This is Sione’s story.
How to sell an auto repair business at the right time, to the right buyer, for the right price is the question Sione Lavaka had been carrying for almost a year before he finally picked up the phone. When the right time came, he called CGK Business Sales. Sione ran a four-shop auto repair chain across Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on Old Fort Parkway, Memorial Boulevard, Northwest Broad Street, and Salem Highway, in the Nashville south metro corridor running from Smyrna down through La Vergne into Rutherford County. The four locations together did $4.8 million in annual revenue and roughly $1.2 million in EBITDA, with twenty-eight W-2 employees moving across the bays each week: Sione plus three shop managers, sixteen ASE-certified technicians (three of them EV-certified), four service writers, three parts and inventory leads, and a single shared bookkeeper. The business ran 50 percent on general mechanical (brakes, suspension, engines, transmissions, oil and filter, scheduled maintenance), 25 percent on electrical and computer diagnostic work (the kind of OBD-II and module-level diagnostic work that smaller shops in Murfreesboro routinely refer out), 15 percent on EV and hybrid service (Sione had built a three-tech EV-certified bench between 2022 and 2024 with the equipment installed across two of the four shops), and the remaining 10 percent on tire and alignment work. Approximately fourteen thousand retail customer households across Murfreesboro, Smyrna, La Vergne, Eagleville, and the broader Rutherford County corridor were on the active customer roster, plus a Rutherford County government fleet contract and a Nissan Smyrna supplier company fleet contract that gave the chain a recurring B2B revenue base. Thirty-eight percent of revenue was repeat-customer revenue. Google rated the chain 4.7 stars across more than 1,800 reviews. Sione was 49. He had been building the business for sixteen years, all four shops carried ASE Blue Seal of Excellence recognition, every shop was an AAA Approved Auto Repair facility, and the shops ran on Mitchell 1 and ProDemand. His son Mosese, the obvious successor, had just accepted a Tesla manufacturing engineer role in Austin instead of taking over the practice. His wife Filolesi was a Murfreesboro elementary teacher. He came to us in mid-2025 because he did not know who else to talk to about how to sell an auto repair business at this size, with this EV bench, with two recurring fleet contracts, and with a lead technician (Tevita) who was ready to stay through the transition. This page is what happened next, and what could happen for you. Sione is a composite, not a single real CGK seller, but the patterns and details are pulled from real auto repair engagements.
The night before Sione decided to sell an auto repair business.
Most owners who decide to sell an auto repair business have been carrying the question quietly for a year or more before they reach for the phone. Sione was no different. He was 49. For sixteen years he had been the licensed operator of record across all four Murfreesboro shops, the founder who had personally signed each of the four leases between 2009 (Old Fort Parkway, the original storefront) and 2019 (Salem Highway, the fourth location), the lead operator on every Mitchell 1 management-system rollout, the relationship lead on the Rutherford County government fleet contract and the Nissan Smyrna supplier company fleet contract, and the after-hours phone line for any customer whose check engine light came on at 9:00 p.m. on a Sunday. The chain did $4.8 million in annual revenue across the four shops, roughly $1.2 million in EBITDA at the upper end of multi-shop independent auto repair norms (driven by the EV-certified bench, the AAA Approved status, and the two recurring fleet contracts), and twenty-eight W-2 employees including three shop managers (Tevita Fifita, age 41, lead technician and Old Fort Parkway shop manager; Marcus Boudreaux, age 38, Memorial Boulevard shop manager; Jamal Reeves, age 36, shared Northwest Broad Street and Salem Highway shop manager), sixteen ASE-certified technicians (three of whom held EV certification across the bench), four service writers running customer intake across the four locations, three parts and inventory leads, a shared bookkeeper, and a single shared receptionist who routed across the chain phone tree. The chain served roughly fourteen thousand active retail customer households across Murfreesboro, Smyrna, La Vergne, Eagleville, and the broader Rutherford County corridor, plus the Rutherford County government fleet contract (covering roughly 180 county vehicles serviced on a defined-rotation maintenance cadence) and the Nissan Smyrna supplier company fleet contract (covering roughly 120 vehicles for a Tier-1 supplier serving the Nissan Smyrna assembly plant just north of Murfreesboro). All four shops carried ASE Blue Seal of Excellence recognition, all four were AAA Approved Auto Repair facilities, the chain ran on Mitchell 1 management software with ProDemand for repair information, and the EV-capable bench had its equipment installed between 2022 and 2024 across the Old Fort Parkway and Memorial Boulevard locations.
Why owners decide to sell an auto repair business
The Friday Sione finally submitted the form, his wife Filolesi had been at his shoulder reading him the printed search results from her phone. Filolesi was a Murfreesboro elementary teacher, a Tongan-American who had grown up in Salt Lake City before moving to Tennessee with Sione in 2007 when the first shop was a written-on-a-napkin idea, and she had been the one keeping the house running for sixteen years while Sione was at one shop or another six days a week. Their son Mosese was 23, a Vanderbilt mechanical engineering graduate, and had just accepted a Tesla manufacturing engineer role in Austin. Sione had hoped Mosese would come back and take over the chain. Mosese chose Tesla. Sione understood why. Their younger daughter Sela was 17 and headed to Middle Tennessee State for nursing in the fall. Sione was on the lay leadership at the local Tongan Methodist congregation, and he wanted to expand the men’s mentorship work he had been doing on Saturdays with first-generation Pacific Islander young men in the Murfreesboro and Smyrna corridor. He wanted to be in his church work, in his mentorship work, and at home with Filolesi while Sela was still in town. Tevita Fifita, the lead technician and Old Fort Parkway shop manager, had been with Sione for twelve years and was committed to staying on post-close if the buyer ran the chain in a way that kept the four-shop bench together. Marcus Boudreaux had been seven years and ran Memorial Boulevard. Jamal Reeves had been five years and ran Northwest Broad Street and Salem Highway. All three of the shop managers were ready to keep operating. Sione had been approached fourteen times in the prior eighteen months: six times by PE-backed auto repair consolidators headquartered out of Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, and a few national platforms, four times by regional independent auto repair chains expanding into the Nashville south metro, twice by national auto repair franchise development reps trying to bring his shops under their banner, and twice by individual mechanic-buyers in their late thirties trying to put together SBA-financed acquisitions. Sione did not know what his chain was actually worth at $4.8 million revenue and $1.2 million EBITDA, with the EV-certified bench, the ASE Blue Seal recognition across all four shops, the AAA Approved Auto Repair status, the 4.7-star Google rating across 1,800-plus reviews, the 38 percent repeat-customer revenue, and the two recurring fleet contracts. He did not know whether the firms calling him were the right buyers for Tevita, Marcus, Jamal, his sixteen technicians, his four service writers, or his three parts and inventory leads. He did not know whether the EV bench was a value driver, a buyer-friction point, or a wash. He did not have a single peer in his life who had ever sold an auto repair business at this size, with this EV exposure, with two recurring fleet contracts.
That is the night he found CGK and submitted the form. We called him back at 7:42 the next morning, while Sione was at the Old Fort Parkway shop opening the bay doors for the 8:00 a.m. retail rush.
The first call about how to sell an auto repair business.
The first call was 51 minutes. We did most of the listening.
Owners who think about how to sell an auto repair business in their late forties, like Sione, usually carry the same handful of pressures into the first call. Sione talked about Tevita Fifita and the way Tevita had been the practical operator of the Old Fort Parkway flagship since 2013. He talked about Marcus Boudreaux running Memorial Boulevard since 2018 and the way Marcus had been the one to push the chain into deeper electrical and computer diagnostic work after the Nissan Smyrna supplier fleet contract came on. He talked about Jamal Reeves running Northwest Broad Street and Salem Highway since 2020 and the way Jamal carried both the Salem Highway tire and alignment book and the Northwest Broad Street general-mechanical day-to-day. He talked about the sixteen ASE-certified technicians (three of whom were EV-certified, with the certifications and the equipment installed between 2022 and 2024 across the Old Fort Parkway and Memorial Boulevard locations). He talked about the four service writers and the way the front-counter rhythm at each of the four shops was different. He talked about the Rutherford County government fleet contract that had been signed in 2017 and renewed every two years since, the Nissan Smyrna supplier company fleet contract that had come on in 2020 with a Tier-1 supplier serving the Nissan plant just north of town, the ASE Blue Seal of Excellence recognition each of the four shops carried, the AAA Approved Auto Repair status, the Mitchell 1 management software the chain had been on since 2014, and the ProDemand repair-information subscription. He talked about the lay leadership work at the local Tongan Methodist congregation, the men’s mentorship work he had been doing on Saturdays with first-generation Pacific Islander young men in the Murfreesboro and Smyrna corridor, and the way the church and mentorship work was something he wanted to actually go do once the operating-day pressure was off him. He talked about Filolesi and the way she had been the steady voice telling him to slow down for the past eighteen months. He talked about his son Mosese taking the Tesla manufacturing engineer role in Austin and the way that had finally settled the succession question. We asked about the chain the way you would ask if you were trying to understand it, not the way you would ask if you were trying to win the engagement. What we were listening for was not just the financials. We were listening for whether Sione was actually ready to sell, what he was working toward, and whether his expectations on price were grounded in what the multi-shop auto repair M&A market would actually support.
At the end of that call, we set up a working session: an in-person conversation where one of our Managing Directors would walk Sione through our valuation model and tell him honestly what his auto repair business was likely to command. We did not promise him a written report. Written valuations involve substantially more work, and we charge for those when a seller actually needs one for partnership buyout, estate planning, a divorce, or another documentary purpose. The walkthrough was free because Sione was clearly thinking seriously about how to sell an auto repair business, the way someone thinks about it before they actually do it. Whether that ends up being in a year, five years, or longer, we make the same call.
The valuation session was the following Wednesday at 7:00 a.m. at the Old Fort Parkway shop, before the bay doors opened and after Tevita had finished his daily diagnostic-equipment calibration walk-through across the EV bench.
Sione was not ready to sell an auto repair business yet. He went home and waited four months.
The valuation session showed Sione that his auto repair business was worth meaningfully more than he had been hoping in some areas and meaningfully less in others, which is how these conversations usually go. The ASE Blue Seal of Excellence recognition across all four shops, the AAA Approved Auto Repair status across all four shops, the EV-capable bench (three EV-certified technicians with equipment installed between 2022 and 2024), the Rutherford County government fleet contract, the Nissan Smyrna supplier company fleet contract, the 4.7-star Google rating across 1,800-plus reviews, the 38 percent repeat-customer revenue, the sixteen-year operating history under a single founder, and the diversified four-shop footprint were all premium-multiple drivers a sophisticated PE-backed auto repair consolidator would pay up for. Three issues, though, were dragging the number down. The first was the technician retention story. Sione had verbal stay arrangements with Tevita, Marcus, and Jamal but nothing on paper, and a sophisticated buyer’s diligence team was going to underwrite the technician bench (especially the three EV-certified techs and the three shop managers) as a transition-risk factor unless the chain went to market with formal multi-year retention agreements in place. The second was the fleet contract documentation. Both fleet contracts had renewal mechanics that the buyer’s diligence team would want to see formalized with explicit change-of-control language so the recurring B2B revenue would not be exposed to a counterparty walk-away inside the first twelve months post-close. The third was the per-shop financial breakout. The chain ran a single consolidated P&L through the bookkeeper, but a sophisticated multi-shop auto repair consolidator buyer would want shop-by-shop revenue, gross margin, technician productivity, and customer-retention breakouts so the underwriter could see which of the four shops was carrying which of the others.
We told Sione honestly: he could go to market now and accept the discount, or he could spend three to four months getting Tevita, Marcus, Jamal, and the three EV-certified technicians on documented multi-year retention agreements, formalizing change-of-control language on both the Rutherford County government fleet contract renewal cycle and the Nissan Smyrna supplier company fleet contract, and pulling the bookkeeper into shop-by-shop financial breakouts for the trailing thirty-six months. We said the second path would likely command a meaningfully better number from a wider range of buyers, especially a top-tier PE-backed auto repair consolidator running a long-hold thesis with central support and a satellite-brand preservation strategy. The realistic buyer pool for a $4.8 million revenue, $1.2 million EBITDA, four-shop, ASE Blue Seal and AAA Approved auto repair business with an EV bench and two recurring fleet contracts is wider than people think, but each band of buyer prices the same chain differently, and the cleaner the diligence file is the more buyers can compete. CGK is an active member of the International Business Brokers Association and the M&A Source, both of which give us deep visibility into the active auto repair buyer landscape, and we follow the trade through the Automotive Service Association and ASE certification standards.
This is the part most brokers skip. Most brokers would have signed Sione that day, taken him to market, and made the commission whether or not the deal was the best one for him. We told him to wait, even though it meant we did not get paid for four months and might never get paid at all if he changed his mind.
Sione went home and waited. He spent the next four months getting Tevita, Marcus, and Jamal on three-year retention agreements with formal stay arrangements, getting each of the three EV-certified technicians on two-year retention agreements with comp-step protections, walking the Rutherford County government fleet contract administrator through a renewal that included explicit change-of-control language, walking the Nissan Smyrna supplier fleet contract counterparty through the same conversation (both signed updated agreements with multi-year terms and change-of-control transferability), and pulling the bookkeeper into shop-by-shop revenue, gross margin, technician productivity, and customer-retention breakouts for the trailing thirty-six months across all four locations. He read background material on auto repair M&A through the Automotive Service Association and stayed close to the AAA Approved Auto Repair shop network resources while watching auto repair consolidator acquisition announcements in the trade press. He called us back in late 2025 and said he was ready to sell an auto repair business that was finally in the shape it needed to be in.
What we did when Sione came back.
What it takes to sell an auto repair business properly
When an owner is ready to sell an auto repair business with CGK, the speed of the on-ramp surprises them. We took Sione’s chain to market in just over five weeks once he got us his updated financials, the documented retention agreements with Tevita, Marcus, Jamal, and the three EV-certified technicians, the formalized change-of-control language on both the Rutherford County government fleet contract and the Nissan Smyrna supplier company fleet contract, the shop-by-shop revenue and gross margin and technician productivity and customer-retention breakouts for the trailing thirty-six months, the sub-mix breakouts (general mechanical, electrical and computer diagnostic, EV and hybrid service, tire and alignment), the customer-cohort analysis on the fourteen thousand active retail customer households, the equipment-and-leasehold-improvements schedule across all four shops (including the EV diagnostic and high-voltage equipment installed between 2022 and 2024), the Mitchell 1 and ProDemand subscription documentation, the ASE Blue Seal of Excellence recognition documentation across all four shops, the AAA Approved Auto Repair facility documentation, the lease terms on each of the four storefronts, and the full P&L breakouts across the four sub-segments. The blind teaser went out to thirty-six buyers we had pre-qualified, a tight funnel because the multi-shop auto repair M&A buyer pool is structurally concentrated at this size band. Buyers fell across four buckets we routinely use to think about how to sell an auto repair business: PE-backed multi-shop auto repair consolidators (active across Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, the Carolinas, and a few national platforms, typically running long-hold theses with central support and acquiring under original brand names), regional independent auto repair chains (privately held, often family-owned, expanding their state or multi-state footprint through targeted acquisitions and typically operating acquired shops under their original brand names with central wholesaler contracting and IT support), national auto repair franchise platforms (smaller band by deal volume but historically active on stronger-margin independents, typically rebranding under the franchise banner), and individual mechanic-buyers running SBA-financed or seller-note-financed acquisitions (the most active buyer pool by count but the smallest by check size, typically focused on single-shop independents under $1.5 million revenue rather than four-shop chains). Each bucket prices the same chain differently.
Twenty-six of the thirty-six buyers signed NDAs and received the full Confidential Information Memorandum. Fifteen submitted Indications of Interest after data-room review. Eight advanced to Letters of Intent. We narrowed to five for management presentations. Three re-submitted refined LOIs after the management meetings. Two went into a final-final negotiation cycle. One pulled out late in the cycle on a board approval timing question.
Sione decided between two of the top LOIs. They were materially different. One was a slightly lower headline price from a regional independent auto repair chain headquartered in Knoxville with about twenty-two locations across East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, around $42 million in annual revenue, and a satellite-brand preservation strategy where each acquired chain kept its existing brand. Under that LOI, the four Murfreesboro shops would keep their existing chain identity on the storefronts, the technician bench would stay together, and Sione would step back to a one-year transition consulting role at one day per week. The other was a higher headline price from a top-tier PE-backed auto repair consolidator running roughly $1.4 billion in revenue across more than 380 shops nationally, comparable in scale to a Sun Auto Tire and Service or a Christian Brothers Automotive franchisor adjacent or a Mavis Tire and Service tier of platform, with a long-hold thesis (the platform was in its second PE ownership cycle and had publicly disclosed an intent to hold for at least another five to seven years), and a satellite-brand preservation acquisition model where the consolidator routinely acquired regional chains under their original brand names with central wholesaler contracting, central insurance and warranty contracting, central IT, and central marketing infrastructure layered underneath. Under that LOI, the four Murfreesboro shops would keep their existing chain identity, the twenty-eight-person bench would stay at the four locations, Tevita Fifita would step into a Tennessee regional operations role with the consolidator while keeping his Old Fort Parkway responsibilities through a phased eighteen-month transition, Marcus Boudreaux would continue running Memorial Boulevard with an expanded electrical and computer diagnostic mandate that would route additional regional diagnostic traffic to his bay, Jamal Reeves would continue running Northwest Broad Street and Salem Highway, the three EV-certified technicians would continue under their existing comp structure with the consolidator absorbing the EV equipment service contracts, the four service writers and three parts and inventory leads would retain their roles and pay structure, the Rutherford County government fleet contract and the Nissan Smyrna supplier company fleet contract would transfer cleanly under the consolidator’s central B2B contracting umbrella with both counterparties having pre-signed change-of-control acknowledgements, the Mitchell 1 management software would be retained for at least the first eighteen months before any consolidation onto the consolidator’s enterprise stack, and Sione would step back to a two-year transition consulting role at one day per week with full freedom to spend the rest of his time on his Tongan Methodist church work. We walked Sione through what each LOI would actually deliver under realistic and pessimistic scenarios, including what the cultural continuity would look like for Tevita, Marcus, Jamal, the sixteen technicians, the four service writers, and the three parts and inventory leads under each acquisition structure. The PE-backed consolidator deal was the better one for Sione. The headline number was higher. The brand preservation kept the four storefronts the storefronts the customer households recognized. The Tennessee regional operations runway gave Tevita a path forward that none of the other LOIs offered. The EV bench was treated as a regional asset rather than as a one-off curiosity.
Through the whole process, the same CGK Managing Director who had taken Sione’s first call four months earlier was the person walking him through every conversation.
The deal Sione took to sell an auto repair business.
How the deal looks when you sell an auto repair business with CGK
This is the part of how to sell an auto repair business that gets the least attention in the trade press and the most attention from owners who have actually closed a transaction: the structure of the consideration package matters more than the headline number, and the structure for a four-shop auto repair business with an EV bench, two recurring fleet contracts, ASE Blue Seal recognition across all four shops, and AAA Approved Auto Repair status is a familiar pattern for a PE-backed auto repair consolidator running a long-hold thesis with a satellite-brand preservation acquisition model. Sione’s deal closed roughly six months after we restarted the engagement, the standard CGK auto repair window. The buyer was a top-tier PE-backed auto repair consolidator with roughly $1.4 billion in annual revenue across more than 380 shops nationally pre-acquisition, in its second PE ownership cycle with a publicly disclosed long-hold thesis through at least the next five to seven years, with a satellite-brand preservation acquisition model that routinely acquired regional chains under their original brand names with central wholesaler contracting, central insurance and warranty contracting, central IT, and central marketing infrastructure layered underneath. The acquisition structure was an asset purchase rather than a stock purchase: the four shops folded into the consolidator at close while keeping their existing chain identity on the storefronts, the twenty-eight-person bench stayed at the four locations, Tevita Fifita stepped into a Tennessee regional operations role with the consolidator while keeping his Old Fort Parkway responsibilities through a phased eighteen-month transition, Marcus Boudreaux and Jamal Reeves continued running their respective shops, the three EV-certified technicians continued under their existing comp structure, the four service writers and three parts and inventory leads retained their roles and pay structure, both fleet contracts transferred cleanly under the consolidator’s central B2B contracting umbrella, and Sione transitioned to a two-year consulting role at one day per week.
The total deal economic value was approximately $7.6 million, roughly 6.3 times trailing EBITDA, a strong multi-shop auto repair multiple driven by the EV-certified bench (the consolidator’s own EV thesis was a stated strategic priority), the ASE Blue Seal of Excellence recognition across all four shops, the AAA Approved Auto Repair status, the two recurring fleet contracts (each with formalized change-of-control language pre-signed), the 4.7-star Google rating across 1,800-plus reviews, the 38 percent repeat-customer revenue, the sixteen-year operating history under a single founder, the diversified four-shop footprint across the Nashville south metro corridor, and the structured succession story Sione had built during the wait period with documented retention agreements on Tevita, Marcus, Jamal, and the three EV-certified technicians. About 78 percent of it came as cash at closing. About 8 percent was held back in escrow for 12 months, a standard auto repair escrow window because customer-household and fleet-contract continuity through a brand-preservation acquisition is verified within twelve months. The remaining 14 percent was a rollover-as-equity stake into the consolidator’s holding company, with Sione’s existing equity converting into the consolidator’s holding-company partnership interests on a vesting schedule tied to his continued two-year consulting involvement and the consolidator’s long-hold thesis runway. The numbers add up to one hundred. Wire hit on a Friday morning at 10:14 a.m. while Sione was at the Old Fort Parkway shop with Tevita.
Sione stayed on as a transition consultant for the consolidator’s Tennessee region for twenty-four months after closing, dropping to one day per week so he could personally walk the Rutherford County government fleet contract administrator and the Nissan Smyrna supplier fleet contract counterparty through the change-of-control handoff to the consolidator’s central B2B contracting team, accompany Tevita on the consolidator’s Tennessee regional operations meetings, accompany Marcus on the consolidator’s electrical and computer diagnostic regional working group, walk the three EV-certified technicians through the consolidator’s national EV bench rollout, and shape the consolidator’s Nashville south metro expansion strategy across the additional Murfreesboro and Smyrna corridor sites the consolidator was already underwriting. After twenty-four months, Sione stepped back to a quarterly clinical-advisor relationship that gave him room to spend the bulk of his weeks on his Tongan Methodist church board work and on the Pacific Islander young men’s mentorship clinic he had been thinking about for two years.
What happened to Sione’s people and his customers.
The people-side of how to sell an auto repair business usually weighs heavier on the founding operator than the financial-side, even when the financial-side is what triggers the call to a broker in the first place. Sione cared most about Tevita Fifita (the lead technician and Old Fort Parkway shop manager who had been with him for twelve years), Marcus Boudreaux (Memorial Boulevard, seven years), Jamal Reeves (Northwest Broad Street and Salem Highway, five years), the sixteen ASE-certified technicians (three of whom were EV-certified), the four service writers running customer intake across the four locations, the three parts and inventory leads, the bookkeeper, the receptionist, and the active customer roster: about fourteen thousand active retail customer households across Murfreesboro, Smyrna, La Vergne, Eagleville, and the broader Rutherford County corridor, plus the Rutherford County government fleet contract (covering roughly 180 county vehicles serviced on a defined-rotation maintenance cadence) and the Nissan Smyrna supplier company fleet contract (covering roughly 120 vehicles for a Tier-1 supplier serving the Nissan Smyrna assembly plant). The PE-backed auto repair consolidator buyer was a top-tier platform running a satellite-brand preservation acquisition model that routinely acquired regional chains under their original brand names rather than rebranding under a national identity on a tight ninety-day timeline. That made the people part substantially cleaner than it would have been under a national auto repair franchise platform that wanted to absorb the four shops into a single franchise banner.
The buyer kept all twenty-eight W-2 employees, honored the existing pay structure across shop managers, technicians, service writers, and parts and inventory leads, and committed to keeping Tevita Fifita running the Old Fort Parkway flagship while stepping into the consolidator’s Tennessee regional operations role on an eighteen-month phased transition, Marcus Boudreaux running Memorial Boulevard with an expanded electrical and computer diagnostic mandate, Jamal Reeves running Northwest Broad Street and Salem Highway, and the three EV-certified technicians under their existing comp structure with the consolidator absorbing the EV diagnostic and high-voltage equipment service contracts. The retention work Sione had done during the wait period (formalizing the three-year retention agreements with Tevita, Marcus, and Jamal, and the two-year retention agreements with the three EV-certified technicians) was preserved with formal employment agreements at or above the existing comp model. The sixteen technicians retained their roles and existing scheduling structure, including the diagnostic and EV bay rotations across the Old Fort Parkway and Memorial Boulevard locations. The four service writers retained their customer-intake roles and pay structure across the four shops. The three parts and inventory leads retained their roles. The Rutherford County government fleet contract and the Nissan Smyrna supplier company fleet contract transferred cleanly under the consolidator’s central B2B contracting umbrella, with both counterparties having pre-signed change-of-control acknowledgements during the wait period. The Mitchell 1 management software was retained for the four shops through an eighteen-month integration window before any consolidation onto the consolidator’s enterprise stack. The ASE Blue Seal of Excellence recognition across all four shops transferred cleanly under the consolidator’s central ASE relationship. The AAA Approved Auto Repair status transferred cleanly. The 4.7-star Google rating across 1,800-plus reviews stayed firmly attached to each storefront because the brand and the storefront and the people stayed in place.
Sione was at the Old Fort Parkway shop on a Friday morning when the wire confirmation came through. Auto repair closings often happen at the end of the week to coincide with weekend retail-volume cycles. Tevita had just finished the morning diagnostic-equipment calibration walk-through across the EV bench. Sione stepped onto the shop floor, pulled Tevita aside near the lift in bay three, and said in Tongan: “Kuo lava.” It is done. Tevita did not say anything for a few seconds. He put one hand on Sione’s shoulder and then turned back to the bay because the first retail customer of the morning had just rolled in and somebody needed to write the ticket. Sione drove home to the family house in Murfreesboro where Filolesi was getting ready to leave for the elementary school. He told her the wire had hit. Filolesi did not say anything. She kissed his forehead. She stood at the counter for thirty seconds without moving. Then she asked what he wanted for dinner.
What Sione told us afterward.
Why owners who sell an auto repair business with CGK keep coming back
Most owners who sell an auto repair business do not call the broker again in the first year. The ones who do call usually want to talk about the parts of the engagement that, in retrospect, mattered more than they realized at the time. About seven months after closing, Sione called the Managing Director who had run his engagement. He said two things that the Managing Director still tells new sellers about.
The first was about the four-month wait. He said: “Four of the buyers who had been calling me were ready to sign LOIs in thirty days, and two different consolidator scouts I talked to before you told me they could take me to market right then with the technician retention conversation still on a verbal handshake and the two fleet contracts still on their original renewal mechanics. The reason I sold with you is that you told me the truth about how my EV-certified bench and my two fleet contracts and my ASE Blue Seal recognition across all four shops were actually being valued by a sophisticated PE-backed consolidator underwriter, the truth about what the formal Tevita and Marcus and Jamal retention agreements would buy me in LOI conversations five months later, and the truth about what the change-of-control language on the Rutherford County and Nissan Smyrna supplier fleet contracts would buy me in management presentations. You told me what would happen to the price if I went out without fixing those things. I would have left more than a million dollars on the table, and Tevita and Marcus and Jamal would have folded into a worse comp tier under a different operator.”
The second was about who he sold to. He said: “I almost signed with the regional Knoxville chain because the conversation felt familiar and they told me they could close in sixty days. The fact that you walked me through what each buyer would actually do with Tevita’s Tennessee regional runway, with Marcus’s electrical and computer diagnostic mandate, with the four storefronts I had run for sixteen years, and with the customer households I had built over sixteen years, what each buyer’s brand-and-bench integration thesis would mean for the EV bench three and five years out, and how a top-tier PE-backed consolidator with a satellite-brand preservation thesis and a long-hold runway was structurally different from a regional chain with a smaller central support stack, is a conversation I never even thought to have until you raised it. I sold to a buyer who is actually going to keep the four Murfreesboro storefronts the storefronts my customers walk into and recognize, and who is going to give Tevita a Tennessee regional runway he could not have built on his own.”
This is what we mean when we say we sit with you in the decision, not just the transaction. Sione is one composite story, but the pattern is real. The owners we work with who decide to sell an auto repair business usually find their way to us through versions of Sione’s situation, and the relationships start with a long listening session and a free walkthrough, not a pitch.
Ready to sell an auto repair business? Where are you in Sione’s story?
If you are starting to think about how to sell an auto repair business, we should talk. There is no commitment and no pressure. The first conversation is free. The valuation walkthrough that follows is free when you are seriously thinking about selling, whether that is in a year, five years, or longer. We only charge for formal written valuations, and only when you actually need one for a partnership buyout, estate planning, or another documentary purpose. Submit the form and a senior CGK Managing Director will reach out within one business day.
If you are Sione at month 1: just exploring
You are not sure if you want to sell yet. The auto repair M&A landscape keeps shifting (PE-backed consolidators, regional chains, national franchise platforms, individual mechanic-buyers), your shop manager and lead technician retention conversations are still on verbal handshake terms, your fleet contracts are running on their original renewal mechanics with no change-of-control language, your EV-capable bench is still being treated by your bookkeeper as a single line item rather than as a strategic asset, fifteen-plus years of running the bays is starting to tell you something, your kids are not coming back to the chain, you are curious about how a buyer would value your general mechanical mix versus your electrical and computer diagnostic exposure or your EV and hybrid service capacity, or maybe a PE-backed consolidator or a regional chain has been calling you. Most of our best engagements start here. Submit the form and we will schedule a working session. You walk away with a real number and a clear sense of what to do next, with no obligation to do anything.
If you are Sione at month 4: ready to go
You have done the work to clean up the chain. The financials are tight. Your shop manager and lead technician retention agreements are documented with multi-year stay arrangements. Your EV-certified technician comp protections are documented. Your fleet contracts are formalized with explicit change-of-control transferability language. Your shop-by-shop revenue and gross margin and technician productivity and customer-retention breakouts are pulled into a buyer-grade report for the trailing thirty-six months. Your sub-mix breakouts (general mechanical, electrical and computer diagnostic, EV and hybrid service, tire and alignment) are clean. Your Mitchell 1 and ProDemand subscription documentation is current. Your ASE Blue Seal of Excellence and AAA Approved Auto Repair facility documentation is current. Maybe a buyer is already in the conversation. You want to run a real process. Submit the form and we will be in touch within a business day to talk about timing, scope, and what your first 30 days as a CGK seller would look like.
If you are not sure where you are
Most owners are not sure. Submit the form and start with the conversation. We will figure out together where you are. We are equally happy to tell you to wait twelve months as we are to take you to market in five weeks.
Or call us directly at (888) 858-7191.
Start your own story
A senior CGK Managing Director will respond within one business day. Strictly confidential. For owners of privately-held auto repair businesses doing $1.5M+ in annual revenue, including general mechanical shops, electrical and computer diagnostic shops, EV and hybrid service shops, tire and alignment shops, multi-shop chains, and AAA Approved Auto Repair facilities. The first conversation and the valuation walkthrough that follows are free for any seller seriously thinking about selling, on any horizon.
Confidential. No obligation. Direct routing to a named CGK business broker, not a junior screener.
One of these eight people would lead your engagement.
When you decide to sell an auto repair business with CGK, one named senior Managing Director stays with you from the first call through the wire transfer, just like Sione’s Managing Director stayed with him for four months and then for the engagement that followed. Our Managing Directors come from Wall Street investment banks, hedge funds, Fortune 500 corporate finance, and operating-business leadership. Cornell MBA. U Chicago Booth MBA. CFA. CMT. Naval Academy. Goldman Sachs. Merrill Lynch. Deutsche Bank. AIG. T. Rowe Price.
What sellers say after they sell an auto repair business (and other businesses) with CGK
I could not be happier with the experience I had selling my business with CGK. Greg did a detailed analysis of my business and helped me price and position it right for the market. After receiving multiple offers at full asking price, the rest of the process went very smoothly, and we closed in less than two months.
Hanna M.Selling my business was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I’m incredibly grateful to have had Wes by my side throughout the process. He brought perspective, pushed when necessary, and always had my best interests in mind. His experience and strategic approach allowed me to maximize the sale price while minimizing long-term risk and obligations. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose him as my broker.
Adam NevilleDerik located multiple interested strategic buyers that produced more than one serious offer. The negotiations were tough but Greg and Derik’s experience helped us overcome. We got a great result for our employees and for the owners. We would recommend them without reservation.
Bob TaylorWe sold a business that was 47 years old and being run by second generation within a year of working with Wes. CGK has a system that attracts serious prospects to review opportunities. Wes was able to make the overwhelming feeling of selling easy and to a certain extent enjoyable. I never felt alone or in the dark throughout the entire process.
Jennifer WilliamsWe decided to sell our company in 2025. Talked to another M&A company in the Houston area. We felt very comfortable with Greg and Matthew at CGK. Could not have made a better choice. From day 1 till final closing and even after 30+ days, they have been here helping us with documents and support during the transition. Thanks can not be said enough.
Rickey ThomasInside the Blueprint, on Bloomberg TV and Fox Business News.
Sione’s son Mosese, the Tesla manufacturing engineer in Austin, was the one who first sent him a clip of CGK on Bloomberg. He had been watching the segment in his apartment on a Sunday morning and recognized the firm name from a multi-shop auto repair trade article about how to sell an auto repair business he had read a few months earlier. He texted his father the link with a note that read “Dad, watch this. This looks like the right firm for the conversation you and Mom keep having.” CGK Business Sales is featured on Inside the Blueprint, the syndicated business television series. Our episode aired on Bloomberg TV and Fox Business News. Watch the segment, then start a confidential conversation.
The CGK office Sione called was the CGK Nashville office. Yours might be one of these.
When you sell an auto repair business with CGK, whichever office you reach, you get the entire firm. Sione worked with a CGK Managing Director based out of the firm’s Nashville office, but his deal benefited from a buyer pool we sourced firm-wide, including the top-tier PE-backed auto repair consolidator that ultimately won the engagement. Click any city to learn about our local presence and the named Managing Director leading that market.
Other Questions Sione and Other Auto Repair Sellers Ask Us
Practical answers to what comes up before, during, and after the kind of engagement Sione went through, when you sell an auto repair business with CGK.