Automotive Franchise Statistics: Dealers, Repair Shops, SBA Loans and FDDs

How to read the automotive brand registry

The registry lists 90 SBA franchise identifier codes whose 7(a) and 504 loans from FY2020 to June 30, 2026 were mostly in automotive service industries (NAICS 8111xx and tire dealers). Each row gives the brand as SBA printed it, the main NAICS code of its loans, the loan count, the date of the latest automotive loan, whether the code is on the SBA Franchise Directory dated September 29, 2026, and a link to the brand’s Minnesota FDD when the brand is in this site’s 259-FDD sample.

The 90 codes carry 1,252 automotive service loans (SBA FOIA files as of June 30, 2026). The 10 largest codes hold 56.0% of those loans. 28 codes have 10 or more loans. 44 of the 90 codes (48.9%) appear on the September 29, 2026 Directory; 12 match a brand in the FDD sample.

The registry states counts only. It does not show loan outcomes, defaults or charge-offs for any brand, and it never reads borrower names. A loan count reflects lender coding and brand size, not brand quality. Car dealer codes are kept out of this list and covered in the next section. Code-level CSVs are in the downloads.

Car dealerships vs automotive service: two different franchise systems

New car dealerships are franchised under manufacturer dealer agreements and state motor vehicle dealer laws, a separate legal regime from the business-format franchises sold through an FDD. The federal Automobile Dealers’ Day in Court Act (15 U.S.C. 1221) defines a franchise as the written agreement between an automobile manufacturer and a dealer. Florida’s dealer law (Fla. Stat. 320.60) defines a franchise agreement as the contract that lets a dealer sell a line-make. California runs a separate New Motor Vehicle Board for dealer and manufacturer disputes. This site’s franchise relationship laws tracker covers business-format franchise laws and leaves dealer statutes out of scope.

The 2017 Economic Census counted 21,637 new car dealer establishments in the US and tabulated all of them (100%) as franchisee-owned (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 Economic Census (EC1700FRAN)). Census reported the same 100% in 2007 and 2012. In 2012, establishments that answered the franchise question covered 64.4% of new car dealer sales, so the 100% figure cannot rest on survey answers alone; the Census sources reviewed here do not explain the classification. Used car dealers are the opposite case: 809 of 25,480 establishments (3.2%) were franchised in 2017.

NADA, the dealer trade association, counted 16,991 franchised light-vehicle dealers in the first half of 2026 (NADA Data). NADA counts dealers, while Census counts establishments with paid employees in NAICS 441110 in 2017, so the two totals are not comparable.

The Annual Business Survey uses a firm-level question and a wider industry code. In data year 2023 (2024 ABS), 31.6% of reporting automobile dealer firms (NAICS 4411, new and used together) said all or part of the business operated as a franchise (standard error 2.9), and those firms held 58.9% of the industry’s employment (Census ABS AB2300CSCB01). The ABS code combines new and used dealers and counts firms, not establishments, so its share is not comparable with the Economic Census figure.

SBA lending follows the same split. From FY2020 to June 30, 2026, 63.7% of SBA loans to new car dealers carried a franchise code, against 0.5% for used car dealers (SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA files as of 2026-06-30). The codes are manufacturer dealer agreements: 22 codes carried 244 dealer loans. All 22 were listed on the SBA Franchise Directory effective March 31, 2022; none of them appears on the Directory dated September 29, 2026, yet 7.8% of car dealer loans in FY2026 still carried a franchise code. SBA has not published a reason in the sources reviewed here.

Automotive franchise statistics by industry: franchised share by NAICS code

Automotive service is mostly independent. In 2017, 15,732 of 182,561 automotive service establishments (8.6%) were franchised, counting the nine automotive repair and maintenance codes (8111xx) plus tire dealers (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 Economic Census (EC1700FRAN)). That left 166,829 establishments without a franchise.

Oil change and lubrication shops are the exception. 4,581 of 8,258 oil change establishments (55.5%) were franchised in 2017, up from 43.1% in 2007. Oil change shops were 29.1% of all franchised automotive service establishments. Transmission repair was next at 20.1%, then exhaust repair at 13.5%.

Car washes do not fit the planned angle. 504 of 16,381 car wash establishments (3.1%) were franchised in 2017, the lowest share of the ten service codes, and the share fell from 5.6% in 2007. General automotive repair, the largest code with 82,749 establishments, was 6.4% franchised.

Industry trackers use wider definitions. FRANdata, writing for the IFA in August 2026, counted more than 130 active franchised automotive brands operating more than 19,100 units from 2023 to 2025, in a category that also includes gas stations, parts retail and rentals (IFA Industry Spotlight: Automotive). Those are brand unit counts, not Census establishments, and the two should not be divided into each other.

These are the latest establishment counts by franchise status. The 2022 Economic Census release schedule lists no US franchise table, only a Puerto Rico retail table (Census 2022 release schedule), even though Census said in 2021 that it planned to keep publishing franchise data. The 2017 file covers employer establishments only, so shops without employees are not counted.

Franchised vs independent automotive shops: size per establishment

Franchised automotive service establishments were larger on average in 2017. They reported $997,139 in receipts per establishment against $797,575 for non-franchised establishments, a ratio of 1.25 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 Economic Census (EC1700FRAN)). They averaged 7.8 paid employees against 5.7.

The gap varies by code. Franchised general repair shops took in 1.61 times the receipts of independent general repair shops, and oil change franchises 1.43 times. Franchised car washes (0.90) and glass shops (0.58) took in less per establishment than independents.

Payroll per employee runs the other way in total: $34,648 at franchised establishments against $36,452 at the rest, because the franchised group is weighted toward oil change shops, where payroll per employee was $23,754. These are 2017 nominal dollars of receipts, not profit, and they compare averages across mixed business models.

Firm-level data from the ABS points the same way. In data year 2023, franchise automotive repair firms (NAICS 8111) averaged 20.3 employees against 8.0 at non-franchise firms (Census ABS 2023). The franchise vs independent business report runs the same comparison across all industries.

Recent firm-level data: franchise share of automotive repair firms, 2020 to 2023

The Annual Business Survey is the only Census source with franchise status after 2017. It counts firms, not establishments, and publishes the franchise question to 4-digit NAICS from data year 2020. The share of reporting automotive repair and maintenance firms (NAICS 8111) operating all or partly as a franchise was 4.7% in 2020, 5.2% in 2021, 4.5% in 2022 and 4.6% in 2023 (Census ABS).

Standard errors are about half a percentage point (2023: 0.5), so the series is flat within sampling error. Automotive parts, accessories and tire stores (NAICS 4413) were 10.9% franchised in 2023. ABS year labels follow Census practice: data year 2023 was collected in the 2024 ABS.

SBA lending to automotive franchises by sub-sector and year

From FY2020 to June 30, 2026, SBA approved 14,909 7(a) and 504 loans to automotive service businesses (SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA files as of 2026-06-30). 1,332 of them (8.9%) carried a franchise code, for $1,072,266,800 in approvals. The median franchise-coded automotive service loan was $468,000, against $299,100 for loans without a code.

Oil change concepts have the highest coded share: 44.0% of 516 oil change loans. Car washes have the lowest: 3.7% of 2,465 loans, although the median coded car wash loan was $1,728,000. Start-ups made up 38.6% of coded automotive service loans against 12.0% of loans without a code.

The share of SBA franchise lending going to automotive service did not rise. Automotive service took 3.36% of all franchise-coded SBA loans in FY2020 and 2.18% in FY2026 (October 2025 to June 2026). Oil change fell from 0.53% to 0.35% and car washes from 0.20% to 0.05%.

The franchise code depends on the SBA Franchise Directory, which SBA removed by a rule effective May 11, 2023 and reinstated in SOP 50 10 8 from June 1, 2025. The coded share of automotive service loans was 11.8% before removal, 4.7% from October 2023 to February 2025, and 8.3% after reinstatement. For all industries the same windows read 13.6%, 7.8% and 13.2%, so automotive service coding has recovered less than the average. The SBA Franchise Directory report and the SBA franchise loans report cover the program-wide data.

What automotive FDDs look like: 17 FDDs vs the 259-FDD sample

This site’s sample of 259 Minnesota-registered FDDs, one per brand, includes 17 automotive FDDs issued from March 21, 2025 to May 25, 2026; 6 were issued in 2026. Twelve are service concepts (repair, oil change, collision, tint, wheel repair); the rest are rental, truck leasing and parts distribution. Nothing here re-reads an FDD: the figures come from the published datasets behind the initial investment and other FDD reports.

Automotive FDDs sit near the sample median on entry fees and royalties: a median initial fee of $45,000 against $49,500 and a median royalty of 6% of sales for both. The high end of the Item 7 range is wider: the median Item 7 high estimate is $940,050 against $573,000 for all 259 FDDs, ranked 4 of 14 sectors.

Agreements run long and systems grow slowly. The median initial term is 15 years against 10 for the sample. Median openings were 3.9% of franchised outlets against 8.9%, ranked 13 of 14 sectors. The median fixed-dollar transfer fee, $7,500, is the lowest of the 14 sectors. 35.3% of automotive FDDs require the owner to work full time, against 23.2% of all 259.

Item 7 figures are the franchisor’s estimates of the initial investment, not quotes. This report makes no statement about earnings; see Item 19 of each FDD. The franchise costs guide explains how to read Item 7 and Item 6.

Update log and data release calendar

2026-10-09: first edition. SBA FOIA loan files as of June 30, 2026 (posted July 21, 2026). SBA Franchise Directory dated September 29, 2026. Economic Census 2017, 2012 and 2007 franchise files. ABS data years 2020 to 2023. FDD sample datasets as published on this site.

Next checks: the SBA FOIA file as of September 30, 2026, then each quarterly file; the SBA Franchise Directory monthly, for registry status; and Census’s 2024 Annual Business Survey release listed for December 3, 2026, for any new franchise tables. No newer Economic Census franchise table is scheduled.