Grand Forks Car Wash Market Analysis
Grand Forks, ND-MN
Data updated · June 9, 2026
3,580 Google reviews across 61 car washes in 2 Grand Forks counties. Format mix, operator rank, county breakdown, rating vs. income, aspect-level customer signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 61
- 85% independent
- Chains
- 6
- lead: Forks Finest Car Wash (2 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.42★
- near national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 2.6%
- 1.7× national MSA norm
- Cancel friction
- 13.2%
- Top format
- detail shop
- 45% of classified inventory
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 103,669
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 43,493
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 1,699
- near the national MSA median
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 0.5
- below the ~0.5 expandable band · classified sites
Key findings
- 61 car wash locations operated by 6 chains and 52 independents across 2 counties.
- Weighted Google rating 4.42★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-metro norms.
- Built from 3,580 Google reviews, 771 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
61 car wash locations across 2 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Grand Forks sits near the center of the US-metro distribution on concentration, format mix, and rating. 61 locations across 6 chains and 52 independents, distributed across 2 counties. Distinctive patterns show up below at the format and aspect levels.
Headline numbers sit near US-metro norms: rating 4.42★, damage 2.6%, cancel friction 13.2%. Staff strong (0.82); equipment reliability weak (-0.55). 3,580 Google reviews drive the analysis, 771 of them processed through the WashIndex LLM extractor.
See the top car wash chains in Grand Forks
Ranked by location count in the metro
The car wash industry in the Grand Forks metro, officially
the Grand Forks metro has 8 car-wash employer establishments employing about 43 people, at a $31,188 average annual 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 Grand Forks car wash market
How many car washes are in the Grand Forks metro?
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What is the best-rated car wash in the Grand Forks metro?
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Which car wash chain has the most locations in Grand Forks?
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What is the average customer rating in the Grand Forks car wash market?
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What is the typical household income near car washes in Grand Forks?
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What kinds of car washes does Grand Forks have?
Format counts below split Grand Forks's 61 car wash locations by operating concept. Each format serves a different customer occasion — express tunnels for throughput, full-service for staffed convenience, detail shops for hand-finished work — and the rating column lets you read whether each format is meeting its own expectations here.
Highest-rated format: Express Tunnel at 4.62★ across 2 locations. Lowest-rated: In-Bay Automatic at 4.21★ (3 locations).
50 (82.0%) of 61 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 | 50 | 82.0% | 1,467 | 4.33 | 0.99% | 0.0% |
| Detail Shop | 5 | 8.2% | 957 | 4.46 | 4.35% | 0.0% |
| In-Bay Automatic | 3 | 4.9% | 304 | 4.21 | 3.33% | 0.0% |
| Express Tunnel | 2 | 3.3% | 731 | 4.62 | 2.71% | 20.8% |
| Self-Serve Bay | 1 | 1.6% | 121 | 4.50 | 0.00% | — |
What is the household income near Grand Forks car washes?
24 Grand Forks 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 24 qualifying locations: -0.03 — effectively zero. Operating quality dominates over neighborhood income. Scatter mean: $79K AGI/return, 4.42★.
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 | 4 | 13 | 1,414 | 4.42 | Detail Shop (3) |
| $75K – $100K | 3 | 33 | 2,118 | 4.40 | Detail Shop (2) |
| $100K – $150K | 1 | 1 | 36 | 5.00 | — |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
Top-tier 0 sites, 0.00★ avg; bottom-tier 0 sites, 0.00★. Across Grand Forks's 24 qualifying locations, the income gradient correlates only weakly with rating — operator execution dominates.
Who operates the most Grand Forks car washes?
6 chains alongside 52 independents make up Grand Forks'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 | Forks Finest Car Wash | 2 | 226 | 4.09 | — | — | — |
| 2 | Petro Serve USA #201 | 2 | 158 | 3.94 | — | — | — |
| 3 | Rydell Car Wash | 2 | 671 | 4.27 | — | — | — |
| 4 | Northdale | 1 | 82 | 4.50 | — | — | — |
| 5 | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 1 | 557 | 4.50 | 4.41% | — | 0.49% |
| 6 | Simonson Station Stores | 1 | 146 | 4.50 | — | — | — |
Which counties have the most car washes in Grand Forks?
The table below splits the metro's car wash inventory across the 2 counties of the Grand Forks, ND-MN CBSA, with location count, total reviews, and weighted-average rating per county.
Cross-county rating dispersion: 0.19★ between the highest- and lowest-rated counties with meaningful sample size.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Forks County | 48 | 78.7% | 3,121 | 4.44 |
| Polk County | 13 | 21.3% | 459 | 4.25 |
What do customers love and complain about in Grand Forks?
The aspect grid below summarizes 771 AI-extracted reviews across 61 Grand Forks 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 Grand Forks metro?
Top 25 car washes by review volume in Grand Forks. The full set of 61 is available in the underlying dataset.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash 1750 S Columbia Rd | Grand Forks, ND | Express Tunnel | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 4.5 | 557 | $90K |
| Rydell Detail Center 2600 S Washington St Suite A | Grand Forks, ND | Detail Shop | Rydell Car Wash | 4.3 | 456 | $90K |
| Ampride 1020 US-75 | Crookston, MN | — | — | 4.2 | 339 | $65K |
| 5-Star Collision & Glass Center 210 N Washington St #4 | Grand Forks, ND | — | — | 4.9 | 266 | $57K |
| Rydell Car Wash 1905 Gateway Dr | Grand Forks, ND | Detail Shop | Rydell Car Wash | 4.2 | 215 | $57K |
| Forks Finest Car Wash 2311 S Washington St | Grand Forks, ND | — | Forks Finest Car Wash | 4.1 | 204 | $90K |
| Suds Laundry & Car Wash 2207 Demers Ave | Grand Forks, ND | — | — | 4.2 | 179 | $90K |
| Big Wheels Truck Wash Inc. 3350 S 42nd St | Grand Forks, ND | Express Tunnel | — | 5.0 | 174 | $90K |
| White Water Truck Wash 1203 N 51st St | Grand Forks, ND | — | — | 3.9 | 160 | $57K |
| Auto Massage Detailing, Ceramic Coating, Paint Protection Film, Grand Forks, ND 1232 Rylan Rd #4 | Grand Forks, ND | Detail Shop | — | 4.9 | 152 | $90K |
| Simonson Car Wash - Grand Forks 310 Gateway Dr | Grand Forks, ND | In-Bay Automatic | Simonson Station Stores | 4.5 | 146 | $57K |
| C C Car Wash 2604 Gateway Dr | Grand Forks, ND | Self-Serve Bay | — | 4.5 | 121 | $57K |
| Petro Serve USA #201 4701 S Washington St | Grand Forks, ND | In-Bay Automatic | Petro Serve USA #201 | 4.0 | 108 | $90K |
| Cole’s Detailing (Auto, Boat & RV) 3190 Gateway Dr B | Grand Forks, ND | Detail Shop | — | 4.9 | 86 | $57K |
| Northdale 607 Gateway Dr NE | East Grand Forks, MN | — | Northdale | 4.5 | 82 | $76K |
| Petro Serve USA #207 1125 S 42nd St | Grand Forks, ND | In-Bay Automatic | Petro Serve USA #201 | 3.8 | 50 | $90K |
| Rebirth Detailing 2255 Beech Dr unit A | Grand Forks AFB, ND | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 48 | $62K |
| Blue Line Custom Detailing 1114 5th Ave NE | Thompson, ND | — | — | 5.0 | 36 | $117K |
| Valley Car Wash #211 1125 S 42nd St | Grand Forks, ND | — | — | 4.3 | 35 | $90K |
| 1 Way Detailing 623 S 15th St | Grand Forks, ND | — | — | 4.6 | 29 | $90K |
| Car Wash 1930 Sahlstrom Dr | Crookston, MN | — | — | 4.2 | 26 | $65K |
| Forks Finest Auto Body 2311 S Washington St | Grand Forks, ND | — | Forks Finest Car Wash | 4.0 | 22 | $90K |
| Cenex 1970 32nd Ave S | Grand Forks, ND | — | — | 4.2 | 18 | $90K |
| Grand Forks Subaru Service Department 4004 S Columbia Rd | Grand Forks, ND | — | — | 4.3 | 18 | $90K |
| Payton's Detailing 2995 Heartland Dr | Grand Forks, ND | — | — | 5.0 | 8 | $90K |
Compare Grand Forks to other ND 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). Grand Forks car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/grand-forks
WashIndex. "Grand Forks car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/grand-forks.
"Grand Forks car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/grand-forks.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_grand_forks_2026,
title = {{Grand Forks car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/grand-forks},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Grand Forks, ND-MN 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 771 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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