industry expert / special finance 2012 SF Benchmarks Highlight
Split of "Haves" and "Have Nots" Surge in New Vehicle Volume Gives Advantage to Franchise Dealers
An 18-year former dealer principal with focus on Special Finance since 1989, Greg Goebel is CEO of Auto Dealer Monthly, LLC, the parent company of Greg Goebel Training & Consulting. He is a leading industry consultant, trainer, author and speaker serving retail automotive dealers. Contact Greg at 941.685.9629.
Greg@AutoDealerMonthly.com
Monthly at the 2012 Subprime Conference held in September in Las Vegas. The operating
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he 2012 Special Finance Benchmarks were re- vealed by Auto Dealer
benchmarks represent the 75th percentile of the dealers oper- ating in SF. (It is important to note that since only approxi- mately 20 percent of all deal- ers are actively engaged in SF.)
The release of this year's numbers solidifies the com- petitive advantage enjoyed by franchise dealers over their independent brethren, an edge that has been developing over the last two years. Nearly all key operational metrics now show franchise dealers with a significant margin over the independents based on their strong advantages in retail subprime financing. As a re- sult, for the first time ever, a combination benchmark has not been released in lieu of breaking out two distinct sets
of guides for the franchise and independent dealers.
Due to the subvented rates offered by the manufacturers on select vehicles for sub- prime customers, new car volume has jumped from what has historically been 10 percent of a franchise dealer's total SF business to 20 percent in 2011 and 35 percent in 2012!
Comparing transactional data, the average deal for a bench- mark franchise dealer now involves a sales price nearly
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