So was busy washing both my cars in the evening and then the idea suddenly came up.

What say if i happen to open a car wash up as a means of getting some additional income.

Is it a feasible business ?

Went over for a drive after dinner to a carwash nearby and asked my friend if she wanted to get her car washed. While the guys were busy working on the car, i managed to have a quick chat with one of the guys that were supervising his staffs at the car wash.

This was his rough breakdown of his car wash,

washing+vacuum = RM20

Rental around RM10K/month. They are open 6 days a week from Tuesdays to Sunday.

So based on my own calculation, lets say if i happen to hire 5 people to work at my place and i pay them 1200 each, that brings to a total of RM6K in salary that has to be paid.

Presuming that i manage to rent a place similar to the carwash that i went for, my fixed per month would be RM10K+6K =RM16K.

If i was to charge RM15 per car for washing + vacuuming, i would have to wash at least 1066 cars in a month (35 cars a day on average), just to break even.


That is excluding paying my electrical and water bill, buying the shampoo, equipments (water jet) etc.


Anyone here has experience in running a car wash or knows someone who has started a car wash ? I really need to look into the cost of starting up one.

Siang malam hujan lebat 30 hari

This post has been edited by mafioso: Mar 19 2017, 02:11 AM

Haha betul jugak, but there are freaks in Malaysia like me that want our rides to be sparkling clean.


Imagine making RM5net profit/car. If you happen to bring in 1000cars a month, there's going to be RM5K in my pocket

u miss out sat sun OT speciall allowance.

Make sure u use micro fiber cloth so u dont scratch the car and change new one always. Also use clean one for each car.

I dont send my car to car wash for those reasons. They dont take care of your car because its not theirs. And those that did, they wont be charging just rm 15.

car wash business. std gomen worker makan gaji dream business. the cost is clearly on rental. 10k is too huge. got survey cheaper place?

Wait, car washers are paid more during weekends issit ?

I was planning to come up with something like RM1K per month, per person for 6days a week. Like that, i would be able to hire 5 people for 5k/month.

Then, down the road, i could bring in more workers and adjust the pay to an hourly rate based on the number of traffic that we get.

So presuming if i pay a person RM1K/month initially, they would roughly be earning around RM33/day which translates into RM3.33per hour.

Thereafter, if business is good, i may be able to bring it up by 30%-50% gradually.


Not to forget, i would have to hire a person in charge/supervisor to look after the place and monitor the workers and that's definitely going to be pricey.

Not yet include stolen equipment and shampoo, sales cash. Also protection money. Compensation when worker wash the inside like this...

Yeah i totally understand that.

I remembered my mom sending her car for washes before and when it comes back and if its parked in our porch directly under the light, you'll be able to see tons of swirl marks

Define what do you mean by standard government job bro ?


Sadly, the area where I'm staying is pretty pricey, and with this particular end lot unit, i would roughly be able to park around 6 cars inside the shop while getting it washed, like 2 washing bays and another 4 to 5 slots to park them while vacuuming and wiping/ polishing

The money is not in car washing. It is in car detailing where idiots will spend thousands just like pompuan taruh skII on their faces.

Car wash is just for people who are too lazy to wash their cars yet don't want to spend too much on it or they rather end up doing it themselves.

Alamak, what kind of protection money man ? Im not doing any illegal business

Ahh, i remembered seeing a picture similar to that where by a bhangladeshi worker was washing the entire interior of a perodua

You pakai air longkang and two drops of dish washing liquid for each car is it. RM5 profit per car?

Meaning there is really no helping applying coating?

\Agreed, was just using the sole example of a car wash service to calculate my (E) PROFIT.


You might think that I'm sick but this is what i was doing last weekend, sat in a restaurant nearby the given carwash and was stalking them, gosh, they had more than 30cars on a Saturday in just a duration of 5hours

Isn't RM5/car net profit achievable ?

I mean buying the equipments and quality soap isn't going to be pricey as you would be getting the shampoo in big quantities right ?

gomen office worker

u dont have to open car wash nearby where u stay but open it where people like to wash their car. find cheap yet strategic place. i stay in seksyen 7 shah alam before. everywhere also got car wash. all charge rm10 only. i wonder how they survive.

Im not a normal cleark that works in a Gomen office la

Bijou always listen to my advice

I wanted one near my area as we only have 1 place nearby. So in other words, competition is still loose in my place. Just dont ask me where exactly i plan to open la. Later i dont want some silent reader to open one there before i can lol

The current place charges RM20 and if I'm able to undercut them by charging RM15, sure can attract people

This post has been edited by 1malaysiajib: Mar 19 2017, 02:38 AM

Okay TS,

What you need to think is long-term, not short term in terms of money and investment. I don't know how you gonna plan but I will tell you my cousin's story.

He was 2 years older than me, graduated UPSI and got offered to be a teacher but then he rejected cause he want to do a business. At first he want to open car wash business just like you however I like how he managed to put target group in his plan.

He lived in Kedah, his target customer not in the city, but in the village (but not that ultra rural area) - for example Pendang, Langgar, Kuala Nerang. Fast forward with his business, he started at Pendang 1 car wash with cheap labour, for daily customer of course not many since it's not that many in terms of population, but his true target during festive season where most people went back to kampung etc which is sufficient for him lorh. Fast forward until today, now he already have 3 car wash at those listed place I mention (as a passive/seasonal income) and now his main source of income from bengkel besi which he got a lot of tender from Government (but slow in terms of nak bayar duit lol)..

Of course this is good side of story, but you need plan well how will you recover from lost, not enough manpower, managing people, backup plan since he has gone through all those ups and downs. Currently he's at the starting point stable pace after 1 year and a half running this business after recovering from few ups and downs.


The point he said to me is; Always have a good plan although you know there will be a loss in the future and how you are going to counter it. Good luck TS.

not enough, use only fresh towels for top portion and other normal rinsed towels for bottom portion. bottom portion got more dirt there we dont want those towels wiping the upper portion.

Car wash = bukan wash car untuk cari makan fyi.