Many of us in the automobile business talk about aged units. For most people an aged unit is one that’s over 60 days old. Some of the more forward thinkers cut it off at 45 days. If you’re one of them, count me as a raving fan of yours.

In my workshops I often talk about aging out. Aging out is a term you should start to include in your thinking tool box.

Aging out happens at about the 30 day mark. In other words the unit is starting to age out because it has seen its most profitable days go by.

For those of you using my 30/30 spreadsheets you know there’s a substantial difference in gross profit in the first 30 days compared to the last 30 days.

Units that are aging out deserve your utmost attention in order to prevent them from aging. Once they have aged it’s too late to do anything except watch your average gross profit go in the tank.

Pay attention to “aging out.” Stay out of the tank. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Try sorting your used car inventory by cost or investment with your most expensive units at the top of the page. Print it out. Now sort your used car inventory by age. Print it out.

Compare the two pages. The odds are pretty good that a lot of your aged units are also listed on the top of the page you sorted by cost or investment.

You should be looking at and analyzing this list every day.

With a few exceptions, you should be pricing your most expensive units under the market and on the most problematic ones you should consider paying bonus money on them, regardless of the number of days in stock.

Sometimes we do things in this business bassackwards. When units start to age on us we sell it for little or no gross and pay the sales person a $500 bonus to make it go away.

In many cases you would be better off to price them tight to the market and pay a bonus on them on day 1 rather than day 61.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Did you watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 5, 2017 between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons? Even if you didn’t watch it, for sure you’ve heard about it by now.

If you watched it on TV did you see the look of desperation in the eyes of the Atlanta players and coaches late in the 4ith quarter and during the overtime?

Did they look confused? Did they look lost? Did they look like a team headed for the wrong side of the biggest comeback in sports history?

The winner and loser of this game wasn’t based on any one play, one penalty, one catch, one fumble, one interception, one sack or one call from the coaches’ box.

It was based on preparation, experience, and a bunch of little plays along the way.

Your used car business is the same deal. Dealers and managers often have that look of desperation on their faces when they haven’t prepared well, don’t have the right experience and miss a bunch of little things on their way toward age inventory, wholesale losses and low grosses.

You have to decide if the pain of preparation and doing the little things every day, is better than the pain of regret that you will have by not doing so. Winning and losing is based on a lot of little things.

You get to pick. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs