£50 million car wash kids

Britain’s kids generate a summer car-washing industry worth almost £50 million according to research by The British International Motor Show, sponsored by Zurich Connect. The credit crunch hasn’t burst the bubble of Britain’s car-wash kids; the wee washers make more than Halfords’ profit over a six month period.

Over half (64%) of British parents pay their kids to wash their cars for them and shell out an average of £5 a time. Respondents said the typical price they pay every time they have their car professionally cleaned is £15.

Dads tend to pay their children more than mums – a fifth of dads will happily hand over £5 to clean the car whilst only one in 10 mums will.

John Kokkinos, Managing Director of Autovalet UK, one of the UK’s foremost car valeting companies said: “Kids are missing a trick. They currently pocket an average of £5 a time, but if they provided a greater range of car-cleaning services, such as waxing, buffing and cleaning the interior they could double or triple their fees.”

Three quarters (75%) of the skinflint parents who pay their children £1 or less say it’s because their kids only clean the outside of the car with soap and water. In contrast, over a third of kids (37%) who wash, but also give the interior a thorough clean, make between £5 and £7, and 100% of kids who are paid between £15 and £25 thoroughly wash, wax, buff, vacuum and polish inside and out.

Kirsty Perkinson, Marketing Director at The British International Motor Show said: “It’s great to see how entrepreneurial British children are and that the car washing economy is still going strong. It clear many kids love cars too; that’s why we’ve designed lots of kid-friendly features at The British International Motor Show such as dodgems, Go-Karting and the Disney Pixar World of Cars.”

62% of kids in the North East are paid between £1 and £3 whereas the allegedly mean Scots pay the most – 55% fork out a fiver.

The region most likely to see a child with a sponge in hand is the South East of England - 35% of kids car-wash at least once a month generating £7,777,700. Kids in the North East make the least, pocketing £2,395,240.

Recent research from Zurich Connect also shows that a fifth of drivers don’t clean away bird droppings as soon as they mess the car, a lapse that costs British motorists nearly £57m a year to repair the damage, so paying children to regularly clean away the mess makes sense.