[bluGill]

By independent shops I mean fully independent - no business relationship with the manufacture. Dealers are a mix: they are independently owned, but they get things from the manufacturer that the fully independent shops do not.

The typically model is you take the car to the dealer while it is under warranty and then go to a cheaper shop afterwards. Which means that the dealer gets some maintenance revenue (enough that as you say they are sales floors subsidized by the maintenance shop).

[njarboe]

It would be interesting to know what the total revenue of independent auto repair shops is in comparison to total dealership revenue from repairs. A quick google did not get any good hits for me.