It’s been 7 years since we introduced our UpYourGross life cycle and recon management tool. Our success has far exceeded our expectations.

One of the things I’ve noticed inside our software is a dealer will occasionally make a little bit of gross on a unit that’s over 60 days old. Sometimes even a lot.

During the pandemic that wasn’t an unusual occurrence. And to many dealers’ delight they have experienced a little of that with the introduction of tariffs on new cars. (What a great opportunity to get rid of your aged crap.)

Keep in mind even if you’ve gotten luck and made some gross on that aged unit, your ROI sucked. Maybe you don’t care all that much about ROI because you’re paid on gross and it ain’t your money.

I bet you feel a lot different about your personal 401K account.

Since I’m in the question-asking mood, what if you had priced that aged unit the same way on day 30 rather than after 75?

Would you have sold it faster?

Would you have had a better ROI?

Better yet, could you have sold it and reinvested the money and doubled the gross on two units vs. one?

Used cars don’t age on day 61. They age on day one because someone isn’t paying attention.

Suddenly, day 61 rolls around and panic sets in and we drop our drawers and take the hit.

One of the drills I like to do in my workshop is to ask managers to describe their oldest unit in stock.

After they tell me all about it, I ask them, “In your professional opinion, why do you think you haven’t sold that unit?” With very few exceptions, whatever they say was there on day one. The one undeniable fact about the automobile business is that price sells cars.

If you priced your most problematic cars more aggressively in the first 30 days, then you would increase your odds of making a lot more money. Of course, the smartest dealers are able to recognize a problem unit on day one.

Stop betting on lucky. Start betting on smart. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs