Saturn gained the most registrations per dealer franchise with Hummer recording the biggest decline in 2007, according to a recent study published by Automotive News.
The two General Motors brands were opposite of each other in sales numbers that were largely blamed on the ever increasing prices for fuel (which again achieved a record high today). Saturn posted a growth of 55 registrations per franchise up to 479, versus Hummer's plummet of 90 registrations per dealers to 285. Tied for first with Saturn was Germany's BMW with 55 more registrations than in 2006.
Working against the Detroit 3 brands are the vast amounts of franchises the automakers have to account for when looking into registrations per outlet. In addition, Detroit 3 brands are striving to consolidate dealerships into multi-brand outlets that will increase dealer profitability in the long run. While import brands are increasing their per annum sales at each dealer, the lesser amount of dealers that import manufacturers operate compared to their domestic counterparts must be considered when analyzing sales figures.
As a result, Ford's vice president of marketing and communications Jim Farley stated that the Dearborn automaker looks more at the dealers overall profitability rather than sales per dealer. "Our dealership profitability, in total and on average, went up last year," Farley said.
Taking all factors into consideration, Japan's Big 3 effectively beat out domestic manufacturers in sales per franchise for 2007. Although Toyota Motors posted a reduction of five vehicle registrations per outlet, the Japanese automaker still claimed top position for overall sales with 1,628 per franchise. American Honda recorded an increase of 10 vehicles to 1,165, while Nissan North America had an increase of two vehicles to 746.
Industry wide sales per dealership went down by seven vehicles to a total of 322 cars sold in 2007.
Source: Automotive News (subscription required)