Beside the after-sales workshop of a branded 4S dealership in Chengdu, a Tianyi “Longxishui” fully automatic touchless car wash machine has completed installation and commissioning. It is one of the store’s service upgrades this year, with a simple goal — to raise wash efficiency and free people from the wash bay.
The after-sales manager did the sums: the workshop takes in anything from twenty or thirty vehicles a day to fifty or sixty, and every car is washed before delivery after service. Washing used to be done by hand, taking about 20 minutes per car, with long waits for customers at peak times.
What troubled him more was staffing. Wash-bay work is physically hard for limited pay, so turnover is high and hiring and retaining staff is almost always a struggle. “You finally train someone up, and a few months later they leave — then you start recruiting and training all over again,” he said.
After comparing several options, the store chose the Tianyi “Longxishui” touchless car wash machine for two main reasons: efficiency and safety.
On efficiency, wash time per car is expected to be 4–5 minutes once the machine is in use — a clear step up from hand washing. Industry figures suggest a stable automatic car wash machine can, at peak, handle five to eight times the throughput of hand washing. For a store with a large service intake, that means customers no longer wait so long.
On manpower, the machine reduces the store’s reliance on wash staff. One technician explained that an automatic car wash machine typically cuts labour dependence by around 70%. That lets the store move scarce people out of repetitive work and into core business such as repair and maintenance.
On safety, the Tianyi “Longxishui” cleans with high-pressure water and a dedicated detergent, with no brush touching the body at any point, ruling out by design the scratches a brush can cause when it carries grit. For a 4S store that often delivers new cars and high-end models, that matters too.
At the site the main body was already installed and technicians were commissioning the system. Once the machine is running, the store plans to link the wash step more smoothly with the repair and maintenance workflow to further improve the delivery experience.
If you also run a 4S store or an auto service shop, what is the biggest challenge in your after-sales wash bay — keeping up with throughput, or hiring and keeping staff?
Share your thoughts in the comments, or contact the Tianyi car wash machine factory: we can offer some ideas based on your actual situation.