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Del Taco vs Taco Bell — which franchise is the better buy?

Side by side from the public FDDs — no franchisor spin.

	Del Taco	Taco Bell
Disclosure honesty	C	C
Investment from	$1,497,200	$934,750
Total fees	9%	9.75%
Outlets	594	7,998
Lawsuits	12	0

Del Taco: what their numbers say

Franchised restaurants: avg sales $1,613,899 (2024). Company-owned: avg sales $1,804,158, operating profit $383,324 before rent. Data from 387 franchised, 116 company-owned locations. No audited verification.

Taco Bell: what their numbers say

Bell Point, Kalibrate, SiteZeus forecast tools for free-standing drive-thru units only. 59-65% accuracy within 20%. Explicit disclaimer: no guaranteed performance; ±20% margin of error; 35% of projections exceed 20% variance. Cherry-picking: limited historical validation; excludes multi-brand, inline, licensed units.

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