Business Data & Benchmarks · United States

Specialized Auto Repair Shop Revenue Benchmark

A specialized auto repair shop focuses on one mechanical or electrical system, such as transmissions, exhaust and mufflers, brakes, radiators, air conditioning or engine rebuilding, and earns from labor charges and the parts it installs. Depth in a narrow field, referral relationships with general shops and equipment for that specialty set it apart from a general mechanic.

NAICS 811114, 2022 editionUnited States data by defaultSources and dates shown

Average Specialized Auto Repair Shop Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every specialized automotive repair shop with paid employees, including transmission, exhaust, brake, radiator and engine specialists, and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of shops gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$735,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

8,042

Employer establishments in the United States, 2022

as published $5.9 billion

Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022

How this is calculated: about $5.9 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 8,042 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $735,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Specialized Automotive Repair, NAICS 811114. The category covers shops that specialize in one mechanical or electrical system, such as transmission, exhaust, brake, radiator or engine work. General repair shops, body shops, glass shops and oil change shops are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 8111: 811111 General Automotive Repair; 811121 Automotive Body, Paint, and Interior Repair and Maintenance; 811122 Automotive Glass Replacement Shops, and 3 further codes. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Industry group

Automotive repair and maintenance, NAICS 8111, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

59.2%the year-five count as a share of the starting count

Five-year establishment continuation benchmarkLine chart of industry continuation: 80.0 percent at 1 year, 71.5 percent at 2 years, 66.9 percent at 3 years, 62.9 percent at 4 years, 59.2 percent at 5 years. 9,880 establishments first reported paid employment in 2018; BusinessNES calculation from Census BDS.100%75%50%25%0%2014-2018 cohort range: 57.3 to 60.2 percentStart: 100 percent, the starting count1 year: 80.0 percent of the starting count2 years: 71.5 percent of the starting count3 years: 66.9 percent of the starting count4 years: 62.9 percent of the starting count5 years: 59.2 percent of the starting count80.071.566.962.959.2Start1 year2 years3 years4 years5 years9,880 establishments first reported paid employment in 2018; BusinessNES calculation from Census BDS.
Five years on, this industry group counted about 59 establishments aged five for every 100 that first reported paid employment in 2018. Census compares counts by age rather than following the same businesses, so read it as a broad continuation indicator for the industry group, not as a tracked survival rate.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 57.3 to 60.2 percent. This benchmark covers Automotive repair and maintenance, NAICS 8111, as a whole, and this category accounts for 8,042 of the 167,855 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

MeasureValue
Annual payroll share of receipts, United States≈26%

Payroll share of receipts, Specialized Automotive Repair, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 26.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a modest share for a service trade because parts such as transmissions, exhaust systems and brake components make up a large part of what customers pay for.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and the census does not publish the cost of parts or the rent on a shop with lifts and bays, so nothing on this page shows what a shop keeps.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

MeasureValue
Paid employees per employer establishment4.2
Employer establishments per firm1.04

Scale and ownership, Specialized Automotive Repair, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 4.2 people, and the industry counted 1.0 employer establishments per firm. A specialty shop runs with a small team of technicians and a service writer, and the establishments per firm figure shows a trade made up almost entirely of single-location independents, with a few franchise chains counted as separate establishments.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

Explore More on BusinessNES

Neighbouring benchmark pages built from the same verified data, plus BusinessNES guides on the same subject.

Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Specialized Auto Repair Shop: what separates a transmission specialist from a general mechanic in the numbers.

Before you rely on this benchmark

  • Which specialty does the shop practice? Transmission rebuilding, exhaust work, brake service and engine repair share this category but differ in ticket size, parts cost and equipment. A muffler shop and a transmission shop can report similar receipts while running on completely different labor and parts ratios.
  • Where do the jobs come from? Many specialty shops receive referrals from general repair shops, dealerships and fleets that do not do the work in-house, and those relationships can supply a large share of the volume. A shop's referral network is a business asset no census table records.
  • Franchise or independent? Franchised specialty chains bring national advertising, warranties and supplier pricing in exchange for fees and royalties, while independents keep their revenue but carry their own marketing. Both appear here, and the fee structure changes what an operator keeps.
  • How much revenue is parts? A rebuilt transmission or a full exhaust system carries a large parts value through the invoice, while a brake job is mostly labor. The parts share decides how much of the revenue figure is real shop margin rather than pass-through.
  • What equipment does the specialty demand? Diagnostic tools, lifts, dynamometers, welding gear and specialty presses represent capital that a general shop may not need, and they must be paid for whether the bays are full or empty. That investment is invisible in an annual revenue average.
  • Who carries the warranty risk? Comeback work on a failed rebuild is expensive, and warranty terms decide whether the shop, the parts supplier or a franchise system absorbs it. The cost of redoing jobs sits outside receipts entirely.

Sources and Methodology

Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.

The Census counts employer establishments, meaning each shop with paid staff. A mechanic working alone is not counted, and general repair shops, body shops and oil change shops are counted in separate categories.