There is hard data to support spending the extra time on improving performance of this important department. The average dealer earns the following percentage of their dealership departmental gross profit from their used vehicle department.

This data suggests that there is opportunity for every dealer. Domestics cannot afford to lose focus with that much of their profits driven from one department, while imports and high line dealers should be working to reduce their dependence on new vehicle sales.

The first thing dealers should do to improve the performance of this department is schedule a regular reappraisal of all used vehicles. This is not just a review of your cost against NADA or Kelly Blue Book values; it should also include a review of market prices. The days of purchasing a vehicle at $10,000 and stocking it on the lot with a retail price of $13,000 because you mark all vehicles up $3,000 are long gone. The most successful used vehicle departments price vehicles at the right price.

Technology is now helping with this piece of the puzzle. There are products on the market that scrape Internet used vehicle listings and capture the listed prices. This data allows a dealer to price his inventory more accurately. The smartest dealers are those who price their inventory at the highest point the market allows without overpricing it.

The next way to improve performance in the used vehicle department is to monitor reconditioning costs and the amount of time it takes to recondition vehicles.

If you run your used vehicle department as a business within your dealership, monitoring all aspects of it, you can watch your profits climb alongside your used vehicles sales.

Vol 5, Issue 6