Owners of Hashi’s car wash retire, close up shop (2024)

“I enjoyed it,” said James Hashi on Wednesday, as he and his wife, Takane, were cleaning up their office along Waiale Road, a Maui landmark.

“I guess you try different things,” he said of the car wash business, which is somewhat of a science that involves understanding chemistry and automotive parts.

“I couldn’t go into the restaurant business because I’m not a good cook,” the 71-year-old joked.

However, it looks like the historic facility will remain to some extent, with a longtime Maui business family, the Pataos, buying the property, confirmed Marine Patao, the matriarch of the family that owns Patao Gas & Go on Lower Main Street in Wailuku.

Hashi car wash crew member Maynard May secures a wraparound brush as mechanic Hubert Symonds (right) and Richard Yoon swap out its motor Wednesday. — The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Patao said they are looking to make the transition from their current site to the car wash site perhaps in August. She said more details will be forthcoming, but they will keep the car wash and continue to do safety checks.

Until the end, Hashi stayed true with its old-time service, pre-washing vehicles by hand before having them go through the mechanical car wash.

“Because we pre-wash the cars, it’s not as fast. . . . The other car washes, you just go through the machine,” he said, explaining the lines of cars along his driveway.

But with the pre-wash, automated machines did not have to be as aggressive, and Hashi felt the cars came out cleaner.

Hashi said that his late father, Richard, started the operation as an automotive repair business in 1948. They also sold tires and other supplies, but that petered out when larger businesses such as Sears and other tire companies moved into Maui.

James Hashi stands next to a sign his father, business founder Richard Hashi, posted long ago. — The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

In 2019, Hashi and his late father — a World War II veteran who died in 2010 at the age of 93 — were given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Mayor’s Small Businesses Awards event.

The original shop was along Vineyard Street in Wailuku and moved to a location next to where Wailuku Hongwanji Mission currently sits. Finally, it settled at its Waiale Road site in 1955. The car wash began in the early ’70s, and at first was offered as a free service to those who bought tires.

Gas was also pumped at the shop, Hashi said.

Radiator service was also a niche in the past, he added, noting that Maui Pineapple Co. and Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. also looked to them for radiators to be replaced in their equipment. Construction companies working in the resort areas of Kaanapali and Wailea also sought out radiators.

Hashi remembered a car wash back in the ’70s cost around $1.50. At first, it wasn’t an easy sell.

“It was something you slowly had to get people to participate. (Then) it caught on and (we) started doing more and more,” Hashi said.

Current prices depend on the type of wash and the size of the vehicle, with some costing up to $15 for a wash, Hashi said.

But overall, technology and science have improved car washes. Soaps and waxes got better. The brush-type materials once used to scrub cars have given way to newer materials such as Neotex.

“It doesn’t hold dust like that,” Hashi explained of the Neotex material.

Over the years, Hashi went to trade shows to learn about the best and latest in the car washing field. He got equipment from Detroit, where car wash machine manufacturers worked closely with automobile manufacturers who needed to wash the new cars that came off the belts.

As a small business, Hashi was able to withstand new trends such as bigger companies coming in to supply Maui residents with automotive parts, along with car wash competitors. He admitted that his location isn’t the best, as it’s not along a main thoroughfare and may be hard to enter and exit, but he tried to make it up in other ways, such as getting cars to come out of the wash even shinier.

In the business’ heyday, Hashi said they had 15 employees. But when they closed, there were four employees along with him and his wife, who were also seen out washing cars.

While Takane Hashi will also miss the car wash and the customers, she said she will now focus her time on learning the hula, which she has developed a passion for. She is also looking to travel to Japan and Las Vegas.

She also wants to go back to Spain, where she once lived.

“I have to visit there,” she said.

On Wednesday, she said she was still fielding calls on whether the car wash was still open. She’s also received tons of well wishes and thanks and customers saying, “you are the best car wash.”

“We had a lot of good customers,” her husband added.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.