Utica Car Wash Market Analysis
Utica-Rome, NY
Data updated · June 9, 2026
5,978 Google reviews across 131 car washes in 2 Utica counties. Format mix, operator rank, county breakdown, rating vs. income, aspect-level customer signals.
Snapshot
- Locations
- 131
- 84% independent
- Chains
- 10
- lead: Pristine Auto Wash (4 sites)
- Avg rating
- 4.36★
- -0.05 vs national MSA median
- Damage rate
- 2.0%
- 1.3× national MSA norm
- Cancel friction
- 9.1%
- Top format
- detail shop
- 42% of classified inventory
- Median single wash
- $15
- range $4–$30.99
- Median unlimited
- $29.99/mo
- cheapest $15/mo at GO Car Wash
Market Quality snapshot
- Population
- 289,577
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Households
- 119,787
- ACS 2023 5-year
- Residents per wash
- 2,211
- near the national MSA median
- Express tunnels per 10K households
- 1.0
- above ~1.0 — contested · classified sites
Key findings
- 131 car wash locations operated by 10 chains and 110 independents across 2 counties.
- Weighted Google rating 4.36★ across the market; structural concentration and format mix sit near US-metro norms.
- Built from 5,978 Google reviews, 1,422 of them AI-extracted across 55 dimensions.
131 car wash locations across 2 counties · dots colored by format · sized by review volume
Utica reads as a balanced car wash market — neither sharply consolidated nor unusually fragmented. 131 locations across 10 chains and 110 independents, distributed across 2 counties. Distinctive patterns show up below at the format and aspect levels.
Weighted rating 4.36★; damage 2.0%; membership-cancel friction 9.1%. Staff is the brightest aspect signal (0.78/+1). 5,978 Google reviews drive the analysis, 1,422 of them processed through the WashIndex LLM extractor.
Published pricing across the 17 of 132 Utica locations with menus available: median single car wash $15 (range $4–$30.99), median unlimited membership $29.99/month (range $15–$38.99/mo). The cheapest unlimited membership in the metro is $15/mo at GO Car Wash (Tier 4).
See the top car wash chains in Utica
Ranked by location count in the metro
What does a car wash cost in the Utica metro?
Published menu pricing for car washes in the Utica metropolitan area, captured from operator websites and the WashIndex AI calling agent. 17 of 132 tracked locations have usable published pricing (13% coverage).
| Cheapest unlimited memberships in Utica | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GO Car Wash Tier 4 | $15 per mo |
| 2 | Maple Leaf Market BRONZE UNLIMITED | $20 per mo |
| 3 | Community Carwash Basic Carwash | $22.99 per mo |
| 4 | Community Carwash Unlimited Wash Club | $22.99 per mo |
| 5 | Hoffman Car Wash Exterior | $27.99 per mo |
| Cheapest single car washes in Utica | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marcy Car Wash Basic | $4 |
| 2 | Clinton's Car Wash Basic | $8 |
| 3 | GO Car Wash Tier 4 | $10 |
| 4 | Hoffman Car Wash Exterior | $15 |
| 5 | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash Simply Clean | $15 |
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.
The car wash industry in the Utica metro, officially
the Utica metro has 14 car-wash employer establishments employing about 84 people, at a $31,763 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 Utica car wash market
How many car washes are in the Utica metro?
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What is the best-rated car wash in the Utica metro?
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Which car wash chain has the most locations in Utica?
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What is the average customer rating in the Utica car wash market?
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What is the typical household income near car washes in Utica?
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How much does a car wash cost in Utica?
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How much does an unlimited car wash membership cost in Utica?
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What is the cheapest car wash in Utica?
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What kinds of car washes does Utica 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. Utica's mix sits close to the US-metro median shape.
Highest-rated format: Detail Shop at 4.73★ across 13 locations. Lowest-rated: Self-Serve Bay at 4.10★ (2 locations).
| Format | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating | Damage Rate | Cancel Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detail Shop | 13 | 9.9% | 987 | 4.73 | 1.49% | 0.0% |
| Express Tunnel | 12 | 9.2% | 1,870 | 4.34 | 5.05% | 9.2% |
| In-Bay Automatic | 4 | 3.1% | 560 | 4.32 | 0.00% | 11.1% |
| Self-Serve Bay | 2 | 1.5% | 107 | 4.10 | 0.00% | — |
What is the household income near Utica car washes?
Read together with the format mix above, the income scatter below tells you whether car wash quality in Utica tracks neighborhood income, format mix, or neither. Operating quality usually dominates this picture.
Pearson r between ZIP income and Google rating across 66 qualifying locations: -0.04 — effectively zero. Operating quality dominates over neighborhood income. Scatter mean: $69K AGI/return, 4.35★.
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 | 20 | 78 | 3,767 | 4.30 | Detail Shop (8) |
| $75K – $100K | 7 | 18 | 1,502 | 4.55 | Detail Shop (6) |
| $100K – $150K | 1 | 6 | 542 | 4.25 | Express Tunnel (4) |
| $150K+ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — |
The highest-income tier ($150K+) contains 0 car washes across 0 ZIPs at 0.00★, against 0 sites across 0 ZIPs at 0.00★ in the lowest. Middle-income tiers typically host the densest express-tunnel concentrations — the part of the income curve where that format's unit economics are strongest.
Who operates the most Utica car washes?
The table below ranks the top 25 chains operating in Utica 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 | Pristine Auto Wash | 4 | 458 | 4.19 | — | — | — |
| 2 | Hoffman Car Wash | 4 | 648 | 4.34 | 5.43% | — | 1.55% |
| 3 | Precision Wash | 4 | 422 | 3.80 | — | — | — |
| 4 | Community Carwash | 2 | 185 | 4.27 | — | — | — |
| 5 | Cliff's Local Market | 2 | 85 | 3.35 | — | — | — |
| 6 | Shark Park Llc | 1 | 14 | 1.80 | — | — | — |
| 7 | Maple Leaf Market | 1 | 56 | 4.20 | — | — | — |
| 8 | Pure Finish | 1 | 32 | 5.00 | — | — | — |
| 9 | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 1 | 125 | 4.60 | — | — | — |
| 10 | GO Car Wash | 1 | 437 | 4.50 | — | — | — |
Which counties have the most car washes in Utica?
Utica's 131 car washes distribute across 2 counties. Oneida County leads with 114 locations (87.0%). Cross-county rating dispersion is usually narrow at this scale.
Cross-county rating dispersion: 0.13★ between the highest- and lowest-rated counties with meaningful sample size.
| County | Locations | % of MSA | Reviews | Avg Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oneida County | 114 | 87.0% | 5,433 | 4.37 |
| Herkimer County | 18 | 13.7% | 545 | 4.24 |
What do customers love and complain about in Utica?
The aspect grid below summarizes 1,422 AI-extracted reviews across 131 Utica car wash locations. Each aspect lands on a -1…+1 scale (negative = customers complain more than they praise; positive = the reverse).
Where are all the car washes in the Utica metro?
131 car washes are tracked in Utica; below is the top of the list by Google review count. Locations with fewer than 10 reviews are excluded from the rating column.
| Location | City | Format | Chain | Rating | Reviews | ZIP AGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GO Car Wash 9447 River Rd | Marcy, NY | Express Tunnel | GO Car Wash | 4.5 | 437 | $79K |
| Hoffman Car Wash 600 Oriskany Blvd | Yorkville, NY | Express Tunnel | Hoffman Car Wash | 4.3 | 305 | $59K |
| Prístíne Auto Wash 1 Arnold Ave | Utica, NY | Express Tunnel | Pristine Auto Wash | 4.2 | 221 | $54K |
| Ziebart 1430 Oriskany St W | Utica, NY | Detail Shop | — | 4.0 | 198 | $54K |
| Clinton's Car Wash 58 Dwight Ave | Clinton, NY | In-Bay Automatic | — | 4.5 | 190 | $91K |
| Clinton Auto Service 3723 NY-12B | Clinton, NY | — | — | 4.6 | 187 | $91K |
| Liberty Wash 316 W Liberty St | Rome, NY | In-Bay Automatic | — | 4.2 | 185 | $62K |
| Precision Wash 5010 Commercial Dr | New York Mills, NY | — | Precision Wash | 3.8 | 169 | $55K |
| Fazio's Auto Sales 1025 E Dominick St | Rome, NY | — | — | 4.5 | 169 | $62K |
| Advent Auto Styling & Customization 19 Calder Ave | Utica, NY | Detail Shop | — | 4.9 | 152 | $54K |
| Minit Car Wash 1710 Holland Ave | Utica, NY | — | — | 4.0 | 149 | $51K |
| Pristine Car Wash 104 N Caroline St | Herkimer, NY | Express Tunnel | Pristine Auto Wash | 4.2 | 147 | $58K |
| Lynx Automotive 9135 Turin Rd | Lee Center, NY | — | — | 4.9 | 144 | $72K |
| Hoffman Car Wash 8541 Seneca Tpke | New Hartford, NY | Express Tunnel | Hoffman Car Wash | 4.2 | 134 | $111K |
| Self Service Car Wash 301-383 E Main St | Ilion, NY | — | — | 4.1 | 126 | $58K |
| Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash 8428 Seneca Tpke | New Hartford, NY | Express Tunnel | Tidal Wave Auto Spa | Car Wash | 4.6 | 125 | $111K |
| Prestige Detailing LLC 7615 NY-5 | Clinton, NY | Detail Shop | — | 4.8 | 123 | $91K |
| Hoffman Car Wash 1315 Erie Blvd W | Rome, NY | Express Tunnel | Hoffman Car Wash | 4.4 | 121 | $62K |
| Roger's Laser Wash 8477 Seneca Tpke | New Hartford, NY | Express Tunnel | — | 4.4 | 121 | $111K |
| Precision Wash 5905 Rome-Taberg Rd | Rome, NY | — | Precision Wash | 4.1 | 119 | $62K |
| Pristine Detailing Studio - Clinton, New York - Detailing, Ceramic Coating 7850 NY-5 | Clinton, NY | Detail Shop | — | 5.0 | 112 | $91K |
| Community Carwash 203 E State St | Sherrill, NY | In-Bay Automatic | Community Carwash | 4.4 | 104 | $75K |
| Precision Wash 1840 Black River Blvd | Rome, NY | — | Precision Wash | 3.8 | 91 | $62K |
| Hoffman Car Wash 1727 Black River Blvd | Rome, NY | Express Tunnel | Hoffman Car Wash | 4.6 | 88 | $62K |
| Community Carwash 263-299 Wilson St | Oneida, NY | In-Bay Automatic | Community Carwash | 4.1 | 81 | $72K |
Compare Utica to other NY 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). Utica car wash market analysis. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/utica
WashIndex. "Utica car wash market analysis." WashIndex. Last modified June 9, 2026. https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/utica.
"Utica car wash market analysis." WashIndex, Jun. 9, 2026, https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/utica.
@misc{washindex_car_wash_markets_utica_2026,
title = {{Utica car wash market analysis}},
author = {{WashIndex}},
year = {2026},
month = {Jun},
url = {https://washindex.com/car-wash-markets/utica},
urldate = {2026-06-09},
} About this analysis
Car wash inventory for the Utica-Rome, NY 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 1,422 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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