The True Cost of Printing at a Car Dealership

Ask a dealership manager how much they spend on printing and you'll usually get a rough estimate of toner and paper costs. But the true cost of printing at a car dealership goes far beyond consumables. When you factor in hardware, maintenance, labor, and hidden costs, most single-rooftop dealerships spend anywhere from $2,000 to well over $10,000 per month on printing-related expenses.¹

Hardware Costs

Dealertrack DMS works with Lexmark network printers. A typical dealership has 5–30 printers spread across service, parts, sales, and accounting. Commercial Lexmark printers range from $500 to $2,000+ each, with an average lifespan of 3–5 years before they need replacement.

Amortized monthly, hardware costs alone run $200–$1,000+/month for a mid-size dealership, not counting the inevitable emergency replacement when a critical printer fails at the worst possible time.

Consumables: Paper, Toner, and Per-Page Costs

Paper costs scale directly with volume. A mid-size dealership might spend $500–$1,500/month on paper, while high-volume operations with dozens of printers can spend $3,000–$5,000+ per month on paper alone. That's before toner even enters the picture.

Toner costs are typically measured per page. Most toner cartridges work out to roughly $0.01–$0.03 per page for black-and-white and $0.06–$0.16 per page for color prints. At tens of thousands of pages per month across 5–30 printers, those per-page costs add up fast.

Many dealerships use managed print service contracts instead of buying toner directly. These vendors service your printers and provide toner "for free" — but charge a per-page rate in a similar range (typically $0.01–$0.03 for B&W, $0.06–$0.15 for color).² Either way, the cost per page is real and scales directly with print volume. Industry data suggests auto dealerships can spend up to $5,000/month on toner and ink alone.¹

Total paper and toner/per-page costs: $1,500–$7,000+/month depending on dealership size and print volume.

Maintenance and Repairs

Commercial printers require regular maintenance — fuser replacements, roller cleanings, paper jam fixes, and occasional board replacements. Dealerships that don't use a managed print contract often carry separate maintenance agreements at $50–$200/month per printer. Emergency service calls outside of contracts can run $150–$400 per visit.

The Hidden Cost: Employee Time

This is where the real money disappears. Every time a staff member needs to send a document electronically, they go through the print-scan-email cycle:

1. Print the document (to get logos and formatting)
2. Walk to the printer and pick it up
3. Walk to the scanner
4. Scan it and email it to themselves
5. Forward the scanned copy to the recipient

This takes 3–5 minutes per document. A dealership doing this 30–50 times per day across all departments burns 2–4 hours of productive staff time daily. At an average labor cost of $25–$40/hour, that's $50–$160 per day in lost productivity— or $1,000–$3,200+ per month.

Security and Compliance Costs

Printed documents containing customer information (names, addresses, financial data) must be properly handled and disposed of. Most dealerships use shredding services at $50–$150/month. There's also the risk of sensitive documents sitting in printer trays where unauthorized personnel can see them.

Adding It All Up

The ROI of Going Digital

PrintSent starts at $299/month during early access (regularly $499/month) and replaces the majority of these expenses. Whether your dealership spends $3,000 or $10,000+ per month on printing, the savings are significant — and the return on a PrintSent subscription is dramatic.

The ROI isn't just financial. Staff spend less time on manual document handling, customers receive professional branded documents faster, and sensitive information stays more secure in digital form.

Sources

1. DealerOneStop — "Streamline Printing Costs in Your Auto Dealership" — Auto dealerships may spend as much as $60,000/year on toner and ink.
2. Fraser AIS — "Managed Print Services: Real Pricing & Hidden Costs Explained" — Typical managed print rates: $0.01–$0.03/page B&W, $0.06–$0.15/page color.
3. Toner Buzz — "How To Accurately Calculate Your Printing Cost Per Page" — Cost-per-page methodology and toner cartridge yield calculations.