With the modern convenience of touchless automatic car washes, it may be difficult to remember that the industry was not always so high-tech. Though other commercial car washes came before it, the first semiautomatic car wash in the United States made its debut in 1946, and from there the industry has grown in both size and sophistication.
One of the first commercial car washes appeared in Detroit in 1914, where two businessmen started a manual car wash. It required the customer's car to be pushed around a circle to different stations, where it went through the various stages of washing.
Before the first automatic car wash opened, there were only about 32 drive-through car washes across the United States, according to the International Car Wash Association.
Around 1928, car wash engineers pioneered the idea of a car wash in which the car would be pulled by a mechanism that attached itself. The idea came to fruition in 1946, when the first semiautomatic car wash appeared in Detroit. Though the car was pulled by a machine, the car was scrubbed by manually operated brushes.
After being inspired by a car wash in the 1950s, Dan Hanna opened his own in Oregon. A successful businessman, Hanna eventually owned 31 car washes, and began engineering his own equipment. He went on to develop inventions that would shape the industry, and became the world's premier car wash equipment manufacturer, according to the company website of Hanna Car Wash Systems International, LLC.
Also in the 1950s, several dozen car wash professionals gathered and formed the Automatic Car Wash Association. Today the organization is known as the International Carwash Association, and it represents the industry with monthly newsletters, government relations and an annual expo.
The International Carwash Association estimates that approximately 22,000 car washes worldwide now employ around 500,000 people.
