What happened in the industry. What it means for your shop. What to do about it. 575 locations across 26 states. That's how big Sun Auto Tire & Service is right now — after buying 23 shops in Colorado in a single move this month. And that's just one company. I know — you've got cars stacked up and you're already short-handed. The last thing you need is more bad news about how big the chains are getting. But this isn't bad news. This might be the best hiring opportunity you've had in years. Here's what happened in the last 10 days that most shop owners won't hear about until it's too late to do anything about it. DRIVEN BRANDS IS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE The parent company behind Meineke, Maaco, and Take 5 disclosed major accounting errors — across seven categories. Their stock dropped nearly 40%. They're restating financials going back to 2023. Eight major law firms have filed class-action lawsuits. Lead plaintiff deadline is May 8th. Every technician working at a Meineke, a Maaco, or a Take 5 right now can Google their employer's name and see lawsuits. Financial instability. Uncertainty about whether the place they work is going to be the same place in six months. That tech isn't updating their resume yet. But the seed is planted. And when they do start looking, they're not going to Indeed. They're going to look around — at shops in their area, at what comes across their Facebook feed, at who looks like a stable place to land. Will they find you? SUN AUTO'S COLORADO LAND GRAB Sun Auto entered Colorado by acquiring 23 DAS Drive Automotive Service locations — including Pride Auto Care shops in Denver, Aurora, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Littleton, Parker, Thornton, and Longmont. Here's what happens when a roll-up acquires this many locations at once: culture shock. New corporate processes. New management layers. New comp plans that don't match what was promised when the tech took the job. Techs who went to work at a shop they liked woke up working for a corporation they didn't choose.

Not many folks talk about this part of owning a shop. Not your coach. Not your parts rep. Not the guy in your 20 Group who's always bragging about his car count. The part where you're doing the revenue. The bays are full. The schedule is packed. Customers are happy. And you still feel like something is wrong. You're tired in a way that a weekend off doesn't fix. You snap at your service advisor over something stupid. You skip your kid's game because there's "too much going on." You sit in the parking lot for ten minutes before walking in because you need to work up the energy to care. The business is running. But it's running you. I want to tell you about a guy named Eddie Lawrence. Eddie is a shop owner. He owns a successful diesel repair shop in Colorado Springs, CO. He was successful by every metric that matters on paper. Revenue was up. Team was solid. Growth was happening. On September 2nd, 2015, at 3:30 in the morning, Eddie was dead on his bathroom floor. His wife Holly found him without a pulse. The EMTs came. They rushed him to the hospital. He spent two days recovering from an internal bleed he didn't even know he had — because he'd been running so hard, for so long, that he'd stopped listening to his own body. Seat belts on. Pedal to the metal. Slam the brakes. Airbags deployed. That was Eddie's operating system. And it almost killed him. He survived. And the first thing he did when he got home was ask himself a question that most business owners never stop long enough to ask: Which parts of my life are out of calibration? Not "how do I grow revenue." Not "how do I hire another tech." Which parts of my life are out of calibration — and what is it costing me? That question led Eddie to build something I think every shop owner in this community should know about. It's called Life Calibration. If anything I just described sounds familiar — even a little — take the self-diagnostic test right now. It's free. It takes 5 minutes. No sales call. No one's going to blow up your phone.

A shop owner — let's call him Jim — came to me a couple of years back with a job ad his business coach wrote. He wanted me to "plug it into my system." This happens more than you'd think. I looked at the ad. It was fine. A little better than the average Indeed post. But it wasn't a scroll-stopper. It wasn't going to grab a working tech's attention and make him curious enough to click and learn more. So I asked Jim a question. "Jim, what do you tell a customer who comes into your shop and asks if you can install the parts they bought at AutoZone?" He didn't hesitate. "We don't do that." "Jim, you just walked into my office and dropped a bag of parts on my desk that you want me to install on the hiring vehicle we're building for you." He got it immediately. Here's what I didn't mention to Jim in that moment: That week alone, we were running approximately 600 automotive technician ads across 30 shops all over the United States. I'd be willing to bet the business coach who gave Jim that ad hadn't run 600 ads in his entire career. And here's the thing most shop owners don't think about — The reason I wouldn't run his ad is the exact same reason he won't install customer supplied AutoZone parts: - I can't be sure of the quality. Just like he can't be sure of the condition of those parts. - If we don't get results, it's still on us. Just like if a customer's part fails, the shop still takes the heat. - It compromises the entire system we've built. Just like installing random parts compromises the integrity of the repair. I told Jim he was welcome to run the ad on his own and compare it to our results. If it pulled a good tech, he could look like a hero. If it failed, we'd still be running a proven system with years of solid results as a backup. Here's the pattern I see: Shop owners know instantly why they don't install customer-supplied parts. They don't even have to think about it. But they'll hand their most critical business problem — finding the right technician — to someone who's never run a recruiting campaign in their market.

5,500 technicians were just asked what they want most from an employer. Higher pay wasn't #1. Neither was a tool allowance. Neither was a career path. Neither was air conditioning. WrenchWay and ASE just released their 2026 Voice of Technician Report — the biggest annual survey of what techs actually think about this industry, their employers, and their careers. Over 5,500 responses from automotive, diesel, and collision techs. I dug through it so you don't have to. Here's the chart that matters most, then I'll tell you what I think it means for your shop (see attachment). Let's break this down. — THE TOP TWO MIGHT SURPRISE YOU Proper equipment and paid vacation. Tied at 87%. Must-have. Not "nice to have." Not "would be cool." MUST. HAVE. That means if your techs are working with a scan tool from 2014, a lift that sticks, or lights that make the shop feel like a cave — they're not just frustrated. They're evaluating their options. And if you're not offering PTO? You're not even in the conversation. Every other trade offers time off. Plumbers get PTO. Electricians get PTO. The guy who installs garage doors gets PTO. If your shop doesn't, a tech doesn't see a tough-but-fair owner. They see someone who doesn't respect their time. The good news? Neither of these is expensive. You already need working equipment for production. And PTO is table stakes in 2026. If you've already got both of these dialed in, you're ahead of more shops than you think. — RETIREMENT LANDED AT 73% Almost three out of four techs said a retirement plan is a must-have. Lots of independents don't offer one. This is one of the easiest wins in the whole list. A Simple IRA with a 3% match isn't complicated to set up and it doesn't break the bank. But most shop owners just never got around to it. It sits on the "someday" list right next to updating the employee handbook. Meanwhile, the dealership down the road has a 401(k) with matching, and your best tech knows it. — THE CAREER PATH GAP IS MASSIVE