Wash and Roll
From Transformers Wiki
If your car is dirty, you can take it to Wash and Roll, an automated drive-through car wash. You may not remember the experience, however.
Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
Devised as part of a nefarious scheme by Ratbat, Wash and Roll car wash franchises were sold prefabricated and set up at a number of locations—including S. Witwicky Auto Repair—as a front for a gas-siphoning operation. The car wash's flashing lights and blaring music made it an entrancing experience for customers, drawing in huge amounts of business. But humans who drove their cars through the Wash and Roll were literally hypnotized by the flashing lights of the car wash's stroboscopic opticon. The hypnotized humans were compelled to drive to a Blackrock Industries facility at night and drain their vehicle's gasoline into the Decepticons' storage tanks.
An initial trial proved only partially successful; the humans were hypnotized, but the effect wore off after only one fill-up and siphoning. Ratbat promised that the improved Wash and Roll II would keep the humans under his control forever!
The scheme was undone when Buster Witwicky made it through a Wash and Roll un-hypnotized because he had been distracted and didn't see the flashing lights. Smashing the car wash's huge electric sign produced a flash which likewise de-hypnotized the other hypnotized humans; they then drove off Ratbat and Laserbeak, who had been overseeing the operation. G.B. Blackrock himself had also been hypnotized into collaborating with the Decepticons in this scheme, but, once freed, promised to use the stolen gasoline profits to aid the poor of the Pacific Northwest. Buster Witwicky and the Car Wash of Doom
Robo-Vision bios
The Wash & Roll was located near the Witwicky home.
After arriving on Earth and adopting his disguise, Signal Flare secretly acquired an unspecified position at the Wash & Roll. It is unknown what role a maser tank could fulfill at a car wash without raising suspicion. Regardless, his fellow Autobots were aware of his location, and came to him when they need repairs or refills. Movie Signal Flare Robo-Vision bio
