Fort Smith Car Wash Market Analysis
Fort Smith, AR-OK
Data updated · June 9, 2026
7,954 Google reviews across 136 car washes in 3 Fort Smith counties. Format mix, operator rank, geographic distribution, income overlay, customer-experience signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 136
- 92% independent
- Chains
- 5
- lead: Take 5 Car Wash (4 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.33★
- -0.08 vs national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 1.4%
- near national MSA norm
- Cancel friction
- 10.0%
- Top format
- express tunnel
- 54% of classified inventory
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 228,916
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 90,129
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 1,683
- near the national MSA median
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 0.8
- in the 0.5–1.0 filling band · classified sites
Key findings
- 136 car wash locations operated by 5 chains and 125 independents across 3 counties.
- Weighted Google rating 4.33★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-metro norms.
- Built from 7,954 Google reviews, 2,397 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
136 car wash locations across 3 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Tracked at 136 car wash locations, Fort Smith matches the structural profile of the typical US metro of comparable size. 136 locations across 5 chains and 125 independents, distributed across 3 counties. Customer-experience signals across 2,397 AI-extracted reviews produce the distinct read on this market.
Weighted rating 4.33★; damage 1.4%; membership-cancel friction 10.0%. Staff is the brightest aspect signal (0.83/+1). 7,954 Google reviews drive the analysis, 2,397 of them processed through the WashIndex LLM extractor.
See the top car wash chains in Fort Smith
Ranked by location count in the metro
The car wash industry in the Fort Smith metro, officially
Fast-growingthe Fort Smith metro is one of the faster-growing car-wash job markets: employer establishments grew 21% from 2022 to 2024 — ahead of the ~7% national pace — to 17, now employing about 94 people at a $32,021 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 Fort Smith car wash market
How many car washes are in the Fort Smith metro?
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What is the best-rated car wash in the Fort Smith metro?
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Which car wash chain has the most locations in Fort Smith?
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What is the average customer rating in the Fort Smith car wash market?
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What is the typical household income near car washes in Fort Smith?
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What kinds of car washes does Fort Smith 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. Fort Smith's mix sits close to the US-metro median shape.
Highest-rated format: Detail Shop at 4.82★ across 2 locations. Lowest-rated: Self-Serve Bay at 4.20★ (1 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Express Tunnel | 7 | 5.1% | 3,146 | 4.41 | 1.22% | 11.3% |
| Detail Shop | 2 | 1.5% | 169 | 4.82 | 0.00% | — |
| Full Service | 2 | 1.5% | 628 | 4.70 | 1.15% | 0.0% |
| In-Bay Automatic | 1 | 0.7% | 506 | 4.40 | 0.00% | 0.0% |
| Self-Serve Bay | 1 | 0.7% | 145 | 4.20 | 0.00% | — |
What is the household income near Fort Smith car washes?
Read together with the format mix above, the income scatter below tells you whether car wash quality in Fort Smith tracks neighborhood income, format mix, or neither. Operating quality usually dominates this picture.
Pearson r between ZIP income and Google rating across 44 qualifying locations: 0.20 — mild positive. Higher-income ZIPs host slightly better-rated washes, but operator execution still dominates. Scatter mean: $68K AGI/return, 4.16★.
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 | 5 | 179 | 3.93 | — |
| $50K – $75K | 12 | 57 | 3,218 | 4.25 | Express Tunnel (2) |
| $75K – $100K | 2 | 17 | 3,879 | 4.38 | Express Tunnel (5) |
| $100K – $150K | 1 | 3 | 272 | 4.70 | Full Service (1) |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
The highest-income tier ($150K+) contains 0 car washes across 0 ZIPs at 0.00★, against 5 sites across 1 ZIPs at 3.93★ 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 Fort Smith car washes?
5 chains alongside 125 independents make up Fort Smith'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 | Take 5 Car Wash | 4 | 2,717 | 4.37 | 0.91% | 12.5% | 0.50% |
| 2 | Club Car Wash | 3 | 429 | 4.63 | 2.60% | 6.8% | 2.60% |
| 3 | Splash Car Wash | 2 | 628 | 4.70 | 1.15% | — | 0.38% |
| 4 | Sam's Club Gas Station | 1 | 506 | 4.40 | — | — | — |
| 5 | Casey's | 1 | 101 | 4.40 | — | — | — |
Which counties have the most car washes in Fort Smith?
The table below splits the metro's car wash inventory across the 3 counties of the Fort Smith, AR-OK CBSA, with location count, total reviews, and weighted-average rating per county.
Cross-county rating dispersion: 0.49★ between the highest- and lowest-rated counties with meaningful sample size.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sebastian County | 86 | 63.2% | 5,475 | 4.37 |
| Crawford County | 36 | 26.5% | 2,114 | 4.32 |
| Sequoyah County | 15 | 11.0% | 365 | 3.88 |
What do customers love and complain about in Fort Smith?
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 Fort Smith metro?
The complete inventory of car wash locations in the Fort Smith MSA is captured in the underlying dataset; the table below shows the highest-review-volume sites for at-a-glance comparison. Each row shows operator, address, format, chain affiliation, rating, review count, and the IRS mean AGI for the ZIP.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Take 5 Car Wash 1830 N 6th St | Van Buren, AR | Express Tunnel | Take 5 Car Wash | 4.3 | 925 | $58K |
| Car Wash USA Express 3751 Rogers Ave | Fort Smith, AR | Express Tunnel | Take 5 Car Wash | 4.4 | 688 | $83K |
| Take 5 Car Wash 6417 Rogers Ave | Fort Smith, AR | Express Tunnel | Take 5 Car Wash | 4.6 | 608 | $83K |
| Sam's Club Gas Station 7700 Rogers Ave | Fort Smith, AR | In-Bay Automatic | Sam's Club Gas Station | 4.4 | 506 | $83K |
| Arkansas Valley TWA 121 Access Rd | Van Buren, AR | — | — | 4.4 | 502 | $58K |
| Car Wash USA Express 8411 Phoenix Ave | Fort Smith, AR | Express Tunnel | Take 5 Car Wash | 4.2 | 496 | $83K |
| Splash Express Car Wash 3410 S 74th St | Fort Smith, AR | — | — | 4.3 | 361 | $83K |
| Splash Car Wash 5800 Massard Rd | Fort Smith, AR | Full Service | Splash Car Wash | 4.7 | 356 | $83K |
| Splash Car Wash 12114 Old Hwy 71 S | Fort Smith, AR | Full Service | Splash Car Wash | 4.7 | 272 | $111K |
| Club Car Wash 5404 Rogers Ave | Fort Smith, AR | Express Tunnel | Club Car Wash | 4.5 | 203 | $83K |
| Truck Wash Arkansas 229 Access Rd | Van Buren, AR | — | — | 4.5 | 184 | $58K |
| Kwiki Car Wash 3701 Rogers Ave | Fort Smith, AR | — | — | 3.8 | 165 | $83K |
| Star Wash 3751 Rogers Ave | Fort Smith, AR | — | — | 3.7 | 151 | $83K |
| Fullbright Auto Wash 323 E Vine Ave | Sallisaw, OK | — | — | 4.3 | 150 | $54K |
| Chris Clean Car Wash 2700 Market Trce | Fort Smith, AR | — | — | 3.6 | 149 | $74K |
| Hog Wash 704 Fayetteville Rd | Van Buren, AR | Self-Serve Bay | — | 4.2 | 145 | $58K |
| Jack's Car Wash 4921 Jenny Lind Rd B | Fort Smith, AR | — | — | 4.1 | 142 | $52K |
| Club Car Wash 4620 Old Greenwood Rd | Fort Smith, AR | Express Tunnel | Club Car Wash | 4.7 | 132 | $83K |
| Oasis Car Wash 1404-1406 Carson Rd | Roland, OK | — | — | 3.4 | 123 | $57K |
| Casey's 2203 Fayetteville Rd | Van Buren, AR | — | Casey's | 4.4 | 101 | $58K |
| Buckler Detail 5820 Towson Ave | Fort Smith, AR | Detail Shop | — | 4.7 | 100 | $52K |
| Kwiki Car Wash 1108 N Albert Pike Ave | Fort Smith, AR | — | — | 4.0 | 94 | $37K |
| Club Car Wash 2101 S Zero St | Fort Smith, AR | Express Tunnel | Club Car Wash | 4.8 | 94 | $74K |
| Star Wash 8411 Phoenix Ave | Fort Smith, AR | — | — | 3.5 | 86 | $83K |
| Jack's Car Wash 2811 N 50th St | Fort Smith, AR | — | — | 3.9 | 81 | $37K |
Compare Fort Smith to other AR 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). Fort Smith car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/fort-smith
WashIndex. "Fort Smith car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/fort-smith.
"Fort Smith car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/fort-smith.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_fort_smith_2026,
title = {{Fort Smith car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/fort-smith},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Fort Smith, AR-OK 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 2,397 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
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