The Death of Brand Loyalty — and Where Gross Is Hiding in 2025
For decades, brand loyalty was gospel.
Get a customer into a BMW, Lexus, Land Rover, or Benz — and you could count on them to return like clockwork every 36 months. Lease. Return. Repeat.
But that cycle is over.
Brand loyalty isn’t what it used to be — and neither is gross.
In 2025, customers don’t come back for the badge. They come back for the experience.
And dealers who don’t understand that shift are watching repeat business (and front-end profit) quietly disappear.
Why Brand Loyalty Is Fading
The pandemic didn’t just break supply chains.
It broke patterns.
Customers who would’ve stayed with the same brand for life were suddenly:
Forced to switch due to inventory gaps
Told to “order and wait” instead of driving off the lot
Offered a $400 lease for a car that used to be $299
Told the dealership they loved had closed or consolidated
Throw in rising interest rates, fewer incentives, and an explosion of tech parity between brands — and suddenly, loyalty looks more like convenience.
And now that customers know the grass isn’t always greener — they shop price, availability, and how they’re treated, not the logo on the hood.
The New Loyalty Is Local
The best operators in the country have already adjusted. They’re not betting on OEM incentives or brand prestige.
They’re building store-level loyalty by focusing on things that actually matter to the modern customer:
Service that surprises: Transparent pricing, real-time updates from a real person.
Follow-up that’s human: Texts that feel personal. Calls with context. CRM activity that actually builds relationships
Digital experience that doesn’t suck: Inventory that’s accurate, prices that match, and a website that doesn’t feel like it was coded in 2007
Consistency across every channel: Whether a customer walks in, calls, or clicks, they should feel like your team is working as one
People don’t leave brands — they leave bad experiences.
And they come back for the ones that made it easy, fast, and human.
So Where’s the Gross Now?
With front-end margins compressing, too many dealers are convinced gross is dead. It’s not.
It just moved.
Today’s profit isn’t made by trying to pencil an extra $500 into the front. It’s protected and earned in other places:
Recon speed — A 3-day turnaround beats a 10-day delay. Every time.
F&I confidence — A sharp, transparent finance manager can still create thousands in profit, even in a rate-sensitive market.
Inventory decisions — Buying the right car at the right price matters more than selling it for $1,000 over book.
Fixed ops retention — The second car often starts with the first oil change. Service is no longer “support.” It’s your sales funnel.
Better trade tools — Under-appraising by $1,500 to make a deal work destroys the relationship and the future gross.
The Formula for 2025
Here it is in one sentence:
Loyalty is built through consistency, and gross is held through speed, trust, and execution.
If your team can’t deliver a seamless digital-to-showroom experience,
If your recon takes 12 days,
If your CRM is full of one-word emails and 4-day follow-ups,
If your F&I office is still selling like it’s 2015...
You’re not just losing gross. You’re losing future buyers.
Final Word
The badge on the grille doesn’t bring customers back anymore.
The experience does. The dealership holds the keys to loyalty.
And gross isn’t made by squeezing.
It’s made by leading.
So stop chasing what worked in 2019.
Start obsessing over what works now.
Because in 2025, the winners won’t be the ones with the best brand.
They’ll be the ones who deliver the best everything else.