The franchised dealership count remained steady in 2016 and almost set another record for new-vehicle sales throughput.

That’s according to the 2016 year-end Automotive Franchise Activity Report from Urban Science released Monday.

The 18,170 new-car dealership rooftops on Jan. 1 was up 0.5 percent from the count a year earlier (18,087).  The number of franchises came in at 32,011, which was up from 31,776 on Jan. 1, 2016.

The new-car sales throughput of 965 per dealership nearly broke a record, says Urban Science global director of data Mitchell Phillips in a news release.

“This throughput narrowly missed setting another record level by one unit due to the stable but increasing count of dealerships in 2016,” Phillips said. “With the current dealership count trend as we have seen for the past several years and a stable current industry forecast, exceeding the 2016 level is questionable.”

There has been a “new normal pattern of stability” over the past six years, Phillips said, including 2016, when 96 percent of local markets saw their dealership count essentially remain static (just adding or losing one store).  

“That said, the most significant (net) dealership increases occurred in Texas, 15 dealerships; Florida, 14 dealerships: Arizona, nine dealerships: Massachusetts, eight dealerships; and New York, seven dealerships,” Phillips said. “An interesting observation is California, which is typically on the most active list, is no longer included on the most active list, demonstrating a period of stability.”

But could there be smaller numbers ahead? In its 2017 Used Car Market Report, Manheim shared figures from Glenn Mercer in a National Automobile Dealers Association-commissioned study that predict the U.S. dealership count will be approximately 16,500 by 2025 (The current count cited in that report is a little less than 18,000).

Manheim also points to Mercer’s expectations for the dealer ownership count to fall from 8,000 to 6,500 over the same time frame.

Used-car sales for franchised dealers

It wasn’t just new-car metal that these dealers were churning. On the used-car side, last year was a rosy one for the nation’s franchised dealers.

Citing NADA, Manheim said in the report that franchised dealers boosted their used-car sales for the seventh straight year, moving more than 15 million pre-owned vehicles.

And you can expect this year to be No. 8, according to Manheim.

What’s more, these sales are pulling in record profits.

“Despite narrowing gross margins, used-vehicle operations at franchised dealerships produced record profits due to quicker inventory turns, reduced selling expenses, and strong F&I income,” the Manheim report said. “In 2017, franchised dealers will benefit from growing off-lease volumes, which means that quality used vehicle inventory will literally be driven to their door.

“And that’s not to mention that the majority of returning lessees will buy or lease another new vehicle from that dealer.”