Dealerships lose ground to quick lubes as service prices climb faster than those of competitors

By Alysha Webb | Automotive News | April 24, 2026

Dealership service departments are losing customers to quick lube shops — and pricing strategy is largely to blame, according to new data from global research and consulting firm Ducker Carlisle.

“The quick lubes are what everybody should be worried about,” Nate Chenenko, a principal and leader of global benchmarking activities at Ducker Carlisle, told Automotive News.

Dealerships made less money in 2025 than in 2024 and “quick lubes made more,” he said.

It’s all about price

The driving factor sending more customers to quick lube shops is price, he said.

“Prices at quick lubes are being raised at a slower rate than dealerships. Even comparing the complex jobs that dealerships are doing, they are [still] raising their prices more quickly than any other [auto repair] sector,” Chenenko said.

Ducker Carlisle measured three basic metrics: market share, number of transactions and dollar amount of transactions.

Independent repair facilities, quick lube shops and tire chains all gained market share from January 2025 to January 2026 — primarily at the expense of dealerships, according to Ducker Carlisle.

The number of dealership transactions fell 13 percent during that period while independent shops declined 9.6 percent, quick lubes 7.8 percent and tire chains 8 percent. Across the industry, the overall number of transactions was down 11 percent.

And from January 2025 to a year later, the automotive repair industry saw the transaction dollar amount decline 8.3 percent. For dealers, that number was 11 percent. Independents were down 4.8 percent, quick lubes 3.4 percent and tire chains 6.4 percent.

A look at transaction data

Ducker Carlisle reviews Visa and Mastercard credit and debit transactions at quick lube shops, independent repair facilities, tire chains, other chains and franchised dealerships, Chenenko said.

The data doesn’t distinguish between types of jobs the dealerships and quick lube shops are doing.

Regardless, the data shows quick lube shops are getting a higher percentage of service dollars than they were in the past while dealerships are getting less, he said.

The only way quick lube shops can grow is to take market share from someone else, Chenenko said. And since the average driver gets two oil changes a year and given the growing number of electric vehicles, “it is particularly striking that quick lubes are getting more business,” he said.

Customer retention problems

Service managers should analyze which competitors are outperforming them and determine why, Chenenko said.

If they are doing worse than repair facilities that perform similar work, the information “does point you in the right direction [and think], ‘I better go figure out what they are up to,'” he said.

Quick lube shops’ growing share of oil changes should alarm dealerships because a high percentage of new vehicles have maintenance paid for by the manufacturer for some period of time, Chenenko said.

“Almost every vehicle 0 to 2 years old has free maintenance paid for by the OEM,” Chenenko said.

Even when a dealership is giving away free maintenance for two years, “you still seem to be having a hard time retaining those customers,” he said.

Chenenko said the main use of Ducker Carlisle data for manufacturers is to keep tabs on the market. If a service director has a bad month for revenue, it’s beneficial to know whether it was just that dealership or if the whole market was down.

“It helps to know whether you were bad or the entire market because then you can make smarter pricing and marketing decisions,” he said.

Manufacturers also use it to see where they’re losing market share. Throughout 2024, tire chains and quick lube shops slowly gained on dealerships.

“Knowing this helps OEMs price — maybe they’re too expensive relative to tire [chains], for example — and market themeselves,” Chenenko said.

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Source: Automotive News | April 24, 2026 https://www.autonews.com/retail/service-and-parts/an-quick-lubes-taking-dealership-business-0424/