Lincoln Car Wash Market Analysis
Lincoln, NE
Data updated · June 9, 2026
213 car washes, 15 chains, 2,576 AI-extracted reviews — concentrated more than the typical US metro. Operator concentration, per-chain quality, format mix, customer-experience signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 213
- 77% independent
- Chains
- 15
- lead: Phillips 66 (16 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.34★
- -0.07 vs national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 3.2%
- 2.0× national MSA norm
- Cancel friction
- 22.3%
- Top format
- express tunnel
- 41% of classified inventory
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 341,309
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 138,807
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 1,602
- 1.2× denser than the national MSA median
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 1.2
- above ~1.0 — contested · classified sites
Key findings
- 213 car wash locations operated by 15 chains and 165 independents across 2 counties.
- Top 10 chains control 20.2% of locations — above the 11.4% US-metro median, led by Phillips 66 (16 sites).
- Built from 13,671 Google reviews, 2,576 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
213 car wash locations across 2 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Among the US metros we track, Lincoln is a relatively consolidated example. Across 213 tracked locations, the top ten operators control 20.2% of supply — above the 11.4% US-metro median, with Phillips 66 the largest at 16 sites. The headline averages below behave like chain averages — the per-chain table is the right cut to read.
Operating-quality aggregates: rating 4.34★, damage 3.2%, membership-cancel friction 22.3%. Aspect spread: Staff (0.71) on the positive side, equipment reliability (-0.65) on the friction side. Because the operator mix is concentrated, those numbers behave more like chain averages than market averages.
See the top car wash chains in Lincoln
Ranked by location count in the metro
The car wash industry in the Lincoln metro, officially
Low-wageCar-wash wages in the Lincoln metro run about 41% below the national average ($19,311 vs. $32,560), across 21 employer establishments and roughly 314 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 Lincoln car wash market
How many car washes are in the Lincoln metro?
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What is the best-rated car wash in the Lincoln metro?
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Which car wash chain has the most locations in Lincoln?
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What is the average customer rating in the Lincoln car wash market?
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What is the typical household income near car washes in Lincoln?
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What kinds of car washes does Lincoln have?
In a market where 20.2% of locations sit inside a top-10 chain, the format breakdown reflects what those chains bought. Lower-throughput formats (detail shop, full service) generally cluster outside the rolled-up operator set.
Highest-rated format: Detail Shop at 4.53★ across 12 locations. Lowest-rated: In-Bay Automatic at 3.39★ (3 locations).
174 (81.7%) of 213 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 | 174 | 81.7% | 6,085 | 4.31 | 0.94% | 40.0% |
| Express Tunnel | 16 | 7.5% | 5,804 | 4.42 | 6.41% | 21.9% |
| Detail Shop | 12 | 5.6% | 1,154 | 4.53 | 0.00% | 0.0% |
| Self-Serve Bay | 6 | 2.8% | 313 | 3.77 | 0.00% | 0.0% |
| In-Bay Automatic | 3 | 1.4% | 174 | 3.39 | 0.00% | 0.0% |
| Full Service | 2 | 0.9% | 141 | 3.54 | 0.00% | — |
What is the household income near Lincoln car washes?
99 Lincoln locations with at least 10 Google reviews are plotted below against ZIP-level mean IRS AGI. The income picture in a consolidated market mostly reflects where the dominant operators saw the strongest unit economics.
Pearson r between ZIP income and Google rating across 99 qualifying locations: 0.04 — effectively zero. Operating quality dominates over neighborhood income. Scatter mean: $87K AGI/return, 4.21★.
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 | 3 | 28 | 2,211 | 4.33 | Express Tunnel (2) |
| $50K – $75K | 6 | 56 | 4,874 | 4.28 | Detail Shop (6) |
| $75K – $100K | 7 | 31 | 1,807 | 4.38 | Detail Shop (2) |
| $100K – $150K | 7 | 37 | 3,026 | 4.31 | Express Tunnel (6) |
| $150K+ | 3 | 11 | 1,614 | 4.54 | Express Tunnel (2) |
The highest-income tier ($150K+) holds 11 car washes across 3 ZIPs at 4.54★; the lowest-income tier (Under $50K) holds 28 across 3 ZIPs at 4.33★. In a chain-consolidated market like Lincoln, the income mix mostly reads as a record of where the top operators chose to deploy — middle-income ZIPs typically anchor the densest rollouts.
Who operates the most Lincoln car washes?
In Lincoln, where chain share runs above the US-metro median, the chain-level breakdown below is where most of the operating-quality signal sits. Phillips 66 alone runs 16 of the metro's 213 sites; per-chain rating, damage rate, and membership-friction numbers follow.
| # | Chain | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage | Cancel | Upsell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phillips 66 | 16 | 2,039 | 4.16 | — | — | — |
| 2 | JetSplash Car Wash | 9 | 3,100 | 4.52 | 8.59% | 21.6% | 0.34% |
| 3 | Tornado Car Wash | 4 | 173 | 3.97 | — | — | — |
| 4 | Rocket Carwash | 3 | 1,803 | 4.29 | 5.15% | 24.8% | 8.42% |
| 5 | Super Wash | 2 | 140 | 3.51 | — | — | — |
| 6 | Stop 'N Shop | 2 | 32 | 3.33 | — | — | — |
| 7 | Soapatopia Car Wash | 2 | 108 | 4.35 | — | — | — |
| 8 | Finishing Touch | 2 | 141 | 3.54 | — | — | — |
| 9 | Shell | 2 | 69 | 3.42 | — | — | — |
| 10 | G Force Car Wash | 1 | 40 | 3.70 | — | — | — |
| 11 | Hy-Vee Car Wash | 1 | 40 | 4.10 | — | — | — |
| 12 | Dave's Car Wash | 1 | 20 | 5.00 | — | — | — |
| 13 | Russell Speeder's Car Wash | 1 | 878 | 4.70 | 1.83% | — | 2.75% |
| 14 | Tommy's Express® Car Wash | 1 | 619 | 4.40 | 6.17% | — | 0.44% |
| 15 | Kwik Shop | 1 | 40 | 2.70 | — | — | — |
Which counties have the most car washes in Lincoln?
Lincoln's 2 counties carry different shares of the metro's car wash supply. In a consolidated market, chain operators tend to concentrate in the densest counties — the table below shows where they did.
Cross-county rating dispersion: 0.16★ between the highest- and lowest-rated counties with meaningful sample size.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lancaster County | 200 | 93.9% | 13,451 | 4.35 |
| Seward County | 13 | 6.1% | 220 | 4.18 |
What do customers love and complain about in Lincoln?
Staff is the strongest signal here (0.71); equipment reliability runs as the sharpest pain (-0.65). Useful as a quick check on which aspects Lincoln's consolidated supply does well at vs. poorly.
Where are all the car washes in the Lincoln metro?
Top locations by review volume in Lincoln are listed below. In a consolidated market, the top of the list is typically dominated by the largest chains' anchor sites; chain affiliation is called out in the Chain column.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russell Speeder's Car Wash of Lincoln 5757 S 86th Dr | Lincoln, NE | — | Russell Speeder's Car Wash | 4.7 | 878 | $151K |
| Rocket Carwash 3833 Village Dr | Lincoln, NE | Express Tunnel | Rocket Carwash | 4.6 | 812 | $112K |
| Rocket Carwash 6135 O St | Lincoln, NE | Express Tunnel | Rocket Carwash | 4.0 | 806 | $68K |
| JetSplash Car Wash 2730 Dan Ave | Lincoln, NE | Express Tunnel | JetSplash Car Wash | 4.5 | 736 | $47K |
| JetSplash Car Wash 3800 S 9th St | Lincoln, NE | Express Tunnel | JetSplash Car Wash | 4.5 | 653 | $87K |
| Tommy's Express® Car Wash 150 N 70th St | Lincoln, NE | Express Tunnel | Tommy's Express® Car Wash | 4.4 | 619 | $64K |
| JetSplash Car Wash 1641 N 86th St | Lincoln, NE | Express Tunnel | JetSplash Car Wash | 4.5 | 520 | $64K |
| JetSplash Car Wash 7355 Crosslake Ln | Lincoln, NE | Express Tunnel | JetSplash Car Wash | 4.6 | 432 | $112K |
| JetSplash Car Wash 8420 Eiger Dr | Lincoln, NE | Express Tunnel | JetSplash Car Wash | 4.6 | 374 | $151K |
| Leighton Street Car Wash 4808 Leighton Ave | Lincoln, NE | — | — | 4.1 | 358 | $47K |
| Morrow Collision Center Inc. N 83rd 2801 N 83rd St | Lincoln, NE | — | — | 4.9 | 348 | $64K |
| GP Customs 1501 Cushman Dr | Lincoln, NE | Detail Shop | — | 4.1 | 338 | $130K |
| ReNu Bedliners & Tints 101 Oakcreek Dr Suite A | Lincoln, NE | — | — | 4.9 | 326 | $74K |
| Phillips 66 6801 Wildcat Dr | Lincoln, NE | — | Phillips 66 | 4.2 | 276 | $47K |
| Nebraska Auto Detail 3925 S 8th St | Lincoln, NE | Detail Shop | — | 4.9 | 250 | $87K |
| Phillips 66 5640 S 16th St | Lincoln, NE | — | Phillips 66 | 4.1 | 250 | $130K |
| Golden auto detailing 122 S Antelope Valley Pkwy | Lincoln, NE | — | — | 4.8 | 217 | $68K |
| Phillips 66 3244 Cornhusker Hwy | Lincoln, NE | — | Phillips 66 | 4.2 | 205 | $47K |
| Rocket Carwash 8633 Andermatt Dr | Lincoln, NE | Express Tunnel | Rocket Carwash | 4.2 | 185 | $151K |
| JetSplash Car Wash 2055 S 40th St | Lincoln, NE | Express Tunnel | JetSplash Car Wash | 4.6 | 179 | $80K |
| Southside Carwash 5500 S 48th St | Lincoln, NE | Express Tunnel | — | 4.1 | 174 | $112K |
| Phillips 66 3280 Superior St | Lincoln, NE | — | Phillips 66 | 4.4 | 171 | $47K |
| Phillips 66 5600 S 56th St | Lincoln, NE | — | Phillips 66 | 4.0 | 160 | $112K |
| Power Wash 600 W Cornhusker Hwy | Lincoln, NE | — | — | 3.8 | 149 | $64K |
| Wash & Roll 3301 Pioneers Blvd | Lincoln, NE | In-Bay Automatic | — | 3.4 | 142 | $80K |
Compare Lincoln to other NE 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). Lincoln car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/lincoln
WashIndex. "Lincoln car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/lincoln.
"Lincoln car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/lincoln.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_lincoln_2026,
title = {{Lincoln car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/lincoln},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Lincoln, NE 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 2,576 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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