“Dealership profit decline starts to level off”
New data from the Presidio-NCM Average Dealership Performance Benchmark indicates that the downward spiral in profitability for the typical U.S. dealership seems to be leveling off.
Through the first nine months of 2024, net pretax profit for the average franchised store dropped 30.4% compared with the same period in 2023. While still a big drop, it marks a minor improvement from the 33.4% decline recorded for the first six months of this year.
The data suggests that dealership profitability may finally be reaching a new level of normal after sharp pandemic-era increases made way for steep declines the past two years. If dealership profitability is finally leveling off, that new normal is well above what was typical before the pandemic. The average dealership’s pretax profit for 2024 through September was 1.8 times 2018’s level, according to the Presidio-NCM data.