Sources
Every source link below was last checked on October 6, 2026.
- 01NADA Data 2025, Annual Financial Profile of America's Franchised New-Car Dealerships
111 new retail units per new-vehicle salesperson and 137 used units per used-vehicle salesperson in 2025 (about 9 and 11 a month); $494 in service and parts sales per customer repair order; $164,598,127,462 in total service and parts sales (including parts counter and wholesale) across 278,424 technicians, and $1.43 in parts sales per $1 of service labor, which puts labor at about $20,274 per technician per month; $186 average customer mechanical labor rate; 50.4% of dealerships run an express service operation; $15.46 billion in warranty labor sales out of $75.81 billion in total service labor (about 20%), or about $55,500 a year (about $4,600 a month) per technician; $24.21 billion in customer-pay mechanical parts against $31.48 billion in customer-pay mechanical labor, or about $0.77 in parts for every $1 of labor on technicians' repair orders.
- 02NADA Data 2026 Midyear Report
$508 in service and parts sales per customer repair order and a $192 average customer mechanical labor rate in the first half of 2026.
- 03Presidio-NCM Average Dealership Performance Benchmark, Q1 2026
$1,781 gross profit per new vehicle retailed, $1,253 per used vehicle retailed and $1,727 F&I income per retail unit in Q1 2026, from more than 4,000 U.S. franchised dealerships. The calculator's front gross of $1,517 is the simple average of the new and used figures; $3,244 is that plus F&I.
- 04Foureyes, 2026 Automotive Dealer Benchmarks Report
11.7% of all dealership sales leads ended up buying in 2025; 42.7% of qualified leads were mishandled; 15.2% were never logged to the CRM.
- 05Foureyes, Appointment Set Rates, Q4 2024 to April 2025
In April 2025, 40% of internet leads and 75% of phone leads were set as appointments.
- 06Don Reed, The Number of Service Advisors You Need, Auto Dealer Today
Advisors should work with 12 to 15 customers a day; the staffing formula uses 21 working days a month.
- 07NADA, Service Technicians
About 39,000 new techs graduate each year against a need of nearly 76,000, a shortfall of about 37,000 a year.
- 08MOTOR, Why Empty Service Bays Cost More Than You Think (Sonic USA data)
Sonic USA data: the average shop can lose $20,000 to $25,000 a month for every consistently vacant bay.
- 09Auto Dealer Today, The 4 Pillars of Dealership Hiring (NADA Workforce Study)
Sales consultant annual turnover of 71.9% and three-year retention of 32.8%; turnover just under 40% across all dealership positions; ESI Trends estimate that turnover can cost the average dealership half a million dollars a year.
- 10Vehicle Service Pros, NADA study shows dealership salaries increase but turnover remains a problem
NADA Workforce Study: service advisor turnover of 39%, with half of advisors leaving within 2.3 years.
- 11Auto Remarketing, Hireology and Cox Automotive study
The average cost of hiring a new dealership employee is $10,000; 67% annual turnover among sales teams.
- 12NCM Associates, What Is the Best Service Advisor Pay Plan? (June 2022)
A typical service advisor generates about $49,000 a month in labor gross profit, with parts gross usually about half of that ($24,500): about $73,500 a month in labor and parts gross profit.
- 13DealershipRecruiting.com recruiting experience (first-party, not an industry benchmark)
Typical billed (flagged) hours a month by technician level that we see when recruiting dealership technicians: master technicians about 160, certified technicians about 130, qualified technicians about 95. These are our field numbers, not a published study, so the calculator lets you replace them with your own techs' hours.
- 14Cox Automotive, 2025 Service Industry Study (1,974 vehicle owners, April to May 2025)
Dealership share of service visits fell from 33% in 2018 to 29% in 2025 while quick lube rose from 12% to 14% (10% to 14% for vehicles 2 to 5 years old); convenience is the top reason owners do not return to the dealership of purchase; 54% of owners of vehicles under 2 years old returned to the selling dealer in 2025, down from 72% in 2023; customers with a better-than-expected visit cited speed and communication.
- 15Cox Automotive, 2026 Fixed Ops and Ownership Study (500 fixed ops decision makers, 2,500 consumers)
Each lost service customer represents about $12,398 in service spend over the ownership period (2.4 visits a year, 8.4 years of ownership, $615 average repair order among Xtime dealers); returning service customers are about 2 times more likely to buy their next vehicle from the same dealer; 88% say the service experience affects their likelihood to buy from that dealer again.
- 16J.D. Power, 2025 U.S. Aftermarket Service Index (ASI) Study
Quick oil change satisfaction rose 17 points, with improved service completion time among the drivers.
- 17LinkedIn 2019 Workplace Learning Report, as reported by CNBC
94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in helping them learn.
- 18Cox Automotive, How much insufficient training is costing dealerships (2017 Dealership Staffing research)
Dealer interviews found 67% annual turnover on sales teams, about $10,000 to hire a new dealership employee and, in Cox's words, "a huge absence in training."
- 19Cox Automotive, Drivers of Car Shopping Satisfaction study (August 2025)
Knowledgeable and supportive staff is one of four pillars of car shopping satisfaction; dealerships that deliver on these see two times more efficiency and two times more profitability; selecting F&I products is among the most stressful parts of the purchase.
- 20J.D. Power, 2025 U.S. Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) Study
Trade-in buyers scored satisfaction 800 when the dealer explained the trade value versus 672 when it did not; 22% of buyers want a follow-up explanation of vehicle features and 53% of them never get one.
- 21J.D. Power, 2025 U.S. Customer Service Index (CSI) Study
12% of repairs are not completed correctly on the first visit; among those customers, only 50% returned or planned to return to the dealership.
- 22NADA Dealership Workforce Study, 2021 (via NJ CAR)
2020 turnover of 67% for sales consultants and 45% for service advisors; poorly defined career paths are named among the drivers of turnover.
- 23ASE, Automobile and Light Truck Certification Tests (A1 to A9)
The eight core automobile certifications (A1 engine repair through A8 engine performance). ASE Master Automobile Technician status requires current certification in all of A1 through A8; certifications are renewed every five years.
- 24ASE, Certification: Need to Know (2026)
ASE certification requires passing a test plus documented work experience: one year for G1, two years for most tests and three years for the advanced L tests, with up to half replaceable by relevant training. Master status lapses unless each expiring credential is recertified.
- 25ASE, Auto Maintenance and Light Repair (G1) Certification Test
ASE's maintenance and light repair certification, which requires one year of documented work experience.
- 26FenderBender, ASE Entry-Level Certification: An Important Career Building Credential
ASE Entry-Level certification is a student credential that requires no hands-on work experience and is valid for two years. It is separate from professional ASE certification.
- 27ASE, Toyota Technician Certification Program
Toyota's five-tier technician program is built on ASE tests: Repair (Expert) requires any two of A1 to A8, Master requires A1 to A8 and 36 months, and Master Diagnostic Technician requires A1 to A8, L1 and 60 months.
- 28GM TechLink, Becoming a World Class Technician: New Certification Requirements Coming in 2028
GM World Class Technician currently requires 8 of 9 GM Master certifications in the mechanical area plus the matching ASE certifications, rising to 10 of 10, including EV, from January 1, 2028. GM reported 2,545 current World Class Technicians.
- 29Michigan Department of State, Mechanic Certification
Under Michigan's Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Act, anyone who repairs vehicles for pay must hold a state mechanic certification. ASE certification alone does not satisfy it, though eligible ASE categories may transfer, and trainees may work under a two-year supervised permit.
- 30U.S. EPA, Section 609 Technician Training and Certification Programs
Anyone who repairs or services a motor vehicle air conditioning system for payment must be trained and certified through an EPA-approved program.
- 31U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics
Technicians without formal training often start as trainee technicians, technicians' helpers or lubrication workers, and employers may require or prefer certification.
- 32Ford, Technician Career Path
Ford Master Technician status requires all required courses in one specialty plus five years as a technician at a Ford or Lincoln dealership; Senior Master requires the courses in chassis, drivetrain and gas or diesel, plus five years.
- 33Chuck Anderson Ford, How to Become a Ford Senior Master Technician (November 2025)
Describes Ford Senior Master as Ford's highest technician level, requiring all 550 or more hours of Ford training modules and at least five years at a Ford dealership.
- 34Ford Authority, Ford Dealers Given Deadline Over Air Bag Training Course (March 2024)
Ford required every technician performing certain field service action repairs to be certified by April 1, 2024, when 46% had completed the training, and warned that violations could bring penalties up to termination of the dealer franchise.
- 35NADA, Dealership Financial Slide Guide (benchmark guidelines)
Parts sales per parts employee of $70,000 or more (domestic and non-luxury import; $85,000 for luxury import), parts gross per parts employee of $28,000 or more, and a 40% parts gross margin guide, lower with heavy wholesale. The guide does not state the period; we treat these as monthly, because NADA Data 2025 puts average parts sales at about $450,000 a month per dealership, which annual figures could not reconcile with.
- 36SourceLine, The $30,000 Headhunter Fee (February 2026)
Most contingency recruiters charge 20% to 30% of a placed technician's first-year compensation; on a technician earning $100,000 to $125,000 the fee can reach $30,000 or more.
- 37TechForce Foundation, Technician Supply, Demand & Opportunity Report (2026), as reported by Repairer Driven News (June 8, 2026)
The U.S. automotive technician sector produces about 42,000 graduates a year against about 70,000 annual job openings, with 805,600 automotive technicians employed.
How the math works
- Sales consultant: units per month times front gross plus F&I income per unit. Nine units a month is the NADA 2025 figure for new-vehicle salespeople (111 a year), rounded down; used-vehicle salespeople averaged more.
- BDC representative: leads worked times the share of leads that buy (11.7%, Foureyes) times gross per unit, with half the credit given to the sales floor. Lead volume and the credit split are examples, because no public benchmark reports them per rep.
- Service advisor: labor gross plus parts gross for a typical advisor, from NCM Associates: about $49,000 a month in labor gross and about $24,500 in parts gross.12 As a cross-check, 12 customers a day (the low end of Don Reed's 12 to 15) times 21 working days times NADA's $494 in total service and parts sales per customer repair order is about $124,500 a month in labor and parts sales through the desk.6,1
- Technicians: levels are defined in our terms. Production is billed hours a month times NADA's $186 average customer labor rate, plus about $0.77 in parts for every $1 of labor, NADA's 2025 ratio of customer-pay mechanical parts to labor.1 The hours (about 160 for every master level, 130 for certified and 95 for qualified) come from our recruiting experience, not a published study, so they are marked as ours and the calculator lets you use your own.13 As a cross-check, NADA's 2025 totals put labor at about $20,274 per technician per month across every franchised dealership, using its $1.43 of parts sales per $1 of labor; that is about 109 billed hours at $186.
- What you lose: the position's production times the share your team cannot absorb. That share is your call; the default assumes your team covers half.
- Parts advisor: parts sales per parts employee a month times parts gross margin, from NADA's benchmark guide: $70,000 in sales at a 40% margin, or $28,000 in gross profit.35
- Not included: F&I, management, quick lube, parts manager, office, detail and porter positions. They make money too, but there is no clean public per-position benchmark, so they are left out of the math rather than guessed.
First-party results
The hiring results on this site (782 hires in 31 months, 53 in the busiest single month, and 90% retention against 75% company-wide) come from our founder Larry Sherwood Jr.’s own records at Gurley Leep Automotive Family from 2019 to 2021 and from that group's Indeed account review. They are his results, not industry benchmarks.