Installing tires not always part of the tire sale

ADP Lightspeed study shows relationship between purchased, installed tires

The age-old conundrum of whether or not dealers should install tires that are not purchased at their dealership may have become easier to answer. Dealers might be making plenty of tire sales, but the next step of installing those same tires that they sell leaves plenty of room for improvement, according to a study by ADP Lightspeed provided exclusively to Powersports Business.

The data orginated with dealers who use the Lightspeed DMS. They combined to sell 843,000 tires from the rolling 12-month period of April 1, 2013 to April 1, 2014.

Of those Lightspeed dealers who sell tires that fall into the custom/cruiser/touring segment, 73 percent of the tires that they sell are installed at the dealership. Conversely, 27 percent are sold over the counter and installed elsewhere.

Looking at the sport touring segment, less than two out of three tires that are sold by Lightspeed dealers are installed, with more than one out of three tires that are bought at the store being installed elsewhere.

For sport bike riders, dealers who use Lightspeed install tires 61 percent of the time, compared to 39 percent that are purchased over the counter and not installed at the dealership.

Less than half of all scooter tire purchases (46 percent) are bought and installed at the dealership, with 54 percent of tires being purchased over the counter.

Dual-sport riders get their tires bought and installed at Lightspeed dealerships only 42 percent of the time, while 58 percent of dual sport tires are purchased over the counter and installed elsewhere.

Similarly, 60 percent of ATV tires are bought over the counter at dealerships and installed elsewhere, with 40 percent of ATV tires bought at dealerships being installed there.

Road race tires (37 percent installed), trailer tires (31 percent) and off-highway motorcycles (20 percent installed) also allow dealers plenty of room to capitalize on installation of tires that are sold at their dealership.