Fixed ops remains a major growth driver for dealerships, given that consumers are keeping their vehicles longer, but significant service revenue is still being left on the table, according to Cox Automotive.
The details: The shift, outlined in Cox’s 2026 Fixed Operations and Ownership Study, shows that 80% of new-vehicle buyers are likely to return to the selling dealership for service, driving record revenue even as competition for those dollars intensifies.
The average dealer service and parts revenue reached about $9.23 million in 2025, up 33% over eight years.
Even amid this shift, dealerships are losing share to general repair shops and mobile providers, with service visits declining from 33% to 29%.
Nearly 299,000 auto repair businesses now operate in the U.S., which is up 12% since 2018, with mobile service emerging as a new category.
The average spend at a dealership is $261, compared with $275 for general repair, yet many consumers continue to perceive dealership service as more expensive.
What they’re saying: “It's no surprise to anybody that longer ownership is having a demand on service. 78% of consumers now own a vehicle that's five years and older. That is what I would call servicing demand compounding,” Skyler Chadwick, director of product consulting, Cox Automotive, told CDG News, adding that growth at general repair shops underscores how much more service revenue dealers could capture.
Why it matters: The service lane is a major profit center and a potential sales pipeline.
But with more customers drifting to independent and mobile providers, stores that fail to lock in service business early risk losing both long-term revenue and future vehicle sales.
Between the lines: Despite rising competition from general repair shops, significant fixed ops revenue remains untapped in dealers’ own ecosystem, along with opportunities to turn service interactions into future fixed ops revenue and vehicle sales.
Although most buyers say they plan to return for service, only about one-quarter had their first service appointment scheduled when they bought the vehicle.
Cox estimates that each lost service customer can represent more than $12,000 in lifetime service revenue.
Returning service customers are also 30 percentage points more likely to repurchase from the same dealer, and 88% say the service experience influences that decision.
Zooming in: The report also noted that only 14% of customers say they have ever been offered a trade-in value during a service visit, even though one-third are highly interested in those discussions, especially when repair costs reach roughly $3,195.
Customers who received photos or videos during service spent about $230 more per repair order on average, and nearly half said such visuals made them more likely to approve recommended work.
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“The high performers are really buttoning up the touchpoints where a customer is touching throughout the entire service process—scheduling, the communication during the visit,” explained Chadwick, noting how tech has empowered car buyers during the service experience.
“‘Can I approve and decline services? Do I offer online payment so that when the customer comes in, they're not waiting in long lines or waiting for the advisor—they can pay, grab their keys, and head on down the road in their busy life?’ All those touchpoints have got to be buttoned up. That's where dealerships are either going to win or lose.”
Also worth noting: EV owners rely on dealerships for 67% of service visits, compared with 28% for internal-combustion vehicles and 50% for hybrids, with EV owners also reporting the highest average out-of-pocket cost per visit, at $417.
Bottom line: Fixed ops is holding as one of the clearest growth opportunities in retail automotive, but dealers are still missing easy wins. The stores that make service more convenient, transparent, and connected to the sales side of the business stand to capture more revenue today while strengthening customer retention for the next purchase.
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