Dealership Close Rates by Metro: Benchmarks Across 48 U.S. Markets

Foureyes tracked 2.6 million leads from more than 1,150 dealerships across 48 U.S. markets through Q1 2026 to dig deeper into dealership close rates by metropolitan area — every contact attempt, appointment, and show logged through to a sale.

Written By
Matt Inda
Blog Thimble Image

01 – The metro picture

A 15.6-point gap between the highest and lowest close-rate markets

Close rate by metro – Q1 2026

Close rates range from 14.5% to 30.1%. Overall average is 18.5%.
Above avg Below avg Overall avg (18.5%)

Did you see? Seven of the top ten markets by close rate are in the Midwest. The bottom clusters in large coastal and Sunbelt metros. Regional dynamics vary — competitive density, average transaction values, consumer behavior — but those variables don't account for a 15-point gap. The following sections get into what does.

02 – The funnel

Most leads stall between contact and appointment – but the bigger story is the range

Sales Funnel: Overall Averages

Contact rate

69%

Range:
47%–79%

Appt set rate

40%

Range:
30%–59%

Show rate

59%

Range:
41%–74%

Close rate

18.5%

Range:
14.5%–30.1%

Biggest Funnel Hurdle

Contact → Set

29 points

Biggest range

Contact rate

32 points

The overall average doesn't describe your store or your market — it describes an aggregate. What matters is where your specific pipeline leaks. Contact rate has the widest range of any stage in this analysis: 47% at the bottom, 79% at the top. It's also the stage most consistently correlated with close rate performance across these 48 markets. That's where the next section picks up.

03 – Contact rate is the foundation

In this dataset, contact rate is the strongest correlate of close rate

Contact Rate vs. Close Rate

Hover over any dot for market detail

9 of 10 markets with a contact rate at or below 66% closed below the 18.5% overall average close rate.
Above 18.5% close Below 18.5% close

Nine of the ten markets with a contact rate at or below 66% closed below the 18.5% overall average. Knoxville was the only exception (63% contact rate, 18.9% close, just 0.4 points above the average). The trend line shows the general direction — as contact rate goes up, close rate tends to follow.

Contact rate is the metric most consistently correlated with where a market lands on close rate in this dataset. Based on what the data shows, tracking it — and working to improve it — looks like one meaningful lever for close rate performance.

04 – Where the process breaks

Stores have sales funnel weak spots – just not all in the same place

The four markets below each illustrate a different stage failure — patterns that repeat throughout the full dataset. Your close rate is the output of four rates running in sequence. Two stores can post the same close rate with completely different process profiles — the breakdown just lives at a different stage.

Sales Process Stage Rate Breaks: Four Sample Markets

Each line traces one market's performance across all four stages

Rochester: 47, 59, 52, 42. New Orleans: 73, 41, 41, 46. Riverside: 56, 51, 47, 30. Des Moines: 78, 34, 69, 59.

Rochester – 14.6% close

47% contact rate · lowest of any market

New Orleans – 18.5% close

41% show rate · lowest of any market

Riverside – 16.7% close

30% show-to-sale · lowest of any market

Des Moines – 30.1% close

Strong across all four stages

Failure at contact. Rochester sets appointments at the highest rate of any market — 59% of everyone they reach. But they only reach 47% of their leads, the lowest contact rate in the dataset. Strong conversion downstream doesn't recover a broken top of process.

Failure at show. New Orleans contacts 73% of leads and sets appointments at a normal rate. Then 59% of those appointments never produce a walk-in — the worst show rate of any market in this analysis.

Failure at show-to-sale. Riverside/San Bernardino's contact, set, and show rates are all within normal range. They close just 30% of appointment shows — eight points below the next lowest market. Three stages hold. The last one doesn't.

No single failure. Des Moines: 78% contact, 69% show, 59% show-to-sale — the best close rate in the dataset at 30.1%. When the process holds at every stage, the compounding works in your favor.

05 – The scale problem

8 of the 10 metros with the most qualified dealerships closed below the overall average

Close Rates – Top 10 Metros by Dealer Count

Numbers in parentheses = dealer count

Minneapolis 23.3%, Miami 19.1%, Pittsburgh 17.9%, Los Angeles 17.2%, Virginia Beach 17.0%, Washington DC 16.8%, Detroit 16.8%, Atlanta 16.4%, Chicago 16.4%, Philadelphia 15.4%.
Above avg Below avg Overall avg (18.5%)

Eight of the ten biggest markets in this study, measured by number of dealerships, closed below the overall average in Q1 2026. The largest of those — LA (64 dealers), Chicago (61), Philadelphia (61) — are among the worst performers. More leads per location doesn't produce better results. In this dataset, the relationship trends the other direction.

The two exceptions are instructive. Minneapolis (56 dealers, 23.3% close) runs a 70% contact rate — above average for a market their size. Miami/Fort Lauderdale (74 dealers, 19.1%) is the largest market in this dataset by dealer count and still clears the overall average. Both clear 18.5% where the eight others don't.

Common questions

Dealership Close Rate Benchmarks – Q&A

What is the overall close rate for U.S. dealerships?

In this Q1 2026 study across 48 U.S. markets, the overall close rate — total leads divided by total vehicle sales — was 18.5%. It ranged from 14.5% in San Francisco-Oakland to 30.1% in Des Moines across the 1,150+ dealerships and 2.6 million leads in the dataset.

What is a good contact rate for a car dealership?

In this Q1 2026 study, the top-performing markets ran contact rates at 70% or above. The overall contact rate across all 48 markets was 69%, ranging from 47% to 79%. Contact rate measures the percentage of inbound leads that a dealership's team corresponded with in some way. Markets running around 70% or higher consistently showed stronger close rate performance in this dataset.

Why do dealership close rates vary so much by market?

Close rates vary because the sales process breaks down at different stages across markets: contact, appointment set, show, and show-to-sale. In this Q1 2026 study, contact rate was the stage most consistently correlated with close rate outcomes — 9 of the 10 markets with a contact rate at or below 66% closed below the 18.5% overall average. Geography and market dynamics play a role, but process-level differences account for much of the gap between top and bottom markets.

Which dealership markets have the highest close rates?

In Q1 2026, the five highest close-rate markets in this study were Des Moines, IA (30.1%), Honolulu, HI (28.6%), Omaha, NE (25.4%), Wichita, KS (24.4%), and Milwaukee, WI (23.8%). Seven of the top 10 were Midwest markets. These markets generally ran contact rates of 70% or higher — above the study's overall average of 69% — alongside strong show-to-sale performance.

How can I improve my dealership's close rate?

Start by identifying which stage of your sales process is underperforming: contact, appointment set, show, or show-to-sale. In this Q1 2026 study, 9 of the 10 markets with a contact rate at or below 66% closed below the overall average of 18.5%. Tracking all four stage rates — rather than close rate alone — gives a more precise view of where leads are leaving the pipeline.

Your sales process doesn't fix itself.

These are Q1 2026 benchmarks from 1,150+ dealerships across 48 markets. Often times, stores assume a close rate problem is a closing problem. The numbers say it usually starts earlier, with whether you reached the lead in the first place. Your own CRM has the same data. Where you're losing leads is a question it can answer.

Foureyes can help

Read More Blogs

Blog Item Image wrapDealership Close Rates by Metro: Benchmarks Across 48 U.S. Markets

Foureyes tracked 2.6 million leads from more than 1,150 dealerships across 48 U.S. markets through Q1 2026 to dig deeper into dealership close rates by metropolitan area — every contact attempt, appointment, and show logged through to a sale.

Blog Top Autho Image
Matt Inda
Blog Item Image wrap2026 Automotive Dealer Benchmarks Report

For the eighth year, Foureyes analyzed dealer website data to identify industry benchmarks, so you can compare your dealership’s performance and see what it takes to stay competitive.

Blog Top Autho Image
Matt Inda
Blog Item Image wrapData Warehousing for Auto Dealerships: What It Is, Why It's Hard, and Why Your CDP Makes or Breaks It

Data warehousing comes up constantly in dealer group conversations, but the actual mechanics rarely get explained clearly. This post tries to fix that. By the end you'll know what a warehouse actually does, why so many groups struggle to get it right, and why the data going in matters more than most people talk about.

Blog Top Autho Image
Cameron Dieter
Blog Item Image wrapFoureyes Launches Snowflake Managed Services, Taking the Complexity Out of Data Warehouse Management for Dealer Groups

New offering gives dealer groups the warehousing expertise they need — without building and managing it themselves

Blog Top Autho Image
Matt Inda
Blog Item Image wrapFoureyes and Volie Announce New Integration Partnership to Boost BDC Performance

Foureyes and Volie announced a two-way integration partnership that connects audience-building and dealer data infrastructure with tools for dealership BDC teams.

Blog Top Autho Image
Meredith Steiner
Blog Item Image wrapNew Foureyes Consent Management Passes 100-Vendor Milestone, Signaling Industry Standardization Around Dealer-Controlled Consent

Foureyes today announced that more than 100 automotive retail vendors are now participating in Foureyes Consent Management, marking a major step toward standardizing how customer communication opt-out requests are managed across the industry.

Blog Top Autho Image
Matt Inda
Blog Item Image wrapIntroducing Foureyes Connect: A New Standard for Automotive Data

Foureyes today announced the launch of Foureyes Connect, a different kind of data platform designed to reset how dealer groups operate and scale in an increasingly complex automotive retail landscape.

Blog Top Autho Image
Matt Inda
Blog Item Image wrapHow to Use the U.S. Auto Prices Over Time Dashboard

Explore weekly U.S. auto pricing trends with Foureyes’ interactive dashboard. Compare new and used prices by brand and body type, track inflation and tariff impacts, and uncover insights to guide smarter decisions.

Blog Top Autho Image
Meredith Steiner
Blog Item Image wrapHow to Use the U.S. Automotive Inventory Over Time Dashboard

Track how U.S. auto inventory has changed since 2021 with this interactive dashboard. from Foureyes. Compare new vs. used, explore brand and model shifts, and gain insights to guide smarter pricing, stocking, and forecasting decisions on a weekly basis.

Blog Top Autho Image
Meredith Steiner
Blog Item Image wrapHow to Use the U.S. Automotive New Vehicle Sales and Market Share Dashboard

Track monthly U.S. new vehicle sales and market share with this interactive dashboard from Foureyes. Compare brands, body types, and regions to uncover sales momentum, competitive shifts, and supply dynamics—updated monthly and available for free.

Blog Top Autho Image
Meredith Steiner
Blog Item Image wrapData Study: The Leads You Marked as Lost Are Still Shopping

New Foureyes data shows why “closed-lost” doesn’t mean game over – and how dealers can win more with what they already have.

Blog Top Autho Image
Matt Inda
Blog Item Image wrapAutomotive Sales Benchmarks: Appointment Set Rates for Q4 2024 to April 2025

If your dealership's appointment set rates feel like a mystery, you're not alone. But now, there's fresh data to show where you stand.

Blog Top Autho Image
Matt Inda
Blog Item Image wrap2025 Automotive Dealer Benchmarks Report

For the seventh straight year, Foureyes has dropped its Automotive Dealer Benchmark Report – pulling back the curtain on what's really happening with your leads throughout your sales process.

Blog Top Autho Image
Matt Inda
Blog Item Image wrapFoureyes Changing the Follow-up Game with Inventory-based Texting

See how the latest Foureyes innovation further helps dealerships match prospects to specific inventory.

Blog Top Autho Image
Matt Inda
Blog Item Image wrapThere are How Many “Hidden” Sales Leads at Automotive Dealerships?

New research of sales process data across U.S. automotive dealerships sheds light on the opportunity of “hidden” leads in dealership CRMs.

Blog Top Autho Image
Matt Inda
Blog Item Image wrapHow many leads do you actually need? And are you efficiently and effectively working them?

Which dials need to be turned, and how far, to ensure they are getting leads for inventory that actually need leads? And to ensure those leads efficiently and effectively worked?

Blog Top Autho Image
David Steinberg
Blog Item Image wrapData Study: How Many Leads Does it Take for Dealerships to Sell a Car?

A Foureyes study of U.S. automotive dealerships identified the lead-to-sale “efficiency” across new vehicle inventory for Q1 2024.

Blog Top Autho Image
Matt Inda
Blog Item Image wrap2024 Automotive Dealer Benchmarks Report

For the sixth consecutive year, Foureyes released its new automotive industry benchmarks. This data is intended to help dealers and dealer groups compare their performance against the industry and track trends in how leads behave.

Blog Top Autho Image
Matt Inda
Blog Item Image wrapMost In-demand YMMs (2023 & 2024)

We dove into a pool of approximately 700 dealerships to scope out the most sought-after 2023 and 2024 YMMs and their OEMs over the past 3 months (min. 100 units per YMM)

Blog Top Autho Image
Matt Inda
Blog Top Autho Image
David Steinberg
Blog Top Autho Image
Meredith Steiner
Blog Item Image wrap2022 Automotive Dealer Benchmarks Report

As automotive dealerships continue to adjust their strategies, tactics, and other process operations during this ongoing vehicle inventory shortage, we at Foureyes are sharing – for the fourth consecutive year – new auto industry benchmarks intended to help dealers understand the market, track trends in how leads behave, and drive sales success in 2022.

Blog Top Autho Image
Cody Clifton
Blog Top Autho Image
Meredith Steiner
Blog Item Image wrap2021 Automotive Dealer Benchmarks Report

For the third year in a row, we’re sharing auto industry benchmarks to help dealers and OEMs understand the market, track changes in customer behavior, and drive sales success in 2021.

Blog Top Autho Image
Cody Clifton
Blog Item Image wrapThe 2020 Automotive Dealer Benchmarks Report

Start the new year off strong by reviewing your sales performance and creating 2020 goals. See how your dealership stacks up against the competition and use these auto industry benchmarks to develop a marketing and sales strategy for the new year.

Blog Top Autho Image
Cody Clifton
Back to Top Icon