Blog
Practical guidance for dealerships posting at volume, plus notes on what we ship.
Ask three people what you have in a truck and you get three numbers. Track inventory cost basis in one place—purchase, recon, fees, pack—so pricing, aged reviews, and sold gross use the same truth.
Hammer price is the number everyone remembers and the least complete number on the deal. Build the true landed cost of an auction car—fees, transport, recon, pack, and time—before you decide it was a good buy.
If 90 percent of your used cars still come from one lane, you are paying lane fees for a habit. Source used inventory beyond the auction with trades, street buys, and dealer-to-dealer, then list those units as fast as auction cars.
Two reps, one Camry, two numbers a thousand dollars apart. Build a consistent trade-in appraisal process with a walk-around, recon estimate, wholesale fallback, and manager exceptions so gross does not depend on who is on duty.
Filling a small lot with the same hot truck feels like smart buying until the market turns. Avoid inventory concentration risk with stall caps, a mix dashboard, and exit rules before units age together.
Unit count is a vanity number if everything sits in one price band. Set inventory targets by price band from your actual sales mix, then buy, price, and review against those stalls every week.
A 40-unit lot cannot be a luxury store, a BHPH lot, and a truck specialist at once. Defining your ideal buyer focuses buying, pricing, listings, and floor talk on the customers you actually close.
Independent lots without a service department lose the oil-change excuse for staying in touch. Here is a past customer follow-up plan built around equity, household needs, and honest check-ins instead of fake service reminders.
The best dealership referrals often come from shops, lenders, and local businesses that already talk to people whose cars just died. Here is how to pick partners, write simple rules, and keep the relationship honest.