duluth car washes?
The chain rank below is the more important section of this page given Duluth's consolidation. Top 10 operators control 23.6% of 127 locations, anchored by Kwik Trip's 16-site footprint. Per-chain quality variance below explains most of the market-wide quality variance.
| # | Chain | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage | Cancel | Upsell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kwik Trip | 16 | 1,948 | 4.36 | 1.06% | — | 0.53% |
| 2 | Lucky Seven General Store | 3 | 276 | 4.39 | — | — | — |
| 3 | Duluth Carwash Company | 3 | 107 | 3.49 | — | — | — |
| 4 | bp | 2 | 31 | 4.20 | — | — | — |
| 5 | Detail & Dash: Ceramic Pro Elite Dealer | 2 | 465 | 4.90 | 0.49% | — | 0.49% |
| 6 | Mister Car Wash | 1 | 132 | 4.40 | 9.00% | — | 0.00% |
| 7 | Tommy's Express® Car Wash | 1 | 446 | 4.20 | — | — | — |
| 8 | Circle K | 1 | 12 | 4.40 | — | — | — |
| 9 | Splash Xpress Car Wash | 1 | 83 | 4.60 | — | — | — |
Which counties have the most car washes in Duluth?
Duluth's 3 counties carry different shares of the metro's car wash supply. In a consolidated market, chain operators tend to concentrate in the densest counties — the table below shows where they did.
Cross-county rating dispersion: 0.07★ between the highest- and lowest-rated counties with meaningful sample size.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis County | 96 | 75.6% | 4,115 | 4.32 |
| Douglas County | 20 | 15.7% | 1,389 | 4.38 |
| Carlton County | 12 | 9.4% | 802 | 4.39 |
What do customers love and complain about in Duluth?
1,576 reviews feed the aspect grid below; each is computed as (positive − negative) / total, on a -1…+1 scale. In Duluth, the dominant chains' aspect profiles drive most of the metro-wide score.
Where are all the car washes in the Duluth metro?
Locations table below: ranked by review count, with format, chain affiliation, rating, and ZIP-level IRS AGI for context. In a consolidated market like Duluth, the chain column is the most useful filter.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detail & Dash: Ceramic Pro Elite Dealer 701 Winter St | Superior, WI | Detail Shop | Detail & Dash: Ceramic Pro Elite Dealer | 4.9 | 447 | $64K |
| Tommy's Express® Car Wash 321 E. Central Ent | Duluth, MN | Express Tunnel | Tommy's Express® Car Wash | 4.2 | 446 | $88K |
| Miller Mall Car Wash 1721 Maple Grove Rd #1828 | Duluth, MN | Full Service | — | 3.8 | 446 | $88K |
| Kwik Trip 4694 Opportunity Dr | Moose Lake, MN | — | Kwik Trip | 4.4 | 253 | $58K |
| KWIK TRIP #572 4145 Haines Rd | Hermantown, MN | — | Kwik Trip | 4.4 | 242 | $88K |
| Lucky Seven General Store 3917 1st Ave | Hibbing, MN | In-Bay Automatic | Lucky Seven General Store | 4.4 | 241 | $67K |
| Junction Car Wash 4019 12th Ave E | Hibbing, MN | — | — | 4.5 | 225 | $67K |
| Duluth Detail | , MN | — | — | 4.9 | 222 | — |
| Kwik Trip 6516 Grand Ave | Duluth, MN | — | Kwik Trip | 4.4 | 180 | $53K |
| Kwik Trip 623 Hammond Ave | Superior, WI | — | Kwik Trip | 4.2 | 175 | $64K |
| Sosure Car Wash 3200 Tower Ave | Superior, WI | — | — | 3.6 | 160 | $64K |
| Kwik Trip 1419 Banks Ave | Superior, WI | — | Kwik Trip | 4.2 | 154 | $64K |
| Kwik Trip 900 Washington Ave | Cloquet, MN | — | Kwik Trip | 4.1 | 153 | $64K |
| Washington Ave. Laundry and Car Wash 1802 Washington Ave | Cloquet, MN | Self-Serve Bay | — | 4.5 | 149 | $64K |
| Kwik Trip 1320 MN-45 | Cloquet, MN | — | Kwik Trip | 4.3 | 148 | $64K |
| Kwik Trip 4978 Miller Trunk Hwy | Hermantown, MN | — | Kwik Trip | 4.5 | 143 | $88K |
| Mister Car Wash 604 W Central Entrance | Duluth, MN | Express Tunnel | Mister Car Wash | 4.4 | 132 | $88K |
| Self Service Car Washes 7802 Grand Ave | Duluth, MN | — | — | 3.7 | 129 | $53K |
| Kwik Trip 4805 Miller Trunk Hwy | Hermantown, MN | — | Kwik Trip | 4.4 | 128 | $88K |
| Kwik Trip 6007 Tower Ave | Superior, WI | — | Kwik Trip | 4.4 | 124 | $64K |
| Kwik Trip 4890 Rice Lake Rd | Duluth, MN | — | Kwik Trip | 4.6 | 107 | $97K |
| D&D Auto Mobile Detailing | , MN | — | — | 4.9 | 93 | — |
| Splash Xpress Car Wash - Hibbing 12024 US-169 | Hibbing, MN | Express Tunnel | Splash Xpress Car Wash | 4.6 | 83 | $67K |
| Detailing by Tyler 1416 Tower Ave | Superior, WI | Detail Shop | — | 4.9 | 78 | $64K |
| Lakeside Auto Detail 5133 Glenwood St | Duluth, MN | Detail Shop | — | 4.9 | 69 | $105K |
Compare Duluth to other MN 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). Duluth car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/duluth
WashIndex. "Duluth car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/duluth.
"Duluth car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/duluth.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_duluth_2026,
title = {{Duluth car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/duluth},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Duluth, MN-WI CBSA is determined by point-in-polygon test against the official US Census county boundaries (TIGER/Line, 2024) for the 3 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 1,576 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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