Hattiesburg Car Wash Market Analysis
Hattiesburg, MS
Data updated · June 9, 2026
A read of Hattiesburg's car wash market built from 5,669 Google reviews across 74 locations. Format mix, operator rank, geographic distribution, income overlay, customer-experience signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 74
- 85% independent
- Chains
- 4
- lead: Rainforest Carwash Laurel (5 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.52★
- +0.11 vs national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 1.1%
- 1.4× below national norm
- Cancel friction
- 8.3%
- Top format
- express tunnel
- 89% of classified inventory
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 154,567
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 59,327
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 2,089
- near the national MSA median
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 1.3
- above ~1.0 — contested · classified sites
Key findings
- 74 car wash locations operated by 4 chains and 63 independents across 3 counties.
- Weighted Google rating 4.52★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-metro norms.
- Built from 5,669 Google reviews, 635 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
74 car wash locations across 3 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
No single structural signal jumps out for Hattiesburg — it's a mid-shape car wash market. 74 locations across 4 chains and 63 independents, distributed across 3 counties. Distinctive patterns show up below at the format and aspect levels.
Average rating across the 74-location market weighs in at 4.52★; damage rate 1.1%; cancel friction 8.3%. Facility cleanliness is the brightest aspect signal (0.79/+1). 5,669 Google reviews drive the analysis, 635 of them processed through the WashIndex LLM extractor.
See the top car wash chains in Hattiesburg
Ranked by location count in the metro
The car wash industry in the Hattiesburg metro, officially
Low-wageCar-wash wages in the Hattiesburg metro run about 100% below the national average ($0 vs. $32,560), across 12 employer establishments and roughly 0 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 Hattiesburg car wash market
How many car washes are in the Hattiesburg metro?
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What is the best-rated car wash in the Hattiesburg metro?
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Which car wash chain has the most locations in Hattiesburg?
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What is the average customer rating in the Hattiesburg car wash market?
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What is the typical household income near car washes in Hattiesburg?
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What kinds of car washes does Hattiesburg have?
The format mix in Hattiesburg reads as a typical mid-market US metro — express tunnels and detail shops carrying the bulk of supply, with full-service and self-serve layered in. The bar chart pairs location count with per-format average rating.
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Express Tunnel | 8 | 10.8% | 2,143 | 4.47 | 1.02% | 8.3% |
| Detail Shop | 1 | 1.4% | 61 | 4.90 | 0.00% | — |
What is the household income near Hattiesburg car washes?
24 Hattiesburg 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: -0.04 — effectively zero. Operating quality dominates over neighborhood income. Scatter mean: $84K AGI/return, 4.26★.
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 | 15 | 5.00 | — |
| $50K – $75K | 5 | 35 | 1,597 | 4.41 | Express Tunnel (4) |
| $75K – $100K | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
| $100K – $150K | 1 | 15 | 3,991 | 4.55 | Express Tunnel (4) |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
Income band spread: 0/0.00★ at the highest tier; 1/5.00★ 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 Hattiesburg car washes?
4 chains alongside 63 independents make up Hattiesburg'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 | Rainforest Carwash Laurel | 5 | 1,881 | 4.48 | 1.09% | — | 0.36% |
| 2 | Shell | 3 | 81 | 3.75 | — | — | — |
| 3 | The Wash Zone | 2 | 199 | 4.38 | — | — | — |
| 4 | 5 Minute Express Car Wash | 1 | 63 | 4.60 | — | — | — |
Which counties have the most car washes in Hattiesburg?
Hattiesburg's 74 car washes distribute across 3 counties. Forrest County leads with 42 locations (56.8%). Cross-county rating dispersion is usually narrow at this scale.
Cross-county rating dispersion: 0.56★ between the highest- and lowest-rated counties with meaningful sample size.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forrest County | 42 | 56.8% | 1,477 | 4.44 |
| Lamar County | 31 | 41.9% | 4,177 | 4.54 |
| Perry County | 2 | 2.7% | 15 | 5.00 |
What do customers love and complain about in Hattiesburg?
Seven aspects, 635 reviews, 74 locations. The grid below gives a quick read on which dimensions of the experience Hattiesburg's car wash market does well at and which generate friction.
Where are all the car washes in the Hattiesburg metro?
Top 25 car washes by review volume in Hattiesburg. The full set of 74 is available in the underlying dataset.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toyota of Hattiesburg 6461 US-98 | Hattiesburg, MS | — | — | 4.6 | 2,947 | $123K |
| Rainforest Carwash & Oil Change Hardy 5026 Hardy St | Hattiesburg, MS | Express Tunnel | Rainforest Carwash Laurel | 4.4 | 574 | $123K |
| Rainforest Carwash Arcadia 1915 Arcadia St | Hattiesburg, MS | Express Tunnel | Rainforest Carwash Laurel | 4.4 | 405 | $51K |
| Rainforest Carwash & Oil Change Petal 1116 Evelyn Gandy Pkwy | Petal, MS | Express Tunnel | Rainforest Carwash Laurel | 4.7 | 403 | $69K |
| Rainforest Carwash Bellevue 7142 US-98 | Hattiesburg, MS | Express Tunnel | Rainforest Carwash Laurel | 4.5 | 250 | $123K |
| Rainforest Carwash 49 North 6485 US 49 | Hattiesburg, MS | Express Tunnel | Rainforest Carwash Laurel | 4.4 | 249 | $51K |
| Wash Zone 909 Broadway Dr | Hattiesburg, MS | Express Tunnel | The Wash Zone | 4.3 | 116 | $51K |
| Purvis Laundry and Car wash 578 MS-589 | Purvis, MS | — | — | 4.2 | 83 | $73K |
| The Wash Zone 15 King Rd | Hattiesburg, MS | Express Tunnel | The Wash Zone | 4.5 | 83 | $123K |
| 5 Minute Express Car Wash 6439 US-98 | Hattiesburg, MS | Express Tunnel | 5 Minute Express Car Wash | 4.6 | 63 | $123K |
| Ardy's Auto Spa 6487 US 49 | Hattiesburg, MS | Detail Shop | — | 4.9 | 61 | $51K |
| Car wash 3807 W 4th St | Hattiesburg, MS | — | — | 3.2 | 46 | $51K |
| Petal Pride Bay Wash LLC 537 Old MS Hwy 42 | Petal, MS | — | — | 3.8 | 43 | $69K |
| Shell 1170 MS-42 | Sumrall, MS | — | Shell | 3.8 | 41 | $75K |
| Christopher's Hand Detail 5331 Old Hwy 11 | Hattiesburg, MS | — | — | 4.4 | 30 | $123K |
| Roosevelt’s “Honest” Detail Shop #2 1110 Hardy St | Hattiesburg, MS | — | — | 4.6 | 30 | $51K |
| Shell 2306 Hardy St | Hattiesburg, MS | — | Shell | 3.7 | 27 | $51K |
| D.Body Details | , MS | — | — | 5.0 | 25 | — |
| Fairley's Tire-Rubber Disposal 300 Worth Nall Rd | Lumberton, MS | — | — | 4.5 | 24 | $56K |
| Affordable Detailing 207 Oscar Bond Rd | Purvis, MS | — | — | 4.8 | 16 | $73K |
| Ceramic Pro Hattiesburg 16 Commercial Warehouse Dr | Hattiesburg, MS | — | — | 5.0 | 15 | $123K |
| True Time Auto Detailing - Mobile Detailing Hattiesburg | , MS | — | — | 5.0 | 15 | — |
| Wash A Lawn 83 N Wellstown Rd | Lumberton, MS | — | — | 5.0 | 14 | $56K |
| Shell 5828 US-11 | Purvis, MS | — | Shell | 3.7 | 13 | $73K |
| Mohawk carwash 150Oak, Grove Rd | Hattiesburg, MS | — | — | 2.9 | 11 | $123K |
Compare Hattiesburg to other MS 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). Hattiesburg car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/hattiesburg
WashIndex. "Hattiesburg car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/hattiesburg.
"Hattiesburg car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/hattiesburg.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_hattiesburg_2026,
title = {{Hattiesburg car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/hattiesburg},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Hattiesburg, MS 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 635 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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