Verified — real FDD extraction
SBA-eligible · directory code S2560 since 2018
Tire Pros
Automotive · independent · est. —
Tire Pros is a network of independent tire and automotive-service retailers operating under a shared brand. Locations sell tires and perform maintenance and repairs such as alignments, brakes, and oil changes. A franchisee runs a tire-and-auto-service shop with service bays and a sales counter.
Tire Pros net unit count declined -19.5% from 2021–2025 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. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:
- 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 and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).
The verdict
Showing strain
Distress
The franchisor's own audited financials carry going-concern language — its auditor has doubts about its survival. Fundamentals cannot out-rank that.
Exit rate · latest year
21.8%
vs 5.6% across 18 automotive systems
Cost to open
$111K–$444K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
6.7%
15 loans resolved — directional only
Market density · California
Typical density
1% denser than the national average
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness
Systemwide units
2021–2025
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2025, 132 of 605 franchised outlets left the system — a 21.8% annualized exit rate, vs 5.6% across 18 automotive systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 615 | 615 | 623 | 644 | 605 |
| Opened | 63 | 74 | 78 | 70 | 22 |
| Transfers | 14 | 23 | 11 | 21 | 9 |
| Terminations | 63 | 66 | 50 | 103 | 121 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 7 |
| Outlets at end | 615 | 623 | 644 | 605 | 495 |
| Net change | 0 | +8 | +21 | -39 | -110 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 39 SBA-backed loans to Tire Pros franchisees since 2005. Only 15 have resolved so far — too thin for a reliable default rate, but 1 of them charged off.
—
15 resolved · too thin to rate
—
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
—
default rate × loss severity
$655,685
what recent franchisees borrowed
76 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
7 vs 11
distinct banks still lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
Loan performance by state
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO TIRE PROS BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
America First Federal Credit Union
17.2% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 3.5% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
72.7%
first-time franchise owners
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators charge off at roughly 10% versus 17% for brands sold mostly to newcomers.
Does experience help here?
Not enough resolved loans to split
Computed from 39 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to Tire Pros franchisees joined to the brand's own FDD. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. 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 $7K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $111K–$444K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes no earnings claim (Item 19) — ask current and former franchisees for real numbers.
To open (Item 7)
$111K–$444K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$7K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
—
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — this brand discloses no Item 19 earnings; validate with current & former owners.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$0
0% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$0
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.
Build a real pro-forma for Tire Pros with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 18 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $122K in back wages for 116 workers, including 1 child-labor case. Some of these cases are recent, not ancient history. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
18
Back wages owed
$122K
Employees affected
116
Since 2020
3
1 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 2 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual Tire Pros franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not Tire Pros 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. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2025.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand looks riskier than 92% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
92 / 100
Loan-corroborated
Modeled SBA charge-off
22.0%
Observed SBA charge-off
6.7%
Top drivers: Non-clean audit opinion (raises) · Share financed by high-loss lenders (lowers) · Item 20 exit rate (raises) · System size (log units) (lowers). 15+ resolved loans stand behind this estimate. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
Franchise litigation docket: Marcelo Gomez v. Premium Tire Pros (District Court, C.D. California)
CourtListener/RECAP · 6mo ago
Franchise litigation docket: Luz Zendejas v. Van Nuys Tire Pros (District Court, C.D. California)
CourtListener/RECAP · 31mo ago
10 questions to ask a Tire Pros 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 are the questions built from what Tire Pros has actually disclosed — each one carries the number it came from, so you can tell whether the answer squares with the record.
- 01
Tire Pros’ own Item 20 shows 132 of 605 franchised outlets left the system in fiscal 2025 — about 21.8%. 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 · FY2025
- 02
9 units transferred to new owners in fiscal 2025. When you look at those, were they people cashing out a good business — or getting out of a bad one?
Transfers count as neutral in every ranking. They are the single easiest place to hide distress.
FDD Item 20 · FY2025
- 03
The system went from 615 units to 495 over 5 disclosed years. What's the explanation you've been given, and do you believe it?
A shrinking system means fewer owners funding the ad fund and support staff you're paying for.
FDD Item 20 · FY2021–FY2025
- 04
Item 7 says the low end to open is $111K, but the average recent SBA loan to a Tire Pros franchisee was $656K. What did you actually spend to open, all in?
Lenders size loans to real project costs. A large gap between the disclosed floor and what banks actually fund is the most common way buyers get underfunded.
FDD Item 7 vs SBA approvals FY2020+
- 05
Tire Pros’ FDD makes no financial performance representation at all — legally, they've told buyers nothing about earnings. What did your first 24 months actually look like, month by month?
When a franchisor won't publish numbers, existing owners are the only source. Silence in Item 19 is a choice, not a requirement.
FDD Item 19 · 2026
- 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
- 07
The franchisor's own audited financials carry going-concern language — their auditor has flagged doubt about the company surviving. Has support or supply changed for you in the last year?
If the franchisor fails, your agreement, your supply chain and your brand can be sold to someone whose plans you never agreed to.
FDD Item 21 · audited financials
- 08
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
- 09
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
- 10
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?
I'll email you the printable version, and tell you if Tire Pros’ numbers move — a new filing, a rising exit rate, a distress signal. Unsubscribe in one click.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. I'm paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing Tire Pros's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
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. Corrections are checked against the filings; nothing you write is published with your name unless you agree to it.
Tire Pros franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of Tire Pros franchises closed last year?
In Tire Pros's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2025), 132 of 605 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 21.8% — compared with 5.6% across 18 automotive systems tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.
How much does a Tire Pros franchise cost?
Per Tire Pros's 2026 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $7K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $111K–$444K (Item 7).
Does Tire Pros disclose earnings (Item 19)?
No — Tire Pros's 2026 FDD makes no financial performance representation in Item 19. That is legal and common, but it means the franchisor publishes no earnings claim; ask current franchisees for real numbers.