Car Wash

Business Overview

Squeaky clean profits.

The Car Wash sits comfortably in the middle of the pack: cheap enough to stack early, strong enough to matter later.

Cost Scaling

Every business in Tycoon Cards uses the same cost curve: each copy costs 15% more than the last. For the Car Wash, that looks like this:

Income Scaling

Income scales linearly with copies owned — no diminishing returns, ever. Owning more of the Car Wash always earns proportionally more:

Profit Calculations

See the Business Tier List for how this business ranks against all other 99 tiers by payback period.

Unlock Requirements

There is no gating system on businesses in Tycoon Cards — the Car Wash is available to purchase from the very start of any run, the moment you can afford its $1.30K base cost. The only realistic "requirement" is reaching that amount of money, either by clicking, by owning cheaper businesses, or by carrying prestige and card bonuses from a previous run.

Best Upgrades

Individual businesses don't have their own upgrade trees in Tycoon Cards — the Car Wash always earns exactly $8 per copy at base rate. What actually "upgrades" its value are the game's shared systems: levelling supporting cards (below), earning achievement bonuses, and increasing your prestige multiplier. Each of these applies as a percentage on top of every business you own, including this one.

Best Supporting Cards

At this tier, cost-reduction cards give the best return — you'll buy many copies of this business, so every percentage off compounds across dozens of purchases. All-income cards are a strong secondary pick.

Prestige Recommendations

This tier is typically the very first business you rebuy after every prestige reset — its low cost means you'll be back to owning dozens of copies within moments of a fresh run.

Read the full Prestige Guide for general reset timing, or the Prestige Point Planning guide to calculate exactly how many points your next reset will earn.

Research Interactions

Tycoon Cards does not currently include a research-tree system — the Car Wash cannot be researched or unlocked through any mechanic beyond simply affording it. A research tree is listed as a possible future system on our Updates & Roadmap page; this section will be updated if that ever changes.

Evolution Path (Tier Progression)

Businesses in Tycoon Cards don't evolve or transform — each tier is a permanent, independent business. What we can show honestly is this business's place in the overall 100-tier progression:

• Previous tier: 📰 Paper Route ($120 base cost)
• This tier: 🚿 Car Wash ($1.30K base cost)
• Next tier: 🍕 Pizza Shop ($14.0K base cost)

Visual Progression

The five tiers surrounding the Car Wash in the business roster:

Best Strategies

• Buy this tier aggressively and in bulk — at this cost level, ten cheap copies almost always beat saving for a single copy of the next tier.
• Use the x10 or x100 buy buttons once you can afford them, rather than purchasing one copy at a time.
• Remember that all businesses share the same 15%-per-copy cost curve, so the fundamental buy/hold maths never changes — only the absolute numbers do.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Businesses

Related Guides

• Business Guide — full roster, cost curves and buy order
• Business Tier List — every business ranked by return on investment
• Economy Guide — how growth curves and inflation work game-wide
• Prestige Guide — when and how to reset for permanent bonuses

Changelog

• v1.0.0 (January 2026) — Available since the original Tycoon Cards release.