Hazelford Funding, a small-business funding service in Lebanon, Tennessee, wrote this article for auto repair and maintenance shops in Wilson County, TN. It covers the equipment shops finance, such as lifts, alignment racks and diagnostic tools, the tradeoffs of used equipment, buying versus leasing, and how to show a partner that the equipment pays for itself.
Equipment decides capacity
In a repair shop, revenue depends on how many cars can be worked on at once and how quickly each one is diagnosed and fixed. Bays without lifts, a scan tool that cannot read newer vehicles or no alignment rack all send work elsewhere. Auto repair equipment financing options exist because these items are expensive, long-lived and directly tied to revenue.
Wilson County, TN had 74 auto repair and maintenance employers in 2023, with 33 of them in ZIP 37087, Lebanon's main ZIP (County Business Patterns and ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023). Another 239 auto repair businesses ran without payroll in 2024 (Nonemployer Statistics 2024).
Equipment a shop may finance
- Lifts: two-post, four-post and scissor lifts, often with installation and anchoring.
- Alignment racks and machines: a high-value item that opens a steady stream of work.
- Diagnostic scan tools and ADAS calibration: needed for late-model vehicles.
- Tire machines and balancers: essential for tire work.
- Air compressors, A/C recovery machines and welders.
Lifts are standard items with clear market values, which makes automotive lift financing easier to document.
New or used?
Used equipment can cost less, and partners may finance it. Expect questions about age, condition and the seller. Lifts and compressors with documented maintenance are easier to fund than diagnostic tools, which can go out of date quickly as vehicle technology changes.
- Get the make, model, year and serial number.
- For lifts, check the certification label and the condition of cables, locks and hydraulics.
- For diagnostic tools, check software update status and subscription costs.
- From a private seller, get a bill of sale and proof of ownership.
Buy, lease or finance?
Financing to own makes sense for lifts and compressors that will work for many years. A lease can suit diagnostic equipment that may need replacing in a few years. The equipment financing page explains fair market value leases and $1 buyout leases. To see what a fixed-payment loan would cost each month, the loan calculator gives the payment, total interest and total repaid for any amount, rate and term you enter.
Installation, training and the hidden costs
The quote for a piece of shop equipment is rarely the whole cost. Lifts may need a thicker slab or new anchors. Alignment racks need floor space and sometimes a dedicated bay. Diagnostic and ADAS tools carry software subscriptions and calibration targets. Air systems need piping. Ask each vendor for an installed price that includes these items, because a partner can fund what is on the invoice, while costs that show up later come out of the operating account.
Training is easy to overlook too. A technician who has not used a new alignment system will be slower for the first few weeks, which delays the payback you planned for.
Beyond the lift: working capital for an auto repair shop
New equipment often brings a second cost: the technician to run it and the parts to keep it busy. Business loans for an auto repair shop can carry both, as long as the file keeps them apart.
- Equipment: the lift, rack or scan tool, on its own quote.
- Payroll: a new technician's wages until the added bay bills steadily.
- Parts stock: filters, brake parts and fluids for the extra volume.
- Software: ADAS calibration targets and diagnostic subscriptions, billed yearly or monthly.
Illustration only: a shop budgets $4,800 a month for an added technician and $3,000 of opening parts stock. If the new bay reaches full billing in about three months, the working capital need is roughly $17,400 before the bay carries itself, separate from the equipment quote. The figures are an example, not an offer.
Show that the equipment pays for itself
Illustration only: a shop that turns away about three alignments a week adds an alignment rack. If each alignment bills $120, those jobs bring in about $360 a week, or roughly $1,550 a month before parts and labor. Setting that figure beside the monthly payment shows a partner how the equipment supports itself. These are example figures, not an offer.
Shops also finance parts stock and payroll; the auto repair funding page covers both, and county figures are on the Lebanon, TN page.
