CHARLOTTE, N.C. -

It was a busy year in the F&I office at Sonic Automotive dealerships, as the retailer increased revenue in the finance, insurance and other category by nearly 20 percent in 2012.

Sonic closed the year by pushing up F&I revenue 18.4 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter, pulling in $64.69 million. For the year, it notched $250.42 million in this category, representing a 19.76-percent hike from 2011.

In an interesting metric on the used-car side, Sonic reported a record year for in its pre-owned-related gross, which includes F&I-related gross as well as front-end gross and fixed-operations related gross.

"Congrats to our pre-owned team for setting an all-time volume in pre-owned record and also pre-owned-related gross record for the company in 2012," said Jeff Dyke, Sonic's executive vice president of operations, during the company's conference call earlier this month.

Lithia Out for More F&I Gross Profit

Lithia Motors' average F&I gross profit per unit during the fourth quarter ticked up $48 year-over-year to come in at $1,104. For the year, the figure moved up 5 percent to rise to $1,083.

Despite the gains, investment analysts wondered during a recent conference call if Lithia's figure could be even higher since some other publicly traded groups enjoy F&I gross profit sums above $1,200 per unit.

"Our value auto segment, which makes up 18 percent of our used sales, has very low F&I penetration," Lithia senior vice president and chief financial officer Chris Holzshu said. "It's just a lower-priced vehicle. It's generally just basic transportation. The F&I component to that product is about half of what it is on core product in new-car sales. It does bring our average down, but it's all about gross profit dollars.

"We know we have a lot of opportunity in F&I in a lot of stores," Holzshu continued. "It's a focus are for us. We're looking at a lot of different products and services that we can offer in F&I to improve our number. It's a goal of ours."

Group 1 Highlights F&I Success

Meanwhile, Group 1 Automotive is one of those companies producing an F&I gross profit figure well above the $1,200 mark. Group 1 generated $1,270 in F&I gross profit per unit during the fourth quarter, a 7.4 percent lift above a year earlier.

For all of 2012, Group 1's F&I gross profit per unit came in $1,215, a level 7 percent above the previous year.

"We've just been focusing dealership by dealership on ensuring we're providing as much opportunity for the customer to participate with service contracts and capture as much of the financing as possible, said Pete DeLongchamps, Group 1's vice president of financial services and manufacturer relations.

"It's been good execution and good partnerships with our lenders, vendors and field teams. It's been fruitful for us, but we think there's still some additional opportunity for the company," DeLongchamps added when the company revealed its latest financial performance earlier this month.

Editor's Note: For more insight on how the largest publicly traded dealer groups perfomed on the used-vehicle side, check out the March 15 print edition of Auto Remarketing.

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