Brand Loyalty Isn’t What It Used To Be
Brand loyalty used to come naturally in the car industry. Buyers would purchase a vehicle from brands like Toyota or Honda, build years of trust with the dealership, then return later for another vehicle. That cycle helped create generations of repeat customers. While those brands still rank highly in customer loyalty studies today, the reasons people stay loyal are changing quickly.
Vehicle affordability is now putting pressure on customer retention across the entire industry. As prices continue to climb, buyers are shopping around more aggressively for the best financing, after-sales support, and overall ownership experience. Increasingly, the deciding factor between dealerships selling similar vehicles is no longer the product itself. It is customer service. More specifically, it is how customers are treated during ownership, especially after the sale is completed. That makes the first service appointment far more important than many dealerships realize.
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The First Service Appointment Is Becoming Critical
According to Automotive News, Cox Automotive surveyed 2,502 consumers who serviced a vehicle within the last 12 months, along with 500 fixed operations managers from franchised dealerships.
One of the clearest findings was that dealerships are steadily losing customers to independent repair shops and quick-service centers. Between 2018 and 2025, the dealership share of service visits dropped from 33% to 29%. Meanwhile, general repair facilities increased from 25% to 27%, while quick lube chains rose from 12% to 14%.
The drop becomes even more alarming as vehicles age. Dealerships handled 68% of service visits for vehicles under two years old in 2018. By 2025, that number fell sharply to 55%. For vehicles between 2 and 5 years old, dealership service share dropped from 58% to 45%. That matters because the most profitable ownership years happen later in a vehicle’s lifespan.
Cox Automotive estimates that roughly 80% of service spending occurs between years six and 10. With Americans now keeping vehicles for an average of 8.4 years, dealerships that lose customers early are missing out on the most profitable service years.
Dealers Still Aren’t Taking Advantage of the Opportunity
The study found that more than half of consumers surveyed, around 56%, said their service experience strongly influences whether they would buy their next vehicle from the same dealership. Despite that, only about 25% of dealerships schedule a customer’s first service appointment at the time of purchase.
According to Cox Automotive, customers who return to the dealership for service are twice as likely to buy another vehicle from that retailer later.
Some automakers have already started offering loyalty incentives and special discounts just to keep existing customers from leaving the brand. Ford Motor Company, for example, recently introduced offers aimed at retaining Escape owners after discontinuing the model.
However, discounts alone cannot fix poor customer experiences. The dealership visit still leaves the biggest impression on buyers. A smooth first appointment builds familiarity, trust, and long-term retention. A bad one sends customers directly to the nearest independent repair shop. Stick around for next week’s investigative report confirming that water is still wet.
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