The US Auto Business Through the Aftermarket's Eyes

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The US Auto Business Through the Aftermarket’s Eyes

Podcast: Bloomberg Businessweek
Hosts: Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec
Guest: Brian Maciak, CEO of Full Speed Automotive
Date: January 20, 2026

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Overview

This episode explores the current state of the US automotive market with a unique angle: the perspective of the aftermarket service sector. Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec speak with Brian Maciak, CEO of Full Speed Automotive (parent company of Grease Monkey, Speedy Oil Change & Auto Service, Quick Car, etc.), about trends among US car owners, their maintenance habits, and how economic and technological changes are shaping both consumer behavior and business strategy in auto repair and maintenance.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Porsche Example: Setting the Stage

[01:37–02:24]

• Hosts highlight recent news: Porsche’s global deliveries fell 10% in the previous year, the steepest drop since 2009.
• Weak EV demand and a slump in China are blamed alongside supply chain and tariff complexities.

The Aftermarket Lens: How Consumers Approach Car Maintenance

Interview with Brian Maciak begins at [02:24]

Changing Consumer Habits

• Americans increasingly see car maintenance as “a grudge purchase. Right. It’s a chore.” (Brian Maciak, [03:06])
• Full Speed Automotive’s brands serve millions at ~900 locations—giving them insight into national consumer trends.
• Customers want “value,” “efficiency,” and minimal time spent on service.
  • Brian: “Nobody wakes up in the morning and is excited to go get an oil change.” ([03:06])

Economic Signals in Car Servicing

• High new-vehicle costs ($50,000 avg.) and monthly payments ($700) are forcing consumers to hold onto cars longer—average car age is about 13.5 years, with 300 million vehicles on US roads ([04:04-04:31]).
• “They’re keeping their cars longer…they have to go to preventative maintenance…but they’re trying to watch their pocketbook.” ([04:31])
• Consumers are stretching service intervals: previously visiting every three months, now every five to six months—“We might see that customer only two times a year.” ([05:09–05:20])
• This shift began about 12–18 months ago ([05:20])

The Cautious, Frugal Consumer

• Consumers are more cautious and price-sensitive, reflecting the general mood despite strong headline economic indicators ([05:27–05:48]).
• Quote: “I think they’re frugal, and they’re very, very cautious about spending anything unnecessarily out of their pocketbook.” – Brian Maciak ([05:48])
• Desire for “efficiency” and “trust” is key; 70% of people distrust auto maintenance shops.

Technology & Trust in Automotive Service

• Full Speed Automotive is tackling trust issues by providing digital inspections:
  • “We don’t want you to take our word for it…we want to send you a digital vehicle inspection on your phone so you can see it.” ([05:48–06:43])
• Real-world anecdotes:
  • Carol’s story about a video showing rat damage to a car ([07:32–08:17]).
• The power imbalance between technicians and consumers makes transparency vital:
  • “Customer doesn’t know anything…The person working on the car seems to have all the power.” – Carol Massar ([08:26])
• Approach: Technicians show both what is in good shape and what will need replacement soon, building trust and driving future business ([08:40–09:06]).

Workforce & Labor Trends

• Servicing modern vehicles requires more technical skill—shift from “do it yourself” to “do it for me” ([09:36–09:41]).
• Recruiting from trade schools and the military: “These are people that are well trained, they show up on time, they’re loyal, very, very good workers, and they stay with you for a while.” – Brian Maciak ([09:41-10:03])
• Persistent trade skills gap: Hard to hire master mechanics, though Full Speed focuses on entry-level positions and robust in-house training ([10:03–10:47]).

Business Structure & Strategy

• Of ~900 stores, 300 are company-owned; remainder are franchises or licensees ([11:00–11:11]).
• Owned by private equity (MidOcean Partners) for five years; focus currently is on top-line and network growth, primarily franchise expansion ([11:15–11:20]).

The Multi-Brand Approach

• Regional brand loyalty matters—hence multiple store brands persist ([11:35–12:10]):
  • “In some pockets, in some regions…they really want to go to their small regional brand that they’ve gone to all the time. There’s name cache there. And for us to change it would be a silly business decision.” – Brian Maciak ([11:39])

The EV Question

• Electric vehicles don’t need oil changes, but hybrids (a growing segment) do ([12:10–12:38]).
• The company offers diversified services (brakes, tires, etc.)—EVs still require some of these:
  • “Hybrids need oil changes. Where we’re trying to even see those EVs are we offer a diversified menu of services. So…we still see them.” – Brian Maciak ([12:39])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the customer mindset:
  • “Nobody wakes up in the morning and is excited to go get an oil change.” – Brian Maciak ([03:06])
• On economic impact:
  • “Average cost to buy a new vehicle is about $50,000…people are spending an average of about $700 a month…and that is forcing people to keep their cars longer.” – Brian Maciak ([04:04])
• On trust and transparency:
  • “About 70% of people distrust the folks that work in my industry. And we are trying our best to reverse that trend.” – Brian Maciak ([05:48])
  • “We want to show you visually…a digital vehicle inspection on your phone so you can see it.” – Brian Maciak ([06:00])
• On regional branding:
  • “There’s name cache…for us to change it would be a silly business decision.” – Brian Maciak ([11:39])
• On EVs’ effect:
  • “It really hasn’t transferred…hybrids are important…but hybrids need oil changes…they still need brakes…so we still see them.” – Brian Maciak ([12:18–12:39])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Porsche/Industry News & Setup: [01:37–02:24]
• Full Speed Automotive Overview Begins: [02:24]
• Consumer Attitudes & Economic Trends: [03:06–05:27]
• Technology, Trust, and the Power Dynamic: [05:48–09:06]
• Labor & Workforce Gap: [09:13–10:47]
• Business Ownership, Strategy, & Branding: [11:00–12:10]
• Electrification & Service Diversification: [12:10–12:52]

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Conclusion

The discussion offers a unique “aftermarket” pulse of the US auto sector—painting a picture of frugal, efficiency-focused consumers keeping cars for over a decade, demanding transparency from service providers, and facing a shift toward skilled, technology-driven auto maintenance. Despite talk about EVs upending the old oil-change business, the data and day-to-day reality (with EV and hybrid servicing, plus regional brand loyalty) show a slow evolution rather than a sudden disruption.

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Summary prepared for listeners who want practical, on-the-ground insights into American car ownership, consumer mood, and how the repair business is adapting to technology and economics in 2026.

Transcript

[Marsh Representative]

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[Carol Massar]

You're listening to Bloomberg Businessweek with Carol Massar and Tim Stanvick on Bloomberg Radio. Lots of automotive news today. Porsche shares this could have been a decliner fell in Germany. The company reported deliveries fell 10% last year. It's the steepest drop going back to 2009 global financial crisis.

[Tim Stanvick]

That's a big drop.

[Marsh Representative]

Yeah, yeah.

[Carol Massar]

Weak demand for EVs a slump in China weighing on the company.

[Tim Stanvick]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, they have struggled. They've had a bunch of challenges. Safe to say they've had to correct an overly ambitious, as you said, EV rollout that upended some of their model plans. Weighed on margins. You've got tariffs in the United States. That too has played on them. The overall auto sector, which has surpassed China as Porsche's most important market, also have weighed on profit. We've talked about the China story too, when it comes to the luxury market.

[Carol Massar]

Let's talk about the U.S. story in the auto industry and sort of a different take on it. We've got Brian Maciac with us. He's CEO of Full Speed Automotive. It's the parent company of the automotive repair and service facilities including Grease Monkey, Speedy Oil Change Auto Service and Quick Car and more. So think oil changes, tire sales and rotations, brake services and the like. Brian joins us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio. Welcome. How are you?

[Brian Maciak]

Hey, I'm doing great. I appreciate the opportunity.

[Carol Massar]

Yeah, thanks. So you've got a really interesting view on the country and the economy because Full Speed Automotive, through its different brands, franchise and Company owned 900 of these stores throughout the U.S. you serve millions of customers each year. How is it out there? Like, what are you seeing from your customers?

[Brian Maciak]

Yeah, so it's very, very clear if you listen to the customer, exactly what they want. They want value, they want efficiency. They don't want to be there. I mean, let's, you know, in all honesty, nobody wakes up in the morning and is excited to go get an oil change. Right. No one wants to spend the dollars. It's a grudge purchase. Right. It's a chore. And we understand that that doesn't mean that we can't deliver a delightful service for them. Right. And so when they show up, we want to treat them like they're a guest in our house. We want to open the door for them. We want to escort them into the waiting area, we want to offer them water, coffee, and we want to provide them honesty of what that service needs.

[Carol Massar]

Are they on time in general with the recommended rotations, with replacing tires with oil changes, or are they letting that slip and are they driving cars longer without getting them serviced? Like, I'm looking for any economic signals that you can send us from, from what you see.

[Brian Maciak]

Sure, sure. No, our space is fairly resilient to whatever fluctuations in the economy exist. But right now, the average cost to buy a new vehicle is about $50,000. People are spending an average of about $700 a month on their vehicle. And so what's that? You know, you think back, that doesn't include gas.

[Tim Stanvick]

You're talking about a car payment.

[Brian Maciak]

Car payment alone, yeah. Right. And so that is forcing people to keep their cars longer. And average age of the vehicle on the road right now, and there's about 300 million of them, about 13 and a half years. They're still continuing to drive about 13,000 miles a year. So they're driving longer or. Yeah, they're driving, you know, normal miles. They're keeping their cars longer. And that means they have to they have to go to preventative maintenance. They have to get that car done. But they're trying to watch their pocketbook. And so they are stretching as long as possible before they need to get it into our bays and perform the oil change.

[Tim Stanvick]

How long have you started seeing that? That people are stretching out?

[Brian Maciak]

Yeah. So, you know, there was a time when we used to see every three months on the dot, and now it's around five, six months. We might see that customer only two times a year.

[Tim Stanvick]

When did that start? Last six months? Last year?

[Brian Maciak]

Probably about the last 12 months. Yeah, last 12 to 18 months, we started to see it slip, but that's where it is right now, is about five to six months. We'll see that customer.

[Tim Stanvick]

So how would you broaden, Brian, describe the consumer? Because I think it's safe to say that when we talk about this economy, folks say we wait. You know, when your records on Wall street, we've got economic growth, like, there's a lot of metrics out there. Even though we're starting to be a little bit concerned about the job market, unemployment rate still pretty low. So I'm just trying to understand, well, how would you describe today's consumer?

[Brian Maciak]

Yeah, I think they're frugal. I think they're frugal, and they're very, very cautious about spending anything unnecessarily out of their pocketbook. They're. They're also the customer wants efficiency. They don't want to be there long. They want to be quick, get it in, get it out. And it's also not lost on us that about 70% of people distrust the folks that work in my industry. And we are trying our best to reverse that trend. And how we're looking to do it is infusing some technology into the customer experience. We don't want you to take our word for it anymore when we come to you and say, no, no, keep going. When we, when we say, you know, you need a. You need a transmission flush or a brake flush, we want to show you visually, we want to send you a digital vehicle inspection on your phone so you can see it. And we start to build that stickiness and that trust together.

[Tim Stanvick]

Well, isn't that kind of what cars are about? I mean, I remember a few years ago, it's kind of a little embarrassing, but we had a car and, you know, there was, I guess, a rainstorm and there was some water runoff and thought we could kind of go through it. It didn't look so high. It ended up frying all the electronics and we had to just, we lost the complete car. But I'm just. Isn't it today that you just basically plug in and the car tells you what it needs to have done?

[Brian Maciak]

In a lot of ways in some, yes, you can do those diagnostic. It doesn't hit every single code.

[Marsh Representative]

Okay.

[Brian Maciak]

And sometimes the customer just doesn't want to pay that extra 50, $70 for that diagnostic they're requiring on our 16 point inspection visually. And we don't want to just, we don't want them to just simply take our word for it. We want to show them in a video so that there is no ambiguity whatsoever.

[Tim Stanvick]

So what do you show them?

[Carol Massar]

It's so funny. I mean, a few, a couple years ago, my uncle had this Prius for years that like, you know, he drove for years. Then it went to my cousin, his son, and he showed me this video a couple years ago and it was like the car had just been beat up. I mean, it parked on the streets of New York for years. It was a complete beater. And he showed me this video. He's like, check this out. And it was a video from a mechanic that was showing all the places where the rats had chewed up inside of the car. This is very what happens in New York City, especially in the winter. Like, it's really gross, but it's a very New York City thing. And what I was, I was struck by the video was it was because it was basically like the mechanic was offering this as proof of this happening. It wasn't like, hey, check this out, this is crazy.

[Tim Stanvick]

So he went inside the car and.

[Carol Massar]

He'S like, this is why we are replacing this. This is why we're doing this. It's this like environment where there's a real lack of trust because I think there's a power dynamic imbalance.

[Brian Maciak]

Yes.

[Carol Massar]

When it comes to the customer and when it comes to the person who's working on your car, customer doesn't know anything. You have Google and ChatGPT. The person working on the car seems to have all the power. And I think that's a hard thing for me as a customer to come to terms with, especially when that check comes.

[Brian Maciak]

You got it right. So we want to go through our 16, 17 point inspection. We want to tell you, hey, your tires look good. We want to show you, we want to show you the measurement that you're fine. If anyone tells you you need new tires, you don't. And then we want to show you some things that this needs to be replaced. But maybe not right now. So maybe it's 30, 60 days from now. And that gives our marketing team then an opportunity to reach out, back out to that customer in a month or two and say it's about that time. Bring it back in. Here's a coupon to do.

[Tim Stanvick]

So it sounds like it's also labor intensive. Like you do need a lot of folks in order to. The cars come in, do the evaluation. Walk us through that.

[Brian Maciak]

You do? Yeah.

[Tim Stanvick]

Okay.

[Brian Maciak]

So cars are becoming much, much more technologically advanced and difficult. And that's good and bad. I remember the days when my dad would change his oil in the, in the parking lot. Now these.

[Tim Stanvick]

My dad taught all of us how.

[Brian Maciak]

To, how to do it. Yeah.

[Carol Massar]

Now you can't get.

[Tim Stanvick]

Not change your oil, but we had to learn how to check it.

[Carol Massar]

Now you can't get rid of the.

[Tim Stanvick]

Track of our mileage. Like we had to do a lot of stuff.

[Carol Massar]

You can't get rid of the oil now. So you actually need to go somewhere.

[Brian Maciak]

That's right. That's right. So we have shifted from a do it yourself to a do it for me, right?

[Tim Stanvick]

Yeah.

[Brian Maciak]

But we need skilled labor in order to do that. And we have really good relationships with trade schools and trade school enrollment is increasing. We also have found partnering with the military folks that are getting out of the military and needing jobs. I mean, these are people that are well trained, they show up on time, they're loyal, very, very good workers, and they stay with you for a while.

[Carol Massar]

Can you find them? Because there was this Wall Street Journal story just the last few days, the $160,000 mechanic job that 4 Ford cannot fill. It's sort of turned into this lore as an illustration of the trade skills gap in this country. Can you find everybody you need?

[Brian Maciak]

Not everybody. There's definitely. There's always a race for those master mechanics. No question about it. But.

[Tim Stanvick]

But do you need master mechanics?

[Brian Maciak]

We don't. Okay. And so Ford would be different. Right. They're doing heavy engine work, transmission work, and we don't do that. We focus on quick lube and then some ancillary services that you really don't have to drop off the car. You can still stay in the waiting room 20, 30 minutes and you're on your way.

[Carol Massar]

Can someone who has no experience but has drive and motivation come in, learn what they need to do there? Do they need some sort of training ahead of time?

[Brian Maciak]

Yeah. So certainly you can take a newbie for sure. Not every employer is going to do that. We have a really robust training program where we won't Let you work on a car until we, you pass the certifications. But for the right candidate, we'll absolutely put them through it.

[Carol Massar]

Franchise versus company owned. Like close to a thousand total. What's the breakdown of franchise versus?

[Brian Maciak]

So we have 300 company owned and then the remainder are franchisees and licensees.

[Carol Massar]

And you're owned by Mid Ocean Partners, private equity firm acquired just about five, six years ago.

[Brian Maciak]

That's right, five years ago.

[Carol Massar]

What's the, what's the plan? What's the next iteration of this?

[Brian Maciak]

So right now we're, we're doing well from a cash flow standpoint. At some point, you know, they may, they may want to do a transaction. I'm sure they will. Right. But right now we're just focused on the growth, growing top line and then growing our rooftops largely on the franchise side.

[Tim Stanvick]

Why have so many different brands? Why not put it all under one brand name?

[Brian Maciak]

Yeah, that's a fantastic question. And my initial thought was, yeah, let's just all convert it to one national brand. But what we have found is in some pockets, in some regions, Michigan being one of them, they really want to go to their small regional brand that they've gone to all the time. There's name cache there. And for us to change it would be a silly business decision. So, you know, it costs a little more on the marketing side. Right, for sure. But that's what the customer wants and that's what we want to deliver. Where we think we can convert the name, we will.

[Carol Massar]

EVs don't need new. They need new tires, they need new brakes, but they don't need the lubrication services that you guys do.

[Brian Maciak]

Right? Yeah.

[Carol Massar]

Is it a concern?

[Mint Mobile Advertiser]

It's not.

[Brian Maciak]

You know, I think a few more years ago we all, well, I don't want to say about all, but some of us thought, oh my goodness, if this is going to take over, the quick loop space is going to dry up pretty quickly. And it really hasn't transferred. Transferred to that. Right. Hybrids are important. Hybrids are selling, but hybrids need oil changes.

[Tim Stanvick]

Right.

[Brian Maciak]

Where we're trying to even see those EVs are we offer a diversified menu of services. So they still need the brakes. They still need a lot of the other ancillary services. So we still see them.

[Tim Stanvick]

All right, good stuff. Really fascinating.

[Brian Maciak]

Stay in touch. I appreciate it. Thank you.

[Tim Stanvick]

Yeah, we appreciate it too. Brian Maciak, he's chief Executive officer at Full Speed Automotive right here in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker studio.

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