The year in fixed ops
In 2017, NADA reports, franchised new-vehicle dealerships in the United States:
- Made 49% of their total gross from service, parts and body shop operations, up from 45% in 2015
- Sold more than $114 billion in service, parts and body shop work -- about $7 million in sales per dealership
- Wrote more than 316 million repair orders -- roughly 18,800 tickets per dealership
- Made $281 in service and parts sales for the average customer repair order
- Made $332 in service and parts sales for the average warranty repair order
- Had an average customer service labor rate of $115 an hour
- Employed more than 317,000 service technicians, including body shop -- 19 per dealership
- Maintained nearly $6.6 billion in parts inventory -- about $391,000 per dealership
- Assigned 56.3 percent of their employees to fixed ops
Source: National Automobile Dealers Association
| Parts market |
| Auto parts stores, both brick-and-mortar and online, remained the leading channels for consumer purchases of parts in 2017, followed by dealerships. Here are the top 5 destinations. |
| Auto parts chains, physical locations |
25% |
| Auto parts chains, online |
12% |
| New-vehicle dealerships |
10% |
| Independent specialty stores |
9% |
| Online-only general retailers |
8% |
| Source: Specialty Equipment Market Association, 2017 Market Report |
| What about Conan? |
| The Car Care Council polled more than 22,000 U.S. vehicle owners about which late-night TV host they would trust most to work on their car. Their rankings: |
| Jimmy Kimmel |
27.60% |
| Jimmy Fallon |
27.40% |
| Stephen Colbert |
19.60% |
| Trevor Noah |
14.30% |
| James Corden |
11.20% |
| Note: Figures do not total 100% because of rounding. |
| Tire leak |
| One out of 8 repair orders written by a new-vehicle dealership in 2017 was for the sale of at least 1 tire, a new study concludes. That rate dropped slightly from 2016. Dealerships selling domestic brands fell a bit more than luxury or import stores. |
| |
2017 Tire Sale Rate |
Change from 2016 |
| Industry average |
12.40% |
–0.5 point |
| Luxury dealerships |
18.30% |
–0.4 point |
| Import dealerships |
10.90% |
–0.1 point |
| Domestic dealerships |
8.10% |
–1.2 point |
| Source: AutoLoop survey of more than 1,000 auto consumers and analysis of repair orders from more than 300 U.S. dealerships. |