For years, dealership profitability conversations centered on two familiar metrics: volume and gross. How many units did we sell? How much money did we make?
Those numbers still matter, but according to leaders from StoneEagle, Barnes Crossing Auto Group, and Cars.com at ASOTU CON 2026, they no longer tell the full story.
Today's biggest profit opportunities, and some of the largest threats to profitability, are hiding inside dealership data. The challenge is that many stores either don't have access to that data, don't trust it, or haven't connected it in ways that make it actionable.
The result is profit leakage that often goes unnoticed until margins tighten and performance starts slipping.
Why Traditional Metrics Are No Longer Enough
Metrics like PVR, volume, and gross remain useful benchmarks, but they should be treated as starting points rather than final answers.
As Breanna McCready pointed out during the discussion, blended numbers can act as gut checks, but they rarely reveal what's actually happening inside the store. Two dealerships with identical PVRs may have completely different strengths and weaknesses.
The real opportunity comes from understanding what drives those numbers.
Questions Dealers Should Be Asking
Instead of stopping at high-level performance metrics, leaders should investigate:
Which F&I products are underperforming?
Where are deals losing profitability?
Which managers consistently outperform others?
What financing structures create the strongest outcomes?
Where are warranty reimbursements being missed?
The deeper the dealership can go into operational data, the easier it becomes to identify specific actions that improve profitability.
Clean Data Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage
One of the strongest themes from the session was data ownership and data hygiene.
Daniel Kim argued that dealerships that control and understand their own data will be better positioned to benefit from AI and future technology investments. The stores that struggle will likely be the ones relying on fragmented systems, incomplete records, and disconnected data sources.
Brian Kramer took it a step further, warning that AI doesn't fix bad data. It amplifies it.
If CRM records contain duplicate customers, missing contact information, broken processes, and inconsistent tracking, AI tools simply make those problems larger and more visible.
What Dealers Can Do Today
Start by auditing the basics:
Remove duplicate customer records.
Verify email and mobile phone collection processes.
Establish a trusted source of truth for reporting.
Standardize how customer information is entered.
Review service appointment and CRM workflows for breakdowns.
Before adding new AI tools, make sure the data feeding those tools is accurate and complete.
One of the clearest examples of profit leakage discussed during the session involved long-term financing and GAP protection.
McCready noted that nearly one out of every four customers is now financing vehicles for 84 months. In many stores, GAP penetration is not keeping pace with that trend.
That creates risk for both the dealership and the customer.
Daniel Kim shared that his group found approximately 31% of loans exceeded 84 months, yet some stores still had GAP penetration below 90%.
For operators, that's a clear signal.
Discussion Topics for Your Next Sales Meeting
What percentage of deals exceed 72 or 84 months?
What is GAP penetration on those deals?
Are sales managers reviewing these numbers regularly?
Do pay plans unintentionally discourage GAP sales?
These conversations can uncover significant revenue opportunities while helping customers protect themselves from negative equity situations.
Service and Warranty Departments May Be Leaving Money Behind
Profit leakage is not limited to sales and F&I.
The panel highlighted warranty documentation as another overlooked opportunity.
Incomplete technician documentation can result in warranty reimbursement dollars never being collected. Something as simple as missing procedural details in a repair story can reduce what the manufacturer pays.
Immediate Action Step
Review a sample of recent warranty claims and compare technician documentation against manufacturer requirements.
Many stores will find missed reimbursement opportunities that can be corrected through coaching and process improvements.
Build a Culture That Uses Data Daily
Technology alone will not solve profitability challenges.
The dealers seeing the strongest results are making data part of everyday operations.
Kim described how automated daily reports create accountability and encourage healthy competition among managers. Kramer emphasized that leaders must consistently ask about key metrics if they expect teams to know them.
Data becomes valuable when it changes behavior.
The dealerships best prepared for the future are not necessarily the ones with the most data. They're the ones using clean, connected, operational data to make better decisions every day.
As margins continue to tighten, that discipline may become one of the industry's most important competitive advantages.
