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The best dealer resources from our experts to help dealers solve their toughest inventory challenges.

Blog Post

ProfitTime GPS in Practice: From Skeptical to Sold

When Mike Cirona, general manager of Scott Robinson Honda in Torrance, CA, initially heard about ProfitTime GPS, he didn’t think his store’s used vehicle department would benefit from it. “I wasn’t crazy about it when it first came out,” Cirona says. “I didn’t think it was ready for prime time. Maybe it was me and […]

A Time to Rethink How You Manage Inventory Age

Three market conditions have converged to cause dealers and used vehicle managers to return to inventory age management policies that call for immediate wholesaling of vehicles that reach 45 or 60 days in inventory. First, there’s depreciation. Cox Automotive data shows that through the first week of August, values have declined between roughly 5 percent […]

Blog Post

Beware the Pitfalls of a “New Car Masquerade” in Used Vehicles

In the past few weeks, I’ve come to understand what I’d call a “new car masquerade” in used vehicle departments across the country. Perhaps the circumstances are familiar at your store: The new car department remains under-stocked on inventory, and you’ve got some would-be new car customers who can’t get the new car they want […]

Blog Post

A Primer on Used Vehicle Price Sensitivity

As the used vehicle market returns to more normal conditions, I feel compelled to reiterate a perspective on retail price sensitivity that seems to have been lost over the course of the past two years. My perspective is shaped from conversations with dealers who worry that the high gross profits they achieved last year are […]

Blog Post

More Eyes on Dealers’ New Vehicle Mark-Ups

A couple months ago, an associate asked if I’d heard or seen any chatter among dealers about an apparently crowd-sourced site (www.markups.org) that listed new vehicle markups and the dealers who made them. I didn’t think much of the site at the time. A few days after my associate mentioned the site, I saw some […]

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It’s a “Whole Truth” Tuesday!

I thought I’d put out a quick post to highlight that, after production and supply chain delays, my latest book, Whole Truth: A Fresh Money-Making Method to Wholesale, the Most Misunderstood Side of Your Business, is now officially available on Amazon and other retail outlets. The book aims to help every dealer recognize how their […]

Blog Post

A Rosier View of A Recession, Plus a Moment of Used Vehicle Opportunity

If you follow the news and related commentary on social media, you may well be thinking that the United States is heading toward a recession, if we’re not already in the initial stages of one. I’ve heard similar sentiments in my conversations with dealers and, over the Fourth of July weekend, with an extended group […]

Blog Post

A Mid-Year Gut-Check on Used Vehicle Market Conditions

As we close in on the halfway point of 2022, I think most dealers would agree with the following statement: While used vehicle sales and profits remain solid, they are nothing like they were at this time last year. The sentiment flows from two realities that are taking shape broadly across the industry and in […]

Blog Post

A Memorable Honor from NIADA

I received a humbling and significant honor from NIADA (the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association) yesterday at the group’s convention in Las Vegas. They presented me with a Ring of Honor, an award they give to select leaders who advance the growth and professionalism of the automotive industry. It was touching to receive the award. […]

Blog Post

A Call for “Bucket”-Minded Inventory Acquisition

If you scrolled the clock back 15 or 20 years, you’d find very few dealers who managed their used vehicle inventory in what we now call “buckets.” Rather, dealers managed used vehicles in blocks—cars that were less than 60 or 90 days old and those that weren’t. Over time, the bucket-based approach to inventory management […]