Recent content by jfmoran

A tunnel controller? What do you currently have?

Have you had Sonny's do a Site Analysis and ProForma for you? $3M total price for build including land is not even close. I'm in the Mid-Atlantic region working on several projects, the cost to build the building is $2.75-3M, Equipment and install for an Express is another $1.2-$1.5M. That's...

Stay away from Washify, DRB bought them just to kill it. Dencar is new to the tunnel side. I have a customer who put it in at his IBA's and his two new tunnels and he's not thrilled with it. Sonny's can integrate with DRB or almost any other POS system out there. WE are currently working with a...

You could go Exterior Only on Sundays or limit Full Serve hours even during the week. Most full serve car washes I encounter are not charging what they should be charging to be profitable. Cutting expenses is not the best way to combat the issues you are dealing with. Generating higher top line...

Yes, they are done and have screwed a lot of people.

What kind of fuel volume does this site do, in other words how many gallons per month? You wash volume will be driven off the fuel volume. Fuel operators are notoriously bad car wash operators, and their buildings and machines are usually not well maintained. I would have the equipment evaluated...

You need a good distributor, they should be able to answer all your questions, if they can't, find one who can.

What you're missing is thinking you're going to find a well run, well maintained car wash in this scenario and you can just step in and take over a successful business. Instead, assuming you find this scenario, what you will find is a dump of a car wash, that most likely needs to be gutted and...

5 Mile population of only 45K is low. Typically need population of 25K to support one tunnel. 3 competitors within 5 miles with another coming? Are they tunnel sites? 30K traffic count is good, but high for the population, which indicates that a good portion of it is probably commuter traffic...

You can get a FREE Site Evaluation and Pro Forma from Sonny's CarWash Consulting (sonnysdirect.com)

Not common at all. Somewhere in line you are losing signal from the photo eyes back to your controller. I would start with running new signal wire from photo eyes back to the amplifier and from amplifier back to the controller. If that doesn't fix it, you can rule out the photo eyes being the...

Shoot me an email at john.moran@sonnysdirect.com. I'm live in the Philly suburban area and have managed multiple washes in that market since the late 90's. I now work with Sonny's and can provide you with all the info you are looking for. John

Get a salt-spreader and have your staff monitor the lot for ice.

If you're talking about an Express Exterior, site work and building will be $2.3-2.7M, tunnel equipment, support equip, pay stations, vacuums will vary based on property and tunnel size, but anywhere from $1-1.5M+

What kind of wash? How much land and what's the cost? Accessibility to water, sewer and electric? Good Ingress / Egress? Good Visibility from both directions? Makeup of daily traffic? is it local or commuter? Density of population in the 1, 3. 5 mile radius? Demographic makeup? High percentage...