A single car wash isn't making most people a millionaire.
After a low 7 figures in sales, you've got to subtract costs and wages, and the money left over will hopefully cover your family's living expenses. Being able to save up a million is going to be tough. And starting a car wash from scratch probably isn't going to wind up being worth close to a million either, in most locations, in terms of being able to sell the business.
If you run a network of 10 car washes then sure, but good luck with that. The market is already pretty saturated so building up a profitable network is going to be tough.
How does one get a car wash in the first place? It seems to me that either:
a. You start a new car wash which, given that the market for car washes is already saturated, probably has a much lower success rate than 70%. You also need to be able to afford the startup costs, which are substantial.
b. You buy it, in which case you already have money, and you're probably better off investing in index funds.
c. You inherit it.
It seems like the best way to have a successful car wash is to be born into it. But that's true of many things, and not necessarily relevant to those of us who head the misfortune to be born to parents who don't own a car wash.
I know someone who owns several and is quite wealthy. He started out owning a small, shitty car wash and he gradually built/acquired more and upgraded them. You succeed in business the same way you succeed in any other aspect of life, you either get lucky or you work hard or some combination. In his case it was mostly hard work over at least a decade.
The fixation so many people in the comments have on starting a carwash is why most businesses fail. The right approach is to figure out what you're likely to succeed at and start that business, not to pick one because it has a high valuation and copy it (this is how must tech entrepreneurs work). Maybe the carwash market is saturated, some other market isn't and someone will make a bunch of money filling that gap.
After a low 7 figures in sales, you've got to subtract costs and wages, and the money left over will hopefully cover your family's living expenses. Being able to save up a million is going to be tough. And starting a car wash from scratch probably isn't going to wind up being worth close to a million either, in most locations, in terms of being able to sell the business.
If you run a network of 10 car washes then sure, but good luck with that. The market is already pretty saturated so building up a profitable network is going to be tough.