February 14, 2018

Urban Science released statistics and insights today from its 2017 mid-year Automotive Franchise Activity Report (FAR), indicating continued stability in the number of automotive dealerships in the United States.

As of January 1, 2018, there were 18,213 dealerships (rooftops), a 0.2 percent increase from the January 1, 2017 total of 18,170. The number of franchises, or brands a dealership sells, also experienced a period of stability, slightly increasing from 32,012 on January 1, 2017 to 32,029 as of January 1, 2018.

“The sales throughput for 2017 was 947 per dealership. This throughput was down 18 units from 2016 levels,” said Mitchell Phillips, Urban Science’s Global Director of Data. “With the stable dealership count trend as we have seen for the past several years and an industry forecast that is slightly declining from 2017, we expect the sales throughput to decline in 2018.”