The RV industry is painting a complex, but ultimately resilient, picture through the first three quarters of 2025.
Although overall RV unit sales have fallen slightly compared with last year, a closer look reveals significant positive momentum in profitability and service efficiency.
Dealers are successfully adapting to the market. Dealers are focused on maximizing returns and streamlining operations.
The combination of streamlined operations and maximum returns signals dealers’ strategic shift toward sustainable growth.
Sales: Profitability Over Volume
RV sales by unit dipped by 7% in the first nine months of 2025, compared with the same period in 2024.
The story on the sales floor is one of impressive financial health.
For the first time since 2021, sales margins are on the rise, posting a 2% increase in the first nine months of this year from the same period in 2024.
This reversal indicates a successful pivot towards higher-quality, more profitable deals. Margins peaked during the pandemic-fueled 2021 and 2022, when margins averaged 15% to 20%. The sales margin of approximately 12% through the first nine months of 2025 is more in line with pre-2020 levels, just slightly behind 2019 sales margin averages.
The margin increase this year is likely due in part to better inventory management. Dealers whose lot inventory is in better shape than the past two years can ask for more for their RVs, or at least not discount the RVs as much. Dealers struggling with aged inventory for the past two years may have cut their sales margins to get the RV off the lot and save on floorplan interest expenses.
This trend is further bolstered by the continued strength of the finance and insurance (F&I) department.
F&I income, as a percentage of revenue, has grown by an additional 0.75% in the first nine months of 2025 compared with the first nine months of 2024.
Together, these metrics show that dealerships are effectively maximizing the revenue generated from each RV sold. The extra revenue is offsetting a slight decline in sales volume.
Service: Efficiency Reaches Five-Year High
The service department has emerged as a major bright spot in 2025.
Work order volume has increased in the first nine months of 2025, compared with the first nine months of 2024. Despite the increase, repair event cycle time (RECT) has continued to improve. The improvements are building on a positive trend that began after RECT peaked at an average of over 41 days in 2022.
This year’s increased efficiency is a clear win for dealerships and their customers.
Key improvements in service cycle times include:
- The average time for all work orders has fallen to 30.6 days. The average total is three full days faster than 2024 and the quickest average since 2020.
- Major bottlenecks are clearing up significantly. Work orders delayed by out-of-stock parts now average 54.3 days, a 7-day improvement from the previous year.
- Similarly, warranty work is being completed at an average of 42.4 days, also 7 days faster than in 2024.
These substantial reductions in repair times indicate a more stable supply chain and enhanced operational processes. The improvements are enabling service departments to deliver a better and faster customer experience.
Continued operational excellence, such as service departments’ performances this year, is crucial for long-term customer loyalty and dealerships’ reputations.
Benchmarking to Win
If you are only benchmarking against yourself, you are not getting the full picture.
Simply measuring your performance year-over-year is not enough to understand your dealership’s place in the market. You also need to determine how you stack up against the industry.
How are other dealers in your region performing? How do you compare nationally? These are the kinds of questions you should seek answers to from reports in your dealer management software (DMS) or from other third-party providers.
Five areas in particular should be key sales benchmark metrics you are tracking, nationally and in your local/regional markets.
- Sales margin
- Financed deal structures (rate, term, down payment, etc.)
- F&I income as % of selling price
- Finance and product penetrations
- Deliveries per salesperson
Seven areas should be key service benchmark metrics you are tracking, nationally and in your local/regional markets.
- Repair event cycle times (RECT)
- Sales per work order (labor, parts, extras)
- Billed hours per work order (warranty, external, internal)
- Tech efficiency
- Tech to service writer ratio
- Effective labor rate
- Parts margin
Data is Your Compass
With simplified data reporting tools such as IDS Leadership Insights and its new Industry Insights benchmarking dashboard, more dealers are putting critical information in the hands of their entire team, from management to technicians. If you are not an IDS customer, ask your DMS provider about their reports that track the key performance indicators you need to follow.
Data holds teams accountable and highlights where additional support may be needed. Tracking performance weekly and comparing the data with historical trends helps identify changes and measure the impact of your training.
When used effectively, data can encourage healthy competition among team members. The data gathered by the reports provides all your employees with a fair and consistent baseline to work from.
Your data is like gold: Mine it often.
Don Miller is a senior data consultant at Constellation Dealer Group. With more than 30 years of experience in the industry, Miller provides training, consulting and analytical services to dealerships.
