Auto Repair Shop Feasibility Study in Oklahoma

Where repair shops rank in Oklahoma

Oklahoma places car and truck mechanical repair 4 of 39 among its asset classes, one of the state's most frequent SBA borrowers, and its location quotient of 1.09x puts the class slightly ahead of its national weight. Across states the cell is mid-table: 103 approvals worth $43.7 million from FY2017 to FY2026, ranking 30 of 51. At $280,000, the median Oklahoma repair loan is 1.19x the class median nationwide. None of the three measures we test (typical loan size, the floor on cancellations, the floor on charge-offs) sits far enough from Oklahoma's all-class record and from repair shops nationally to count as distinct, so this page earns its keep through the outcome figures, which a lender should read closely.

Outcomes that call for caution

Cancellation after approval reached at least 18.6% for Oklahoma shops approved from FY2017 to FY2024, and the ceiling is identical, since nothing in the cohort is still undisbursed. Of the 38 Oklahoma loans disbursed over FY2017 to FY2021, 7.9% have been charged off, every one of them within five years of approval. For a borrower that is a reminder that a large share of approved Oklahoma repair deals never proceeded as approved; for a lender it says the failures came early, within five years of approval. Both rates are floors.

Who finances Oklahoma shops

SBA 7(a) dominates with 97 loans; SBA 504 has 6. The middle half of Oklahoma approvals sits between $107,550 and $559,500. Franchised shops take 12.6% of loans. BancFirst leads with 17 loans worth $5.0 million; First Oklahoma Bank and Arvest Bank have 10 each, and the $7.3 million total at the first of those two banks points to larger tickets. Legacy Bank's 6 loans total $473,300, and Armstrong Bank holds 5. Tulsa County has 24 approvals and Oklahoma County 17, with Canadian at 9. Volume swings from year to year: 16 loans in FY2020, 17 worth $8.3 million in FY2022, then 7 in FY2023.

Given an early charge-off floor of 7.9%, a feasibility study for an Oklahoma repair shop has to work hardest on the first operating years. It should measure vehicle counts and competing shops in the trade area, price technician labour and lift and diagnostic equipment honestly, and carry debt service coverage through a slow first year rather than only a stabilised one. Where real estate is included, the appraisal must support the loan on the property, because a struggling business sells for little.

One limit applies to every figure: Oklahoma truck service is coded together with car repair, so the two cannot be pulled apart. Shops doing body, paint or interior work, auto glass, oil change lanes and any other automotive repair carry codes of their own and fall outside this count.