Dealership Corridor
Recently, I had a typical conversation with a dealership general manager about his team’s performance. He struggled to understand why today’s environment makes it more imperative that his sales and F&I staff receive specialized training. With consumers feeling the financial pinch and arming themselves with as much online and comparative research, driving increased F&I revenue is a greater challenge. However, this GM felt like he could handle what he needed to in-house.
The retail automotive industry let out a collective cheer after reading the latest report from J.D. Power and GlobalData indicating that U.S. new vehicle retail sales are expected to rise 8.1% to 1.01 million units in February on an adjusted basis. Whoop! Finally, some good news!
The good news didn’t stop there. A strong retail sales pace, coupled with resiliently high average transaction prices, means that consumers will spend more money buying new vehicles in the month than any other February on record. Cue the celebration!
It’s only February, and 2025 has already brought a whipsaw of headlines and a host of actions that could have a significant impact on the retail automotive industry. From talk of tariffs against supply chain critical countries like Canada and Mexico to the cease-and-desist order levied toward the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2025 has started with a bang.
