How it works
Floor-plan debt, franchise obligations, and F&I or consumer exposure sit in the store that carries them. The HoldCo owns equity, not operations.
Prepared for Brennen Stepanek & the acquisition team
A scored, repeatable engine for acquiring car dealerships.
You bring years of operations and finance management experience; your father brings more than twenty years in franchise dealership management; together you are hunting the right small to mid-sized store. COB is the technology layer on top: it scores every target before you sign, runs the diligence on your timetable, stands up a clean entity for each store, and then automates the administrative work so your time goes to operating, not pushing paper.
The COB approach
Automation is out. Augmentation is the future.
Automation tries to replace people. Augmentation pairs human judgment with an intelligence platform that lives inside the business, reads its systems, and thinks strategically, so the machine does the heavy lifting while people stay on the calls that need nuance.
COB is that platform. It puts people on the decisions and the machine on the volume, and because it remembers every deal and every month, capability compounds instead of resetting.
the illustrative deal at a glance
the five-step motion
the market you are buying into
Up to $5M
SBA 7(a) financing per acquisition, about 10% equity in, 10-year term on goodwill.
Source · U.S. SBA, 2026
~$2,530
F&I gross profit per vehicle at public dealer groups, near record highs.
Source · Haig Report Q3 2025
115%
Service absorption target, parts and service covering overhead plus a cushion.
Source · NADA benchmark
Reaccelerating
The dealership buy-sell market is active again, blue-sky values rising off their lows.
Source · Haig Report 2025
what is inside this workspace
Figures on this page are illustrative and drawn from the public industry sources noted above. Nothing here is financial, legal, tax, or lending advice. COB structures the analysis; your lender, attorney, and CPA make the calls.
The instrument
The deal screener.
Move the inputs. Every number recomputes live, the entry multiple, debt coverage, expected exit, risk and viability, and the sources and uses. Illustrative model; wire it to a target's data room and it runs on real figures.
Everything you set here becomes MAG Store 01 across the workspace. It flows straight into the Risk, Valuation, and SBA pages, so set the deal once here and read it everywhere.Risk →Valuation →SBA →
modeling: MAG Store 01, LLC · illustrative first acquisition
Scoring
Risk & viability scoring.
One objective read that ranks the pipeline, so the best target rises to the top instead of the loudest broker. Every score traces back to the assumption that drove it. The factors below reflect the current screener inputs, adjust a slider on the Screener page and watch them move.
The risk and viability factors here are driven by MAG Store 01, as set on the Deal Screener. To test a different price, earnings, rate, or leverage, change it there.Adjust on the Deal Screener →
the current deal, factor by factor
How viability is built
Debt coverage does the heavy lifting, a store that comfortably services its loan is a store you can hold. On top of that: growth headroom, earnings margin, and a sensible entry multiple. High coverage, real margin, and a fair price push viability up.
How risk is built
Risk climbs with leverage, a thin DSCR, a rich entry multiple, and a high rate, the things that turn a soft quarter into a missed payment. The score is deliberately conservative: it would rather flag a deal you can defend than wave through one you cannot.
recent market transactions, real and cited
Actual U.S. dealership acquisitions from the past two years, sourced from the advisors and acquirers who reported them, with single-point stores in your size range at the top. Prices are rarely disclosed at that size, so each row shows what was reported plus the franchise's current blue-sky multiple. Click a column to sort; click any deal for the detail and the source link.
| Dealership | Brand | Location | Date | Segment | Buyer | Reported |
|---|
Transactions reported by Performance Brokerage Services, Haig Partners, Kerrigan Advisors, and the acquirers (Business Wire, PR Newswire, company filings). Blue-sky multiple ranges: Haig Report, Q1 2026. Terms are shown as publicly disclosed; most single-store prices are not disclosed, which is normal at this size.
the buy-sell market, in numbers
616
U.S. dealerships bought or sold in 2025, roughly 50% above the pre-pandemic annual average.
Source · Haig Report Q4 2025
478
Buy-sell transactions on a trailing-twelve-month basis through Q1 2026, a record high.
Source · Kerrigan Advisors, Q1 2026
~$4.1M
Average public dealership adjusted pre-tax profit in 2025, the earnings a multiple is applied to.
Source · Haig / Kerrigan, 2025
~6.3x
Blended average blue-sky multiple for public groups at the end of 2025.
Source · Kerrigan Blue Sky Report 2025
Valuation
Valuation & blue-sky multiples.
A dealership's price is hard assets plus blue sky, the premium a buyer pays over the tangible for the store's future earnings. Blue sky is quoted as a multiple of adjusted pre-tax profit, and it swings hard by franchise. Here is where MAG Store 01, as modeled on the Deal Screener, sits against the market.
The entry, exit, and breakdown on this page are driven by MAG Store 01, as set on the Deal Screener. Want to model a different price, earnings, or franchise? Change the inputs there and this page updates.Adjust on the Deal Screener →
where this deal fits
MAG Store 01, as modeled on the Deal Screener, measured against the blue-sky band. It defaults to the Domestic band; change the deal on the Screener, or click a tier or brand below, and the breakdown and chart both update.
blue-sky multiples by franchise tier
Grouped from the published Haig Partners national-average blue-sky multiples (Q1 2026). Premium import and luxury franchises command the top of the market; domestic brands sit lower. Click a tier to anchor the breakdown above, or pick a specific brand in the table beneath it.
| Franchise tier | Representative brands | Blue-sky range | Demand |
|---|
the current blue-sky multiples, by brand
The latest published Haig Partners national-average blue-sky multiples, applied to a store's adjusted pre-tax earnings. Click any brand to anchor the breakdown above to its exact range.
| Franchise | Tier | Blue-sky multiple |
|---|
Blue-sky multiples: Haig Partners, Haig Report Q1 2026 (national averages for average-performing stores; individual deals vary by market, facility, and earnings quality). Not an appraisal.
the value stack, live
Blue sky is only one layer. This updates with the earnings on the Screener and the franchise tier or brand selected above. Asset values are illustrative.
what makes up the price
Finance each layer the right way
The full check is blue sky, plus the real estate (often the largest and most financeable piece), plus parts and fixed-asset value, plus new-vehicle inventory at floor-plan value. COB separates them so you finance each correctly and never overpay for goodwill.
Why the multiple moves
Franchise demand, earnings durability, service absorption, and facility condition all push the multiple. A store with strong fixed-ops coverage and a clean image commitment earns the top of its band; a factory upgrade order or a soft franchise pulls it down.
Blue-sky multiples are the published Haig Partners national averages (Haig Report, Q1 2026), not appraisals. Actual values are franchise-, market-, and facility-specific, and the entry / exit marks on the chart are illustrative model outputs from the screener.
Diligence
Quality of Earnings.
The number a broker hands you is not the number you underwrite. COB rebuilds earnings from the source, normalizes them, grades their quality, and hands you a defensible figure and the multiple it supports, on your timetable, days to sometimes hours rather than weeks or months.
The illustrative earnings bridge below scales with the adjusted earnings set for MAG Store 01 on the Deal Screener.Adjust on the Deal Screener →
the four profit centers
A dealership is really four businesses under one roof. COB reads each one and tells you which are carrying the store.
the normalized earnings bridge
From the seller's reported number to the one you underwrite. Illustrative for MAG Store 01.
the add-back test
Not every add-back survives. COB grades each one so your multiple sits on earnings a lender and a future buyer will both accept.
| Add-back | Treatment | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Owner salary above a market manager | Accepted | Replaced with the cost of a hired GM; the excess is real buyer cash flow. |
| One-time legal or storm repair | Accepted | Non-recurring and documented, so it comes back to earnings. |
| Related-party rent below market | Adjusted | Reset to a market lease; often reduces earnings and sets the PropCo rent. |
| Personal travel, vehicles, memberships | Scrutinized | Added back only with clean support; unsupported items are haircut. |
| Aggressive warranty or holdback timing | Rejected | Pulls future income forward; excluded from normalized earnings. |
~$2,530
F&I gross per vehicle at public groups, a key earnings-quality tell.
Source · Haig Report Q3 2025
115%
Service absorption target; above it, fixed ops alone can carry overhead.
Source · NADA benchmark
30–50%
Share of total dealership profit that F&I now contributes.
Source · NADA industry data
Grade + band
Every Q of E ships with an earnings-quality grade and a confidence band.
COB output
Benchmarks are public industry figures; the bridge and grades are illustrative. A live Q of E runs on the target's own DMS and general ledger.
Diligence
Legal due diligence.
The dealership-specific issues list, ranked by what can actually kill a deal, reprice it, or just needs watching. Each item opens to show what COB pulls, and the typical fix. Tap any row.
issue register
data-room readiness
The documents COB needs to run the full review. Tick what the seller has provided; the bar tracks how close the file is to complete.
0%
Issue framing is illustrative and not legal advice. A live review runs on the target's executed agreements and is confirmed by your counsel.
Capital
SBA & capital feasibility.
Whether the deal is bankable, sized before you spend on diligence. The sources and uses and coverage below track the current screener inputs. The parameters are the real 2026 SBA 7(a) rules; the structure is yours to shape.
The sources & uses and coverage here are driven by MAG Store 01, as set on the Deal Screener. To change the price, financing mix, rate, or term, adjust it there.Adjust on the Deal Screener →
the 2026 SBA 7(a) parameters
Up to $5M
Maximum 7(a) loan. Larger checks stack a 504 for real estate or bring outside equity.
~10% equity in
Minimum injection: 5% cash, up to 5% from a seller note held on full standby for the life of the loan.
~1.15–1.25x DSCR
Lender coverage floor; acquisitions are held higher since the buyer has no operating history yet.
10-year term
Goodwill-heavy acquisitions amortize over 10 years; real estate stretches to 25.
~10–11% rate
Variable, tied to prime plus a spread. The screener lets you stress it.
Personal guarantee
Required from any owner of 20% or more. The HoldCo and each SPV are structured with that in mind.
sources & uses, this deal
Sources
Uses
make it bankable
If coverage is under the 1.25x floor, here are the three moves that clear it, each sized to the current screener inputs. Change a slider on the Screener and these update.
structuring levers when coverage is thin
Seller note on standby
A standby seller note counts toward the equity injection and lowers the bank debt, lifting DSCR without more cash out of pocket.
Split the real estate
Finance the property separately (a 504 or a PropCo sale-leaseback) so the 7(a) covers only the business, and a slice of your equity comes back at close.
Rebalance blue sky vs assets
How the price is allocated between goodwill and hard assets changes the loan term and the collateral picture. COB models the allocation.
Stretch or reprice
When DSCR is under the floor, the fix is a longer term, a lower price, or a bigger seller note. The screener shows which one clears it.
SBA parameters reflect the 2026 7(a) program and June 2025 rule changes (seller-note full standby). Illustrative, not a commitment or quote. Source: U.S. SBA program terms and lender guidance, 2026.
Own & operate the store
The back office, on autopilot.
Dealership accounting is its own discipline, the factory statement, the schedules, floor-plan reconciliation, warranty and incentive receivables, a month-end close that eats the first week of every month. COB sits on the DMS and the books and does the recurring finance work, so your controller reviews instead of assembles, and the books stay lender- and audit-ready all month.
what COB takes off the controller's desk
Each workstream opens. COB does the assembly and the first pass; a person approves.
administrative hours reclaimed
A live estimate of the recurring back-office hours COB automates. Move the inputs to your store.
the transformation
Close in days, not weeks
Reconciliations and schedules are maintained continuously, so month-end is a review, not a rebuild.
Always lender-ready
The DSCR package and financial statements a bank or the SBA wants are current and one click away, every month.
Clean books compound
Every store you add plugs into the same engine. Group reporting and an eventual sale get easier, not harder.
Illustrative estimates for discussion only. Not financial, accounting, or tax advice.
Own & operate the store
Every deal, assembled and compliant, by itself.
A retail deal is a paperwork and compliance event: the jacket, the F&I products, funding, contracts-in-transit, and a stack of required checks, OFAC, Red Flag, adverse action, privacy, advertising. Miss one and it costs money or draws a regulator. COB opens the jacket the moment a deal is booked, assembles it, runs the compliance trail, and chases funding, so nothing slips.
the deal jacket, end to end
What COB does at each step. Tap to open.
deals in flight
A live board of open jackets, completeness and contracts-in-transit aging. Click a deal for the read.
| Deal | Type | Complete | CIT age | Status |
|---|
compliance coverage
The checks COB runs and documents on every deal. Tick the ones your store enforces consistently today; the gap is where exposure lives.
0%
Illustrative board and checklist for discussion only. Not legal or compliance advice; a live deployment runs on your DMS and F&I platform.
Own & operate the store
Fixed ops and inventory, watched around the clock.
The service drive and the lots generate constant administrative work, warranty claims and their aging, parts reconciliation, repair-order recon, used-unit age, and floor-plan curtailment dates. COB keeps all of it current and alerts before a deadline or a write-off, so the most durable profit in the store stops leaking.
what COB keeps current
Each workstream opens.
service absorption, live
Absorption is the floor under the store, the share of overhead that parts and service cover. Move it to see where a store sits against the roughly 115% NADA target.
aging, at a glance
Illustrative aging COB monitors and alerts on: open warranty claims and used-vehicle inventory, by age.
Warranty claims
Used inventory
Aging figures are illustrative. A live deployment reads the DMS and the floor-plan feed.
Structure
A parent company, and a clean LLC around every store.
This is how serious dealer groups are built. One holding company owns the equity; each acquisition sits in its own single-purpose entity, with operations split from the real estate, so a problem at one store can never reach the others, or you. Tap any box. The illustrative group below is Meridian Auto Group, your working name for the demo.
why it is built this way
01
Contain the liability
Each store's problems stay inside its own box.
The failure it prevents
A lawsuit, an out-of-trust floor-plan audit, or a factory dispute at one store cannot pull down the others, or reach you personally.
Open +
02
Unlock the real estate
Split operations from the property, and the property finances on its own.
The move
OpCo runs the store and holds the license; PropCo owns the land and building and leases it back at a market rent.
What it returns
A sale-leaseback of PropCo can return a large slice of your equity injection at or shortly after close, and creates a clean, poolable rent stream.
Open +
03
Sell or refinance clean
One store, one set of books, one entity, so an exit is surgical.
At exit
Sell the membership interests of one SPV without touching the rest of the group. Buyers pay more for a clean, self-contained entity.
For a lender
Each SPV's DSCR and collateral stand on their own, which is exactly how an SBA or bank underwrites the loan.
Open +
Illustrative entities for discussion only, none are formed and nothing here is legal or tax advice. COB structures the analysis; your attorney and CPA form the entities and make the calls.
Platform
Plugs into the systems the store already runs.
Due diligence is slow because the numbers live in a dozen systems. COB connects to the ones a dealership already uses, the DMS, the books, the credit and compliance trail, the data room, and pulls the diligence straight from the source. No new software for the seller, no manual re-keying. Tap any system to see what COB reads there and which workstream it feeds.
COB sits at the centerOne operator reading every connected system, turning it into the score, the Q of E, and the issues list.
Logos identify the systems COB can integrate with and are the property of their owners; no endorsement or affiliation is implied. Integrations are read-only and used only with the seller's authorization during diligence.
The operator
COB is an intelligence operating system for the deal.
Not a dashboard and not a pack of point tools. COB plugs into your data room, your books, your email and calendar, holds the full context of the thesis, and does the operating work, the model, the memo, the checklist, the follow-ups, on every target, every week, and remembers all of it for the next store and the next SPV.
One brain across the whole pipeline.
Screen inbound stores, run the Quality of Earnings, draft the legal issues list, size the SBA package, keep the acquisition memo current, and stand up the entity, then carry every decision forward. It works inside Claude, so it is a conversation, not software you have to learn.
Reads your data roomQ of E on your timetableRisk + viability scoringLegal issues listSBA package prepEntity + memo, always current
how an engagement runs
1 · Point it at a target
Share the data room and books. COB connects, reads, and returns a scored read plus the questions that matter.
2 · Diligence on your clock
Q of E, legal issues list, and SBA sizing come back in days, sometimes hours, so you move while others are still scheduling calls.
3 · Close, then automate
The entity, memo, and lender package are kept current through close. After close, COB automates the recurring back-office work, reporting, reconciliations, and follow-ups, so the administrative burden stays low as you add stores.
and once you own the store
COB does not stop at the close. It carries the administrative load of operating the dealership, so a lean team can run a store without a bloated back office. This is the automation you asked about, made concrete.
Back office & accounting
Automates the close, reconciliations, factory statement, and the lender package, so the books stay current and month-end shrinks from weeks to days.
Open →Deals, F&I & compliance
Assembles every deal jacket, chases funding and contracts-in-transit, and runs the OFAC, Red Flag, and adverse-action trail on every deal.
Open →Fixed ops & inventory
Keeps warranty claims and aging, parts reconciliation, and used-unit and curtailment alerts current, so the most durable profit stops leaking.
Open →Prepared for Brennen Stepanek & the acquisition team. Illustrative models and entities for discussion only. Not financial, legal, tax, or lending advice.