Jacksonville Car Wash Market Analysis
Jacksonville, NC
Data updated · June 9, 2026
8,073 Google reviews across 110 car washes in 1 Jacksonville counties. Format mix, operator rank, geographic distribution, income overlay, customer-experience signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 110
- 84% independent
- Chains
- 7
- lead: Green Clean Auto Spa (7 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.56★
- +0.15 vs national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 1.3%
- near national MSA norm
- Cancel friction
- 6.8%
- Top format
- express tunnel
- 65% of classified inventory
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 208,537
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 72,516
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 1,896
- near the national MSA median
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 1.8
- above ~1.5 — heavily built · classified sites
Key findings
- 110 car wash locations operated by 7 chains and 92 independents across 1 county.
- Weighted Google rating 4.56★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-metro norms.
- Built from 8,073 Google reviews, 3,222 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
110 car wash locations across 1 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
No single structural signal jumps out for Jacksonville — it's a mid-shape car wash market. 110 locations across 7 chains and 92 independents, distributed across 1 counties. Distinctive patterns show up below at the format and aspect levels.
Weighted rating 4.56★; damage 1.3%; membership-cancel friction 6.8%. Equipment reliability runs as the sharpest friction (-0.55). 8,073 Google reviews drive the analysis, 3,222 of them processed through the WashIndex LLM extractor.
See the top car wash chains in Jacksonville
Ranked by location count in the metro
The car wash industry in the Jacksonville metro, officially
Low-wageCar-wash wages in the Jacksonville metro run about 38% below the national average ($20,202 vs. $32,560), across 11 employer establishments and roughly 72 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 Jacksonville car wash market
How many car washes are in the Jacksonville metro?
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What is the best-rated car wash in the Jacksonville metro?
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Which car wash chain has the most locations in Jacksonville?
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What is the average customer rating in the Jacksonville car wash market?
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What is the typical household income near car washes in Jacksonville?
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What kinds of car washes does Jacksonville 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. Jacksonville's mix sits close to the US-metro median shape.
Highest-rated format: Detail Shop at 4.91★ across 2 locations. Lowest-rated: In-Bay Automatic at 3.53★ (5 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Express Tunnel | 13 | 11.8% | 5,686 | 4.66 | 1.36% | 6.9% |
| In-Bay Automatic | 5 | 4.5% | 342 | 3.53 | 4.26% | — |
| Detail Shop | 2 | 1.8% | 348 | 4.91 | 0.68% | — |
What is the household income near Jacksonville car washes?
Read together with the format mix above, the income scatter below tells you whether car wash quality in Jacksonville tracks neighborhood income, format mix, or neither. Operating quality usually dominates this picture.
Pearson r between ZIP income and Google rating across 32 qualifying locations: 0.26 — mild positive. Higher-income ZIPs host slightly better-rated washes, but operator execution still dominates. Scatter mean: $59K AGI/return, 4.08★.
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 | 3 | 55 | 3.59 | In-Bay Automatic (1) |
| $50K – $75K | 5 | 50 | 7,090 | 4.56 | Express Tunnel (12) |
| $75K – $100K | 3 | 6 | 563 | 4.43 | In-Bay Automatic (1) |
| $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 3 sites across 1 ZIPs at 3.59★ 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 Jacksonville car washes?
7 chains alongside 92 independents make up Jacksonville'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 | Green Clean Auto Spa | 7 | 1,314 | 4.38 | 6.55% | — | 0.60% |
| 2 | Liberty Auto Spa | 3 | 232 | 3.79 | — | — | — |
| 3 | Whistle Express Car Wash | 3 | 3,665 | 4.77 | 0.81% | 5.8% | 0.15% |
| 4 | Coastal Carolina Car Wash | 2 | 110 | 3.00 | — | — | — |
| 5 | Auto Brite | 1 | 400 | 3.70 | — | — | — |
| 6 | Hall of Fame Car Wash | 1 | 157 | 5.00 | 0.00% | — | 0.00% |
| 7 | Clean Wheels Car Wash | 1 | 116 | 4.40 | — | — | — |
Which counties have the most car washes in Jacksonville?
Jacksonville's 110 car washes distribute across 1 counties. Onslow County leads with 111 locations (100.9%). Cross-county rating dispersion is usually narrow at this scale.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Onslow County | 111 | 100.9% | 8,073 | 4.56 |
What do customers love and complain about in Jacksonville?
The aspect grid below summarizes 3,222 AI-extracted reviews across 110 Jacksonville 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 Jacksonville metro?
The complete inventory of car wash locations in the Jacksonville 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whistle Express Car Wash 464 Western Blvd | Jacksonville, NC | Express Tunnel | Whistle Express Car Wash | 4.8 | 1,730 | $55K |
| Whistle Express Car Wash 4245 Western Blvd | Jacksonville, NC | Express Tunnel | Whistle Express Car Wash | 4.7 | 1,551 | $55K |
| Green Clean Auto Spa 2170 Gum Branch Rd | Jacksonville, NC | Express Tunnel | Green Clean Auto Spa | 4.7 | 683 | $56K |
| King's Car Wash Express 1116 W Corbett Ave | Swansboro, NC | Express Tunnel | — | 4.6 | 434 | $87K |
| Auto Brite Car Wash 1311 Country Club Rd | Jacksonville, NC | — | Auto Brite | 3.7 | 400 | $55K |
| Whistle Express Car Wash 7465 Richlands Hwy | Richlands, NC | Express Tunnel | Whistle Express Car Wash | 4.9 | 384 | $56K |
| Green Clean Auto Spa - Richlands Hwy 2881 Richlands Hwy | Jacksonville, NC | Express Tunnel | Green Clean Auto Spa | 4.4 | 379 | $56K |
| James International Services Detailing 136 Basswood Ct | Jacksonville, NC | Detail Shop | — | 4.9 | 300 | $55K |
| Hall of Fame Car Wash 1002 Gum Branch Rd | Jacksonville, NC | Express Tunnel | Hall of Fame Car Wash | 5.0 | 157 | $56K |
| Green Clean Auto Spa - Mainside Bldg. 1053, Ash St | Camp Lejeune, NC | Express Tunnel | Green Clean Auto Spa | 3.7 | 135 | $53K |
| Clean Wheels Car Wash Jacksonville 2311 Lejeune Blvd | Jacksonville, NC | Express Tunnel | Clean Wheels Car Wash | 4.4 | 116 | $55K |
| Liberty Auto Spa 1925 N Marine Blvd | Jacksonville, NC | In-Bay Automatic | Liberty Auto Spa | 4.0 | 112 | $55K |
| Crystal Coast Detail Center 415 Marine Blvd | Jacksonville, NC | — | — | 4.5 | 108 | $56K |
| GNA Auto Service and Detail 8200 Richlands Hwy | Richlands, NC | — | — | 4.3 | 83 | $56K |
| Ace of Spades Auto Detailing | , NC | — | — | 5.0 | 82 | — |
| Coastal Carolina Car Wash 1034 NC-210 | Sneads Ferry, NC | In-Bay Automatic | Coastal Carolina Car Wash | 3.1 | 75 | $80K |
| Liberty Auto Spa 148 Hickory Rd | Jacksonville, NC | In-Bay Automatic | Liberty Auto Spa | 3.7 | 74 | $56K |
| Pogi Auto Detailing | , NC | — | — | 5.0 | 69 | — |
| Elite Express Detailing Pressure Washing 653 N Marine Blvd | Jacksonville, NC | — | — | 4.1 | 68 | $56K |
| Chandler’s Detailing 642 Old 30 Rd | Jacksonville, NC | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 48 | $55K |
| Liberty Auto Spa 2840 Piney Green Rd | Jacksonville, NC | In-Bay Automatic | Liberty Auto Spa | 3.4 | 46 | $38K |
| Green Clean Auto Spa - New River Air Station AS, 4061 Schmidt St | Jacksonville, NC | Express Tunnel | Green Clean Auto Spa | 3.4 | 45 | $56K |
| Coastal Carolina Car Wash 2557 Onslow Dr | Jacksonville, NC | In-Bay Automatic | Coastal Carolina Car Wash | 2.8 | 35 | $56K |
| L&S Autocare 34 Jasmine Ln | Jacksonville, NC | — | — | 5.0 | 35 | $55K |
| Car Wash 1689 State Rd 1410 | Jacksonville, NC | — | — | 2.8 | 32 | $55K |
Compare Jacksonville 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). Jacksonville car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/jacksonville-nc
WashIndex. "Jacksonville car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/jacksonville-nc.
"Jacksonville car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/jacksonville-nc.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_jacksonville_nc_2026,
title = {{Jacksonville car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/jacksonville-nc},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Jacksonville, 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 3,222 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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