Profit Margin
1.7%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Wholesale Trade ·NAICS 4231
NAICS 4231 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers - Industry Benchmarks
$73,099/yr average annual pay, with 884 SBA loans on record for NAICS 4231.
- 1.7%
- Net margin
- 427K
- Workers employed
- $73,099/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $661M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 4231
Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers runs a 1.7% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 23K establishments employing 427K workers.
- 1.7%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 427K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $73,099/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $661M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers
Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers sits inside Wholesale Trade at a 1.7% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $291.6B in aggregate receipts across 22,834 returns, averaging $12.8B per establishment.
22,883 establishments employ 426,643 workers (18.6/location) at $73,099/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Michigan and Texas.
Total Receipts
$291.6B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$5.1B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
426,643
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$73,099/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
22,883
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 9,397; establishment count increased by 167. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers revenue goes
Workforce scale
Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers margin vs national reference points
Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers net margin 5.8%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%
Business Structure Breakdown
How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)
C Corporation
22,834 returns 100%
Margin: 1.7% · Receipts: $291.6B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 22,834
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $12.8B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $31.2B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 18.6
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Automobile and Other Motor Vehicle Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42311 | N/A |
| Motor Vehicle Parts (Used) Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42314 | N/A |
| Motor Vehicle Supplies and New Parts Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42312 | N/A |
| Tire and Tube Merchant Wholesalers NAICS 42313 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 43,333 |
| Michigan | 37,449 |
| Texas | 35,070 |
| Florida | 20,820 |
| Ohio | 20,145 |
| Illinois | 16,560 |
| New Jersey | 15,894 |
| New York | 15,264 |
| Indiana | 13,280 |
| Tennessee | 11,554 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
884
Total Loan Volume
$661M
Avg Loan Size
$748K
Jobs Supported
7,133
Program Breakdown
7(a) 746 (84%)
504 138 (16%)
Top SBA Lender
Newtek Bank, National Association
50 loans in this industry
New Business Share
15.5% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 127
2021 128
2022 134
2023 137
2024 157
2025 177
2026 24
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers?
$291.6B in total annual receipts across all Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers businesses. Average per business: $12.8B.
How profitable is Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers?
1.7% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.
How many businesses are in Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers?
22,883 business establishments. Together they employ 426,643 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers?
$73,099/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 18.6 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers employment?
California leads with 43,333 workers. Michigan (37,449) and Texas (35,070) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers receive?
Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers businesses received 884 SBA loans totaling $661 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $748K. These loans supported 7,133 jobs at origination. Most lending (84%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers reports a higher net margin than 10% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 72% of that same 259-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest reported net margins
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers
- Net margin: 1.7% vs sector. Browse Wholesale Trade
- 22,883 establishments, 426,643 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 884 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 4231 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.