Goldsboro Car Wash Market Analysis
Goldsboro, NC
Data updated · June 9, 2026
4,240 Google reviews across 65 car washes in 1 Goldsboro counties. Format mix, operator rank, county breakdown, rating vs. income, aspect-level customer signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 65
- 85% independent
- Chains
- 6
- lead: Royal Rinse Car Wash (4 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.54★
- +0.13 vs national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 0.6%
- 2.6× below national norm
- Cancel friction
- 6.6%
- Top format
- express tunnel
- 50% of classified inventory
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 117,606
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 46,888
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 1,809
- near the national MSA median
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 1.1
- above ~1.0 — contested · classified sites
Key findings
- 65 car wash locations operated by 6 chains and 55 independents across 1 county.
- Weighted Google rating 4.54★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-metro norms.
- Built from 4,240 Google reviews, 1,169 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
65 car wash locations across 1 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Goldsboro's car wash market reads as US-metro-typical in shape; the distinctive cuts are at the format and aspect levels. 65 locations across 6 chains and 55 independents, distributed across 1 counties. Customer-experience signals across 1,169 AI-extracted reviews produce the distinct read on this market.
Average rating across the 65-location market weighs in at 4.54★; damage rate 0.6%; cancel friction 6.6%. Staff is the brightest aspect signal (0.91/+1). Per-operator and per-format cuts below are more informative than the aggregates.
See the top car wash chains in Goldsboro
Ranked by location count in the metro
The car wash industry in the Goldsboro metro, officially
Low-wageCar-wash wages in the Goldsboro metro run about 46% below the national average ($17,519 vs. $32,560), across 8 employer establishments and roughly 52 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 Goldsboro car wash market
How many car washes are in the Goldsboro metro?
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What is the best-rated car wash in the Goldsboro metro?
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Which car wash chain has the most locations in Goldsboro?
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What is the average customer rating in the Goldsboro car wash market?
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What is the typical household income near car washes in Goldsboro?
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What kinds of car washes does Goldsboro 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. Goldsboro's mix sits close to the US-metro median shape.
Highest-rated format: Express Tunnel at 4.72★ across 5 locations. Lowest-rated: Self-Serve Bay at 3.97★ (4 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Express Tunnel | 5 | 7.7% | 2,418 | 4.72 | 0.75% | 7.2% |
| Self-Serve Bay | 4 | 6.2% | 390 | 3.97 | 0.00% | 0.0% |
| Detail Shop | 1 | 1.5% | 34 | 4.80 | 0.00% | — |
What is the household income near Goldsboro car washes?
Read together with the format mix above, the income scatter below tells you whether car wash quality in Goldsboro tracks neighborhood income, format mix, or neither. Operating quality usually dominates this picture.
Pearson r between ZIP income and Google rating across 25 qualifying locations: 0.25 — mild positive. Higher-income ZIPs host slightly better-rated washes, but operator execution still dominates. Scatter mean: $60K AGI/return, 4.31★.
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 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
| $50K – $75K | 4 | 40 | 4,055 | 4.52 | Express Tunnel (5) |
| $75K – $100K | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
| $100K – $150K | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
The highest-income tier ($150K+) contains 0 car washes across 0 ZIPs at 0.00★, against 1 sites across 1 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 Goldsboro car washes?
6 chains run sites in Goldsboro; the top 25 are listed below by location count, with their per-chain operating-quality numbers next to them. Useful for narrowing competitive-set considerations or for M&A evaluation.
| # | Chain | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage | Cancel | Upsell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Rinse Car Wash | 4 | 390 | 3.97 | — | — | — |
| 2 | Sheetz | 2 | 591 | 4.17 | — | — | — |
| 3 | Pirates Cove Carwash | 1 | 45 | 4.40 | — | — | — |
| 4 | Zips Car Wash | 1 | 495 | 4.60 | 2.72% | — | 1.36% |
| 5 | ModWash | 1 | 1,161 | 4.80 | 0.00% | — | 0.00% |
| 6 | Rocket Wash Express | 1 | 563 | 4.90 | 0.80% | — | 0.00% |
Which counties have the most car washes in Goldsboro?
Counties of the Goldsboro CBSA are listed below by car wash count. Wayne County is the most density-concentrated. Reading the rating column tells you whether quality is uniform across the metro or whether specific counties pull in either direction.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wayne County | 67 | 103.1% | 4,240 | 4.54 |
What do customers love and complain about in Goldsboro?
The aspect grid below summarizes 1,169 AI-extracted reviews across 65 Goldsboro car wash locations. Each aspect lands on a -1…+1 scale (negative = customers complain more than they praise; positive = the reverse).
Where are all the car washes in the Goldsboro metro?
The complete inventory of car wash locations in the Goldsboro 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ModWash 2928 US Hwy 70 W | Goldsboro, NC | Express Tunnel | ModWash | 4.8 | 1,161 | $56K |
| Rocket Wash Express 2115 Wayne Memorial Dr | Goldsboro, NC | Express Tunnel | Rocket Wash Express | 4.9 | 563 | $65K |
| Zips Car Wash 508 N Berkeley Blvd | Goldsboro, NC | Express Tunnel | Zips Car Wash | 4.6 | 495 | $65K |
| Sheetz 2829 US Hwy 70 W | Goldsboro, NC | — | Sheetz | 4.3 | 482 | $56K |
| Royal Rinse Car Wash 1311 Parkway Dr | Goldsboro, NC | Self-Serve Bay | Royal Rinse Car Wash | 3.8 | 178 | $65K |
| GW's Quick Wash 1006 N Berkeley Blvd | Goldsboro, NC | Express Tunnel | — | 3.9 | 154 | $65K |
| Royal Rinse Car Wash 2111 E Ash St | Goldsboro, NC | Self-Serve Bay | Royal Rinse Car Wash | 4.0 | 147 | $56K |
| Sheetz 1001 N Spence Ave | Goldsboro, NC | — | Sheetz | 3.6 | 109 | $56K |
| Kwik Klean Car Wash 2724 US-117 | Goldsboro, NC | — | — | 3.8 | 87 | $56K |
| Eman's Superior Detailing, LLC 309 Maddux Dr | Pikeville, NC | — | — | 5.0 | 78 | $60K |
| Ojay's Auto Detailing Center 1623 Royall Ave | Goldsboro, NC | — | — | 4.9 | 77 | $65K |
| The Nomadic Detailer LLC | , NC | — | — | 5.0 | 60 | — |
| Spriggs Auto Clinic, LLC 1113 S George St | Goldsboro, NC | — | — | 4.9 | 60 | $56K |
| Royal Rinse Car Wash 2009 N William St | Goldsboro, NC | Self-Serve Bay | Royal Rinse Car Wash | 4.3 | 55 | $56K |
| Kar Kat Inc Lincoln Mercury Drive, 1012 11th St | Goldsboro, NC | — | — | 3.5 | 54 | $65K |
| Pirates Cove Carwash - Goldsboro 110 Mollie Dr | Goldsboro, NC | Express Tunnel | Pirates Cove Carwash | 4.4 | 45 | $65K |
| Dynamic Detailing 700 Corporate Dr Suite B | Goldsboro, NC | — | — | 4.9 | 40 | $65K |
| Cody Cleans It | , NC | — | — | 5.0 | 35 | — |
| Absolute Perfection Auto Detailing 101 Industry Ct | Goldsboro, NC | Detail Shop | — | 4.8 | 34 | $56K |
| Auto Awakening Detailing 875 Dollard Town Rd | Goldsboro, NC | — | — | 5.0 | 27 | $65K |
| Jones Business Credit Services LLC 1700 E Ash St #105 | Goldsboro, NC | — | — | 4.0 | 25 | $56K |
| WorldWide Cars 651 Community Dr | Goldsboro, NC | — | — | 4.9 | 25 | $56K |
| Car wash goldsboro 512 N William St | Goldsboro, NC | — | — | 3.8 | 19 | $56K |
| Streakfree of Goldsboro | , NC | — | — | 5.0 | 17 | — |
| Wash World Car Wash 1409 W Grantham St | Goldsboro, NC | — | — | 1.8 | 12 | $56K |
Compare Goldsboro to other NC 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). Goldsboro car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/goldsboro
WashIndex. "Goldsboro car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/goldsboro.
"Goldsboro car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/goldsboro.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_goldsboro_2026,
title = {{Goldsboro car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/goldsboro},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Goldsboro, NC CBSA is determined by point-in-polygon test against the official US Census county boundaries (TIGER/Line, 2024) for the 1 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 1,169 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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