Kingsport Car Wash Market Analysis
Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA
Data updated · June 9, 2026
A read of Kingsport's car wash market built from 10,009 Google reviews across 188 locations. Format mix, operator rank, geographic distribution, income overlay, customer-experience signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 188
- 87% independent
- Chains
- 8
- lead: Shell (8 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.33★
- -0.08 vs national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 2.4%
- 1.5× national MSA norm
- Cancel friction
- 19.2%
- Top format
- express tunnel
- 65% of classified inventory
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 309,580
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 129,894
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 1,647
- near the national MSA median
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 1.3
- above ~1.0 — contested · classified sites
Key findings
- 188 car wash locations operated by 8 chains and 163 independents across 5 counties.
- Weighted Google rating 4.33★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-metro norms.
- Built from 10,009 Google reviews, 2,664 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
188 car wash locations across 5 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Kingsport reads as a balanced car wash market — neither sharply consolidated nor unusually fragmented. 188 locations across 8 chains and 163 independents, distributed across 5 counties. Customer-experience signals across 2,664 AI-extracted reviews produce the distinct read on this market.
Weighted rating 4.33★; damage 2.4%; membership-cancel friction 19.2%. Equipment reliability runs as the sharpest friction (-0.69). Per-operator and per-format cuts below are more informative than the aggregates.
See the top car wash chains in Kingsport
Ranked by location count in the metro
The car wash industry in the Kingsport metro, officially
the Kingsport metro has 18 car-wash employer establishments employing about 105 people, at a $32,540 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 Kingsport car wash market
How many car washes are in the Kingsport metro?
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What is the best-rated car wash in the Kingsport metro?
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Which car wash chain has the most locations in Kingsport?
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What is the average customer rating in the Kingsport car wash market?
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What is the typical household income near car washes in Kingsport?
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What kinds of car washes does Kingsport have?
Format counts below split Kingsport's 188 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: Detail Shop at 4.87★ across 9 locations. Lowest-rated: Express Tunnel at 4.35★ (17 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Express Tunnel | 17 | 9.0% | 5,168 | 4.35 | 3.99% | 18.7% |
| Detail Shop | 9 | 4.8% | 938 | 4.87 | 0.00% | 0.0% |
What is the household income near Kingsport car washes?
74 Kingsport 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 74 qualifying locations: 0.10 — effectively zero. Operating quality dominates over neighborhood income. Scatter mean: $66K 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 | 2 | 11 | 979 | 4.40 | Express Tunnel (1) |
| $50K – $75K | 16 | 88 | 6,918 | 4.33 | Express Tunnel (11) |
| $75K – $100K | 4 | 26 | 1,862 | 4.24 | Express Tunnel (5) |
| $100K – $150K | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
Top-tier 0 sites, 0.00★ avg; bottom-tier 11 sites, 4.40★. Across Kingsport's 74 qualifying locations, the income gradient correlates only weakly with rating — operator execution dominates.
Who operates the most Kingsport car washes?
8 chains run sites in Kingsport; 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 | Shell | 8 | 501 | 3.79 | — | — | — |
| 2 | The Car Wash | 5 | 579 | 4.21 | — | — | — |
| 3 | Ultimate Shine Car Wash | 4 | 1,960 | 4.36 | 8.86% | 16.0% | 0.37% |
| 4 | Wash N Roll Car Wash | 3 | 839 | 3.98 | 1.42% | 33.3% | 5.66% |
| 5 | Doug's Super Wash | 2 | 315 | 4.22 | — | — | — |
| 6 | Take 5 Car Wash | 1 | 680 | 4.80 | 0.78% | — | 0.39% |
| 7 | Tommy's Express® Car Wash | 1 | 427 | 4.50 | 3.39% | — | 0.68% |
| 8 | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 1 | 368 | 4.50 | 2.67% | — | 0.44% |
Which counties have the most car washes in Kingsport?
Kingsport's 188 car washes distribute across 5 counties. Sullivan County leads with 115 locations (61.2%). Cross-county rating dispersion is usually narrow at this scale.
Cross-county rating dispersion: 0.88★ between the highest- and lowest-rated counties with meaningful sample size.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sullivan County | 115 | 61.2% | 6,975 | 4.36 |
| Washington County | 36 | 19.1% | 1,109 | 4.26 |
| Hawkins County | 20 | 10.6% | 395 | 3.73 |
| Bristol city County | 12 | 6.4% | 1,491 | 4.42 |
| Scott County | 7 | 3.7% | 39 | 4.61 |
What do customers love and complain about in Kingsport?
Seven aspects, 2,664 reviews, 188 locations. The grid below gives a quick read on which dimensions of the experience Kingsport's car wash market does well at and which generate friction.
Where are all the car washes in the Kingsport metro?
The complete inventory of car wash locations in the Kingsport 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultimate Shine Car Wash 2405 E Stone Dr | Kingsport, TN | Express Tunnel | Ultimate Shine Car Wash | 4.3 | 831 | $63K |
| Take 5 Car Wash 1229 E Stone Dr | Kingsport, TN | Express Tunnel | Take 5 Car Wash | 4.8 | 680 | $63K |
| Wash N' Roll Car Wash - Bristol, TN 920 Volunteer Pkwy | Bristol, TN | Express Tunnel | Wash N Roll Car Wash | 4.0 | 662 | $66K |
| Ultimate Shine Car Wash 2605 Minnich Trail | Kingsport, TN | Express Tunnel | Ultimate Shine Car Wash | 4.4 | 540 | $63K |
| Ultimate Shine Car Wash 1309 Euclid Avenue | Bristol, VA | Express Tunnel | Ultimate Shine Car Wash | 4.4 | 439 | $49K |
| Tommy's Express® Car Wash 1415 Hwy 11 W | Bristol, TN | Express Tunnel | Tommy's Express® Car Wash | 4.5 | 427 | $66K |
| Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash 520 Falls Blvd | Bristol, VA | Express Tunnel | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 4.5 | 368 | $72K |
| Towne Center Soft Cloth Auto Wash 212 Cook St | Abingdon, VA | — | — | 4.4 | 312 | $69K |
| Mobster Auto Detailing 1170 Lee Hwy | Bristol, VA | Detail Shop | — | 4.9 | 287 | $49K |
| Ideal Auto Detail 2559 Fort Henry Dr | Kingsport, TN | Detail Shop | — | 4.9 | 278 | $78K |
| TLG Motors 2121 Volunteer Pkwy | Bristol, TN | — | — | 4.0 | 258 | $66K |
| Doug's Super Wash 2605 E Stone Dr | Kingsport, TN | Express Tunnel | Doug's Super Wash | 4.3 | 233 | $63K |
| Speedway Supercenter Carwash LLC 2407 Volunteer Pkwy | Bristol, TN | — | — | 4.3 | 232 | $66K |
| TruShine Car Wash 203 Linden Square Dr | Bristol, VA | Express Tunnel | The Car Wash | 4.3 | 203 | $72K |
| Southern Classic Auto Wash Kingsport 4264 Fort Henry Dr | Kingsport, TN | — | — | 4.1 | 201 | $78K |
| Rub-A-Dub Car Wash 436 Main St W | Mt Carmel, TN | — | — | 3.3 | 160 | $59K |
| Wash World 3859 Fort Henry Dr | Kingsport, TN | — | — | 3.7 | 157 | $78K |
| Dent Worx 901 W Center St | Kingsport, TN | — | — | 4.8 | 157 | $63K |
| Ultimate Shine Car Wash 6655 Bristol Hwy | Piney Flats, TN | Express Tunnel | Ultimate Shine Car Wash | 4.4 | 150 | $88K |
| Wash N' Roll Car Wash - Kingsport, TN (Center St) 550 W Center St | Kingsport, TN | Express Tunnel | Wash N Roll Car Wash | 3.8 | 140 | $63K |
| Quality Car Wash 5520 Hwy 11 E | Piney Flats, TN | — | — | 3.8 | 135 | $88K |
| Quality Car Wash 2400 E Center St | Kingsport, TN | — | — | 3.6 | 135 | $78K |
| Quality Car Wash 101-411 Phoenix Ct | Kingsport, TN | — | — | 4.1 | 131 | $78K |
| TruShine Car Wash IV 2227 Fort Henry Dr | Kingsport, TN | Express Tunnel | The Car Wash | 4.2 | 130 | $78K |
| Dave's Super Wash 300 Hazelwood St | Bristol, TN | — | — | 4.2 | 117 | $66K |
Compare Kingsport to other TN 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). Kingsport car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/kingsport
WashIndex. "Kingsport car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/kingsport.
"Kingsport car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/kingsport.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_kingsport_2026,
title = {{Kingsport car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/kingsport},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA CBSA is determined by point-in-polygon test against the official US Census county boundaries (TIGER/Line, 2024) for the 5 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 2,664 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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