Rinse and repeat, an iconic car wash has reopened in Mountain View

A new car wash has opened in Mountain View. Kaady Car Wash has taken over Lozano’s on El Camino Real, and while the business has a new concept – a $10 wash in three minutes – the remodeled site looks almost the same as before, with its retro architecture, towering parrot and Manny Lozano, the original owner, greeting customers just like he did when the car wash first opened in 1957.

“Most of my life, everything I’ve done has always been in the purest vein. Do one thing and do it well. Don’t try to be all things to all people, and that’s what I’ve done,” Lozano said, adding that he still works seven days a week.

At 93-years-old, the Palo Alto native can afford to step back and retire, but the car wash makes him too happy to let go entirely, Lozano said. So instead, he sold it to Chuck Kaady, a close friend whose family business, Kaady Car Wash, got its start in 1976 in Portland and Vancouver and has since expanded to Northern California.

Lozano still owns the land, about one and a half acres in a prime real estate spot at 2690 W. El Camino Real. A few years ago, the city offered Lozano $40 million for the property to build affordable housing on the site, he said. But Lozano decided he wanted to reboot the operation with Kaady instead.

The pandemic already had wrecked its worst on the business, which closed down because it was doing so poorly, Lozano said. Nobody wanted to get their vehicles cleaned because of the risks of contagion, and later the car wash got too expensive for customers feeling the economic hardships of the pandemic.

Now almost entirely automated, the car wash has lowered its prices from $45 to just an exterior wash for $10. “It’s a sign of the times, things are so different today, the people, the economy,” Lozano said.

Kaady’s has a few attendants to collect the money and guide vehicles through a gauntlet of spray and suds that, from start to finish, takes about three minutes. Lozano timed it on his watch with the reporter in his vehicle.

“Technically, I can wash 3,000 cars a day with three people (on staff),” Lozano said, which is his target goal. As of now, about 350 vehicles a day come through the site. Lozano attributed the low turnout to rainy weather and people not realizing the car wash reopened four weeks ago.

Customers appreciate the speedy cleaning, which fits in with the lifestyle of his customers, about 70% of whom are women and always on the go, Lozano said. But the low cost is probably the primary attraction, which Lozano acknowledged was possible because the automated services kept workers to a minimum.

When he first opened in 1957, the cost of labor was 74 cents an hour and a car wash was 99 cents, Lozano said. Now attendants are paid $22 to $25 an hour. To make the finances work, they have eliminated interior cleaning services and only focus on the exterior of vehicles.

Lozano eventually plans to try out the new business concept at his Sunnyvale location too, which had serviced 800 to 1,000 vehicles a day before the pandemic. Now it is down to 125 vehicles, he said.

The numbers tell one story, but the business model appeals to Lozano for other reasons as well. “It’s going back to being a purist and doing one thing well,” he said. Lozano attributed his entrepreneurial spirit to his parents, both Spanish immigrants who worked hard to improve the lives of their children despite their modest backgrounds.

According to Lozano, the idea of building a professional car wash began with his father, after seeing one in Pasadena. It was his vision, Lozano said. At the time, most vehicles were washed at home or in the back of service stations with a hose and bucket. They built the business together, and competition soon followed.

But after 67 years, Lozano says everyone else went broke and he is alone again. “The reason I’m here is because I own the property. If I didn’t own the property, I couldn’t afford to stay here,” he said.

A lot of other things have changed since the twentieth century as well, including the way cars are washed at the site. About 80% of the water is recycled now, Lozano said.

The way the car wash is run today, the dirty water is reclaimed in a holding tank and never goes into storm water runoff, Chuck Kaady said. If there is any excess in the holding tank, then it is discharged into a sewage system where it is later treated, he said.

Daniel, a Tesla driver and longtime Lozano customer, was particularly impressed by the new car wash, viewing it as an efficient and environmentally-friendly iteration of a time-honored American tradition. “How many gallons of water does it use? What’s the wattage?” he asked, before pulling out a handheld vacuum from his car to clean the interior himself.

Kaady Car Wash is holding its grand opening at 1 p.m. with free car washes from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, April 26. The car wash is regularly open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.