--- title: "About Naveed Kakal" url: https://napervillecarwashes.com/about/ site: "Naperville Car Wash Reviews" author: "Naveed Kakal" last_verified: 2026-07-21 --- # About Naveed Kakal Former car wash manager (Royal Oaks Car Wash, Shoreview MN, 1997–2006), 20-year veteran of industrial laundry automation and controls. From 1997 to 2006 I worked at — and eventually managed — Royal Oaks Car Wash in Shoreview, Minnesota. Nine years of tunnel chemistry, brush maintenance, winter salt seasons, and learning exactly what separates a wash that babies your paint from one that just gets it wet. Since then I've spent 20 years in industrial laundry automation and controls — a different kind of wash, same obsession with machines that clean things properly. But I never lost my soft spot for car washes. I've now run my own cars through every wash in the Naperville area, plus a few over in Bolingbrook. These are my honest, unsponsored takes: what each place does well, what they charge, and whether the membership is worth it. ## Credentials - Managed Royal Oaks Car Wash · Shoreview, MN · 1997–2006 - 20 years in industrial laundry automation & controls - Independent — no sponsored scores ## How the scoring works Every review follows the same method: I visit with my own vehicles, buy a wash like anyone else, and score six things — Clean & Shine, Paint Safety, Dry & Finish, Vacuums & Amenities, Value & Membership Math, Operation & Upkeep — on a 1–5 scale. Six dimensions, scored 1–5 each. Overall is the straight average — no weighting, no hand-tuning. Nobody pays for a review, and ad space never affects a score. ### Clean & Shine Does the car come out clean? I check the places a tunnel usually misses: behind the mirrors, the rocker panels, the lower third of the rear bumper, and the film that road spray leaves on a tailgate. A wash that looks great from ten feet and fails at arm's length scores low here. ### Paint Safety The dimension I care about most as a former operator. I look at the condition of the wrap material and the mitters, whether grit is being carried between cars, how the pre-soak and lubrication are set, and whether the brushes are actually being washed down between vehicles. Worn or dirty wrap material is what puts swirl marks in paint — not the concept of soft-touch itself. ### Dry & Finish How much water is left on the car at the exit, and where. Blower placement, air volume, and whether the drying agent is dosed correctly all show up here. Standing water in the door jambs and mirror housings in February is how you get frozen doors, so this matters more in the Chicago area than it does in a dry climate. ### Vacuums & Amenities Free vacuums and whether they actually pull, mat clamps, towel stations, air guns, bay lighting, and how many stalls are working versus taped off. An amenity that exists on the sign but not in practice does not count. ### Value & Membership Math The break-even math, spelled out. What a single wash costs, what the entry unlimited plan costs, and how many washes a month you need for the membership to pay for itself. In salt season that break-even is easy to hit; in July it usually is not, which is why the number matters more than the price. ### Operation & Upkeep The things that tell you how a site is run: equipment upkeep, whether the attendants are prepping cars or standing around, signage that matches the actual menu, how the queue is managed at peak, and whether the place looks maintained or merely open. ## Contact Naveed Kakal · naveed.kakal@gmail.com · [Contact page](https://napervillecarwashes.com/contact/) · https://www.linkedin.com/in/naveed-kakal-b7416417/