Quantity of Parts Sales to Third-party Customers

[Matt Parsons]

I am interested in knowing what percentage of a dealers parts sales are to outside companies? For example independent body shops, after-market repair facilities, distributors, gas stations, quick oil-change facilities, etc.

In addition, does anyone know a statistic that states what the average dealers parts sales are per year (all areas of the business...internal, over-the-counter, etc.).

[joe r]

The first couple years I was here, the service dept. accounted for 65% to 70% of our parts sales. In the last year, due to some aggressive wholesale advertising the percentage is about 55% on the same dollar amount.

This is a tough question because each dealer is very different. A VW store I managed back in the late 70's sold more over our front counter retail than our service department sold in parts. Dealers with large fleet or government contracts could have 80% or higher in wholesale sales.

I don't know if NADA has these figures available but they probably do.

Joe R

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