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It’s been a busy year at Franchise Direct. When we weren’t matching entrepreneurs with top franchise opportunities or compiling a list of the Top 100 Global Franchises, we were putting together insightful reports on pizza franchises, ice cream franchises, home-based franchises, automotive franchises and more.

Just because some of these reports were published a few months ago doesn’t make them any less relevant today. Take our automotive franchise report. Earlier in the year, we wrote how an automotive franchise, despite, or maybe because of, all of the trouble in Detroit, constituted a solid financial investment. That’s still the case now, which Entrepreneur magazine blogger Jeff Elgin highlighted in a recent post.

We liked Jeff’s blog post because he provided an area-by-area autopsy of the automobile and reveals all of the various areas an automotive franchise can specialize in. The body, window, wheels, interior and under the hood are all places where a car routinely needs servicing. And all places to launch your franchising career.

As Jeff writes: “Franchise opportunities are available for almost any automotive product or service you can imagine. No matter what a person needs, a franchise probably exists to help them deal with it.”

If you don’t believe him, just have a browse through our list of automotive franchises. There’s an array of opportunities. Do your research and you’re likely to find the blue-chip automotive franchise of the future.

The automotive world has been one of the most volatile markets across the franchise industry since the economy began its long decline.

A number of factors, including the recession and the once-soaring price of oil, have meant that new car sales have tanked over the last six months. People are no longer splurging on automobiles, as evidenced by the 30 per cent plunge in new automobile sales in the US in December.

We’ve discussed the advantages in automotive afterlife market in the past, and as the dust begins to clear on the autumn’s financial collapse, other economic analysts are coming on board to agree with us.

“People aren’t buying new cars, so they’re fixing up their old cars,” Michael Souers, an aftermarket analyst at Standard & Poor’s, told Investor’s Business Daily in a recent interview.

Souers explains that as the new car market dries up, consumers are relying more and more on afterlife retailers who can provide tune-ups and repairs to keep an older car on the road. And as new car sales continue to plummet, more dealerships will be forced to close down and afterlife retailers will become even more essential.

He also identifies a generational shift, stating that as people become less and less knowledgeable about car repairs, they become increasingly reliant on afterlife franchises to keep their cars running.

Of course, the success of an automotive franchise can depend on a number of intangibles, including geography. As well, there is always the risk that the economic crisis becomes so entrenched that drivers don’t even take their cars out of the driveway. But the numbers don’t lie and automotive franchises still present an interesting opportunity for people looking to get their dreams of running a franchise business on the road.

As ever, Franchise Direct brings you the best automotive franchise opportunities on the market.