Automotive M&A
Data room for selling an auto dealership or repair business
ClosingVault is a data room for selling a dealership, an auto repair or collision shop, or a group of them, for any lower-middle-market deal up to $50 million. Years of monthly statements, dealer and insurer agreements, floor plan statements and real estate files are filed to the checklist by topic and period, with account numbers removed.
Last updated: 2026-11-03
What do buyers of an auto dealership or repair shop ask for in diligence?
Automotive buyers want the monthly numbers by department, the agreements that let the business operate, and the real estate it sits on.
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Dealer agreements
For franchised dealers: the manufacturer sales and service agreements, and what the manufacturer requires to approve a new owner.
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Monthly statements by department
The monthly dealer financial statements in the manufacturer’s format, broken out by new, used, service, parts and finance and insurance.
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Floor plan financing
Floor plan agreements, statements and audits, and how vehicle inventory is financed.
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Service and parts
Repair order history, technician roster and certifications, and parts inventory.
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Repair and collision shops
Insurer direct-repair program agreements, car count and average repair order, and equipment.
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Real estate and environmental
The deed or lease for each site, often owned by the dealer principal separately, and permits for waste oil, paint booths and lifts.
What do automotive deals wait on?
Approvals and real estate. A franchised dealership’s sale depends on the manufacturer approving the buyer, and the property is often owned by the dealer principal in another company, so the lease or the real estate purchase becomes its own part of the deal.
For repair and collision shops, the questions are about the work coming in: insurer programs that send the cars, technicians who can do the work, and the equipment that needs replacing. Each is a set of documents a buyer will ask for by name.
How does ClosingVault handle a dealership or repair shop sale?
Monthly statements by period, account numbers removed.
How fast can a dealership or shop data room be set up?
About 3 minutes with the standard checklist. It already asks for Real Property Deeds & Mortgages, the Real Estate Lease Agreements, the Line of Credit Agreement, the Inventory Valuation Report, Environmental & Health Permits and the Workplace Safety Manual. Add dealer agreements and floor plan items from your own Excel list. From there it’s fully customizable for any lower-middle-market deal up to $50 million: phases and dates, who can download, and when each buyer’s access ends. The free due diligence checklist is the same standard checklist, as an Excel download.
What does it cost?
Plans start at $79 a month, billed yearly (founding price). The firm that opens the room pays. Invited buyers, sellers, owners and their teams are always free and unlimited. Every plan and price, or see ClosingVault next to seven low-cost data rooms, step by step.
Automotive services and dealerships data room questions
I own two franchised dealerships and the buildings are in my own name. How do I
show the buyer the real estate side?
The standard checklist asks for Real Property Deeds & Mortgages and Real Estate Lease Agreements, and asks whether the business relies on real estate owned personally by the founders or an affiliated entity. Upload the deeds and leases and answer the question, and each stays on the record.
I’m selling a collision shop and our insurer direct-repair agreements are scanned
PDFs. Will they be filed?
Yes. Scanned PDFs are read with OCR on ClosingVault’s own servers and filed by what is on the page, not the file name.
Our monthly dealer statements go back five years. Do I have to name each one?
No. Each file is read and filed by folder and period, whatever it is called, and exact duplicates are skipped.
I’m a broker with three auto repair listings. Can I see which buyer is reading
what?
Yes. For each buyer you see stage, last active, documents opened, views and downloads, straight from the audit log, and buyer-activity alerts can tell you as often as every 15 minutes.
Our floor plan statements show the account numbers. Will buyers see them?
No. Account numbers on bank, card and loan statements are removed automatically, keeping the last four digits, before any buyer sees the document.
I’m buying a dealership group and have my own request list for the F&I and
floor plan items. Can I use it?
Yes. Upload it as an Excel workbook when you open the room; its phases, categories and items become the checklist, and every document the seller adds is filed against it.
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