Macon Car Wash Market Analysis
Macon-Bibb County, GA
Data updated · June 9, 2026
11,201 reviews across 117 Macon car washes — operating-quality signals run below norm here. Per-operator damage attribution, format-level quality decomposition, aspect-level customer signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 117
- 87% independent
- Chains
- 8
- lead: bp (5 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.70★
- +0.29 vs national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 0.8%
- 2.1× below national norm
- Cancel friction
- 13.2%
- Top format
- express tunnel
- 43% of classified inventory
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 234,040
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 88,114
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 2,000
- near the national MSA median
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 1.1
- above ~1.0 — contested · classified sites
Key findings
- 117 car wash locations operated by 8 chains and 102 independents across 5 counties.
- Reviewer-reported damage rate of 0.8% runs 2.1× below the 1.6% US-metro median.
- Built from 11,201 Google reviews, 4,489 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
117 car wash locations across 5 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Macon stands out for operational-quality signals that are below the typical US metro norm. Reviewer-reported damage runs at 0.8% across 117 tracked locations, vs. a peer median of 1.6%. That spread is the most distinctive read this market produces.
Headline rating 4.70★; damage 0.8% (vs. 1.6% peer median). Staff scores 0.94 on the WashIndex -1…+1 scale — the brightest signal here. 11,201 Google reviews underpin the quality cut, 4,489 AI-extracted.
See the top car wash chains in Macon
Ranked by location count in the metro
The car wash industry in the Macon metro, officially
Fast-growingthe Macon metro is one of the faster-growing car-wash job markets: employer establishments grew 44% from 2022 to 2024 — ahead of the ~7% national pace — to 23, now employing about 189 people at a $25,877 average 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.
Car wash financing in the Macon metro
Build-out marketSince 2010, the U.S. Small Business Administration has backed 9 car-wash loans in the Macon metro worth $18.0M, at a $1,567,000 median per car wash. Early read: the mix tilts toward new construction — 56% of loans funded brand-new washes — pointing to a market where operators are still adding supply.
- Bibb 7
- Monroe 1
- Jones 1
- New build / open56% · $1.4M
- Expansion / improvement44% · $1.8M
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration 7(a) & 504 FOIA datasets (NAICS 811192), data through 2026-03-31. See the Car Wash Lending Tracker for national figures and methodology.
About the Macon car wash market
How many car washes are in the Macon metro?
+
What is the best-rated car wash in the Macon metro?
+
Which car wash chain has the most locations in Macon?
+
What is the average customer rating in the Macon car wash market?
+
What is the typical household income near car washes in Macon?
+
What kinds of car washes does Macon have?
Reading format mix in a quality-outlier market like Macon is most useful as a damage-attribution exercise: which formats contribute most to the elevated metro-wide damage rate, and which are clean. The per-format damage column below answers that directly.
Highest-rated format: Express Tunnel at 4.77★ across 10 locations. Lowest-rated: In-Bay Automatic at 3.91★ (5 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Express Tunnel | 10 | 8.5% | 8,585 | 4.77 | 0.79% | 13.2% |
| Detail Shop | 7 | 6.0% | 593 | 4.11 | 0.00% | — |
| In-Bay Automatic | 5 | 4.3% | 108 | 3.91 | 0.00% | — |
| Self-Serve Bay | 1 | 0.9% | 83 | 4.70 | 0.00% | — |
What is the household income near Macon car washes?
The scatter pairs each car wash's Google rating against the mean IRS AGI per return in its ZIP. Reads of Macon's quality signal benefit from this overlay — does the friction concentrate in lower-income ZIPs, or does it persist across them?
Pearson r between ZIP income and Google rating across 33 qualifying locations: 0.26 — mild positive. Higher-income ZIPs host slightly better-rated washes, but operator execution still dominates. Scatter mean: $68K AGI/return, 4.34★.
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 | 2,991 | 4.45 | Detail Shop (2) |
| $50K – $75K | 5 | 17 | 1,119 | 4.41 | In-Bay Automatic (5) |
| $75K – $100K | 3 | 8 | 2,835 | 4.83 | Express Tunnel (2) |
| $100K – $150K | 1 | 10 | 3,651 | 4.86 | Express Tunnel (4) |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
Per-tier dispersion: 0/0.00★ at the top, 28/4.45★ at the bottom. For Macon's quality-outlier signal, this is the income-attribution view: which income bands carry the deviation, and which match the broader peer norms.
Who operates the most Macon car washes?
8 chains operate in Macon. With damage running at 0.8% (vs. 1.6% peer median), the chain-by-chain damage column below shows you which operators are driving the outlier signal.
| # | Chain | Locations | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage | Cancel | Upsell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | bp | 5 | 108 | 3.91 | — | — | — |
| 2 | FoamWorks Auto Spa of Cordele | 3 | 1,578 | 4.67 | 1.23% | 26.4% | 0.00% |
| 3 | Big Peach Car Wash | 2 | 4,668 | 4.95 | 0.28% | 5.9% | 0.16% |
| 4 | Crystal Clean Auto Spa | 1 | 46 | 4.20 | — | — | — |
| 5 | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 1 | 534 | 4.60 | 2.50% | — | 0.83% |
| 6 | Tommy's Express® Car Wash | 1 | 699 | 4.40 | 4.27% | 0.0% | 0.47% |
| 7 | Take 5 Car Wash | 1 | 981 | 4.50 | 0.71% | — | 0.00% |
| 8 | Circle K | 1 | 60 | 3.90 | — | — | — |
Which counties have the most car washes in Macon?
Bibb County anchors supply with 81 locations. The rating column at the right of the table shows whether quality variance has a county-level pattern, or whether it cuts across the metro.
Cross-county rating dispersion: 0.71★ between the highest- and lowest-rated counties with meaningful sample size.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bibb County | 81 | 69.2% | 8,434 | 4.66 |
| Monroe County | 17 | 14.5% | 2,586 | 4.85 |
| Twiggs County | 9 | 7.7% | 48 | 4.88 |
| Jones County | 9 | 7.7% | 127 | 4.29 |
| Crawford County | 3 | 2.6% | 6 | 5.00 |
What do customers love and complain about in Macon?
4,489 reviews back the aspect calculation. In a quality-outlier metro, the aspect with the sharpest negative score is usually the one pulling the metro-wide damage and rating numbers.
Where are all the car washes in the Macon metro?
117 sites in Macon; the top of the list below by review volume. Read alongside the elevated damage and quality signals above — the highest-volume sites usually anchor the metro-wide numbers.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Peach Car Wash 4461 Napier Ave | Macon, GA | Express Tunnel | Big Peach Car Wash | 5.0 | 2,414 | $112K |
| Big Peach Car Wash - Forsyth 126 N Lee St | Forsyth, GA | Express Tunnel | Big Peach Car Wash | 4.9 | 2,254 | $79K |
| GooGoo Car Wash 4600 Presidential Pkwy | Macon, GA | Express Tunnel | Take 5 Car Wash | 4.5 | 981 | $29K |
| FoamWorks Auto Spa of Hartley Bridge Macon 4701 Hartley Bridge Rd | Macon, GA | Express Tunnel | FoamWorks Auto Spa of Cordele | 4.5 | 708 | $63K |
| Tommy's Express® Car Wash 2772 Riverside Dr | Macon, GA | Express Tunnel | Tommy's Express® Car Wash | 4.4 | 699 | $47K |
| Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash 6700 Peake Rd | Macon, GA | Express Tunnel | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 4.6 | 534 | $112K |
| FoamWorks Auto Spa of Thomaston Rd Macon 5551 Thomaston Rd | Macon, GA | Express Tunnel | FoamWorks Auto Spa of Cordele | 4.8 | 459 | $80K |
| FoamWorks Auto Spa of Riverside 4780 Riverside Dr | Macon, GA | Express Tunnel | FoamWorks Auto Spa of Cordele | 4.8 | 411 | $112K |
| SpeedWash Car Wash 2946 Riverside Dr | Macon, GA | — | — | 4.4 | 265 | $47K |
| Signature Mobile Detailing and Auto Care | , GA | — | — | 5.0 | 148 | — |
| Supa Suds Car Wash 1521 Forest Hill Rd | Macon, GA | Detail Shop | — | 3.9 | 147 | $112K |
| Truck Wash Of Macon Broadway 4553 Broadway | Macon, GA | Detail Shop | — | 4.4 | 144 | $29K |
| Supa Suds Car Wash 590 Pio Nono Ave | Macon, GA | Detail Shop | — | 3.7 | 114 | $47K |
| MGA Mobile Detailing Services | , GA | — | — | 4.9 | 114 | — |
| Log Cabin Self Services Car Wash 4332 Log Cabin Dr | Macon, GA | — | — | 4.2 | 113 | $47K |
| Magic Touch Car Wash 101 Patrol Rd | Forsyth, GA | — | — | 3.7 | 108 | $79K |
| Driveway Car Detailing | , GA | — | — | 4.9 | 105 | — |
| So Fresh So Clean Auto Sales & Detailing 757 Gray Hwy | Macon, GA | — | — | 4.8 | 87 | $50K |
| Bubbles Car Wash -Macon 1847 Pio Nono Ave | Macon, GA | Self-Serve Bay | — | 4.7 | 83 | $47K |
| Suds Bucket Car Wash 615 Landmark Pointe Blvd Suite B | Gray, GA | Express Tunnel | — | 4.7 | 79 | $74K |
| Big Splash Car Wash 5601 Houston Rd | Macon, GA | Detail Shop | — | 3.5 | 77 | $63K |
| Circle K 4471 Ocmulgee E Blvd | Macon, GA | — | Circle K | 3.9 | 60 | $38K |
| D & D Auto Detail 3671 Houston Ave | Macon, GA | — | — | 4.5 | 53 | $29K |
| Unique II 859 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd | Macon, GA | Detail Shop | — | 4.7 | 50 | $60K |
| Crystal Clean Auto Spa 1548 Bass Rd | Macon, GA | Express Tunnel | Crystal Clean Auto Spa | 4.2 | 46 | $112K |
Compare Macon to other GA 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). Macon car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/macon
WashIndex. "Macon car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/macon.
"Macon car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/macon.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_macon_2026,
title = {{Macon car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/macon},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Macon-Bibb County, GA 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 4,489 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
Free tools: ROI calculator · site opportunity · investment guide