Take 5 Car Wash vs Tommy's Express® Car Wash
Data updated · September 26, 2026
Take 5 Car Wash is larger (296 vs 264 locations); Tommy's Express® Car Wash is rated higher (4.58★ vs 4.56★); Take 5 Car Wash has the lower reviewer-reported damage rate (1.29% vs 2.99%).
Take 5 Car Wash and Tommy's Express® Car Wash are both national-tier US car wash operators. Customer ratings are essentially tied at 4.56★ vs 4.58★ — the gap is well within noise. On reviewer-reported damage, Take 5 Car Wash runs lower at 1.29% vs 2.99% — a modest operating-quality gap. The dataset-wide average across all car wash chains is roughly 1–3%.
| Metric | Take 5 Car Wash take5carwashes.com | Tommy's Express® Car Wash tommys-express.com |
|---|---|---|
| Locations | 296 17 states | 264 38 states |
| Reviews | 413,594 139,640 LLM-scored | 144,266 72,971 LLM-scored |
| Avg rating | 4.56 | 4.58 |
| Damage rate (lower better) | 1.29% | 2.99% |
| Membership cancellation friction (of mem-discussing reviews) | 16.8% | 8.4% |
| Dominant format | Express Tunnel | Express Tunnel |
Take 5 Car Wash operates 296 locations across 17 states (17.4 sites per state on average). Tommy's Express® Car Wash runs 264 locations across 38 states, 6.9 per state. Take 5 Car Wash has a denser per-state footprint (17.4 sites/state vs 6.9 for Tommy's Express® Car Wash), suggesting a more saturated regional strategy. Total customer signal is 413,594 Google reviews for Take 5 Car Wash (139,640 LLM-scored) vs 144,266 for Tommy's Express® Car Wash (72,971 scored).
How do customers rate each chain on the 7 pillars?
Aspect scores aggregate WashIndex's LLM extractions across each chain's reviews. Each score is (positive − negative) / total mentions, ranging −1 to +1. Numbers above zero mean customers say more positive than negative things about the aspect; below zero means the reverse.
| Aspect | Take 5 Car Wash | Tommy's Express® Car Wash | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wash Quality | +0.53 | +0.62 | Tommy's Express® Car Wash |
| Staff & Customer Service | +0.86 | +0.89 | Tommy's Express® Car Wash |
| Wait Time | +0.63 | +0.72 | Tommy's Express® Car Wash |
| Per-Wash Price | +0.25 | +0.15 | Take 5 Car Wash |
| Equipment Working | -0.58 | -0.41 | Tommy's Express® Car Wash |
| Facility Cleanliness | +0.65 | +0.86 | Tommy's Express® Car Wash |
| Membership Value | +0.03 | +0.29 | Tommy's Express® Car Wash |
Take 5 Car Wash's strongest aspect in customer reviews is Staff & Customer Service (+0.86); the weakest is Equipment Working (-0.58). Tommy's Express® Car Wash's strongest is Staff & Customer Service (+0.89); the weakest is Equipment Working (-0.41). Tommy's Express® Car Wash comes out ahead on Equipment Working, Facility Cleanliness, Membership Value; Take 5 Car Wash doesn't have a clear win on any of the 7 pillars.
Tommy's Express® Car Wash has the lower cancellation-friction rate (8.4% vs 16.8% of mem-discussing reviews) — a substantial gap. The dataset-wide rate is roughly 10–15%.
Do they operate the same format of car wash?
| Format | Take 5 Car Wash | Tommy's Express® Car Wash |
|---|---|---|
| Express Tunnel | 3.7% | 8.3% |
| Full Service | 1.6% | 1.1% |
| Detail Shop | 1.6% | 0.6% |
| Hand Wash | 1.2% | 0.5% |
Format share is computed across customer review mentions, not over locations. A chain with mostly express-tunnel sites but heavy detail-shop talk in reviews will show both at non-trivial rates.
Both chains are predominantly Express Tunnel operators, so they compete head-on for the same customer occasion. The choice between them is largely about brand, price point, location convenience, and customer experience rather than format differentiation.
Where do Take 5 Car Wash and Tommy's Express® Car Wash compete?
Take 5 Car Wash and Tommy's Express® Car Wash share 18 metropolitan markets in the WashIndex coverage set, giving customers a real choice in those areas. In short: if avoiding vehicle damage is the priority, Take 5 Car Wash runs the lower reviewer-reported damage rate.
About Take 5 Car Wash vs Tommy's Express® Car Wash
Take 5 Car Wash vs Tommy's Express® Car Wash: which is bigger?
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Which has the higher customer rating, Take 5 Car Wash or Tommy's Express® Car Wash?
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Which has the lower damage rate, Take 5 Car Wash or Tommy's Express® Car Wash?
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Where do Take 5 Car Wash and Tommy's Express® Car Wash compete head-to-head?
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About this comparison
Both chains' numbers are pulled from the same WashIndex per-location dataset — Google reviews processed through LLM extraction across 55 dimensions, format classification from each operator's website, and competitive-density analysis. See each chain's full profile — Take 5 Car Wash / Tommy's Express® Car Wash — for monthly trends, per-location drill-down, executive summary, and anomaly detection.
See our full methodology for the extraction pipeline, validation samples, and aggregation logic.