When Do You Make The Money?

There’s an old adage that you make the money on a used car when you buy it or trade it. Buying it or trading, it’s all the same thing.

For the moment, I’d like to take issue with that statement. Of course, it’s true you have to be in a unit right, but the most important things that impact your profit are the decisions you make about the unit once you own it.

Sometimes we make a bad decision on what to keep and what to wholesale.

Sometimes we spend too much on it. Sometimes we spend too little.

The biggest problem dealers have is that they don’t have a defined strategy of how they intend to market the car.

They price it too low.
They price it too high.
They don’t change the price fast enough.
There’s no sense of urgency to get it on the lot and on the web.

If you want to make more money on your used cars then make sure you have a defined strategy on what you’re going to do with it. Retailing or wholesaling isn’t a strategy. That’s a disposition decision.

A strategy means you understand what you’re dealing with and you have a plan to get it retailed.

Think of the potential. You buy them right. You strategize them right. That’s when you make the most money.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs