The latest data shows that car row in many other markets besides where your rooftop operates hasn’t changed much in the past few months.

Urban Science released statistics and insights from its 2018 mid-year “Automotive Franchise Activity Report” (FAR), indicating continued stability in the number of franchised dealerships in the United States.

As of July 1, the report highlighted there were 18,252 dealerships (rooftops), a 0.2 percent increase from 18,213 recorded on Jan. 1.

Urban Science indicated that the number of franchises, or brands a dealership sells, also experienced a period of stability, slightly decreasing from 32,029 on Jan. 1 of this year to 32,024 as of July 1.

“Since 2010, the dealership network has set a new normal pattern of stability,” said Mitch Phillips, Urban Science’s global director of data. “The data shows that 98 percent of local markets had virtually no net change.

"That said, the most significant (net) dealership increases occurred in Florida, 10 dealerships; Texas, seven dealerships; New York, five dealerships; Ohio, five dealerships; Minnesota and Tennessee, four dealerships each,” Phillips continued. “An interesting observation is that California, typically on the most active list, was the state that lost the most dealerships to date in 2018.”

Phillips touched another report element that might be of interest to dealer principals and managers.

“Sales throughput for dealers is defined as the number of sales divided by the dealer count,” he said. “With a stable dealer count, the throughput record is controlled by the sales volume.

“With the current range of 2018 sales forecasts being slightly less than 2017, throughput is forecasted to fall around 11 units to 937 units,” Phillips went on to say.

For more information about Urban Science, visit www.urbanscience.com.