FRANCHISE·WATCH·DESK

From the filed FDD — automated extraction, check the source

2025 FDD

SBA-eligible · directory code S3083 since 2018

Take 5

Oil change & quick lube · parent company: not identified

Take 5 Oil Change is a quick-service automotive chain where customers stay in their cars while technicians perform fast oil changes and basic fluid checks. There's no waiting room—service happens in a drive-through bay. A franchisee operates a small-footprint oil-change facility, employing technicians and focusing on speed and high volume.

Take 5 net unit count grew 41.5% over 2022–2024 per its FDD Item 20.

New to franchising? Start here

A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.

Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. Most numbers on this page come from that document; others come from federal SBA loan records and labor and census data, each labelled with its source:

  • Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
  • Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
  • Item 20 — how many locations opened, transferred and left the system, the main basis for our verdict, which rates how strong the disclosed record is, or says when the system is too new, the filing too old, or the disclosure too thin to judge.

Our rating · opinion

Strong disclosed record

Enough units and history to judge, and the operating record is good. Units grew 42% (2022–2024: 807 → 1,142); the fiscal 2024 exit rate was 0.3%, below the 1.7% median across 27 comparable systems (automotive).

Exit rate · fiscal 2024

0.3%

vs 1.7% median across 27 comparable systems (automotive)

Cost to open

$287K–$2.1M

Item 7 total investment range

SBA loan losses

Too few to rate

1 seasoned resolved loans; 30 needed

Market density · Florida

Typical density

3% thinner than the national average

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Data as of 2026-10-29. Figures come from Take 5's public FDD filings (latest: MN 2025, extracted 2026-06-19) and SBA FOIA loan records (through FY2026), extracted by us and possibly containing errors. The rating is our opinion, not investment, legal, or tax advice. Franchisor or owner and see something wrong? Report a correction — we review every request.

Buying an existing Take 5? Transfer fee 50% of then-current initial franchise fee, resale record and asking-price check →

What each source says

FDD record · SBA loans · model · auditor

Our answer: Strong disclosed record

The sources broadly agree, and the verdict follows the FDD's operating record.

FDD record · Item 20

Strong operating record

Units grew 42% (2022–2024: 807 → 1,142); exit rate 0.3% (fiscal 2024) vs 1.7% median.

SBA loans · vs same-year loans

Too few seasoned loans

1 resolved loans approved by FY2020; 30 needed.

Modeled risk

Lower risk

Directional only — too few seasoned loans to check it.

Auditor opinion · Item 21

Not extracted

We did not extract the audit opinion.

Behind the verdict

the record, factor by factor · Item 20

hi-1.0.0
Net unit growth41%

latest consecutive years · Item 20 Table 1

Strong
Exit quality29%

terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3

Strong
Transfer / churn18%

transfers vs. base · Table 3

Strong
Promise-keeping12%

actual vs. projected openings · Table 5

Strong
Transparencynot in verdict

Item 19 disclosure + completeness · shown, not counted in the verdict

Strong

Systemwide units

2022–2024

+41.5%
807202296820231,1422024

Survival record

FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year

In fiscal 2024, 1 of 325 franchised outlets left the system — an exit rate of 0.3% (fiscal 2024), vs a 1.7% median across 27 comparable systems (automotive). An exit is not a failure: this counts terminations, non-renewals and "ceased — other reasons" as reported, and excludes transfers to new owners.

Show the outlet tables ↓
Status (FTC)202220232024
Outlets at start668807968
Opened94100110
Transfers007
Terminations011
Non-renewals000
Reacquired by franchisor112
Ceased — other reasons000
Outlets at end8079681,142
Net change+139+161+174

The lender's view

SBA 7(a)/504 loan outcomes · compared with franchise loans of the same years

Banks have made 30 SBA-backed loans to Take 5 franchisees since 2019. Only 1 of its loans approved by FY2020 have resolved — fewer than the 30 we need to compare it fairly with other franchise loans, so we don't rate it.

All-time, 0 of 12 resolved loans charged off (0.0%). That raw figure mixes every approval year since 2019 — loans made in 2006–08 failed at several times the rate of loans made in 2010–13 across all franchises — so it is shown as evidence, not as the score. 60% of the brand's loans have not resolved yet.

Loss vs same-year loans

—

1 seasoned resolved · 30 needed

All-time charge-off · raw

0.0%

0 of 12 resolved, every approval year

Loss given default

—

charged-off $ ÷ approved $, defaulted loans

Avg. loan · FY2020+

$945,807

what recent franchisees borrowed

Median time to default

—

shown with 10+ defaults

Lenders · FY21+ vs FY16–20

4 vs 1

distinct banks still lending

Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%) · dashed line = all franchise loans that year

SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO TAKE 5 BY SBA FRANCHISE NAME/CODE · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL · EXPECTED = SAME-YEAR RATE ACROSS ALL SBA FRANCHISE LOANS, LOANS ≥ ~6 YEARS OLD

The owner's side of the deal

FDD × federal loan record

Who finances it

Too few loans to identify

Who buys it

76.9%

borrowers with no other franchise SBA loan on record

The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators have charged off less often than brands sold mostly to newcomers (see methodology).

Does experience help here?

Not enough resolved loans to split

Computed from 30 SBA 7(a)/504 loans matched to Take 5 by SBA franchise code in the SBA FOIA file. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. Owner-level splits rely on borrower-name matching and may misclassify. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.

What it costs — and what it drags

FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty

Buying in means a $45,000 franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $287K–$2.1M (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.

To open (Item 7)

$287K–$2.1M

all-in investment range

Franchise fee (Item 5)

$45,000

upfront, one-time

Royalty (Item 6)

7%

of sales, ongoing

If a unit does this in annual sales…$800K/yr

Starts at a placeholder of $800K — a round figure for the sector, not from Take 5’s filings. Set your own figure and check it against this brand's Item 19 and what owners tell you.

Royalty you'd pay / yr

$56K

7% of sales, before profit

Over a 10-yr term

$560K

royalties alone, excl. ad fund

This estimate is computed by software from the brand's public filings and any inputs you enter. No CPA prepared it for you and no assurance is provided on it. Actual results will differ, and the differences may be material.

This is not profit. It covers what the FDD fixes: what you put in, and the royalty you owe on sales. Your take-home depends on parts, technician labor, rent, and the months to breakeven, none of which the FDD fixes for your unit (some Item 19s include cost data — read it).

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How the earnings claim is built

FDD ITEM 19 · BASIS · 2025 FDD

The headline figure is Gross Sales (franchised, open more than 1 year) for FY2024 (Dec 31, 2023 - Dec 28, 2024), for 323 of 432 outlets open at year end, leaving out open less than one full year, closed during FY2024, converted to affiliate-owned during FY2024. The mean is 9% above the median, so a minority of high-volume units pulls the average up.

Graded on three things the filing states: coverage (2 points if the figure covers at least 75% of the units it is compared with, 1 point for 50–75%), centre (2 points if it prints both a median and a mean, 1 for one of them), and costs (2 points for costs through a profit line or full cost detail, 1 for some cost items). 5–6 points = More complete, 3–4 = Partial, 0–2 = Limited. The grade describes the disclosure, not the business.

More completeCovers 323 of 432 units at year end (75%) · median and mean · costs to a profit line
Show the basis ↓
What is measuredGross Sales (franchised, open more than 1 year) (gross sales)
PeriodFY2024 (Dec 31, 2023 - Dec 28, 2024)
Whose resultsFranchised outlets
Units included323 of 432 franchised outlets at the end of FY2024 (Item 20)
Left out
  • open less than one full year (110)
  • closed during FY2024 (1)
  • converted to affiliate-owned during FY2024 (2)
Average (mean)$1.2M
Median$1.1M
Mean vs medianmean 8.6% above median
Met or beat the average135 (42%)
Costs shownYes — through a profit line
Wherep. 90 (Item 19 runs pp. 81–92)
The filing's words“the results of the 323 franchised Take 5 Oil Change Centers that were open at least one full year as of December 28, 2024”

Labor record

US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present

Federal investigators have concluded 3 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $12K in back wages for 20 workers. Some of these cases are recent, not ancient history. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.

Concluded cases

3

Back wages owed

$12K

Employees affected

20

Since 2020

2

Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual Take 5 franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not Take 5 itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Cases are matched to the brand by trade name and may include misattributed employers. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2025.

Modeled risk

FDD Risk Score · a prediction from disclosure and loan-file features

Lower risk · directional · modeled

The model puts this brand in its lower-risk band — but this brand has too few seasoned SBA loans to check the score against, so read it as a band, not a number.

Risk percentile

Lower risk

Directional · no point estimate

Modeled · vs same-year loans

band only

too few seasoned loans to check

Top drivers: Item 20 exit rate (lowers) · System size (log units) (lowers) · Investment ceiling (log) (lowers) · Net unit growth (raises). Too few seasoned SBA loans to check the score — read it as a band. A linear scorecard trained on brands' vintage-adjusted SBA loss records; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.

Public records

Bankruptcy, closure & federal court records · coverage is selective · dockets are not scored

We have no verified public-record signals published for Take 5. This is not evidence that no events exist. Check PACER, the FDD's Item 3 (litigation) and Item 4 (bankruptcy), and recent news yourself.

9 questions to ask a Take 5 franchisee

Built from this brand's own disclosures · take it to your validation calls

The franchisor will give you a list of owners to call. Most buyers ask whether they like it. These questions come from what Take 5 has disclosed. Each one carries the number it came from, so you can check the answer against the record.

  1. 01

    Take 5’s own Item 20 shows 1 of 325 franchised outlets left the system in fiscal 2024 — about 0.3%. Do you know any of those owners, and do you know why they left?

    A franchisor will call these “transitions.” An owner three doors down usually knows whether they sold at a profit or handed the keys back.

    FDD Item 20 · FY2024

  2. 02

    7 units transferred to new owners in fiscal 2024. When you look at those, were they people cashing out a good business — or getting out of a bad one?

    Item 20 counts transfers as neutral, but a transfer can be a good sale or a reluctant exit — the filing does not say which.

    FDD Item 20 · FY2024

  3. 03

    Item 7 says the low end to open is $287K; the average recent SBA loan to Take 5 franchisees was $946K. What did you actually spend to open, all in — and did your loan cover anything beyond the build-out?

    Lenders size loans to the project they finance. If owners say they spent near the loan figure rather than the Item 7 floor, budget from what they spent.

    FDD Item 7 vs SBA approvals FY2020+

  4. 04

    You pay 7.0% royalty on gross sales, plus the ad fund, before any of your own costs. On your actual revenue last year, what did you take home as the owner — not revenue, take-home?

    Royalty is charged on sales, not profit. This is the number the brochure never shows and the one your life actually runs on.

    FDD Item 6

  5. 05

    Take 5 makes an earnings claim in Item 19. Does your unit look like that number — and do you know which units they included to build it?

    Item 19 is legal to build from a flattering subset. Ask whether they excluded new units, closed units, or company stores.

    FDD Item 19 · 2025

  6. 06

    How many months did it take to cover your own costs, and how much cash did you burn getting there?

    Ramp-to-breakeven working capital is the most underestimated line in any franchise purchase, and the most common reason otherwise-good units fail.

    Not disclosed in any FDD — ask an owner

  7. 07

    What does the franchisor charge for that you didn't expect — required tech fees, mandatory remodels, approved-supplier pricing?

    Required spending appears across Items 6, 8 and 11 rather than in one place, so buyers routinely miss the total.

    FDD Items 6, 8, 11

  8. 08

    If your agreement came up for renewal tomorrow at current terms, would you sign again?

    The single most predictive question you can ask. A hesitation is the answer.

    Ask every owner you speak to

  9. 09

    Who else should I call — including someone who left?

    The franchisor's list is curated by definition. Former franchisees are where the unflattering truth lives, and current owners usually know how to reach them.

    Ask every owner you speak to

Want this as a checklist you can take to the calls?

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This page is what buyers see before they call you for validation. If the record above is wrong — or right in a way the numbers can't show — say so. Franchisors: send corrections with the page reference and we will review them against the filing and update or annotate the page. Corrections are checked against the filings; nothing you write is published with your name unless you agree to it.

Take 5 franchise questions, answered from the filings

How many Take 5 franchised outlets left the system last year?

In Take 5's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2024), 1 of 325 franchised outlets left the system — an exit rate of 0.3% — compared with a 1.7% median across 27 comparable systems (automotive) tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons" as the franchisor reported them; it excludes transfers to new owners. The FDD does not say why each outlet left, and an exit is not the same as a failure.

How much does a Take 5 franchise cost?

Per Take 5's 2025 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $45,000 (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $287K–$2.1M (Item 7).

What royalty does Take 5 charge?

Take 5 charges an ongoing royalty of 7.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2025 FDD.

Does Take 5 disclose earnings (Item 19)?

Yes — Take 5 makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2025 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.