M&A activity snapshot
Car wash M&A has moved from a land grab to a slower, more selective market. Car Wash Advisory counts 131 transactions at the 2022 peak, then 40 to 49 deals annually from 2023 through 2025. It expects that level to persist through 2026.
The buyer pool for scaled chains is widening even as deal count holds flat. Acquirors completing 5-or-more-site transactions jumped to 13 in 2025, up from just 5 the year before. The same source says the top 25 car wash companies now account for 70 percent of total sites among the largest 50 operators, most of them PE-backed.
The largest platforms are now trading among themselves. Whistle Express bought Driven Brands' Take 5 Car Wash in a deal valued at approximately $385 million. In February 2026, Mister Car Wash agreed to be taken private by Leonard Green & Partners at a $3.1 billion enterprise value.
This page covers express exterior, flex, and full-service car washes. They fall under NAICS 811192, Car Washes, a code that also includes detail shops and mobile washes. Census does not split express tunnels out from those smaller formats.
Who is buying
PE-backed express chains. Whistle Express, backed by funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, says the Take 5 deal left it with 530 locations across 23 states. KKR made a significant minority investment in Quick Quack, which had over 230 locations, with Seidler Equity Partners keeping a stake.
Large-cap PE and take-privates. Leonard Green has backed Mister Car Wash since 2014 and already owned approximately 67% of its shares before the buyout. Mister ended 2025 with 548 locations and opened 29 new greenfield locations that year.
Strategics pruning portfolios. Sellers include large operators, not just founders. Driven Brands sold car washes to focus on its Take 5 Oil Change business. Whistle itself sold sites: Mister's 10-K notes it acquired five Whistle Express locations in Lubbock, Texas in 2025.
Lenders and opportunistic buyers. Distress creates its own buyers. During the Zips restructuring, El Car Wash acquired six Zips locations in Orlando for $50M.
What buyers look for
Membership share. Subscription revenue is the first number buyers ask for. At Mister, Unlimited Wash Club sales represented 79% of total wash sales in Q4 2025, compared to 75% a year earlier, with approximately 2.3 million UWC members. ICA's consumer research found membership renewal intent stayed exceptionally high in late 2025.
Cars per day and revenue per car. These are the core site-level metrics, but no public dataset benchmarks them reliably. As a proxy, Mister earned $1,051.7 million of 2025 net revenue across 548 locations at year end. That is about $1.9 million per location (Axia arithmetic; it understates mature sites because new stores count fully).
Local competition. Oversupply is now a diligence item. CRE Daily reported 900 new car washes annually in recent years, and buyers map planned tunnels within a target's trade area before pricing it.
Water and permits. Mister's 10-K notes it may need permits for the discharge of wastewater or storm water, and that drought conditions exist particularly in the western states. California requires new conveyor washes to recycle at least 60 percent of the wash and rinse water.
What makes a strong company
A car wash that commands a premium typically shows:
- Membership revenue as a clear majority of wash sales, with monthly churn and retail-to-member conversion tracked by site.
- Express exterior tunnels with free vacuums, the format Mister runs at 485 of its 548 locations.
- Several sites in one metro, so a buyer gains route density and shared marketing.
- No new competing tunnel permitted or under construction close to its best sites.
- Owned real estate, or long leases at market rent with renewal options.
- Reclaim equipment, current discharge permits, and a clean environmental record.
Valuation and deal structure
Car Wash Advisory puts 2025 multiples between 8x and 15x EV/EBITDA, down from as high as 20x in 2021 and 2022 but still well above 2019's 6x to 10x range. The source does not break that range out by site count. It does tie the deeper 2025 buyer pool to scaled platforms, which suggests multi-site chains draw more competing bids than single sites.
Public marks give one large-chain reference point. Leonard Green's $3.1 billion enterprise value compares with Mister's 2025 adjusted EBITDA of $345.4 million, about 9.0x (Axia arithmetic). That buyer already controlled the company, so it is not a clean arm's-length comparable.
Real estate is usually separated from the operating business. Mister completed nine sale-leaseback transactions with aggregate consideration of $48,423 thousand and initial annual rents of approximately $2,873 thousand in 2025. That implies an initial yield of about 5.9% (Axia arithmetic). Sellers should model the business both with and without the land.
Seller financing appears even in large deals. Driven Brands took $255 million in cash and a $130 million interest-bearing seller note from Whistle. To see where your own numbers sit, use the valuation tool.
Outlook
Expect steady, selective deal flow through 2027 rather than a return to the 2022 pace. ICA's late-2025 survey points to modest single-digit growth as the most realistic baseline for 2026. Mister says it expects to primarily drive future location growth through greenfield openings, not acquisitions.
Oversupply is the main risk. Zips filed for Chapter 11 to reduce its debt obligations by approximately $279 million and sought to reject leases on 41 locations. Its CEO said fresh capital led to oversaturated markets. Owners with high membership share and protected trade areas should still find a deep buyer pool. Owners in markets with several new tunnels opening nearby should expect buyers to test same-store trends and member churn closely before committing.
Own a car wash and want to know what it's worth before you talk to anyone? Run the valuation tool or see the wider Automotive & Equipment M&A overview. See also: why vertical-specific buyers outperform generalists in outbound.