Subaru and Audi dealerships improved last year in the key metric of throughput. Hyundai and Lexus backtracked.

Dealership throughput is an indicator of a brand's health. When more vehicles have been sold through the same number of rooftops, those dealerships' profitability has probably risen.

Subaru has been raising its throughput steadily by increasing its U.S. sales while holding its dealership count unchanged.

The brand, which sat at No. 10 in the rankings as recently as 2013, has climbed its way up to No. 5.

Subaru's U.S. sales rose 5.3 percent last year to a record 647,956 vehicles, leading its average throughput to climb to 1,028 sales per franchise, up 4.9 percent, according to an analysis of Automotive News' annual exclusive dealership census, compiled by the Automotive News Data Center.

Subaru thus became the fifth marque to top the 1,000 units per store level, joining Toyota, at 1,720 in 2017; Honda, 1,420; Nissan, 1,329; and Lexus, 1,282.

Subaru, which is forecasting another year of record U.S. sales in 2018, remains committed to its dealership count and has no plans to add dealers to its network, a spokesperson wrote in an email to Automotive News.

Meanwhile, Audi is also swimming its way up the brand-by-brand rankings. It came in at No. 10 this year, up from No. 11 last year and No. 15 in 2013.

Audi added 10 franchises last year, pushing the count to 302 franchises as of Jan. 1. But its sales grew 7.8 percent — in a U.S. light-vehicle market that was down 1.8 percent — to 226,511. Audi's throughput therefore increased 5.2 percent to 763.

In 2017, U.S. new-vehicle sales fell 1.8 percent to 17.2 million, while the tally of car and light-truck franchises eased 0.2 percent.

The result was a 2.2 percent industrywide slide in sales per franchise to an average 532 vehicles.

On Jan. 1, the number of light-vehicle dealerships in the U.S. stood at 18,327, up 0.4 percent, or 66 more than the same period last year.

Exclusive outlets accounted for 37 percent of all franchises, or 11,926 out of 32,271.

The brand-by-brand analysis shows that of the 42 brands in the census, throughput rose at 18, fell at 21 and held unchanged at one. Two other brands — Alfa Romeo and McClaren — were new to the list.

A franchise is an agreement that gives a dealer the right to sell a particular brand of new vehicles. A dealership is the building in which one or more of those vehicle brands is sold.

Lexus, Hyundai woes

While Lexus remained in the top 10 brands in throughput, 2017 wasn't a good year at the luxury automaker by that metric. Along with Hyundai, it suffered a double whammy. Franchise count inched up slightly at both brands, even as their sales fell.

Lexus, which had climbed to No. 2 in the rankings in 2014, added two franchises last year, while its U.S. sales fell 7.9 percent, which pulled average throughput down 8.3 percent.

"If needed, we may expand our dealer network, [but] there are no firm plans to announce at this time," a Lexus spokesperson wrote in an email to Automotive News. "Our sales will be about the same for 2018, as will our dealer count, so I don't think the sales per franchise figure will change substantially."

Hyundai tacked on three franchises in 2017, bringing its total to 839. But its U.S. sales slumped 13.4 percent, pushing average throughput down 13.5 percent to 794.

In an emailed statement to Automotive News, a Hyundai spokesperson said the issue was the drop in sales: "We made a concerted effort to cut back on fleet, and for the 2017 year we did that to a tune of a 30 percent reduction."

The drop "in great part was due to our mix issues that we should alleviate even more this year as we get more [crossover] volume from an all-new Kona, all-new Santa Fe and freshened Tucson," the spokesperson said. The automaker expects the brand's dealership count to remain the same this year.

Outlook

Throughput is widely expected to decline industrywide again this year.

U.S. new-vehicle sales for 2018 are expected to fall 1.7 percent to 16.9 million vehicles, IHS Markit predicts.

That alone could drag down throughput. But the addition of more stores could also be a factor.

"A couple of brands that have planned to come in, in the next several years, might increase the number of rooftops or keep them stable as they use existing stores," said Mitch Phillips, global data director at consulting firm Urban Science, of Detroit. He expects the dealership count to remain relatively stable for the next several years, unless there are "major changes to the economy."

China Guangzhou Automotive Corp., for example, said during the Detroit auto show in January that it hopes to sign up U.S. dealers at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention this month in Las Vegas. It plans to enter the North American auto market in the fourth quarter of 2019. a