The firm counted every collision repair and auto body listing in Texas in the open map data published by the Overture Maps Foundation, and sorted each one by who appears to own it: an independent shop, a consolidator or franchise system, or a car dealer's body shop. The counts below are of listings rather than shops, rounded to the nearest ten, and the method is set out at the end.

Five in six still carry an independent name

Of about 4,440 listings, about 3,710 carry the name of an independent shop. About 670 belong to a consolidator or a franchise system, and about 60 more are plainly a dealer's body shop by their name. The dealer count is a floor: a dealer's shop that does not name the dealership or the make is counted as independent.

  • Houston area. About 1,010 listings, about 840 independent.
  • Dallas and Fort Worth. About 1,280 listings, about 1,050 independent.
  • San Antonio area. About 420 listings, about 330 independent.
  • Austin area. About 370 listings, about 280 independent.
  • Rest of Texas. About 1,360 listings, about 1,200 independent.

Source: Overture Maps Foundation, Places, October 2026 release, open data under the CDLA Permissive 2.0 license. Areas are by ZIP code. Counts are the firm's, rounded to the nearest ten.

Austin has the largest consolidated share of the five areas, at roughly one listing in four; outside the metro areas the independent share is close to nine in ten.

The consolidators are buyers

The largest names in the data are Caliber Collision, with about 230 Texas listings, then Classic Collision, Maaco, Joe Hudson's Collision Center, CARSTAR and Gerber Collision and Glass, each with between about 30 and 60. Maaco and CARSTAR are franchise systems, whose shops are owned locally under a national name; the others mostly own their locations. The owned networks grew in large part by acquiring independent shops, and several continue to.

For the owner of an independent shop, the practical point is that the pool of likely buyers is wider than the shops down the road. It typically includes the consolidators above, private equity backed regional platforms, other independent operators adding a location, and individual buyers, each of whom weighs the same shop differently.

What a buyer of a collision shop looks at

  • Insurer relationships. Direct repair program agreements, how much of the work comes through them, and how long they have held.
  • Certifications. Manufacturer and industry certifications, which decide the vehicles and the insurer work a shop can take.
  • The technicians. Who does the work, how long they have stayed, and whether they are likely to stay through a change of owner.
  • The building. The lease or the property, its term, and whether it can hold more volume.
  • The equipment. Paint booth, frame equipment and calibration tools, their age, and what is owned outright.
  • The books. Revenue by source, labour and parts margins, and statements a buyer can tie to the tax returns.

Few independent shops have all six in order at the moment an owner first thinks of selling, and most can be put in order in the year or two before a sale. That preparation is the subject of the firm's valuation and exit readiness work.

How the count was made

The firm took every place in the October 2026 Overture Maps release whose primary category is an auto body shop, with an address in Texas, leaving out places marked permanently closed. A listing is counted as part of a consolidator or franchise system when the map data links its brand to a known company, when six or more different Texas phone numbers share its name or its website, or when its name is that of a known national operator. It is counted as a dealer's shop when its name names a dealership or a make. Everything else is counted as independent.

Open map data counts listings, not shops. A shop can be listed twice, a closed one can remain listed, and an independent name can belong to a shop that has already been bought. The figures are a fair picture of the market and not a census of it.