Carwash by the Numbers

How is it that a chain of automotive collision repair centers can claim the Guinness World Record for “Most Cars Washed - Multiple Venues” by washing more than 4,000 vehicles in an eight-hour period instead of a professional carwash chain or coordinated effort by the carwash industry? Last year, CARSTAR Collision Centers made a splash by setting the world record during its annual Soaps It Up! charity carwash event benefitting the Make-A-Wish Foundation in the United States and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in Canada, as well as other locally selected organizations.

This year, CARSTAR held its sixth annual Soaps It Up! event and washed 4,100 cars in a single day at 140 participating locations in North America. The U.S. portion of the June event raised more than $40,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In addition to Make-A-Wish, the event drew participation from 3M, which offered rebates on headlight lens restoration or renewal kits, and Hertz, which offered up to $15 off of weekend rentals with every ticket purchased.

Congratulations to CARSTAR for its work with these important charity organizations, but this should be the carwash industry’s turf. Washing 4,100 cars in an eight-hour span sounds impressive until you do the math. In order to hit that mark, each participating location had to wash about 30 cars, which is less that four per hour.

My guess is that Wash Depot Holdings comes close to that mark on any given day between its 84 carwash locations. To wash 4,100 cars, Wash Depot locations would have to average around 49 vehicles during an eight-hour span. By comparison, Autobell Car Wash, with 58 locations, would have to average 71 cars per site to break the record. Imagine what either or both could do behind a concerted effort to benefit a charity.

Without knowing the single-day numbers, it’s likely participating carwashes in this year’s Grace for Vets program surpassed the CARSTAR figure.

What about participating WaterSavers locations? The International Carwash Association’s environmental recognition program now includes more than 1,000 carwash locations. Do the math with me here. To wash 4,100 vehicles, WaterSavers locations would have to wash 4.1 cars in an eight-hour period, or about one every two hours. If WaterSavers locations matched CARSTAR with an average of just 30 vehicles per site, such an event would tip the Guinness scales at 30,000 cars washed.

If such an event used a $10-per-vehicle proceeds model similar to CARTSTAR’s U.S. locations, the carwash industry could be responsible for raising $300,000 for a selected charity or multiple organizations in a single day’s work.

Imagine the positive publicity that could be gained from a truly nationwide push from the industry. Local carwashes would reap valuable print coverage and broadcast time about their services, and consumers and organizations would be better informed about professional carwash options for their fundraising carwash events. Many organizations still do not realize their neighborhood carwash likely has a program designed to help them raise money in an environmentally responsible manner.

A coordinated WaterSavers effort of this magnitude also would bring the kind of valuable consumer exposure the ICA seeks and put traction behind a program that so far is a loosely collective effort relying on logo visibility.

If you’re not embarrassed by CARSTAR’s accomplishment, check out the Soaps It Up! photos on the company’s Web site. This industry could do a far better and cleaner charity carwash drive than the parking lot variety depicted in these photos, whether carwash kits were used to collect wastewater or not.

Setting a world record is not important. The point is to illustrate only how easy it would be for this industry to accomplish something that others view as a milestone. For an industry supposedly hungry to change consumer perceptions and increase awareness about its charitable options and environmental practices, all it would take is collective initiative, cooperation and effort.