I couldn't imagine ever paying a subscription to a car wash! I barely even pay for Spotify, how often do you go? And how often would you go if you weren't paying a subscription?

Depends...

Reputable shops I more often see do something more like a 'Prepaid' discount where you get X washes (maybe in the next Y months) for Z dollars, and ideally it's something like you get one wash a month at a 10-20 percent discount.

The profit-gouging ones, either do a 'assume 3-4 washes a month to see real benefit' or assume you are washing once a week in their sub... or do all the other 'tricks' above schemes can allow.

It can make sense if you don't have a garage, and there's a lot of pollen and whatnot where you park. If I don't wash my car ~twice a week, it ends up looking pretty funky.

I need to wash my cars at least once a week or they get filthy.

I just don’t understand this attitude. Cars live outside, of course they will have a little dirt on them! Do you wash your house every week as well?

It might almost make sense if you wash your car weekly or more often during winter when they salt the roads.

But I never see anyone using the subscription car wash in town, so who knows? The new ones connected to the gas station see some action.

Not once has the local automated wash suggested a subscription, is that perhaps a regional thing or specific to certain brands?

It's likely just that they haven't done the legwork to properly support it yet, or don't want to be a whitelabel service. Even the little gas station washes by me push subscriptions now. My agency has built out a few of these services in the past and they aren't cheap, even the off-the-shelf ones.

As an aside, the entire experience is awful. "Pay $25/month and get as many $8 washes as you want!" ...but I only get a car wash every 2 months and since you're tracking my license plate, you already know that.