The question sounds simple. The answer is not. How many lifts does a dealership need depends on your service volume, your mix of work, your growth plan, and whether you are building new or retrofitting an existing facility. The wrong number in either direction costs you money — too few lifts and you are turning away revenue every day, too many and you are paying for bays that sit empty. For comprehensive guidance, see our dealership equipment cost resource.
We are Auto Lift Services, and we have designed and equipped service departments ranging from 4-bay independent shops to 30+ bay multi-franchise dealerships. We partner with our partner construction companies to deliver complete facility projects — building and equipment together, with a two-year warranty on both. We have priced equipment packages from $37,000 for a small municipal facility to $760,000 for a multi-bay transportation complex. The lift count and bay mix drive that number more than any other variable.
Here is how to calculate what you actually need.
Start with Your RO Volume
The math begins with repair orders, not bays. Count your monthly customer-pay ROs, warranty ROs, and internal ROs. Multiply by your average hours per RO (industry average is 1.7 to 2.2 hours). That gives you your total monthly labor hour demand.
Divide by the available hours per bay per month. A single bay with one technician working 8 hours per day, 22 days per month, at 85 percent utilization produces roughly 150 productive hours per month. If your demand is 1,800 labor hours per month, you need approximately 12 bays.
That is the baseline. The next step is allocating those bays by type, because a dealership service department is not 12 identical rooms — it is a collection of specialized work cells, each with different equipment, different dimensions, and different infrastructure requirements.
General Repair Bays: The Foundation
Typical allocation: 60 to 70 percent of total bays
Equipment: Two-post lift, 12,000 to 15,000 lb capacity
Models we install: Challenger CL10V3 (10,000 lb, asymmetric), Challenger CL12A (12,000 lb, symmetric)
General repair bays handle the majority of service department work — brakes, suspension, exhaust, drivetrain, engine diagnostics, and most scheduled maintenance. A 12-bay dealership typically allocates 7 to 8 bays to general repair.
Two-post lifts are the standard for general repair because they provide full undercar access with minimal floor footprint. The capacity question depends on your vehicle mix. A passenger car dealership can work with 10,000 lb lifts. A dealership servicing full-size trucks and SUVs needs 12,000 lb or higher. The Challenger CL12A at 12,000 lb capacity handles everything from a Civic to an F-250 without switching bays.
How many lifts does a dealership need for general repair specifically? The answer scales linearly with volume. Eight general repair bays can handle approximately 1,200 hours per month. If your demand exceeds that, add bays. If you are building new, plan for 10 to 15 percent more capacity than current demand to accommodate growth.
Alignment Bays: The Revenue Multiplier
Typical allocation: 1 to 2 bays per 12 total bays
Equipment: Four-post or scissor lift (alignment-ready), Hunter alignment system
Infrastructure: Floor flatness specification (critical), dedicated electrical circuits, network connectivity (See also: dealership alignment bay.)
Alignment bays are the highest revenue-per-square-foot bays in the service department. A single alignment bay with a Hunter system can generate $158,000 or more per year in alignment revenue, according to Hunter Engineering data. The equipment investment — lift, alignment rack, and installation — pays for itself within the first year at moderate volume.
The key decision is one alignment bay or two. A single bay handles approximately 6 to 8 alignments per day at 30 to 45 minutes each. If your service lane volume is pushing more alignment recommendations than one bay can handle, you are leaving money on the floor. A second alignment bay is one of the highest-ROI additions to any service department.
Alignment bays require precision floor specs. The alignment lift must be level to within tight tolerances for accurate readings. This is a concrete specification that must be communicated to the general contractor during construction — not discovered after the floor is poured.
Tire and Wheel Bays: Dedicated Equipment
Typical allocation: 1 to 2 bays per 12 total bays
Equipment: Leverless tire changer, road force balancer (Hunter only)
Infrastructure: Compressed air (high volume), tire storage area, waste tire staging
A dedicated tire bay with a Hunter leverless changer and road force balancer handles tire replacements, rotations, and TPMS service without tying up a general repair bay. The leverless changer is critical for modern vehicles — alloy wheels and run-flat tires are easily damaged by conventional bead breakers. A single scratch on a $500 wheel costs more than the price difference between a leverless machine and a standard one.
Whether you need dedicated tire bays depends on whether tires are a significant part of your business. A dealership that actively sells tires (competing with tire shops and big-box retailers) needs two dedicated tire bays to handle volume without creating bottlenecks. A dealership that primarily handles tire rotations during maintenance visits can handle that work in general repair bays.
Road force balancing is a differentiator. Standard spin balancers compensate for weight imbalance. Road force balancers also detect tire uniformity issues — radial force variation, lateral force variation — that cause vibrations at highway speed. This capability justifies a premium service rate and solves vibration complaints that come back unresolved from standard balancing.
Express Service and Quick Lube Bays
Typical allocation: 1 to 2 bays per 12 total bays (or dedicated express lane)
Equipment: Drive-on lifts or pit-style service bays
Infrastructure: Oil and fluid dispensing systems, waste oil collection, dedicated service lane entry
Express service is the fastest-growing segment of dealership fixed operations. An express lane with drive-on lifts handles oil changes, tire rotations, filter replacements, fluid top-offs, and multi-point inspections in 30 minutes or less — no appointment needed. Dealers running express lanes report $80,000 or more per month in quick-service revenue.
Drive-on lifts are ideal for express work because the vehicle drives in and drives out without the positioning time required by two-post lifts. The technician has undercar access for oil changes and inspections without the overhead of arm placement and spot verification.
For new construction, consider a dedicated express lane with its own entry and exit — separate from the main service drive. This prevents express customers from clogging the appointment-based service flow and reduces wait times for both groups.
Heavy-Duty Bays: When You Service Trucks
Typical allocation: 1 to 3 bays (if applicable)
Equipment: 18,000+ lb capacity lifts, extended-length bays
Infrastructure: Taller ceiling height (18+ feet), reinforced concrete, wider bay doors, heavy-duty exhaust extraction
If your dealership services medium-duty trucks, commercial vehicles, or fleet vehicles over 10,000 lbs GVWR, you need at least one heavy-duty bay with a lift rated to handle the weight. PKS heavy-duty lifts handle the commercial and fleet segment.
Heavy-duty bays have construction implications that must be addressed during facility planning. The ceiling height must accommodate the vehicle on the lift at full rise — a standard 14-foot ceiling works for passenger cars but may not clear a lifted truck or van. The concrete must be thicker and higher PSI to support the concentrated loads. The bay doors must be taller and wider.
How many lifts does a dealership need for heavy-duty work? One bay handles occasional commercial service for a passenger car dealership that also services fleet vehicles. A dedicated commercial service center needs three or more. The volume of truck and fleet ROs in your market determines the count.
EV Service Bays: Plan for Tomorrow
Typical allocation: 1 to 2 bays minimum for new construction
Equipment: Lifts rated for EV weight (battery adds 1,000 to 2,000 lbs), high-voltage charging
Infrastructure: 208V or 480V three-phase electrical, battery thermal event ventilation, PPE storage (See also: EV dealership requirements.)
Electric vehicles are heavier than their ICE equivalents. A standard EV sedan weighs 500 to 1,000 lbs more than a comparable gas model. An electric truck like the Ford F-150 Lightning adds nearly 2,000 lbs over the gas F-150. Every lift in an EV service bay must be rated for that additional weight.
For new construction, plan at least one dedicated EV bay with appropriate electrical infrastructure, even if your current EV volume is low. Retrofitting EV capability — especially the electrical panel and ventilation — is dramatically more expensive than building it in from the start. The conduit runs, panel capacity, and ventilation ductwork should be in the construction documents on day one.
Typical Lift Counts by Dealership Size
Here is how the numbers break down for common dealership sizes. These are starting points — your specific volume and mix should drive the final count.
8-bay independent shop or small franchise:
4-5 general repair (two-post), 1 alignment, 1 tire/wheel, 1 express/quick lube
12-bay standard dealership:
7-8 general repair (two-post), 1-2 alignment, 1-2 tire/wheel, 1-2 express
20-bay high-volume dealership:
12-14 general repair, 2 alignment, 2 tire/wheel, 2-3 express, 1 heavy-duty or EV
30+ bay mega-dealer or multi-franchise:
18-20 general repair, 2-3 alignment, 2-3 tire/wheel, 3-4 express, 2-3 heavy-duty, 1-2 EV, 1-2 specialty (ADAS, paint prep)
The Inground Option: Fit 13 Where 12 Two-Posts Go
How many lifts does a dealership need is partly a question of how efficiently you use the floor space. Inground lifts eliminate the above-ground columns of a two-post lift, reducing the bay-to-bay width required. According to Rotary engineering data, 13 inground lifts fit in the same floor space as 12 two-post lifts — an 8.3 percent increase in capacity without expanding the building footprint.
For new construction where you are pouring the concrete anyway, inground lifts are a serious consideration. The pit excavation and installation adds cost per bay compared to above-ground lifts, but the additional bay capacity generates revenue every day for the life of the facility. On a 20-year horizon, the extra bay easily pays for the cost premium.
Inground lifts are also mandatory in certain applications. Luxury and exotic dealerships use inground lifts to eliminate door ding risk from two-post columns. We cover that topic in detail in our guide to inground lifts for luxury dealerships.
Count the Lifts Before You Draw the Building
The worst time to answer how many lifts does a dealership need is after the building is framed. Bay dimensions, concrete specs, electrical capacity, compressed air routing, and fluid systems are all determined by the lift count and bay type mix. Changing any of those after construction begins is expensive rework.
We spec the equipment — every lift, alignment system, tire machine, balancer, AC machine, and brake lathe — before the architect draws the first line. We provide bay dimensions, anchor bolt templates, concrete specifications, electrical load calculations, and utility routing to the GC so the building is designed around the equipment.
We carry Challenger, Rotary, and PKS lifts for every application — general repair, alignment, tire, express, heavy-duty, and EV. We install Hunter alignment systems, tire changers, wheel balancers, and brake lathes. We supply RobinAir, Mahle, and Rotary AC machines. And we warranty the building AND the equipment for a minimum of two years with our construction partners.
Call us before the design phase. The lift count drives the building — not the other way around.
Auto Lift Services — (800) 674-9302 — info@autoliftserv.com
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Josiah Ragsdale
Founder, Automotive Lift Services
Josiah has been installing, repairing, and inspecting automotive lifts since he was 18 years old. He founded Automotive Lift Services in 2019 after years of seeing lifts installed wrong, never inspected, and putting technicians at risk. His team now services all 50 states from their Iowa headquarters. Read more
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