Five of the top six public auto dealership groups saw same-store finance and insurance gross profit per vehicle shrink in the third quarter compared with a year earlier.
But those decreases were relatively minor; four of the auto retailers’ same-store finance and insurance gross profit per vehicle fell less than 4 percent. Only Group 1 Automotive Inc. saw results improve.
Below is a breakdown of five statistics from five figures from the public auto retailers’ third-quarter F&I earnings results. Read a more in-depth look at third-quarter F&I performance here.
Public auto retailers’ Q3 F&I earnings
Only Group 1 Automotive saw same-store F&I gross profit per vehicle results improve, up about 1% year over year. But AutoNation still had the highest same-store F&I gross profit per new vehicle of the 6 publicly traded groups.
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Asbury’s same-store F&I gross profit per vehicle shrank 5%
Dan Clara, senior vice president of operations at Asbury Automotive Inc., said on an Oct. 29 earnings call that almost half of its 5 percent decline could be attributed to the accounting related to Asbury’s in-house F&I product company Total Care Auto. Asbury expects the bookkeeping issue to drag down Asbury’s same-store F&I gross profit results in 2025 and 2026.
AutoNation’s same-store F&I gross profit per new vehicle fell furthest
AutoNation’s average F&I profits dropped about 6 percent to $2,589 in the third quarter. But the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., auto retailer still has the highest same-store F&I gross profit per new vehicle of the top six publicly traded groups.
Group 1′s same-store F&I gross profit per vehicle grew 1%
The Houston dealership group saw average F&I profits increase $19 year over year. Group 1 attributed the gain in part to higher sales penetration rates for F&I products.
Lithia’s F&I revenue grew as a portion of total revenue
Lithia Motors Inc.’s same-store F&I revenue represented about 4.2 percent of total same-store revenue, consistent with a year prior. That means Lithia’s same-store F&I revenue fell relatively in line with same-store total revenue.
Sonic’s F&I profits increased as a portion of total gross profits
Sonic Automotive Group’s same-store F&I gross profits represented 26 percent of total same-store gross profits, up from 25 percent a year earlier. The change is small, but Sonic’s F&I profits remained relatively stable while total gross profits fell over 7 percent.
Mark Hollmer, Gail Kachadourian Howe, John Huetter and Julie Walker contributed to this report.
Source: Automotive News, November 22, 2024