NAICS Code for Auto Repair: Which One Is Yours

The NAICS code for a general auto repair shop is 811111. Five ones and an eight. It is the most forgettable number your business owns, and it shows up on a surprising number of forms: loan applications, insurance applications, vendor credit applications, and the occasional government survey that arrives looking exactly like a bill.

(Every one of those forms assumes you know it by heart. Nobody knows it by heart. It is usually printed on last year’s copy of the same form, in the drawer you were about to clean out.)

Here is the short version, then the part nobody else covers: the IRS, the SBA, and your insurance carrier each use a slightly different system, and mixing them up is how a five-minute form turns into a phone call.

The NAICS codes for every kind of auto repair shop

NAICS, the North American Industry Classification System, puts automotive repair in industry group 8111. These are the 2022 codes and their official Census titles, alongside the IRS code you would use on a tax return and the SBA’s small-business ceiling for each:

Titles and definitions come from the official 2022 NAICS descriptions file. IRS codes come from the Schedule C instructions. SBA caps are in millions of dollars of annual receipts, from the size standards table in 13 CFR 121.201.

811111: what counts as general automotive repair

Census defines 811111 as establishments “primarily engaged in providing (1) a wide range of mechanical and electrical repair and maintenance services for automotive vehicles, such as passenger cars, trucks, and vans, and all trailers or (2) engine repair and replacement.”

The illustrative examples are “Automobile repair garages (except gasoline service stations),” “General automotive repair shops,” and “Automotive engine repair and replacement shops.” The official index also places diesel engine repair, general truck repair, fleet repair and maintenance services, and general RV repair here.

If you do a bit of everything, you are 811111. Most independent shops are.

811114: the specialty shop code, new since 2022

If your sign says brakes, mufflers, or transmissions, you are probably 811114, Specialized Automotive Repair: establishments providing “specialized mechanical or electrical repair and maintenance services (except engine repair and replacement).”

Its examples include brake, suspension, exhaust, electrical, transmission, and tune-up shops.

This code is newer than most people’s paperwork. The 2022 revision folded three older codes into it: 811112 (exhaust), 811113 (transmission), and 811118 (other mechanical and electrical). If your bank file still says 811113, nobody made a mistake. The code just retired before you did.

Body shops, glass, quick lubes and the catch-all

• 811121 covers repairing or customizing vehicle bodies and interiors and painting. Body shops, paint shops, restoration shops, and upholstery shops live here.
• 811122 is glass on its own: “replacing, repairing, and/or tinting automotive vehicle glass.”
• 811191 is oil change and lubrication. Quick lubes go here, not under general repair.
• 811192 is car washes, and Census includes “Automotive detail shops” and mobile washes in it.
• 811198 is the catch-all, “All Other Automotive Repair and Maintenance.” It specifically includes A/C repair shops, tire repair without retreading, rustproofing and undercoating, and the official index adds emissions testing and safety inspection services.

Mobile mechanics and tire shops: the two most common wrong guesses

There is no separate mobile mechanic code. The Census index lists “Mobile automotive and truck repair services” under 811111. A van and a building get the same number. (If you are running a van, the business side has its own guide on mobile mechanic software.)

Tire shops depend on what you mostly sell. Census places “Retailing new tires in combination with tire repair services” in 441340, Tire Dealers, which is a retail code, not a repair code. Tire repair alone, without selling new tires, sits under 811198. Retreading is a manufacturing code entirely.

And if you mainly sell parts and also repair cars, Census sends you to 441330, Automotive Parts and Accessories Retailers.

The IRS does not use the same codes

This is the part that trips people up, and the lookup pages that rank for this question skip it.

The IRS publishes its own list of principal business activity codes. It says plainly that “These six-digit codes are based on the NAICS.” Based on, not identical to. The IRS combines several Census industries into one code:

• “811110 - Automotive mechanical & electrical repair & maintenance” covers both 811111 and 811114.
• “811120 - Automotive body, paint, interior, & glass repair” covers both 811121 and 811122.
• “811190 - Other automotive repair & maintenance (including oil change & lubrication shops & car washes)” covers 811191, 811192 and 811198.
• “441300 - Automotive parts, accessories, & tire retailers” covers parts stores and tire dealers.

So 811111 does not appear on the IRS list at all. A general repair shop filing a Schedule C enters 811110 on line B. The same combined codes appear in the Form 1120 instructions for corporations, and in the 1120-S and 1065 instructions.

The rule of thumb: tax forms get the IRS code, everything else gets the Census code. Your CPA has the final say on your return. I sell reconciliation software, and the IRS has never once asked my opinion on anything, so put this one in front of your preparer before you file.

Your code can decide whether the SBA calls you small

For most repair codes, the SBA’s ceiling is $9.0 million in annual receipts. Its regulation puts it this way: “The number of employees or annual receipts indicates the maximum allowed for a concern and its affiliates to be considered small.” Note the word affiliates. For a multi-location group, the stores are counted together.

Here is where the code stops being trivia. The ceilings are not the same across the table:

• General, specialty, and body repair: $9.0M
• Glass: $17.5M
• Tire dealers: $25.5M
• Parts retailers: $28.5M

An illustrative example. A tire-and-service operation doing $14 million a year across three stores is over the cap if it is classified 811111. If its revenue is genuinely mostly new tire sales, it is classified 441340, and $14 million is comfortably under that $25.5 million ceiling.

Same business, same revenue, a different answer on small-business status. That matters for SBA-backed financing, which is the instrument most shop acquisitions run on (the financing side is covered in the mechanic shop business plan guide).

You do not get to pick the friendlier code. The NAICS definitions all hinge on what an establishment is “primarily engaged” in, which comes down to where the revenue actually comes from. The point is to know which code is true for your business, and to notice when the truth happens to help.

Insurance uses a different system again

Your NAICS code is not your insurance class code. Workers compensation uses four-digit class codes set by a rating bureau. As one insurer puts it, “In most states, the NCCI is the authority responsible for developing and maintaining the classification system used in workers’ comp rating,” while some states, including California, New York and North Carolina, have independent rating bureaus.

As an example of how one state’s system reads, the Wisconsin Compensation Rating Bureau lists 8380, “AUTOMOBILE SERVICE OR REPAIR CENTER & DRIVERS,” and notes that it “Includes parts department employees,” while automobile body repair is rated separately under code 8393.

Why that matters: a mixed mechanical and collision shop may carry two class codes with two rates, and the payroll split between them is a real number on your premium. Your agent assigns these, and the shop insurance guide covers the policy side.

SIC codes, for the forms that never updated

Some lenders and older insurance applications still ask for an SIC code, the system NAICS replaced. From the OSHA SIC manual:

My daughter is almost six months old and has already been assigned more identification numbers than she has teeth. Your shop is in a similar position, minus the drool, and SIC is the one most likely to be stale.

The code is also how you pick your peers

One more practical use, and it is the one I actually care about.

When you compare your shop to a benchmark, the benchmark is only useful if it was built from shops like yours. Accounting firm Paar Melis’s 2025 benchmark report shows how much the type matters: average repair order runs about $640 for general and import shops, $1,023 for European shops, and $1,339 for diesel shops.

A diesel shop measuring itself against the general average will think it is a genius. A general shop measuring itself against diesel will think it is failing. Neither is learning anything. Your classification code is a decent first filter for picking the right comparison, before you get to the numbers that matter, like how much an independent shop actually makes and which parts KPIs to track.

Which code goes on which form

Keep this somewhere you will find it next year:

• Loan, grant, vendor credit and government forms: your Census NAICS code (811111 for most shops).
• Federal tax returns: the IRS principal business activity code (811110 for most shops).
• SBA size questions: the NAICS code, against the SBA table, counting every affiliated location.
• Workers comp: the class code your agent and rating bureau assign (8380 in Wisconsin’s system for mechanical repair).
• Old forms that ask for SIC: 7538 for general repair.

Write all five on a sticky note and put it inside the cover of whatever binder holds your business license. Next year’s lender form will still ask for it, and you will look like the most organized person in the building, which is a rare and beautiful feeling in a repair shop.

Sources: Census 2022 NAICS descriptions · Census 2022 NAICS index · NAICS 811111 description and cross-references · NAICS 811114 and index history · IRS Schedule C instructions · IRS Form 1120 instructions · SBA size standards, 13 CFR 121.201 · WCRB class code 8380 · OSHA SIC manual, 7538