Why The Sudden Surge In El Paso Car Washes?

It seems like there's a new car wash on every corner in El Paso. Why the sudden car wash boom and, being in a desert, are they using too much water?

El Paso used to have a few car washes attached to gas stations and convenience stores along with a few "do it yourself" spots. Now, they're everywhere.

Do we really have that many dirty cars around here? Or, as my daughter suspects, is "washing cars" code for "laundering money"?

Seriously, car washes are suddenly everywhere and, being in a dry, drought prone desert; you have to wonder if they're using too much water. The cap is 50 gallons per car.

If you care, the newer ones in the 915 use about 35 gallons per vehicle. Still though, assuming they do 100 washes a day, that's 3,500 gallons per day and we're not sitting by an ocean here.

How Many Car Washes In El Paso?

As of 2022, El Chuco had 66 car washes and that number has grown quite a bit in the last few years. If they did truly only handle 100 cars a day, at 35 gallons each, that would be 231,000 gallons a day. Multiply that by 365, you get 84,315,000 gallons per year.

That's a lot of water, especially in a desert. If it's windy or rainy, people will wash their vehicles multiple times per week, some, according to El Paso Matters, wash a couple of times per day.

Are They Successful?

Quite often I see them empty which makes me think maybe my daughter's on to something. They keep building them though, (some cities are banning new car washes due to high water usage), which makes me wonder what they're going to do when the boom busts and we have a ton of empty car washes sitting around.

Their designs don't really allow for too many other uses. That track down the middle makes even a Spirit Halloween Store iffy ... a drive through liquor store might work.