The Reynolds and Reynolds company released its 2024 Automotive Brand Retention and Defection Report, an analysis of dealers’ retention and defection data. Paired with other demographic, behavioral, and transactional information, it's designed to empower dealers to improve their retention rates and conquest new customers.

Just as in previous years, 2023 was tumultuous for retail automotive. However, despite the industry’s changing dynamics due to inflation, continued volatility in acquiring used vehicles, and an increasing amount of new vehicle inventory, some things remained relatively stable. One was retention and defection of customers from OEM brands.

With dealers facing an ever-changing landscape constantly presenting new challenges, it’s as essential as ever to understand where they can find conquest opportunities.The report looks at the impact those changing dynamics had on consumer behavior and retention.

Whether it’s on a nationwide or regional scale, the data is intended to help dealers keep more of their customers, and just as importantly, identify prime conquest targets.

Key report details:

• Brands are broken down and tracked across three segments (mainstream, highline and truck) and at two levels (nationwide and regional – the nation is divided into five regions for the purpose of this report).

• Overall brand retention nationwide was up in 2023 at 43.7%, up from 42.6% in 2022, and six brands had nationwide retention rates of more than 50%.

• Tracking retention trends across the previous four years, rates are higher today than they were in 2020 for two-thirds of brands tracked.

• Truck retention in general (a customer traded in a truck for a truck) was up nationwide in 2023 at 72.5% after dipping slightly in 2022.

The results are derived from finalized deals for new and used vehicles that were purchased or leased at U.S. dealerships operating on Reynolds’ dealer management system. The report tracks 48 OEM brands and includes only deals where both vehicles were one of those brands. The results represent a random sample of all vehicle buyers and were calculated based on a 95% confidence level.

The full report is available to download.