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Honest-1 franchise — is it worth it?

Medium risk Shrinking network Item 19 disclosed

Honest-1 is an automotive franchise with a total investment range of $2,500 to $5,000 and a franchise fee of $75,000.

Everything below is free, read straight off Honest-1's registered filing, with where the numbers land against automotive peers. Weighing Honest-1 against other options? Get a free shortlist of franchises that fit your budget.

Figures above are as disclosed in Honest-1's most recent FDD (registered 2024). Source: Minnesota Dept. of Commerce — CARDS franchise registrations · filing 32519-202410-06 — check it yourself. See every other Minnesota-registered franchise.

How much does a Honest-1 franchise make?

Honest-1 is one of the franchisors that answers this on the record: its most recent FDD makes an Item 19 financial performance representation — actual unit earnings figures, disclosed by the franchisor itself. The headline figure did not machine-read cleanly from this filing, so we don't print one; Item 19 of the source FDD has the tables. See every automotive brand that discloses earnings in the Automotive franchises with disclosed Item 19 earnings ranking.

Honest-1 franchise profit vs. revenue

Revenue is not profit. An Item 19 almost always reports sales — what a location takes in — not what an owner keeps. Out of that number come Honest-1's 6% royalty, the ad fund, rent, payroll, supplies and debt service. No FDD tells you a Honest-1 franchise's profit, because profit depends on your site, your rent and how you run it — so treat any "Honest-1 franchise profit" figure quoted elsewhere as someone's estimate, not a disclosure.

Honest-1 lawsuits & legal history (FDD Item 3)

Honest-1's most recently filed Franchise Disclosure Document (2024) does disclose 2 legal proceedings in Item 3 . Item 3 is the item where a franchisor must put its material legal history on the record. Two things it is not: it covers the franchisor and its predecessors, parents and affiliates, so a disclosed case is not necessarily a suit against Honest-1 itself; and a disclosure is a fact, not a finding of wrongdoing — most entries are contract disputes with former franchisees, which every large system accumulates. Item 3 of the source FDD describes each case.

Honest-1 closures & failure rate

Before you sign, Honest-1 will hand you a list of current owners to call as references — and they choose who's on that list. It won't include the owners who quit, got bought out, or were forced out last year. The FDD does report that number, even though the reference list leaves those people off. Below is what Honest-1's most recent filing shows, and whether it's normal for a automotive of this kind.

The closest thing an FDD has to a failure rate is Item 20 — outlet openings, closures, terminations and non-renewals, reported by the franchisor. Honest-1's latest tables show a shrinking franchised network — more units left than opened. Its franchised-outlet closure rate — closures, terminations and non-renewals against outlets — is 1.6%, against a automotive median of 2.5% — at or better than the category. Net franchised outlets moved -1 to 61 in the latest reported year.

Who owns Honest-1?

Honest-1's franchise is offered by H-1 Auto Care, LLC — the franchisor named on the cover of its most recently filed Franchise Disclosure Document (2024), and the entity a franchisee actually signs with. That name comes straight off the filing at MN CARDS; it identifies the franchisor, not necessarily the ultimate parent company behind it.

Automotive franchises at a similar investment level

Anyone weighing Honest-1 is really weighing it against the other brands their money could go into. These are the closest by total initial investment (FDD Item 7), each with its own FDD-based page.

Honest-1 franchise — frequently asked