Clean Themes : Recreation Car Washes Offer Drivers Diversion to Help Flush Their Troubles Down the Drain

Does naked, brute technology--the sight of powerful, automated equipment in action--make you nervous?

Are you searching for a cleansing, a baptism of sorts that will wash away your anxiety and feelings of guilt?

And--this is most important--does your car need a wash?

If you answer yes to all the above, you’re in luck. The San Jose area appears to be riding the crest of a wave of “theme” car washes.

Arthur Asa Berger, a San Jose State University professor who has written on pop culture, said there are psychological factors making car washes featuring everything from shoeshines to exotic-bird exhibits an attractive alternative to more conventional operations.

One of the new breed is the Bird Bath Car Wash in Fremont.

“It isn’t that appealing to the eye, but once you get inside, you’ll see the appeal,” manager Ray Poehner said.

Inside, customers find a room with about 50 birds, including cockatoos and parrots. If you enter the viewing room, the birds “will land on you and talk to you,” Poehner said.

Fantasy is a common response to technology, Berger said.

“That is how people deal with their anxieties over science and power,” he said. “The theme park cleansing place is to auto washing what science fiction is to science. If something is ugly, unpleasant, you change it around so people see it as something pleasant.”

At Robertsville Corner in San Jose, a customer can get a car washed, polished, waxed and scented while examining antique farm equipment and gas pumps, or shopping for gift items such as a $1,500 grandfather clock.

Many car wash owners who cannot afford elaborate settings are putting in gift shops and offering more modest attractions, said Frank Dorsa, co-owner of Classic Car Wash Inc., the parent company of Robertsville Corner.

According to Berger, people unconsciously see the car wash as a baptism, a washing away of guilt and anxiety. A car wash with a fantasy theme, he said, “gives the car a happy experience. And when people do that, they are giving themselves a happy experience.”

Dorsa said his first fantasy location, the Delta Queen, was the birthplace of the lavish car wash.

The four-story, Mississippi riverboat-style creation, with black iron smokestacks, authentic brass portholes and elaborate woodwork, is located in Campbell.

The idea came to Dorsa while he was running a car wash in a “sterile metal building” in Los Gatos.

“I realized that people want more out of car washing,” Dorsa said. “So I added plants, gas, a gift shop and, as I did this, I found that people really responded.”

The Queen was built in 1972 for $350,000. In an adjoining building, customers can sip coffee or tea, get a shoeshine or buy wine, antiques or jewelry while their “baby” is groomed.

Dorsa does have a warning for those who want to open an unusual car wash.

“The bottom line,” he said, “is you have to know how to wash cars.”