U.S. dealership sales per store remain fairly stable

U.S. dealership sales per store remain fairly stable

You can look at Urban Scienceês latest report on dealership sales per store (throughput) as –a glass half-full or half-empty,” or simply as a sign of stability.

As of January 1, there were 18,170 dealerships (rooftops), a 0.5 percent increase from 2015. The number of franchises was also stable, increasing slightly from 31,776 a year ago to 32,011 in 2017.

The sales throughput for 2016 was 965 per dealership. As Urban Science said, the number narrowly missed setting another record level, by one unit. Or you could go with the Automotive News headline, –US throughput falls in 2016.” Both statements are true.

Bottom line: The dealership network has been stable for the past six years, said Mitchell Phillips, Urban Scienceês global director of data. In fact, –96 percent of local markets had virtually no net changes.” There were a few exceptions, but none were in the Washington area.