IMO Car Wash Review and the Prices Its Website Leaves Out
IMO Car Wash keeps its UK prices vague, and the rough figures on its site look dated.
IMO’s guide says about £4 for a basic wash, £7 for Triple Foam and £12 for Ultra HD, but recent reviewers report £8.50, £14 and up to £21 for Ceramic XTR.
Reviews split at 3.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot, and a new three-tier menu is reaching some sites before the website shows it.
Buy single washes in the app unless you wash every week, because prepaid packs lapse after three months.
What an IMO Car Wash costs now
IMO doesn’t publish a price list by site. Its location pages show hours and services, and its FAQ gives three rough figures, then sends you to your local wash.
Recent reviews with the Verified label on Trustpilot name higher amounts.
| Wash | Reviewers paid |
|---|---|
| Triple Foam | £8.50 |
| Diamond | £10 |
| Ultra HD | £14 |
| Ceramic XTR | £19 to £21 |
IMO’s fleet shop backs them up. It sells 25 Triple Foam vouchers at £6 each with VAT and calls that “up to 32%” off, which points to a top single price near £8.82 if the discount compares like with like. Ultra HD at £9.60 and “up to 30%” points to £13.71.
The app shows your site’s prices once you pick it, and each location page lists a phone number.
A new menu is reaching some sites
IMO’s FAQ still describes eight washes. Since late September, reviewers have described something else.
- One counts only three options, says their usual wash costs about 50% more, and says their stamp card became useless
- One prepaid six Triple Foams, then heard at Llanelli that the site offered a Shine wash instead, for £2.50 extra
IMO’s replies mention “updated car wash tiers” and “the adjustment in our pricing” without listing them. The website doesn’t show a new menu, and other reviewers bought Ultra HD during the same weeks, so it may not have reached every site.
Check your site’s current menu in the app or at the pay point before you prepay anything.
What the extra money buys
IMO says every car gets a manual high-pressure pre-wash and wheel clean. The wash you pick decides the rest.
- Triple Foam adds a chassis wash, triple foam and a dry
- Ultra HD adds an alloy spa, body and chassis wax, Rain Guard and its own finish
- Ceramic XTR swaps that finish for a ceramic coating, which IMO says protects for up to a month
- Graphene G60 uses a carbon weave coating and is sold only at Amersham, Exeter, Patchway and Coventry (Radford Rd)
At the reported prices, Ultra HD costs £5.50 more than Triple Foam, or 65%, and Ceramic XTR adds about £6 on top. We found no independent test of IMO’s protection claims.
Cheaper ways to pay
Against an £8.50 single Triple Foam, these are the lowest per-wash figures we can work out.
- £6.50 a Triple Foam with the AA’s £2 member discount, limited to one wash a week
- £6.38 a wash in a 12-pack at IMO’s best 25% off
- £6 a wash on a fleet voucher, with VAT
App stamps
Single washes from Triple Foam up earn stamps in the app. Three bring £2 off an Ultra HD and six bring a free one, valid for 30 days, and the card resets after 12 months.
Six Triple Foams cost £51 and earn a wash worth about £14, roughly 27% back. That tops the “up to 25%” IMO advertises on bundles and subscriptions, and neither of those earns stamps.
Wash Saver packs
Packs of 2, 3, 6 or 12 are sold in the app, and the Saver terms limit them to one site and one car for three months.
Twelve Triple Foams at the full 25% off come to £76.50, so you need nine washes inside 13 weeks just to match singles. Anything unused after that is gone.
Fleet vouchers
| Bundle of 25 | Per wash with VAT |
|---|---|
| Triple Foam | £6.00 |
| ProShield | £8.64 |
| Ultra HD ProShield | £9.60 |
The shop pitches these at fleets, but nothing on the page bars private buyers, and vouchers last 12 months. Wash every two weeks and 25 will take about a year, saving £62.50 on Triple Foam or £110 on Ultra HD.
£14 buys most of two Triple Foams, so I’d stop at Triple Foam and buy singles in the app for the stamps. A pack only earns its place if you already wash weekly, and with menus changing I’d hold off on fleet vouchers until a site confirms it still takes them.
The subscription ties you to one site
The Wash Subscription terms allow up to 12 washes per 30-day billing period, on one car, for personal use only. Taxis get a separate app. There are three levels, and the app shows prices only after you pick a base site.
To test yours, divide the monthly price by your site’s single price. That’s how many washes you need every 30 days. The only public figure we found is an expired 2024 HotUKDeals offer of 12 Rain Guard washes for £21.99.
At least 80% of your washes must be at your base site, or IMO may move you to another site’s price. On four washes a month, one trip elsewhere is already 25%.
Seven working days can run to 11 calendar days if you email on a Friday, so send it at least 12 days before your next payment. IMO’s app page also offers cancellation under Manage Your Subscription, so do both.
A full refund within 14 days applies only if you haven’t used a wash. Cancel later and there’s no refund, but the plan works until the 30 days end.
A page called End of Subscription FAQs still says the program has ended. It’s undated, while IMO’s About page still promotes subscriptions and reviewers describe plans bought this year.
Reviews praise the staff more than the finish
That 3.8 covers 38,801 reviews on IMO’s whole profile, not just UK sites. IMO invites customers to leave them, and Trustpilot doesn’t fact-check them.
Recent praise centers on friendly staff and speed. Complaints return to dirty patches, wet cars, rushed pre-washes and machines out of action. One reviewer at Broughton paid for Ultra HD, got Rain Guard and received £2 back.
Paint risk is harder to judge. IMO says it hand-crafts soft foam brushes, while a detailer quoted in CAR magazine says poorly kept brushes leave swirl marks that cost over £1,000 on average to correct. He runs a detailing business, and neither claim is a test.
Our guide on whether automatic washes scratch paint goes further. If your paint is dark, consider washing a black car by hand.
This review rests on IMO’s pages and terms, Trustpilot and the sources named here. Nobody from this site ran a car through an IMO wash, so we can’t say how clean it gets one.
Report damage before you drive off
- Tell the operator and fill in the incident form at the site, as IMO’s terms require
- Photograph the damage while you’re there
- Expect head office to reply within 3 business days, with a final response within 8 weeks
We found no published promise of a free rewash if the car comes out dirty.
Sites, hours and size limits
IMO’s FAQ counts over 250 UK sites under the IMO or ARC name, while its taxi page says over 240 and the AA says 244. Its county list runs from Aberdeen to Cornwall, with Newtownards in Northern Ireland. Drivers in the capital can compare our London car wash picks.
Of the five site pages we sampled, from Ilford to Newtownards, Monday to Saturday hours end between 6pm and 7pm, and Sundays end at 4pm or 5pm.
Soft tops are fine if the roof is undamaged, and electric cars are washed too. Wide wheels up to 325mm are welcome at sites listed in the FAQ, and size limits appear on each wash pad menu.
Independent operators run the sites for commission, and many add valeting. The FAQ puts an Express Valet around £6 and a Mini Valet around £8, while one reviewer paid £20 for an internal valet.
