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Vehicle margins are under pressure, and many variables are outside of your control. Consumers on increasingly tight budgets, high interest rates, and diminished dealer pricing power all factor into the difficulty of meeting your numbers.

If your store is feeling the pressure, you don't necessarily need to sell more cars to make more money. Instead, utilize opportunities to add more profit to every car sale. This is where the incredible staying power of accessories saves the day.

 While headlines warn of crisis, razor-thin margins, and rapid decline, accessories remain unbothered—giving dealerships a reason to believe Q4 doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom.

We’re not going to stop talking about this. The accessory industry repeatedly sidesteps the automotive industry’s crashes and keeps thriving. It happened during the 2008 economic crash, when everyone held on to their aging vehicles and opted to accessorize them. It happened in 2020 when the world shut down, and everyone wanted racks and cargo management to hit the open road. And it’s happening again now, as tariffs, inflation, and supply chain friction are driving people crazy—and SEMA still reports over $52 billion in aftermarket sales.

A long winter in Chicago led one Illinois dealer to unearth an opportunity in accessory sales. The culprit was potholes, and the result was customer after customer limping into the service lane with blown tires and bent wheels. Fixed ops wasn’t the only department that stood to gain here. The dealership saw a clear path to deliver more excellent customer service as freezing temperatures and hazardous road conditions dragged on.

As summer winds down and routines begin to shift, customers start thinking differently about their vehicle. These seasonal shifts create new, natural opportunities for accessory sales.

Today's automotive retail experience is powered by technology.

Accessory sales are one of the most underutilized profit centers in automotive retail. Yet many dealerships limit their opportunity by tying accessory presentation too closely to real-time inventory.

Do your dealership leaders think about success in terms of unit volume? More cars sold, more deals closed, more monthly punch.

That mindset leaves a massive amount of profit sitting untouched inside your store every single day. The truth is, you can make significantly more profit without selling one more car.

Many dealerships underutilize the various profit centers operating under one roof. Rather than one business, think of each of your major departments as money machines with the power to create new revenue streams.

Tariffs on parts and imported cars don’t mark the industry’s demise.

The pandemic gave us a brutal reminder that the automotive industry has always been at the forefront of large-scale disruptions. When the first lockdowns hit, manufacturers, suppliers, and dealers scrambled to predict the future. Would supply chains ever recover? Would consumer behavior permanently change?