Well-known local family buys up Citrus Heights car wash

By Sara Beth Williams–
The Citrus Heights Car Wash will soon be under new ownership, according to Kimberly Berg, who has owned the car wash for over 20 years.

New owner-to-be Randy Pastor, who will take over Tuesday, said in an interview last week that the family is “really excited” for the new opportunity. Pastor owns Pastor’s Auto Care in Citrus Heights, which has an express tunnel car wash. Pastor also opened Cameron Park Car Wash five years ago, which Berg said he modeled after her car wash.

The Pastor family has operated in Citrus Heights since 1975, with Pastor calling the business “generational.”

“I was 11 when we rolled into that old Texaco station,” Pastor said, adding that they’ve been there ever since. Currently, Pastor said his daughter and her husband help run Pastor’s Valero gas station.

Berg said she’s also “excited” for the transition to new ownership. In 2003, she and her former husband bought the car wash as an extra revenue stream because they were planning to retire. The business itself is 40 years old.

“It’s shocking that we’d even buy or that the seller would sell it to us, back then it wasn’t very busy,” Berg said, adding that she had to “learn on the fly” how to maintain the business, which required regular plumbing and electrical maintenance.

Over the years, Berg made improvements to the car wash, including investing in a custom-made fence with Citrus Heights Car Wash-brand colors, which was installed in 2020. The fence gives her “peace of mind,” Berg said. Berg has also modernized the car wash property, bringing it into the 21st century with LED lighting, new signage, in-bay dryers, and a credit card payment option.

These days all the “big maintenance” have been Berg’s responsibility, including paying the bills, advertising, research, customer service, and any odd handyman-related fixes that pop up.

Berg said finding “the right buyer” was important, and one criteria was to not sell to someone who was only interested in “numbers.”

“I was just looking for a high-quality person who has a lot of experience,” Berg said, adding that she didn’t want to teach a new buyer “21 years of experience.” In 2022, Berg told The Sentinel that many businesses in her industry are “notoriously poorly maintained” and absentee owners that don’t have their phone number posted are losing business.

The Citrus Heights Car Wash is a self-service car wash located on the corner of Antelope Road and Auburn Boulevard.