A 2025 Cox Automotive study delivered a sobering number to every dealer principal in the country: only 54 percent of customers with vehicles two years old or newer are returning to the dealership where they bought for service. That figure was 72 percent just two years ago. Something changed — and it wasn't just consumer budgets or independent shop marketing.
Part of what changed is expectation. Customers who walk into a modern urgent care clinic expect speed, technology, and transparency. When they walk into a service drive that looks like it was last updated before smartphones existed, they notice. And they leave — often for good.
The dealerships winning in fixed operations today understand something their competitors may not: modern, well-maintained service equipment is not a facilities line item. It is a revenue strategy, a retention strategy, and — increasingly — a recruiting strategy.
54%
of customers with vehicles 2 years old or newer use their selling dealer for service.
$46.8B
in combined service & parts revenue for the top 100 U.S. dealer groups in 2025.
7.7%
year-over-year revenue growth for the top 100 — but not everyone is winning.
The Aging Fleet Demands Modern Tools
The average age of vehicles on American roads continues to climb. That is, in theory, good news for dealership service departments — more vehicles need more work. But an aging fleet also means more complex diagnostics, more software-driven repairs, and a higher bar for the equipment needed to service them efficiently and correctly.
A technician handed outdated scan tools, worn lifts, or inadequate alignment equipment is not going to produce at the level your labor rate requires. Efficiency — measured in hours flagged per technician per day — is the engine of fixed operations profitability. You cannot optimize what your tools won't support.
Penske Automotive, which posted record service and parts revenue of $3.4 billion in 2025 — an 11 percent year-over-year increase — credited improved efficiency and a higher technician count as two of the three drivers of that result. Those two factors are not independent. Technicians who can work efficiently, with the tools to do it, stay. Those who spend their day fighting inadequate equipment find somewhere else to work.
"We're driving more efficiency through our business by having and managing what goes on in that back end of the service department and making the technicians more efficient." — Anthony Pordon, Penske Automotive
Equipment is a Recruiting Message
There is a technician shortage. Everyone in the industry knows it. AutoNation — the top group on the Automotive News service and parts revenue list — made technician hiring, development, and retention a primary focus of its fixed operations strategy. Its CFO highlighted technician headcount growth of more than 3 percent year-over-year as central to the company's ability to deliver consistent mid-single-digit after sales gross profit growth.
What fewer operators consider carefully enough is this: a technician evaluating your shop walks the floor before they accept an offer. They look at the lifts. They look at the diagnostic bay. They look at whether the shop-floor technology is current or a decade behind. Experienced technicians know exactly what tools they need to flag good hours and protect their income. If your shop can't offer that, they will find one that can.
Worth Considering
Vaughan Automotive — the fastest-growing group on this year's service and parts list with a 51 percent revenue increase — actively partners with local high schools, paying tuition and purchasing tools for new recruits. The program helped grow technician count across every store. They're not just recruiting; they're building a pipeline by signaling that the profession is worth investing in.
Technology and Equipment Work Together
Hendrick Automotive's leadership has made AI adoption a non-negotiable. "AI is the accelerant that you can't afford to not use. You just won't be competitive if you don't use it," said Roger Mesiemore, Hendrick's VP of fixed operations. The group uses AI-assisted voice communication and provides customers with video vehicle inspection reports — a transparency tool that has become a strong driver of customer-approved work.
But none of that works without the physical infrastructure behind it. Video multipoint inspections require camera-equipped inspection bays. Digital vehicle health reports require current diagnostic hardware. The technology layer that customers now expect is only as credible as the equipment performing the underlying work.
Asbury Automotive's rollout of the Tekion dealer management system is producing 21 percent gains in dollars per technician at early adopter stores. Their CEO attributed the improvement to advisors being able to move faster and more accurately through the transaction — from the moment a customer pulls into the drive. But workflow software and service lane technology work in tandem with, not as a substitute for, the physical equipment doing the actual repair work.
Speed is the New Satisfaction Score
Hendrick's "urgent care" model is built on one core premise: customers who can get in quickly and get out efficiently are customers who come back. The group's stated goal is a drop-off appointment within three days, and they are actively investing in service drive capacity, additional bays, and higher technician counts specifically to compress that window.
Throughput — how many vehicles a bay can process in a day — is directly tied to equipment quality. A lift that hesitates, a torque tool that needs recalibration, a flush machine that requires a technician to troubleshoot before every use: these are not minor inconveniences. They are customer wait time. They are lost revenue per bay. They are the difference between hitting your appointment scheduling targets and missing them.
The Investment Case is Straightforward
Service and parts revenue is the most resilient line in the dealership P&L. It does not move with inventory shortages. It does not collapse with rate changes. It grows when vehicles age, and the U.S. fleet is aging. The top 100 groups combined for $46.8 billion in service and parts revenue last year — up 7.7 percent. Eight groups crossed $1 billion.
The groups gaining share in that pool share a common understanding: efficiency and retention drive the number. Both are equipment problems as much as they are people or process problems. Well-maintained, modern service equipment reduces technician frustration, increases throughput, enables the diagnostic and transparency technology customers expect, and signals — to every technician candidate who walks your floor — that this is a shop worth working in.
The shop floor is the recruiting floor. It is also the retention floor, the efficiency floor, and the customer experience floor. Invest in it accordingly.
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Data and industry insights referenced from "Why Top Groups Are Investing Big," Automotive News, 2026.