Auto Repair Shop Feasibility Study in the Charleston-North Charleston, SC Metro Area
What SBA's own loan files show about automotive mechanical repair (car and truck) lending in the Charleston-North Charleston, SC Metro Area, and what a feasibility study for a project there has to test.
Automotive repair around Charleston
In the Charleston-North Charleston, SC metro area, automotive mechanical repair (the car and truck shop) is the class placed 4 of 39, and the area is 56 of 660 nationally. SBA approved 35 loans worth $22.3 million in the FY2017 to FY2026 span. A location quotient of 1.49x shows repair shops holding a bigger part of Charleston-area loans than of loans nationwide, with a median loan of $500,000 is 2.13x the class's national median, the figure on this page that most separates a Charleston-area shop loan from a typical one elsewhere.
Loan sizes, programs and holders
The middle half of loans reaches from $150,000 to $748,000, the span from a bay equipment package to the purchase of a building with a lot. The 35 loans do not appear: SBA 7(a) holds 30 and SBA 504 holds 5. A franchise brand attaches to 14.3% of the loans. Charleston County, SC records 24. Pinnacle Bank (TN) is recorded by SBA with 7 SBA 7(a) loans at present, worth $5.8 million, and the entry reflects holdings, nothing more.
Five years print. FY2018 shows 0 loans and $0, and so does FY2023, so no loan was approved in either. FY2020 shows 8 loans and $5.6 million, FY2025 shows 9 loans and $4.4 million, and FY2026 shows 6 loans and $6.8 million, a complete year. Unlisted years have counts that are too low to publish, a different thing from none. The cohort for cancellations and charge-offs has fewer than 30 loans, so Loan Analytics prints neither rate. The county of each project, read on the OMB list of July 2023, decides which loans belong to Charleston.
Testing a repair-shop project
A study should test the bay count against the vehicles a realistic service area can supply, the technician labour that fills those bays, and the mix of routine and heavy work. With a median loan of $500,000, many of these loans carry real property, so the appraisal should separate the land and building from the business. Coverage of the debt payment should include the owner's pay and survive a slow quarter. Test environmental risk at the site too, because fuel, oil and solvents are part of the use. A lender will also ask how the shop keeps its technicians.
SBA automotive mechanical repair (car and truck) loans in the Charleston-North Charleston, SC Metro Area
| Loans approved, FY2017 to FY2026 | 35 |
|---|---|
| Gross dollars approved | $22.3 million |
| Median loan | $500,000 |
| Middle half of loans, from | $150,000 |
| Middle half of loans, to | $748,000 |
| SBA 7(a) loans | 30 |
| SBA 504 loans | 5 |
| Franchise share of loans | 14.3% |
| Rank among metro and micro areas for automotive mechanical repair (car and truck) loans | 56 of 660 |
| Rank of automotive mechanical repair (car and truck) among the classes in this area | 4 of 39 |
| Location quotient (share of loans against the national share) | 1.49x |
| Median loan against the national median for the class | 2.13x |
Cancellation and charge-off
| Cancelled after approval, FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor) | not reported: fewer than 30 loans in the cohort |
|---|---|
| Charged off to date, FY2017 to FY2021 disbursed loans (a floor) | not reported: fewer than 30 loans in the cohort |
Both rates are floors. SBA withholds the status of open loans, so a loan counts as charged off only once SBA reports it; a rate needs at least 30 loans in its cohort and is otherwise not reported.
SBA automotive mechanical repair (car and truck) loans approved in the Charleston-North Charleston, SC Metro Area, by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| FY2017 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2018 | 0 | $0 |
| FY2019 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2020 | 8 | $5.6 million |
| FY2021 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2022 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2023 | 0 | $0 |
| FY2024 | withheld | withheld |
| FY2025 | 9 | $4.4 million |
| FY2026 | 6 | $6.8 million |
Most active SBA lenders
| Lender | Loans | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| Pinnacle Bank (TN) | 7 | $5.8 million |
Lenders with 5 or more loans here; a lender with fewer is not listed, and loans SBA or a receiver holds are counted but never listed as a lender.
Where the loans are, by county
| County | Loans |
|---|---|
| Charleston County, SC | 24 |
Counties with 5 or more loans; smaller ones are not listed.
Metro is the CBSA (metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area) of the loan's project county, July 2023 delineation (OMB Bulletin 23-01). The county is matched by name (manifests/ld2/county-cbsa-map.csv); a loan whose county cannot be placed in a 2023 CBSA is left out of every metro.
Truck service cannot be separated from car repair. Not in this class: body, paint and interior 811121, glass 811122, oil change 811191 and all other automotive repair 811198.
Shared code: Truck repair shops are indexed to 811111 with car repair.
A value marked withheld rests on fewer than 5 loans, or is withheld so that such a figure cannot be derived from other published figures.
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) and 504 loan-level FOIA files (data.sba.gov), as of 2026-09-30; areas from the U.S. Census Bureau CBSA delineation, July 2023 (OMB Bulletin 23-01); Loan Analytics metro cell MA-16700-C28.
Related feasibility study pages
- Feasibility studies for automotive repair projects
- Feasibility Study Data for the Charleston-North Charleston, SC Metro Area
- Auto Repair Shop Feasibility Study in South Carolina
- South Carolina feasibility studies for SBA and USDA loans
- Feasibility Study Data by Metro Area
- SBA feasibility study company
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Loan Analytics prepares the feasibility study a lender reads before it commits: for a automotive mechanical repair (car and truck) project in the Charleston-North Charleston, SC Metro Area, financed under SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA Business and Industry or a conventional bank loan. Tell us the project and the lender's deadline, and we reply with scope, timeline and fee.
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