SBA 7(a) Auto Repair Shop Feasibility Study in New York

Small shops and a heavier loss record

New York mechanical repair under 7(a) is a cell of small loans and visible losses. SBA approved 493 loans between FY2017 and FY2026, worth $140.8 million, which makes the state fourth in the country for the class; repair sits seventh in the New York class table of 39. A median of $75,000 comes to 0.42x of the nationwide 7(a) figure, and loans in the central band are priced from $28,000 to $250,000. The scale suggests leased garages and equipment purchases more than owned buildings.

What the floors show

This is where the cell parts company from its parents. Cancellation reached 15.8% of approvals dated FY2017 to FY2024, and 16.0% with undisbursed loans counted. Among the 205 loans that funded in FY2017 through FY2021, 8.3% stand charged off now and 3.9% had been written off inside five years of approval. Those percentages are floors, because open loans can still fail, and they are the number a lender should hold next to the small loan size when thinking about how much a shop can carry.

Lenders, counties and the trend

Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company has 105 of the loans and TD Bank, National Association 97, trailed by Five Star Bank with 25 and ESL FCU with 21. The names reflect who SBA shows as holder today and make no statement about any bank's standards. Suffolk County has the largest count, at 74, ahead of Monroe at 42, Nassau at 40, Queens at 35 and Erie at 33, so the shops are on Long Island and upstate more than in the city's own boroughs. Annual volume sat near 40 loans for several years, then jumped to 74 loans in FY2025 and fell to 51 in FY2026.

Where the code stops

Heavy-truck service shares a code with car repair, so those garages are inside the figures above. Collision, glazing, oil-change and miscellaneous repair work are filed in other classes, and a project of that kind needs other pages.

What a New York repair shop study has to test

Start with the vehicles within the shop's reach and the competing garages, then the labour: technicians are scarce and wages shape the margin. The study should show billable hours for each bay, the parts margin and how much work comes back, and it should compare a loan near the median with the cost of the lease, tools and a scan tool upgrade. Because losses here are more visible than for many classes, the repayment test should be run on a slow year and on the loss of a lead technician. If the project includes real estate, the appraisal must reflect a repair building's narrow alternative uses.