Auto Dealerships NAICS 441110

        Auto Dealerships

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Purchase Report

Industry Summary

The 16,596 New car dealerships in the US typically manage five distinct departments: New Vehicle Sales, Used Vehicle Sales, Finance and Insurance (F&I), Parts, and Service. One-third of all US new car dealerships also offer collision and body shop services. Used car sales, financing, and parts and repairs tend to be more profitable divisions for dealers.

Low Profitability

Customers are increasingly savvy about the true price of a vehicle, using the Internet as a tool to find the best price and to sniff out extraneous up-sells.

Dependence on Financing

Dealers purchase vehicles at the time of acquisition, not when a car is sold to a customer.


Recent Developments

May 19, 2025 - New Car Sales Up in Rush to Beat Tariff Pricing
  • Car shoppers rushed to buy new vehicles in April 2025, hoping to get ahead of price hikes brought on by US tariffs on foreign automobiles and parts. The hurried purchases have increased demand, which is already pushing up prices. New automobiles cost 2.5% more in April than in March, making it the highest auto sales month since 2021, according to Kelly Blue Book. As a result, automakers have pulled back on incentives and discounts. Incentives on new car prices fell to 6.7% of the average retail price in April, down from 7% the month prior, per Cox Automotive. Incentives and discount programs are increasingly running parallel to an automaker’s tariff exposure, with Acura and BMW keeping prices low. Others seem immune, such as ultraluxury brands Porsche and Land Rover (autos that are 100% foreign) which had their biggest sales month of the year in April with no discounting.
  • Ford Motor Company became the first US carmaker to raise prices on new vehicles due to tariffs. A notice from Ford that was obtained by Reuters informed dealers that prices on several models including the Mustang Mach-E, Bronco, and Maverick have increased by $2,000 as of early May 2025. Ford had already halted its financial guidance for the entire year due to uncertainty surrounding the auto tariffs and said it expects to lose $2.5 billion because of the levies. The company might offset $1 billion of those costs by shipping vehicles from Mexico directly to Canada as a means to avoid the tariffs. General Motors also said it expects to lose $5 billion because of tariffs, and the wider auto industry has forecasted price increases of as much as 25%. S&P Global downgraded its yearly car sales guidance of 1.3 million units sold by about 700,000.
  • The effects of tariffs on the automotive industry are beginning to be felt and the results will not be uniformly reflected across the industry, according to a survey by J.D. Power. The mix of foreign auto parts in a new vehicle are different across brands. Dealers will either have to absorb the costs or adjust their inventory away from foreign autos with tighter margins to brands with a strong US-based manufacturing footprint. J.D. Power expects to see price increases becoming readily apparent by the summer, with the average new car price by the end of 2025 estimated to increase by an average of 5%, or about $2,300. It also predicts new automotive retail sales will fall about 8%, or about 1.1 million units. J.D. Power expects the price volatility to stabilize by Q4 to a “new normal” with all the tariff-based sales adjustments.
  • US new light vehicle seasonally adjusted annualized sales (SAAR) rose 2.1% year over year in February 2025, totaling 16 million units, according to NADA Market Beat. The results were a dip from December 2024, which had the highest monthly SAAR in almost four years. Wards Auto estimates that auto sales in February will be about 1 million vehicles. Total fleet inventory of new light vehicles in the US, however, plummeted 16.3% year over year to 210,000 units. The drop in inventory is a result of the supply problems from on-again, off-again tariff threats against Mexico and Canada, key automobile and auto parts US trade partners. “American made” cars are loaded with Canadian and Mexican parts, and NADA Market Beat predicts that if Trump’s threatened tariffs go into effect, it will raise the average price of new vehicles.

Industry Revenue

Auto Dealerships


Industry Structure

Industry size & Structure

A typical new car dealership employs around 68 people and has total annual revenue of over $67.9 million.

    • There are about 16,596 new car dealerships in the US with total annual sales of over $1.1 trillion.
    • The average new car dealership sells just over 1,000 vehicles per year. The average price of a new vehicle is about $47,200, a figure that generally has tracked closely with inflation over the past decade but accelerated during the pandemic.
    • Traditionally, franchised dealers held around 2 million domestic vehicles in inventory and 1.7-1.9 million imports. A typical dealer had a 65-75-day supply of domestic vehicles in inventory and a 50-55-day of imports. Post-pandemic, franchise dealers are holding some 1.8 million domestic vehicles and about 430,000 imports. Now, a typical dealer has a 44-day supply of domestic vehicles in inventory and a 35-day of imports.
    • Popular brands include GM (16.7% of total new car sales), Toyota (14.5%), Ford (12.5%), Hyundai (10.7%), Stellantis (Fiat Chrysler, PSA Group – 9.8%), and Honda (8.5%).
    • The largest auto dealership groups in the US include AutoNation, Lithia Motors, Penske Automotive, and Sonic Automotive.

                                Industry Forecast

                                Industry Forecast
                                Auto Dealerships Industry Growth
                                Source: Vertical IQ and Inforum

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