50+ Car Dealership Video Statistics You Need to Know in 2026

Car dealership video statistics tend to get recycled from the same three ad-agency blog posts. This page does something different: it pulls the numbers from the studies themselves (Google/Kantar, Cox Automotive, CDK Global, J.D. Power, NADA) and covers the whole dealership, not just YouTube ads. Walkarounds, personalized follow-up video, photos and video in the service lane, and what customers do when they get them.

Every figure links to the page or PDF it came from, with the year of the data. Where a number is from VentaVid's own platform, it says so.

If you run a sales floor or a service drive, the short version is this: shoppers already watch video before they ever contact you, and the customers who get a video from the dealership approve more and spend more. See how personalized video works on your inventory.

Most Sales Managers and Service Managers we talk to at dealer groups already know the pain behind these numbers: internet leads that never pick up the phone, and recommended work that gets declined because the customer can't see the worn part. We build personalized video for teams fixing exactly that. Book a 15-min demo and we'll show it on your own inventory.

Key highlights

• 80% of new-vehicle buyers took an action after watching a video (Google/Kantar, 2020)
• 72% of dealership sales teams use video in some form, but only 49% have salespeople sending personalized videos to customers (CDK Global, 2026)
• 64% of service customers want photo or video evidence with their multi-point inspection; only 26% of mass-market customers get it (J.D. Power, 2026)
• Customers who used dealer-provided photos or videos spent $230 more per repair order: $640 versus $410 (Cox Automotive, 2026)
• Dealership NPS fell from +48 to +29 in one year, and 58% of buyers reported a problem (CDK Global, 2026)
• Only 54% of owners with a car two years old or newer went back to the selling dealer for service, down from 72% in 2023 (Cox Automotive, 2025)

How car shoppers use video before they contact you

The pre-contact phase is where most of the video watching happens. By the time a lead lands in your CRM, the shopper has usually already seen the car on a screen, just not yours.

80% of new-vehicle purchasers took an action after watching a video. That includes searching for more information, visiting a dealer website, scheduling a test drive, or building and pricing a vehicle. Google/Kantar Gearshift, 2020, U.S. new-vehicle purchasers, n=1,000. (Think with Google, Dealer Guidebook 2.5)

88% of purchasers who used online video said they were 100% certain which vehicle they were going to buy before visiting the dealership. Google research in the Dealer Guidebook, footnoted to Google/Kantar 2020 and Google/Ipsos, August 2018. (Think with Google, Dealer Guidebook 2.5)

Shoppers watch around 10 videos across 3 brands more than a month before purchase, 6 videos across 2 brands a month out, and 5 videos across 2 brands in the final two weeks. The content shifts from walkarounds and comparisons early on to vehicle features and the dealer purchase late. Google/Kantar, 2020. (Think with Google, Dealer Guidebook 2.5)

Buyers visited 4.6 websites on average in 2025; 75% used third-party sites and 59% used a dealership website. The dealer site is not the first stop for most people, so a walkaround that lives on your VDP alone is easy to miss. (Cox Automotive 2025 Car Buyer Journey Study)

Only 29% of buyers knew the exact car they wanted at the start of shopping, down from 37% in 2020. Seven in ten went in with an open mind, which is the window where a vehicle walkaround can change the shortlist. (Cox Automotive 2025 Car Buyer Journey Study, summary PDF)

63% of buyers say combining online and in-person steps is ideal. Only 7% bought entirely online, and 53% did everything at the dealership. (Cox Automotive 2025 Car Buyer Journey Study)

48% of shoppers want to apply for credit online, but only 33% do. 37% want to finalize the price online; 19% do. The biggest gaps sit in the financing stage. (Cox Automotive 2025 Car Buyer Journey Study, summary PDF)

76% of new-vehicle buyers were highly satisfied with the buying process in 2025, an all-time high, and 44% said it was better than their previous purchase. Fielded 6 August to 5 September 2025, n=2,344. (Cox Automotive 2025 Car Buyer Journey Study)

44% of auto buyers spend more time researching before contacting a dealer. Harris Poll for Urban Science, January 2026, n=3,012 U.S. auto buyers. (Urban Science Harris Poll 2026)

66% of auto buyers would consider purchasing directly from a traditional dealership's website, and nine in ten still say a traditional dealership is their top choice. (Urban Science Harris Poll 2026)

25% of new-vehicle buyers used AI tools during shopping in 2025; 19% of all buyers did. Video is starting to compete with AI summaries for the research window. (Cox Automotive 2025 Car Buyer Journey Study)

What this adds up to: the shopper does more homework, later, and on more sites. A personalized walkaround video sent to the lead meets them where that homework already happens.

Personalized video in the dealership sales process

CDK Global asked dealers directly how their sales teams use video in 2026. The adoption numbers are high. The personalization numbers are not.

72% of dealership sales teams use video in some form to engage, inform and communicate with shoppers. (CDK Global, Are Your Dealership Salespeople Video Stars in 2026?)

49% of dealerships report that sales staff create personalized videos and send them directly to customers. Roughly half of stores still rely on generic video or none at all for one-to-one follow-up. (CDK Global, 2026)

At dealer groups with six or more rooftops, 64% send personalized videos directly and more than 80% of sales staff engage in video marketing. Scale correlates with adoption. (CDK Global, 2026)

At midsize groups (three to five rooftops), 52% of sales staff send personalized videos and 23% don't use video at all. (CDK Global, 2026)

At small groups (one to two rooftops), 40% send videos directly to customers and 36% of staff don't use video at all. This is the biggest gap in the market, and the easiest one to close. (CDK Global, 2026)

42% of salespeople also create personalized content for social media. (CDK Global, 2026)

So a third of small-store salespeople never send a video, while 80% of buyers act after watching one. If you want to see what a personalized video for car sales looks like when the rep shoots it in 60 seconds on a phone, book a demo and we'll do it on your lot.

Where the sales experience leaks

Video only matters if it fixes something. These numbers show what it needs to fix: time, transparency and communication.

Dealership Net Promoter Score fell from +48 to +29 in one year. For online-only shoppers it dropped from 42 to zero. CDK 2026 Friction Points Study, 1,436 consumers and 411 dealers. (CDK Global, Dealership Guy coverage)

58% of shoppers reported a problem at the dealership, up from 47% the year before. (Dealership Guy on the CDK 2026 Friction Points Study)

NPS drops by 13 points for every additional hour a deal takes. (Dealership Guy on the CDK 2026 Friction Points Study)

26% of buyers completed the purchase in under one hour (up from 21%), while 35% still took more than two hours (down from 39%). (Dealership Guy on the CDK 2026 Friction Points Study)

Complaints about sales staff delays rose from 14% to 18%, and complaints about added fees from 15% to 20%. (Dealership Guy on the CDK 2026 Friction Points Study)

Roughly 75% of dealers transfer the customer's online data smoothly into the store; 25% make the customer enter it again. (Dealership Guy on the CDK 2026 Friction Points Study)

AI is now used by 39% of dealers, up from 28%. (CDK Global, 2026 Friction Points Study)

83% of buyers said their salesperson provided clear explanations, 82% said the salesperson showed product expertise, and 88% rated the purchase as easy in 2024. CDK Ease of Purchase survey, more than 11,000 shoppers over three years. (CDK Global, Study: Car Salespeople Are Improving)

The pattern: salespeople are getting better one-on-one, and the process around them is getting worse. A short video that answers "is it still available, what's the number, what does it look like" before the visit takes minutes off the deal. It is the same logic as speed to lead, applied to the whole visit.

Photos and video in the service lane

This is where the 2026 data is strongest. J.D. Power and Cox Automotive both measured what happens when the service advisor sends the customer a photo or video of the car.

64% of service customers say they would like photo or video evidence alongside their multi-point inspection results. J.D. Power 2026 U.S. Customer Service Index Study, 51,228 owners and lessees, fielded January through December 2025. (J.D. Power)

Only 26% of mass-market customers and 44% of premium customers actually receive it. That is a 38-point gap in the mass market between what customers want and what they get. (J.D. Power 2026 CSI Study)

Satisfaction with the service advisor is highest when photo or video evidence is provided during the service: 928 in premium and 907 in mass market, on a 1,000-point scale. (J.D. Power 2026 CSI Study)

Overall service satisfaction reached 868, up 3 points; premium 886 and mass market 865. (J.D. Power 2026 CSI Study)

Only 26% of customers experienced nine or ten of the top CSI key performance indicators. When all ten are met, satisfaction is 979; when only three are met, it is 632. (J.D. Power 2026 CSI Study)

At a satisfaction score of 950 or higher, 86% of mass-market customers and 88% of premium customers say they "definitely will" return. (J.D. Power 2026 CSI Study)

Routine maintenance takes 1.61 hours on average at mass-market dealers and 2.46 hours at premium dealers, while 62% of aftermarket visits finish in under an hour. Time certainty is part of the transparency problem. (J.D. Power 2026 CSI Study, via Auto Remarketing)

47% of high-performing dealers have integrated photos and videos into their multi-point inspections, versus 34% of other dealers. Cox Automotive 2026 Fixed Ops and Ownership Study, 500 fixed-ops decision makers and 2,502 consumers. (Cox Automotive media deck, April 2026)

Consumers who used dealer-provided photos or videos spent $640 on their repair order, versus $410 for those who did not: $230 more. Among customers who paid out of pocket for their last visit. (Cox Automotive 2026 Fixed Ops and Ownership Study)

49% of consumers who received photos or videos say they are more likely to approve recommended services. (Cox Automotive 2026 Fixed Ops and Ownership Study)

Dealers who use photos and videos cite 53% increased consumer trust, 45% higher customer engagement and 44% more transparency in the process. (Cox Automotive 2026 Fixed Ops and Ownership Study)

Cox's own conclusion in the deck reads, in short: when customers can see it, they approve it. That is the whole case for a video multi-point inspection, and it is why declined work is the first metric to move when a service department starts sending video.

Service retention, trust and the cost of a lost customer

Video in the service lane is a retention tool as much as an upsell tool. These numbers explain why fixed ops directors care.

80% of new-car buyers say they are likely to service at the selling dealership, but only about 25% leave with a first appointment scheduled. (Cox Automotive 2026 Fixed Ops and Ownership Study)

Each lost service customer may cost the dealership $12,398 in estimated service spend over the ownership period. Based on 2.4 visits a year, 8.4 years of ownership and $615 per visit among Xtime dealers. (Cox Automotive 2026 Fixed Ops and Ownership Study, media deck)

Average dealership service and parts revenue reached about $9.23 million in 2025, up 33% since 2018, while the dealer share of service visits fell from 33% to 29%. Record revenue, shrinking share. (Cox Automotive, April 2026)

88% of owners say the service experience affects whether they buy their next vehicle from that dealer, and customers who return for service are 30 points more likely to repurchase. (Cox Automotive 2026 Fixed Ops and Ownership Study)

Dealerships handle 12% fewer service visits than they did in 2018. (Cox Automotive 2025 Service Industry Study)

Only 54% of people with a car two years old or newer went back to the selling dealership for service in 2025, down from 72% in 2023. Fielded April to May 2025, n=1,974. (Cox Automotive 2025 Service Industry Study)

45% of vehicle owners are dissatisfied with their dealership service experience, mainly because of unexpected costs and poor communication. Not price. Communication. (Cox Automotive 2025 Service Industry Study)

74% of customers who service at a dealership are likely to buy their next vehicle there. (Cox Automotive 2025 Service Industry Study)

In the first half of 2025, 16,972 U.S. franchised dealerships wrote more than 137 million repair orders and $81 billion in service and parts sales, with over 275,000 technicians employed. NADA mid-year 2025 data. (Digital Dealer on NADA Data 2025)

"Unexpected costs and poor communication" is the exact problem a 45-second video from the technician solves: the customer sees the part, hears the price and approves from the phone. Our aftersales guide on sending video messages from the service department walks through the workflow.

Video benchmarks from outside automotive

A few general benchmarks, useful for context. Treat these as directional; none of them were measured on dealership customers.

49% of marketers say short-form video is their top ROI-driving format, followed by long-form video (29%) and live video (25%). HubSpot State of Marketing 2026, 3,400+ marketers. (HubSpot marketing statistics)

91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool in 2026, and 93% say it is an important part of their strategy. Wyzowl 2026, as reported on HubSpot's statistics page. (HubSpot marketing statistics)

96% of marketers say video has helped customers understand their product or service. HubSpot State of Video Marketing, 2023. (HubSpot marketing statistics)

37% of marketers plan to increase their video investment in 2026. (HubSpot marketing statistics)

Wistia analyzed 13 million videos and 79 million hours of viewing for its 2026 State of Video report: 76% of companies now make at least one video a month, and almost 40% spent under $5,000 on video production last year. Cheap and frequent beats polished and rare. (Wistia State of Video 2026)

Landing pages with video can lift conversions by up to 80%, against a median landing-page conversion rate of 6.6%. Unbounce data, as reported by Levitate Media, April 2026. (Levitate Media, video conversion statistics)

Emails with embedded video converted at 9.1% versus 5.4% without, and campaigns with an autoplay video preview opened at 12.1% versus 9.6% for a static thumbnail. ZebraCat data, as reported by Stripo, June 2026. (Stripo, video email marketing statistics)

Companies using video in marketing saw 27% higher click-through rates and 34% higher web conversion rates, and grew revenue 49% faster year on year. Aberdeen Group, reported by Digital Dealer in 2017. Older data, still the most-cited baseline in dealer circles. (Digital Dealer)

For the dealership-specific version of these email numbers, see video email for car dealerships.

VentaVid data: what personalized video does in a dealership

These figures are VentaVid's own platform and customer data, not third-party research. They are listed separately so nobody mistakes them for an industry study.

• 81% response rate to personalized video messages sent by sales and service teams.
• 300%+ more responses to video email than to standard email.
• 85% of service videos are viewed within 15 minutes of being sent.
• 22% higher approval rate on recommended work in aftersales.
• $50 to $120 extra revenue per vehicle visit in the service department.
• 1.5x faster sales cycle with personalized video in the sales process.
• 38% of end customers mention the video message positively in post-purchase surveys.

Source: VentaVid platform data across 1000+ dealerships in 43 countries. Read how it works for automotive sales teams and for aftersales and service departments.

What this means for dealership sales and service teams

Put the sales-side numbers next to each other. 80% of buyers act after watching a video. 44% now research longer before contacting a dealer. Yet at a one- or two-rooftop store, 36% of sales staff never send a video at all. The shopper's behavior has moved; the follow-up process at most stores hasn't. That gap is where a personalized video follow-up earns its keep, especially on the internet lead that won't answer a call.

The service-side numbers are even less ambiguous. 64% of customers want photo or video evidence with their inspection. A quarter of mass-market customers get it. The ones who do get it spend $230 more and are more satisfied with the advisor. Cox's high performers are already at 47% adoption. If your store isn't sending inspection video yet, you are competing against the stores that are, on the metric that decides retention.

Then there's the trust problem behind the retention drop. Owners who leave say it was unexpected costs and poor communication. A technician's 45-second clip of the brake pad, with the price on screen and an approve button under it, is the cheapest fix for both. It also lifts the advisor score that J.D. Power tied to a 950+ CSI and an 86 to 88% "definitely will return."

VentaVid builds exactly this: the rep or advisor shoots a short handheld video, and it becomes a branded page with book, approve and pay buttons, sent over SMS, WhatsApp or email. Works with the systems you already use, including Keyloop and CDK, plus an open API for your DMS, CRM or BI tools. If you're comparing options, our video messaging platform guide covers what to look for, and video software for dealerships compares the field.

If you sell or service vehicles, VentaVid turns a quick handheld video into a branded page your customers actually open. Book a 15-minute demo and we'll show it on your inventory and your write-up flow.

Frequently asked questions

How many car buyers watch video before purchasing?

Google/Kantar research found that 80% of new-vehicle purchasers took an action after watching a video, and shoppers watch roughly ten videos across three brands more than a month before buying. Cox Automotive's 2025 study adds that buyers visit 4.6 websites on average, with 75% using third-party sites. Video is part of the research phase for most buyers, well before they contact a dealer.

What percentage of dealerships use video in sales?

According to CDK Global's 2026 data, 72% of dealership sales teams use video in some form, but only 49% have salespeople creating and sending personalized videos to customers. Adoption is highest at groups with six or more rooftops (64% send personalized video) and lowest at one- to two-rooftop stores, where 36% of staff don't use video at all.

Do customers want video from the service department?

Yes. J.D. Power's 2026 Customer Service Index found that 64% of customers would like photo or video evidence with their multi-point inspection results, but only 26% of mass-market and 44% of premium customers receive it. Service advisor satisfaction is highest (928 premium, 907 mass market) when that evidence is provided.

Does video increase repair order value?

Cox Automotive's 2026 Fixed Ops and Ownership Study found that customers who used dealer-provided photos or videos spent $640 on their repair order versus $410 for those who did not, a $230 difference. 49% of customers who received photos or videos said they were more likely to approve recommended work. VentaVid's own customer data shows a 22% higher approval rate and $50 to $120 extra revenue per visit.

Why is dealership service retention falling?

Cox Automotive's 2025 Service Industry Study found that only 54% of owners with a car two years old or newer returned to the selling dealer for service, down from 72% in 2023, and that dealers handle 12% fewer visits than in 2018. The main reasons customers cite are unexpected costs and poor communication, not price. Visual proof of the recommended work addresses both.

What is the ROI of personalized video for a car dealership?

The third-party evidence is strongest in service: $230 more per repair order and 49% higher likelihood to approve (Cox Automotive, 2026). On the sales side, VentaVid customers see an 81% response rate to video messages and 300%+ more responses than standard email. Use the automotive sales page to see how those figures map to your lead volume.

How long should a dealership video be?

Wistia's 2026 analysis of 13 million videos found shorter videos hold attention better, and dealers who send personalized video typically keep walkarounds and inspection clips to 45 to 90 seconds. The goal is one car, one customer, one clear next step. Read our guide to video walkarounds for car dealerships for the shot list.

How do you measure the effect of video on CSI?

Track advisor satisfaction and CSI for repair orders with and without a video, alongside approval rate and average repair order value. J.D. Power's 2026 data gives you the benchmark: advisor satisfaction of 928 (premium) and 907 (mass market) when photo or video evidence is provided. VentaVid's dashboards report views, response and approvals per advisor so the comparison is built in.