Can Mobile Service Work Without OEM Incentives?

Many dealers ask, “Can mobile service actually be profitable without OEM dollars?”

It’s a fair question—and one we hear often. The truth is: incentives help, but they’re not the reason dealers succeed with mobile. In fact, focusing too much on subsidies can hold you back from building a scalable, self-sustaining mobile business.

Let’s dig into what actually drives success in the field.

The Incentive Illusion

Incentives are a powerful lever. OEMs use them to drive dealer behavior. Ford’s aggressive investment in mobile service incentives is a prime example—it sparked the largest mobile rollout in the country. Ford: 1. Everyone else: playing catch-up.

But there’s a flip side. The entrepreneur in me has always viewed incentives as a kind of operational welfare. They can distort decision-making, suppress innovation, and dull the entrepreneurial edge that’s so critical at the store level.

Incentives work—but you don’t need them to win.

So What Does Success Without Incentives Look Like?

It starts with the basics: know your customer, run the numbers, set goals, and execute with intensity.

Adding mobile service isn’t just a tactic—it’s a strategic shift. This is a new line of business. The only thing it shares with fixed ops is the service performed. How it’s delivered, by whom, how it’s managed, and how the economics work? Completely different.

Here’s what we’re seeing from dealers who treat it that way:

Strategic Wins

Serve today’s convenience-first consumer
Increase CSI and retention, especially post-warranty
Expand service capacity without adding bricks-and-mortar
Build enterprise value with a scalable, tech-enabled service channel

Tactical Wins

Increase revenue and gross per technician and van
Trackable RO growth per asset per period
Create new cross-sell and upsell moments on every mobile visit
Open a fresh recruiting channel for mobile-focused techs

The Overlooked Opportunity: Car Wash and Detail

Here’s a golden nugget that too many dealers miss: wash and detail. At Spiffy, we average over $130 per wash/detail. When dealers integrate that into mobile, they unlock three to four extra customer touchpoints a year—touchpoints that otherwise would be lost post-warranty.

More visits. More upsell potential. More retention.

Proof From the Field

At San Marcos CDJR, results from their recent mobile service launch with Spiffy speak for themselves:

$22,870 in monthly revenue and $16,208 in gross profit with incentives.
$11,458 in gross profit without incentives.
Double the gross profit of their average service bay with incentives. 41% higher without incentives.
95 mobile repair orders completed, averaging 4.5 jobs per day
High customer satisfaction across both fleet and retail clients

With Spiffy’s integrated platform and mobile expertise, San Marcos built a profitable operation that’s scalable and efficient—proving what’s possible with the right model.