Lawrence Car Wash Market Analysis
Lawrence, KS
Data updated · June 9, 2026
Lawrence: 38 car wash locations, structurally tilted toward detail shop. Format dominance breakdown, per-format quality, operator rank, customer-experience signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 38
- 84% independent
- Chains
- 4
- lead: Shucks Auto Wash (2 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.41★
- near national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 1.6%
- near national MSA norm
- Cancel friction
- 15.4%
- Top format
- detail shop
- 67% of classified inventory
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 119,547
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 49,939
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 3,146
- 1.6× the national MSA median — lighter supply
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 0.6
- in the 0.5–1.0 filling band · classified sites
Key findings
- 38 car wash locations operated by 4 chains and 32 independents across 1 county.
- Detail shop dominates: 66.7% of formally-classified locations.
- Built from 4,354 Google reviews, 1,132 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
38 car wash locations across 1 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Lawrence's car wash supply is structurally tilted toward detail shop. 38 locations sit in the market; 66.7% of the classified subset are detail shop, averaging 4.60★. Operating-quality signals below are best read as a study of detail shop's execution.
Headline operating signals: 4.41★ rating, 1.6% damage, 15.4% cancel friction. Equipment reliability runs as the friction point (-0.39). The operator rank below shows which chains have committed most heavily to the dominant format.
See the top car wash chains in Lawrence
Ranked by location count in the metro
The car wash industry in the Lawrence metro, officially
Low-wageCar-wash wages in the Lawrence metro run about 14% below the national average ($28,027 vs. $32,560), across 6 employer establishments and roughly 22 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 Lawrence car wash market
How many car washes are in the Lawrence metro?
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What is the best-rated car wash in the Lawrence metro?
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Which car wash chain has the most locations in Lawrence?
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What is the average customer rating in the Lawrence car wash market?
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What is the typical household income near car washes in Lawrence?
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What kinds of car washes does Lawrence have?
Format dominance is the structural story here. 8 of the 38 car washes in Lawrence run as detail shop. The mini-table below shows how the rest of the market splits.
Highest-rated format: Detail Shop at 4.60★ across 8 locations. Lowest-rated: Self-Serve Bay at 2.70★ (1 locations).
26 (68.4%) of 38 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 | 26 | 68.4% | 2,374 | 4.44 | 0.79% | 0.0% |
| Detail Shop | 8 | 21.1% | 611 | 4.60 | 0.00% | 0.0% |
| Express Tunnel | 3 | 7.9% | 1,242 | 4.43 | 4.87% | 16.9% |
| Self-Serve Bay | 1 | 2.6% | 127 | 2.70 | 0.00% | 0.0% |
What is the household income near Lawrence car washes?
Because Lawrence is detail shop-dominant, the income scatter below mostly reads as a study of how that one format ranges across income tiers. The other formats show up as small splotches at the long tail.
Pearson r between ZIP income and Google rating across 22 qualifying locations: -0.05 — effectively zero. Operating quality dominates over neighborhood income. Scatter mean: $81K 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 | 2 | 12 | 1,749 | 4.44 | Detail Shop (4) |
| $75K – $100K | 4 | 17 | 2,435 | 4.35 | Detail Shop (4) |
| $100K – $150K | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
Top tier 0 sites at 0.00★; bottom tier 0 sites at 0.00★. Lawrence's detail shop skew means the income mix reads less as "which formats serve which neighborhoods" and more as "where this one format reaches its limits".
Who operates the most Lawrence car washes?
In Lawrence, the chain rank below is closely tied to format dominance — the largest operators tend to be the ones that built out the dominant detail shop at scale. Per-chain quality numbers help separate format-correlated signal from operator-correlated signal.
| # | Chain | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage | Cancel | Upsell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shucks Auto Wash | 2 | 255 | 4.08 | — | — | — |
| 2 | Club Car Wash | 2 | 753 | 4.45 | 5.56% | 17.0% | 1.67% |
| 3 | Tommy's Express® Car Wash | 1 | 489 | 4.40 | — | — | — |
| 4 | Phillips 66 | 1 | 77 | 4.50 | — | — | — |
Which counties have the most car washes in Lawrence?
The county table below distributes Lawrence's 38 car washes across its 1 counties. Cross-county rating variance is generally narrow in format-dominated markets — the format itself sets expectations.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas County | 38 | 100.0% | 4,354 | 4.41 |
What do customers love and complain about in Lawrence?
Staff stands out positively (0.82); equipment reliability stands out as the friction point (-0.39).
Where are all the car washes in the Lawrence metro?
Top locations by review count in Lawrence. With 66.7% of classified sites running as detail shop, the format column below reads consistently rather than varying across the list.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bob Sight Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram 2300 W 29th Terrace | Lawrence, KS | — | — | 4.4 | 749 | $92K |
| Crown Toyota of Lawrence 3430 Iowa St | Lawrence, KS | — | — | 4.6 | 649 | $59K |
| Tommy's Express® Car Wash 3900 W 6th St | Lawrence, KS | Express Tunnel | Tommy's Express® Car Wash | 4.4 | 489 | $97K |
| Club Car Wash 1040 E 23rd St | Lawrence, KS | Express Tunnel | Club Car Wash | 4.5 | 414 | $59K |
| Club Car Wash 4850 Bauer Farm Dr | Lawrence, KS | Express Tunnel | Club Car Wash | 4.4 | 339 | $97K |
| Shucks Auto Wash 720 E 23rd St | Lawrence, KS | Detail Shop | Shucks Auto Wash | 3.9 | 214 | $59K |
| Westridge Wash & Lube 3530 W 6th St | Lawrence, KS | — | — | 4.2 | 190 | $97K |
| The Selection Premium Automobiles 845 Iowa St | Lawrence, KS | — | — | 4.5 | 173 | $97K |
| Mr D's Auto Wash 1300 W 6th St | Lawrence, KS | — | — | 3.9 | 158 | $67K |
| Detail On The Go | Detailing, PPF & Ceramic Coating 197 Pinecone Drive | Lawrence, KS | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 128 | $59K |
| Wakarusa Court Car Wash 4900 Wakarusa Ct | Lawrence, KS | Self-Serve Bay | — | 2.7 | 127 | $92K |
| Woo Detailing | , KS | — | — | 5.0 | 99 | — |
| The New Car Image 2421 Via Linda Dr | Lawrence, KS | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 97 | $92K |
| Fast Eddy's 1020 N 3rd St | Lawrence, KS | — | — | 4.0 | 93 | $67K |
| Phillips 66 2815 W 6th St | Lawrence, KS | — | Phillips 66 | 4.5 | 77 | $97K |
| Jimerson Mobile Detailing | , KS | — | — | 5.0 | 58 | — |
| Ad Astra Detailing 3259 Atchison Ave | Lawrence, KS | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 48 | $92K |
| EvelinsAutoCare 901 Delaware St | Lawrence, KS | Detail Shop | — | 4.8 | 44 | $67K |
| RedTail Detail 203 Acorn St | Eudora, KS | — | — | 5.0 | 43 | $81K |
| Shucks Automotive Detailing 720 E 23rd St | Lawrence, KS | Detail Shop | Shucks Auto Wash | 5.0 | 41 | $59K |
| K-10 LC Car Wash 1428 Church St | Eudora, KS | — | — | 3.9 | 38 | $81K |
| Prismatic Mobile Detailing LLC 232 Earhart Cir | Lawrence, KS | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 28 | $97K |
| Baldwin Power Wash 219 US-56 | Baldwin City, KS | — | — | 3.5 | 19 | $87K |
| Wikawo Auto Detailing 2600 Four Wheel Dr | Lawrence, KS | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 11 | $92K |
| Palmateer Detailing | , KS | — | — | 5.0 | 9 | — |
Compare Lawrence to other KS 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). Lawrence car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/lawrence
WashIndex. "Lawrence car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/lawrence.
"Lawrence car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/lawrence.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_lawrence_2026,
title = {{Lawrence car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/lawrence},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Lawrence, KS 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 1,132 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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