One corporation owns Take 5, Meineke, Maaco, CARSTAR, and at least eight more auto service brands — and the illusion of competition is costing you at the repair bay.
When you pull into a Take 5 for a quick oil change or swing by Meineke for new brakes, you think you're choosing between rival shops. You're not. Driven Brands holds the portfolio, and that consolidation means fewer real options, less accountability, and prices set by a single corporate hand rather than the discipline of an actual market.
The conglomerate got its start with Meineke and Maaco locations back in 1972, according to SlashGear. Meineke itself became the foundation for Driven Brands' formal creation in 2006. From there, the acquisitions stacked up: Maaco in 2008, Take 5 Oil Change in 2016, and a steady march of additional brands since.
The scale is staggering. As of 2022, Driven Brands controlled 350 car wash locations, 800 Take 5 Oil Change centers, and 1,000 collision repair spots across the U.S. and Canada. The company ranked No. 2 nationally in auto glass repair, replacement, and calibration. Take 5 alone has swelled to nearly 1,300 locations across North America. Meineke boasts over 900 U.S. locations plus international stores. And those numbers are climbing — the brand is aiming higher.
Much of this growth relies on the franchise model. Many Driven Brands outlets operate as independent franchises, some exclusively so. That structure lets the parent corporation expand its footprint while pushing risk onto individual franchisees — small-business owners who think they're running their own shop but answer to a corporate playbook on pricing, parts, and operations.
The branding hides the ownership. Take 5 markets itself as the pioneer of stay-in-your-car oil changes, a gimmick it debuted in 1996. Meineke still trades on its origins as "Meineke Discount Muffler," even though it transitioned to full-service centers by 1999 and now handles everything from brake jobs to EV maintenance. Different signs, different slogans, same owner.
Both brands scored well in J.D. Power surveys — Take 5 ranked second best for oil change customer satisfaction and Meineke took top marks for tire replacement service in 2026. But customer satisfaction at the franchise level doesn't answer the structural question: when one company dominates multiple service categories under different names, who holds them accountable when prices rise or quality slips across the board?
The answer, right now, is nobody. That's the deal with consolidated markets. The franchisee takes the heat at the counter. The parent company collects the fees. And the consumer, told they have choices, shops inside a house of brands owned by one landlord.
The real question isn't whether Take 5 or Meineke does decent work. It's whether Americans can ever get genuine price competition when the same corporate entity is writing the playbook for both.
