Startup will wash your car wherever it is located

Interesting (and clever idea), but immediate concerns come to mind:<p>1) "Wherever it is located" might be the wrong approach. In a place like NYC, I can assure you that if your car is parked on, say, 74th &#38; Lex, you're not going to get away with doing a car wash there. Same goes for almost every commercial parking lot in the city -- they're not going to let a random guy come in and start washing cars (they don't let owners do that).<p>2) As others have pointed out, there are environmental considerations here, not for tree-hugger reasons, but for legal ones. Car washes are one of those things that many places are quite strict about technically, but when it's applied for personal use it's overlooked. So in other words, Jonny Law isn't (necessarily) going to give you a ticket for washing your car in your driveway and not recycling the wastewater/solvents/etc., the situation becomes completely different when a commercial enterprise is involved. Similar to my point above, you can bet your bottom dollar that NYPD is going to give any semi-commercial car washer a VERY hard time if he's found washing a car on any public street in Manhattan. Likewise for the local PD of a smaller town if it's a guy washing cars in an office parking lot.<p>This may be the sort of business that works only in suburbia or places where a Cherry-supplied vendor is literally replacing a guy in his driveway - which, to end on a positive note, is most of the country.

I love the idea ("Uber for carwashing!") but I have some doubts.<p>The price point is too low for me to believe they'll do a decent job. There are already mobile car detailers here in Portland, and a good exterior detail costs around $100. That's because the companies are licensed and bonded. If I'm going to go cheap on a car wash, I'll do a $6 drive-through special at Washman on my way to the grocery store.<p>Not knowing the coverage area before signing up is a problem for me as well. My email address and phone number are private - I'm not giving them up until a company gives me something in return.

Pick a Ferrari, schedule a $29 wash, grab popcorn and observe owner's reaction.

I'll qualify this with the fact that I don't own a car, nor did I have mine washed often when I did, but...<p>Isn't having your <i>car</i> washed one of those things where portability matters <i>least</i>? It really feels like the ultra-local meme taken too far.<p>Car washes are abundant and reasonably fast, and a car, in its usual course of being driven, will pass them often.<p>It just seems like sunglasses for the blind or something ... a product where its benefit is negated by the nature of the problem.

Yes, please come to NY. I would use this regularly.<p>Also, more insight regarding the materials your service utilizes (ie soaps, brushes, mits, wax, compound - if any, etc) would be great. If this is on the site already, I apologize, I did not register nor did I really dig around (Maybe I wanted to know a bit more to justify my time spent registering).<p>People dish out serious amounts to pamper their automobiles. Some take this very seriously and can be critical of the process.<p>Once established, there is plenty of room to both deepen and widen the product offering here - premium services: compound treatment for swirl marks, waxing, 3m clear bra, paintless dent removal, and so on.<p>I'm assuming you may be trying to create a labor network of sorts and started with basic car washes. Either way, I believe there is a market here, more details on the execution would be great.<p><i></i>*Provided these are hand washes and you're targeting a middle-upper class market, the price point is actually perfect. In my area (NY) I pay ~$30 for a hand wash, and I have to bring it in. I will not bring my car to a regular car wash, even so called "brushless" as they are terrible for your paint. If you're targeting the general public, it may be a bit high.<p>Given the whole, "we come to you", makes me think of washing the car in the office parking lot, which could indicate a White Collar demographic. I also see homes, but personally I'd just do it myself if I had a house and driveway.<p>One more question, how do you handle water at an office building?

<i>Park anywhere, check in online, and we'll wash your car right where you left it.</i><p>I like the idea, but I wonder why most US service owners seem to assume that all their website visitors are from the US. I tried looking in the "Help" and "Terms" sections, but after ~3 minutes of searching I can't confirm that the service is available only within the US... I'm pretty sure it is, but would have liked to know without having to read all the fine print, especially since it says "park anywhere".

Cherry.com washed my car for free 3 months ago, and I didn't even ask them to. They did a great job, really, it was a excellent car wash. I intend to use them in the future.<p><a href="http://www.antoncohen.com/2011/10/what-cherrycom-washed-my-car-for-free.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.antoncohen.com/2011/10/what-cherrycom-washed-my-c...</a>

It appears to be (quite literally) impossible to determine which areas they cover without signing up for an account.

Interesting to me that they were able to get that domain name, being such a small outfit.<p>Particularly, I would have thought there'd be porn or some other domain-specific thing that would have grabbed that up and held it.

Remove the apostrophe from "tip's". It may well be that you meant "tip <i>is</i> included", but it could also be interpreted as poor grammar.

While there is a claim in there about ecofriendly solvents and methods being used, I am somewhat skeptical and concerned about the potential ecological damage and waste of water.<p>At least in the state where I live, there are regulations that require car wash locations to recycle the runoff water. I don't see how this would be possible with this model.

2 comments on usability if the site owner is reading this.<p>1) On the payment screen you have Paypal has an option but I can't actually click on it to allow the paypal option. I'm using the newest version of Chrome.<p>2) I went through the whole registration with credit card details and everything and I got an error message back saying "We're closed" and to come back 9-5pm. It would be much easier for me and probably for you just to take down all my information and process it when you're open or let me pre-pay for a wash or something. It's a little frustrating that I will have to do that all over again.

I know at least two "startups" doing this per city, in Brazil. Except you don't need a smartphone to call them... :-)<p>It's amazing how the obvious in some countries is, sometimes, a novelty in others. Another example: I found out a couple of months ago that, in Chile, there's simply NO ONE offering lockers on beaches. Meaning you have to drive to the place and leave your stuff in the car, or simply not take a wallet/cellphone/etc when you're out to surf...

Funny, but in countries like India, it is fairly common to have a guy come in and wash your car <i>every</i> morning. Put another way: a subscription service for car wash. In countries like India, it is inexpensive enough and there is enough pollution to call for a daily car wash.<p>In the US, I can see my Dad signing up for a weekly car wash at our suburb home.

Not only do they not provide enough information, the information they do provide is contradictory...<p>The homepage says:<p><pre><code> We believe our customers should use Cherry 100% worry-free. So, we’re introducing the Cherry Guarantee: Accidents happen. But when you use Cherry, we’re accountable for those accidents, not you. We cover any scratch or ding and replace anything broken in or stolen from your car. </code></pre> But the terms say:<p><pre><code> THE COMPANY OFFERS INFORMATION AND A METHOD TO OBTAIN SUCH THIRD PARTY CARWASH SERVICES, BUT DOES NOT AND DOES NOT INTEND TO PROVIDE CARWASH SERVICES OR ACT IN ANY WAY AS A CARWASH PROVIDER, AND HAS NO RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY FOR ANY CARWASH SERVICES PROVIDED TO YOU BY SUCH THIRD PARTIES.</code></pre>

Definitely needs an availability map.<p>That said this would be a huge deal in Los Angeles, where hoses are in short supply, street parked cars are in abundance, and the dry air and smog leaves a visible layer of dirt on your car within a week of a wash.

What happens if someone claims cherry scratched or left a ding in their car when they didn't. Couldn't someone pay $29 for a wash just to get something fixed.

How did the startup that made cheese sandwiches go?

In India this is something thats offered by your security guard. They will wash your car EVERYDAY for $20 a month.<p>I'm kind of saddened that the idea never even occurred to me.<p>I think its a great idea in practice but they are going to have the environmental police on their ass in the USA.

What's new apart from the web front end? I thought every city has had businesses like this for years. Here in Scotland, we have a number of 'Waterless' car cleaning services who will come to your home of place of work.

A useful service could be N washes per year with a minimum interval. The user chooses N. Out of this a fraction would be "on-demand". The others would be optimized for availability of resources like manpower and suitable places where there is no objection to washing. For Eg. the user can indicate some travel patterns which can help identify optimal schedules. This approach will enable the user to have a generally clean car and summon a cleanup when there is a special occasion. Such a subscription service would charge lesser per wash.

I wonder if their model is to franchise out the cleaning to local companies/people, since having 1000s of staff around the country would seem to be impractical for a startup.

This is a really good idea to create much needed employment opportunities. I know they won't the best jobs available but it's something people needing a job would be happy to have. I am sure there are plenty of people that lost their jobs in the last 4 years and would jump at the chance to work for this company.<p>Best luck Cherry. I won't be using this service, since I don't wash my car until it rains.

A few questions come to mind:<p>1. Can you request a car wash for a car you don't own? If so, how can you prevent car owners who don't want the service handling their care washed as a gift (or prank)? If not, how does a user of the service prove ownership of a car?<p>2. Does the service require cars to be parked in a relatively unoccupied area so as to minimize impact on other cars and/or pedestrians in the area?

I totally had this idea for a business in Austin. I was thinking about $20 for a basic car wash. Other tiers would be $30-$40. Washers would qualify to do the other car wash tiers based on their previous performance and reviews. Every washer would start out at tier one and have to earn the ability to wash in tiers above it. Hope it works out for Cherry!

Using site:cherry.com pulled this up <a href="http://help.cherry.com/entries/20208543-where-do-i-wash-cars" rel="nofollow">http://help.cherry.com/entries/20208543-where-do-i-wash-cars</a> which clears up the location (somewhat). There are no defined locations, they matchmake cleaners with dirty cars. It's a chicken egg problem.

Wonder how much they paid for that domain.

<i>Cherry is the carwash that comes to you. Park anywhere, check in online, and we'll wash your car right where you left it. Just $29 per wash, tip's included. </i><p>But, what if I don't believe in tipping?

Do they show you the forecast for the next week before you schedule? "There's a 95% chance it will rain tomorrow. Are you sure you want to schedule a wash today?"

All I can say is if your startup doesn't work out (which I hope it does, I love the idea) you could probably get a mint for the cherry.com domain name.

They should merge with Uber.<p>Uber could add a whole range of services to their app.

Sounds kinda sketchy...

the question is...what is included in the "wash"<p>is it just a spray from a hose or do they also wax the car

So do hobos. Just saying...

I think it's a good idea. It will be interesting to see the implementation of it.

Old news.

Regarding the name - its too close to the Chinese car manufacturer 'Chery' for my liking. If they expand into the USA (as they have recently into other countries) it may cause confusion....