A multi-bay self-service car wash, with an automatic "touchless" bay at the far left and manual bays on the right.

A car wash is a place to clean the outside, and sometimes the inside, of automobiles.

There are many different types of car washes. These are the three main groups:

• self-service that are usually coin-operated,
• In-Bay Automatics are machines that roll back and forth over an automobile while washing it,
• "tunnel washes" push or pull the automobile through a line of cleaning machines that do not move.

In a modern car wash soaps and other chemicals used are based on milder acids and alkalies. Early car washes often used hydrofluoric acid, a hazardous chemical. Many car washes are now required by law to treat and reuse their water.