Market Analysis · CBSA 41700

San Antonio Car Wash Market Analysis

Name: San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Car Wash Market Dataset
Creator: WashIndex
License: https://washindex.com/terms

San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX

Data updated · September 26, 2026

153,206 Google reviews across 1,630 car washes in 8 San Antonio counties. Format mix, operator rank, county breakdown, rating vs. income, aspect-level customer signals.

Snapshot

Locations: 1,630; 85% independent
Chains: 37; lead: Shell (35 sites)
Avg rating: 4.43★; near national MSA median
Damage rate: 1.7%; near national MSA norm
Cancel friction: 10.9%
Top format: express tunnel; 50% of classified inventory
Median single wash: $12; range $8–$50
Median unlimited: $22/mo; cheapest $10/mo at Pumphouse Car Wash

Market Quality snapshot

Population: 2,612,802; ACS 2023 5-year
Households: 949,097; ACS 2023 5-year
Residents per wash: 1,603; 1.2× denser than the national MSA median
Express tunnels per 10K households: 1.5; above ~1.0 — contested · classified sites

Key findings

1,630 car wash locations operated by 37 chains and 1,380 independents across 8 counties.
Weighted Google rating 4.43★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-metro norms.
Built from 153,206 Google reviews, 57,554 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.

1,630 car wash locations across 8 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume

Locations

1,630

Chains

+ 1,380 independents

Reviews

153K

Avg Rating

4.43

Damage Rate

1.71%

Median AGI/return

$68K

location-weighted

Executive Read

Tracked at 1,630 car wash locations, San Antonio matches the structural profile of the typical US metro of comparable size. 1,630 locations across 37 chains and 1,380 independents, distributed across 8 counties. Distinctive patterns show up below at the format and aspect levels.

Headline numbers sit near US-metro norms: rating 4.43★, damage 1.7%, cancel friction 10.9%. Staff is the brightest aspect signal (0.87/+1). 153,206 Google reviews drive the analysis, 57,554 of them processed through the WashIndex LLM extractor.

Published pricing across the 163 of 1646 San Antonio locations with menus available: median single car wash $12 (range $8–$50), median unlimited membership $22/month (range $10–$79.99/mo). The cheapest unlimited membership in the metro is $10/mo at Pumphouse Car Wash (Basic).

Top operators

See the top car wash chains in San Antonio

Ranked by location count in the metro

→

$$ Pricing

What does a car wash cost in the San Antonio metro?

Published menu pricing for car washes in the San Antonio metropolitan area, captured from operator websites and the WashIndex AI calling agent. 163 of 1646 tracked locations have usable published pricing (10% coverage).

Single Wash

$12

median · range $8–$50 · 113 locations tracked

Unlimited Membership

$22 per month

median · range $10–$79.99 per month · 150 programs tracked

Cheapest unlimited memberships in San Antonio
1	Pumphouse Car Wash Basic	$10 per mo
2	Pumphouse Car Wash Basic	$10 per mo
3	Pic-n-Pac Express Wash Express Wash	$10 per mo
4	Fischer's Neighborhood Market #33 USE CODE SPARKLE50 AT CHECKOUT	$10 per mo
5	Pic-n-Pac Express Wash	$10 per mo

Cheapest single car washes in San Antonio
1	Jurassic Car Wash - Marbach Express Clean	$8
2	GO Car Wash Tier 4	$10
3	GO Car Wash Basic Tier	$10
4	GO Car Wash Tier 4	$10
5	Cosmic Express Car Wash Base	$10

Pricing scraped from operator websites where published; the WashIndex AI calling agent rings up locations that don’t publish menus online to capture pricing directly.

Official industry footprint · BLS QCEW 2024

The car wash industry in the San Antonio metro, officially

Low-wage

Car-wash wages in the San Antonio metro run about 17% below the national average ($27,090 vs. $32,560), across 139 employer establishments and roughly 2,446 jobs.

Employer establishments

139

NAICS 811192 · 2024

Industry jobs

2,446

private, annual avg

Avg annual wage

$27,090

per employee

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.

SBA Lending · FY2010–present

Car wash financing in the San Antonio metro

Balanced mix

Since 2010, the U.S. Small Business Administration has backed 48 car-wash loans in the San Antonio metro worth $54.6M, at a $925,000 median per car wash and a 6.9% charge-off rate. Its purpose mix tracks the national pattern — a blend of new builds, acquisitions, and reinvestment by existing operators — with no single signal dominating.

SBA loans

FY2010–2026

Total approved

$54.6M

7(a) + 504

Median loan

$925K

per car wash

Charge-off rate

6.9%

of 29 resolved

SBA car-wash loans approved per fiscal year

FY2026 annualized from its first 6 months.

Loans by county

Bexar 42
Comal 4
Kendall 1
Guadalupe 1

What the loans fund · estimated from loan terms

New build / open31% · $1.4M
Acquisition2% · $2.3M
Expansion / improvement63% · $872K
Working capital4% · $20K

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

About the San Antonio car wash market

How many car washes are in the San Antonio metro?

There are 1,630 car wash locations across the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX CBSA, spanning 8 counties.

What is the best-rated car wash in the San Antonio metro?

BlueWave Express Car Wash in San Antonio, TX is the highest-rated car wash in the San Antonio metro at 5.0★ across 1,404 Google reviews (filtering to locations with at least 100 reviews).

Which car wash chain has the most locations in San Antonio?

Shell has the most locations in the San Antonio metro with 35 sites, followed by H-E-B Fuel (28 sites). The metro has 37 multi-location operators in total, alongside 1,380 independent or single-location sites.

What is the average customer rating in the San Antonio car wash market?

The review-weighted average rating across all 1,630 car washes in the San Antonio metro is 4.43★, based on 153,206 Google reviews processed through WashIndex's customer-experience pipeline.

What is the typical household income near car washes in San Antonio?

Across the ZIP codes containing the San Antonio metro's car washes, the location-weighted median IRS-reported AGI per tax return is $68K (tax year 2022) — a rough proxy for trade-area household income.

How much does a car wash cost in San Antonio?

Single-wash prices across the San Antonio car wash market range from $8 to $50, with a median of $12 across 113 locations that publish their pricing. The cheapest single car wash in the metro is $8 at Jurassic Car Wash - Marbach (Express Clean). Pricing data is captured from operator websites and the WashIndex AI calling agent.

How much does an unlimited car wash membership cost in San Antonio?

Unlimited car wash memberships in the San Antonio metro range from $10/month to $79.99/month, with a median of $22/month across 150 programs tracked. The cheapest unlimited membership is $10/month at Pumphouse Car Wash (Basic); the most expensive tracked is $79.99/month at Always Shine-N Mobile Detailing (Silver - Cars / Mid-Sized).

What is the cheapest car wash in San Antonio?

The cheapest single car wash in the San Antonio metro is $8 at Jurassic Car Wash - Marbach (Express Clean tier). For ongoing customers, the cheapest unlimited membership is $10/month at Pumphouse Car Wash (Basic) — a break-even of roughly 0.8 washes per month at the metro's median single-wash price of $12.

01 Format Mix

What kinds of car washes does San Antonio 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. San Antonio's mix sits close to the US-metro median shape.

Highest-rated format: Detail Shop at 4.77★ across 102 locations. Lowest-rated: Self-Serve Bay at 3.98★ (7 locations).

1,352 (82.9%) of 1,630 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	1,352	82.9%	49,152	4.31	1.12%	7.7%
Express Tunnel	140	8.6%	74,832	4.55	2.06%	11.1%
Detail Shop	102	6.3%	10,537	4.77	0.30%	4.3%
Full Service	24	1.5%	17,071	4.09	2.30%	13.5%
Self-Serve Bay	7	0.4%	665	3.98	0.83%	0.0%
In-Bay Automatic	5	0.3%	949	4.00	1.36%	0.0%

02 Income & Demographics

What is the household income near San Antonio car washes?

Each ZIP in San Antonio is joined to IRS Statistics-of-Income (tax year 2022) and to the per-location Google rating dataset. The scatter below sizes dots by review volume and colors them by format.

Pearson r between ZIP income and Google rating across 585 qualifying locations: 0.18 — mild positive. Higher-income ZIPs host slightly better-rated washes, but operator execution still dominates. Scatter mean: $79K AGI/return, 4.20★.

Express Tunnel Detail Shop Full Service Self-Serve Bay In-Bay Automatic

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	22	231	36,946	4.34	Express Tunnel (36)
$50K – $75K	28	310	49,049	4.43	Express Tunnel (46)
$75K – $100K	16	173	24,239	4.48	Express Tunnel (31)
$100K – $150K	14	124	21,606	4.40	Express Tunnel (20)
$150K+	9	75	15,221	4.44	Detail Shop (17)

Top-tier 75 sites, 4.44★ avg; bottom-tier 231 sites, 4.34★. Across San Antonio's 585 qualifying locations, the income gradient correlates only weakly with rating — operator execution dominates.

03 Dominant Chains

Who operates the most San Antonio car washes?

The table below ranks the top 25 chains operating in San Antonio by location count. Each row shows per-chain Google rating, damage rate, and cancel friction — the cleanest side-by-side cut on operator quality in the market.

#	Chain	Locations	Reviews	Avg Rating	Damage	Cancel	Upsell
1	Shell	35	2,195	3.62	0.00%	—	0.75%
2	H-E-B Fuel	28	3,635	4.48	1.51%	—	1.13%
3	Club Car Wash	21	6,626	4.34	5.68%	11.1%	2.48%
4	The Wash Tub	20	14,816	4.08	2.32%	13.3%	1.68%
5	Circle K	18	851	3.45	0.57%	—	0.00%
6	GO Car Wash	15	10,521	4.33	3.39%	17.9%	1.43%
7	Bubble Bath Car Wash	14	5,696	4.32	7.79%	18.0%	0.44%
8	Watershed Carwash	12	4,922	4.24	5.75%	21.4%	1.36%
9	Tommy's Express® Car Wash	9	10,363	4.84	1.11%	3.2%	0.13%
10	BlueWave Express Car Wash	8	9,791	4.87	0.36%	7.7%	0.13%
11	Quick Quack Car Wash	8	9,700	4.88	1.30%	6.6%	0.76%
12	Pumphouse Car Wash	7	1,329	3.35	1.09%	—	1.09%
13	All American Car Wash	7	1,049	4.10	5.52%	15.8%	0.28%
14	The Car Wash Express	5	2,068	4.57	4.88%	10.9%	0.54%
15	Zips Car Wash	4	2,994	3.99	4.24%	19.8%	0.74%
16	Big League Car Wash	4	1,946	4.65	2.50%	7.6%	1.34%
17	Finish Line Express Car Wash - Hewitt	3	492	4.29	3.17%	—	0.00%
18	Pic-n-Pac	3	129	3.00	—	—	—
19	Crystal Clean Car Wash	2	409	3.90	2.78%	—	0.00%
20	Bubble Zone Car Wash	2	566	4.40	3.86%	18.8%	0.35%
21	Blue Beacon	2	1,901	4.10	1.00%	—	1.33%
22	Show Ready Mobile Detailing	2	132	5.00	—	—	—
23	the Detail Code \| Mobile Detailing	2	287	4.98	0.00%	—	0.00%
24	Mirror Image Detailing & Ceramic Coating	2	183	4.85	0.00%	—	0.84%
25	Fischer's Market #13	2	74	2.73	—	—	—

04 County Breakdown

Which counties have the most car washes in San Antonio?

San Antonio's 1,630 car washes distribute across 8 counties. Bexar County leads with 1,273 locations (78.1%). Cross-county rating dispersion is usually narrow at this scale.

Cross-county rating dispersion: 0.36★ between the highest- and lowest-rated counties with meaningful sample size.

County	Locations	% of MSA	Reviews	Avg Rating
Bexar County	1,273	78.1%	127,999	4.43
Comal County	159	9.8%	9,038	4.43
Guadalupe County	75	4.6%	9,699	4.58
Kendall County	36	2.2%	2,082	4.45
Atascosa County	29	1.8%	1,593	4.22
Wilson County	26	1.6%	919	4.31
Medina County	22	1.3%	1,554	4.27
Bandera County	10	0.6%	322	4.33

05 Customer Experience Signals

What do customers love and complain about in San Antonio?

The aspect grid below summarizes 57,554 AI-extracted reviews across 1,630 San Antonio car wash locations. Each aspect lands on a -1…+1 scale (negative = customers complain more than they praise; positive = the reverse).

Staff +0.87

Wash Quality +0.75

Facility Cleanliness +0.71

Wait Time +0.61

Per-Wash Price +0.28

Membership Value +0.26

Equipment Working -0.31

06 All Locations

Where are all the car washes in the San Antonio metro?

The complete inventory of car wash locations in the San Antonio 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
The Cove 606 W Cypress St	San Antonio, TX	—	—	4.5	5,743	$171K
Land Rover San Antonio 13660 I-10	San Antonio, TX	—	—	4.6	2,761	$75K
Tommy's Express® Car Wash 6398 De Zavala Rd	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	Tommy's Express® Car Wash	4.9	2,420	$75K
BlueWave Express Car Wash 174 W Borgfeld Rd	Cibolo, TX	Express Tunnel	BlueWave Express Car Wash	4.9	2,302	$81K
Tommy's Express® Car Wash 23202 U.S. Hwy 281 N	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	Tommy's Express® Car Wash	4.7	2,017	$104K
BlueWave Express Car Wash 2558 SW Military Dr	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	BlueWave Express Car Wash	4.6	1,791	$42K
Quick Quack Car Wash 7526 Northwest Loop 410	San Antonio, TX	—	—	4.9	1,619	$45K
Tommy's Express® Car Wash 11911 SE Loop 410 Acc Rd	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	Tommy's Express® Car Wash	4.9	1,599	$42K
Quick Quack Car Wash 11780 Culebra Rd	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	Quick Quack Car Wash	4.9	1,513	$80K
Quick Quack Car Wash 10670 Bandera Rd	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	Quick Quack Car Wash	4.8	1,407	$59K
BlueWave Express Car Wash 1431 Culebra Rd	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	BlueWave Express Car Wash	5.0	1,404	$44K
Club Car Wash 11846 Potranco Rd	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	Club Car Wash	4.6	1,362	$80K
The Wash Tub 3307 SE Military Dr	San Antonio, TX	Full Service	The Wash Tub	4.0	1,312	$45K
Quick Quack Car Wash 7998 Bandera Rd	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	Quick Quack Car Wash	4.9	1,289	$59K
GO Car Wash 16422 Nacogdoches Rd	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	GO Car Wash	4.2	1,284	$68K
Quick Quack Car Wash 3007 SW Military Dr	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	Quick Quack Car Wash	4.9	1,256	$42K
Bubble Bath Car Wash 5503 Babcock Rd	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	Bubble Bath Car Wash	4.3	1,255	$62K
Watershed Carwash 1434 SE Military Dr	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	Watershed Carwash	4.2	1,244	$36K
BlueWave Express Car Wash 8414 Broadway	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	BlueWave Express Car Wash	4.9	1,241	$228K
GO Car Wash 5810 Village Park	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	GO Car Wash	4.5	1,235	$59K
Big League Car Wash 422 FM306	New Braunfels, TX	Express Tunnel	Big League Car Wash	4.6	1,226	$81K
GO Car Wash 13011 Silicon Dr	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	GO Car Wash	4.3	1,210	$75K
Sewell Cadillac of San Antonio 11001 I-10	San Antonio, TX	—	—	4.5	1,203	$107K
Quick Quack Car Wash 9631 Potranco Rd	San Antonio, TX	—	—	4.9	1,200	$58K
Quick Quack Car Wash 8803 Potranco Rd	San Antonio, TX	Express Tunnel	Quick Quack Car Wash	4.9	1,157	$58K

Nearby Other TX metros

Compare San Antonio to other TX car wash markets

Each link drills into a full per-metro analysis — operator concentration, format mix, and customer-experience signals against the same methodology.

Dallas-Fort Worth 4,719 Houston 4,395 Austin 1,480 El Paso 476 McAllen 423 Killeen 312

Cite this page

Data as of 2026-09-26. Pick a format and click Copy.

APA

WashIndex. (2026, September 26). San Antonio car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/san-antonio

Chicago

WashIndex. "San Antonio car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified September 26, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/san-antonio.

MLA

"San Antonio car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Sep. 26, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/san-antonio.

BibTeX

@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_san_antonio_2026,
  title  = {{San Antonio car wash market analysis}},
  author = {{WashIndex}},
  year   = {2026},
  month  = {Sep},
  url    = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/san-antonio},
  urldate = {2026-09-26},
}

About this analysis

Car wash inventory for the San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX CBSA is determined by point-in-polygon test against the official US Census county boundaries (TIGER/Line, 2024) for the 8 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 57,554 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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