Car Dealer and Buyer Report2024

How did consumers engage with offers to trade or sell their car to the dealership, the payments on dealer websites and advertising, and in dealership lead response.

2.7 Million Records Processed

We procressed over 2,700,000 DMS records to bring you the numbers below.

Where our data came from

  • Dealer’s DMS historical sold data
  • Dealer’s DMS historical service history
  • Dealer’s DMS daily deal data
  • Dealer’s DMS daily service repair order data
  • Dealer targeting customization for equity threshold, vehicle age, vehicle mileage, make, and model
  • Dealership websites with SALESiQ installed
  • Dealership CRM lead response with SALESiQ installed
  • Insurance carrier & agency offers via dealer CRM and DMS data
  • Delivery of text, email, and mail messages
  • Response and engagement of customers within the SALESiQ & TRADEiQ apps

Dealership Loyalty2024

23%

Of customers bought their car at the dealership and did service there too

13.6%

Of sales customers have purchased a vehicle from that dealership before

2x

48% of service customers did at least 2 services at that dealership in a year

There is a room for improvement here.  35% of a dealer’s sales volume should come from customers who have done business with them before.

Vehicle Loyalty2024

87%

Of customers bought a different model car than they traded

Up 3% from 2023

A large percentage of people re-enter the car buying market

27

Months

after they pay off their vehicle loan.

And many others do it 36 months after paying the car off.

A significant number of people who don’t pay-off their loan make

24

Payments

before they buy their next vehicle.

They re-enter the market after their 18th payment.

Customers who hold the title to their car get excited to see their vehicle value.  TRADEiQ shows these customers their vast equity and incepts the idea of using it on something newer.

How much was paid in service2024

$515

$521 in Q4

Was the Average Repair Order a customer paid in Service and is dangerously close to:

$518

the Frustration Point.  It is the Average Repair Order paid before trading or selling car to a dealer.

down from $564 in 2023

12.6 years

Average age of vehicles on the road

$610

Average Repair Order paid on cars older than 10 years

$692

Average Repair Order paid on cars with more than 100,000 miles

7.8%

Of repair orders were over $1,500

Every service customer is an opportunity for sales.  With the rise in service costs, you never know which service will be the one that drives the customer to another car. 

%

Conquest Customers in the Service Drive

Repair orders from people who did not buy the car they are servicing from that dealership.  Also known as Conquest Customers.

  • Vehicles older than 10 years 15.5% 15.5%
  • Vehicles over 100,000 miles 23.6% 23.6%
  • Vehicles with more than 130,000 miles 13.4% 13.4%
  • Service work fully covered by a warranty 9.1% 9.1%
  • Service work partially covered by a warranty 16% 16%

TRADEiQ identifies and automates offers to the right service customers.  63% of your service customers are driving a car they did not buy from your store – the majority!

How much equity did consumers have?

2024

Most Traded
Most Traded

2021

Most traded Model Year vs. 2020 last year

Equity
Equity

$8,724

Average Equity Seen. A decrease from $9,387 in 2023.

Paid Trade
Paid Trade

48.8%

Conquested customers who changed their payoff to $0. An increase from 44.5% last year.

Database Opportunity
Database Opportunity

65.3%

Amount of a dealer's past sold customers who are in equity has decreased from 69.4% since 2023.

As vehicles in the dealer’s database age more and more, the cars a dealer wants to target for acquisition decreases.  This, along with a fluctuating used car market, is why the change of people with equity decreased.  We still believe we are seeing an inflated used market that won’t stabalize until 2028.

How people financed cars2024

Average Loan Term
Average Lease Term
Lease Penetration Rate
Loan Penetration Rate
Lease to loan ratio
Cash Deal to loan ratio
Average Front Gross
Average Back Gross
2023
72 months
36 months
6.1%
73.8%
For every 12.1 loans there was a lease
For every 3.7 loans there was a cash deal
$1,167
$1,623
2024
72 months
36 months
8.8%
77%
For every 9 loans there was a lease
For every 5.4 loans there was a cash deal
$484
$1,709
Despite higher interest rates, more people are financing their vehicle purchase

The drop in front gross is the most drastic change from 2023.  As new car availability increases and people struggle with affordability, dealers are capitulating with price decreases to ensure sales.

With the increase of vehicle pricing and the return of leases being attractive near the end of 2024, we should expect leasing to grow.

Vehicle Aquisitions2024

%

Of all TRADEiQ-sourced deals were straight acquisitions

Buying cars from customers

  • Service deals that were straight vehicle acquisitions 38.2% 38.2%
  • Past sold & lease deals that were straight vehicle acquisitions 17.1% 17.1%

There was a significant increase in street deals (straight vehicle acquisitions) in 2024 over 2023.  This is due to dealers getting better at it and additions to TRADEiQ to better set the custmer up to sell their car to the dealer.

How Customers engaged with Automated Email Offers2024

46%

Email Open Rate

Up from 44% in 2023

15%

Email Click Rate

Up from 13% in 2023

Dealership email marketing historically sees a 20% open rate with a 3% click rate.

How Customers engaged with Automated Text Offers2024

11%

Opted-in to receive an SMS-carrier-compliant message

%

Click/Tap Rate on the Offer

Service customers apperciate texting more.  Their phone numbers are more accurate and we know ahead of time that they still own the car we’re sending an offer on.

Customers who scanned and engaged with mail2024

4%

Trackable Mail Conversion Rate

Mail isn’t dead!  Although 4% might sound low compared to the digital numbers above, the traditional mail conversion rate is lower than 0.5% and that isn’t as trackable.

Customer Engagement with landing pages2024

73%

Visited from their Mobile phone

28%

Came back for a Return Visit

11

Average number of clicks/taps per visit

These personalized landing expereinces show unique and accurate payments with their equity included.  It isn’t just a newer version of the car they already drive.  This is why there are so many clicks per visit.  

Customer Engagement with AI2024

AI

Launched in 2024

%

Of leads communicated with the AI

Prior to launching the AI within TRADEiQ dealership sales staff were engaging with less than 14% of the leads generated.  The AI’s appointment conversion rate also crushes the efforts humans were doing.

Dealership Return on Investment2024

Avg Leads/mo. per store
78
Avg Sales/mo. per store
12
Avg Closing Ratio
15%

Return on Investment using FRIKINtech in 2024