The Numbers Are Telling Us Something
F&I gross profit per vehicle sold topped $2,501 at publicly owned dealership groups in 2025 – the highest level in five years. According to the Haig Partners Q3 2025 Report, F&I PVR at publicly traded groups rose 5.2% year over year – even while front-end margins were sliding the other direction.
That is not a coincidence. As new vehicle profitability compresses, F&I has become the most reliable income stabilizer in the dealership. Franchise dealers know this – their finance managers live it every day.
But here is what I find more interesting: the same data that confirms what franchise dealers already know is pointing independent and used car dealers toward an opportunity they have not always had the tools to fully capture.
The Used Car Opportunity is Bigger Than Most Realize
Independent used car dealers sold 9.8 million vehicles in 2025 – yet they are often assumed to be on the outside of the mainstream F&I product ecosystem. The data tells a different story though. A mid-size independent dealer selling 50 vehicles monthly with a 45% VSC attachment rate generates nearly $400,000 in annual service contract premiums alone. The opportunity has always been there. The infrastructure to capture it professionally has been the missing piece.
Average new vehicle transaction prices have cleared $48,000. Monthly payments are regularly north of $700. A significant portion of the buying public has effectively been pushed out of the new vehicle market entirely – and they are landing on used car lots. TransUnion’s 2026 auto shopper research shows 55% of Gen Z buyers now prefer used vehicles. They’re younger, with tighter budgets and more financial exposure.
Let’s think about what that actually means at the desk. A customer financing a five-year-old vehicle at an elevated price, on a stretched loan term, with an aging mechanical profile – that is not a poor candidate for a service contract. That is the ideal candidate. The customer who is already stretching to make the payment is exactly the customer who cannot absorb a $2,800 transmission repair six months from now.
When done well, the F&I conversation with a used car buyer is not a sales pitch. It is a financial planning conversation. The dealers who approach it that way are the ones with strong penetration numbers.
So Why Has This Been So Hard?
The honest answer is the previously referenced infrastructure challenge. The F&I product ecosystem – the major eContracting platforms, the menu systems, the DMS integrations – was built for franchise stores. High volume, standardized workflows, dedicated F&I managers with time and tools to manage a full product suite.
Independent dealers have largely been limited to a product menu from whatever provider relationships were available, or, to invest in enterprise software built for an operation three times their size.
The result in some cases was a structural disadvantage that had nothing to do with the quality of the dealer’s customer relationships or how good the products actually were. It was purely a distribution and integration problem. And for a long time, there was not a clean solution.
What is Different Now
A new category of eContracting platform has entered the market. Not a full administration system. Not another enterprise platform requiring months of implementation. A standalone eContracting solution – product rating, contracting, reporting – deployable in days at a cost structure that actually makes sense for an independent operation.
For used and independent dealers, this matters in ways that go beyond just ‘easier contracting.’
Product access is the first one. The barrier that kept newer protection products off independent dealer menus was not usually the product itself. It was the means required to distribute them. As that barrier drops, options that were not available two years ago start showing up.
White-label capability is the one that surprises people most. Franchise dealers have had a branding advantage in F&I for years – customers buy a manufacturer-endorsed protection plan and attach the brand’s credibility to the purchase. That capability is now selectively available to independent dealers. Presenting a protection product under your own dealership name is a different customer conversation than presenting a generic third-party product. It builds loyalty and creates return visits.
Then there’s compliance. The FTC’s updated F&I guidelines have made manual processing an increasingly expensive risk. Per-infraction penalties are real, audits are more frequent, and documentation gaps are harder to explain. Modern eContracting platforms log every step digitally. For any dealer still running protection products through paper agreements or disconnected systems, this is as much a risk management issue as a revenue one.
The Relationship Advantage Worth Recognizing
Independent dealers typically build more localized, repeat-customer bases.
The person who has bought their last three vehicles from the same lot, who brings the car in for service there, who referred a family member last spring – that kind of relationship carries real weight at the F&I desk.
Trust is the most underrated variable in F&I penetration. A customer who trusts the person presenting the product is more likely to buy it. Independent dealers have cultivated that trust as a natural part of how they operate. The platform to act on it consistently is what has been missing. That piece is now available.
The Question Worth Asking Right Now
If you are running an independent or used car operation and thinking about your F&I performance, the most useful question is probably not which products to add. It’s whether your current process is professional enough to drive consistent penetration on what you already have.
A manual F&I process – paper agreements, disconnected systems, inconsistent presentations – creates friction that costs you deals regardless of how good the products are. The customer who would have said yes in a clean, digital, professionally presented F&I experience often says no when the process feels uncertain or rushed.
The record PVR numbers being reported at franchise groups are not purely a product story. They are a process story. The dealers who capture the most F&I revenue per unit have the most consistent, most professional F&I process – and that process is now accessible at a price point that works for operations of any size.
The Window is Open
The used car market in 2026 is delivering more financed customers, with more financial exposure, in a more payment-sensitive environment than most independent dealers have seen in a long time. That is an F&I opportunity, not a headwind. Independent dealers have always had what matters most – a loyal customer base that prefers buying used, trusts their local lot, and comes back. The customer relationship has always been there. The tools to fully capitalize on it have not. Until now.
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Amy Nitzschke is a B2B sales consultant and founder of