Effective Reconditioning Sets the Foundation for Dealership Success

NADA Day 2: Special Moments on the Show Floor

Like many dealers, the annual National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) convention is a time for seeing long-time friends and making new ones. This year’s convention was no different, and I...

Margin Compression Takes A Bite—How Will You Bite Back?

For many dealers, margin compression in used vehicles has been a bit like a leaky water line. The truth is, the line’s been slowly dripping for years. But no one really noticed it until now—after...

3 Best Practices To Beat Back Used Vehicle Margin Compression

It’s like a leaky faucet. Drip by drip, the retail profit you make on used vehicles goes down the drain.   But unlike a leaky faucet, the fix for margin compression in used vehicles isn’t as easy...

3 Ways To Confront The Boogeyman In Used Vehicles

A dealer recently took issue with my assertion that the used vehicle business has been suffering from margin compression. “Dale, we’re averaging $1,400 per vehicle in front-end gross,” the dealer...

Are You Asking The Wrong Question About Used Vehicle Reconditioning?

I received a note from a Velocity dealer asking for guidance to trim $100 to $200 from his reconditioning costs, part of a broader effort to increase used vehicle profitability. It should be...

7 Rules To Recondition Used Vehicles “Right” Every Time

I like the way the general manager of a Chevrolet dealership in upstate New York thinks about used vehicle reconditioning. “It’s just as important in terms of gross profit as working the deal in...

A Dealer’s Guide To Improving Reconditioning Expenses

I constantly remind dealers that their reconditioning process likely represents one of the greatest opportunities for gross profit improvement. Seldom, however, do dealers heed this advice....

5 Pointers To Improve Your Used Vehicle Reconditioning Processes

You’ll get a range of responses when you ask dealers how much time it takes to recondition used vehicles. The best-performing dealers these days consistently get the job done in 24 hours or less....

4 Pointers To Get Used Cars To The “Virtual Front Line” Quickly

In a previous post, I addressed best practices to help dealers get vehicles out of reconditioning and retail-ready in less time. My post was intended to help dealers recognize the “time is money”...

How Long Should It Take To Make Reconditioning Decisions?

I received the below question from a Velocity dealer.  My answer follows. Dale, Random question but one of my used car managers takes 1, 2, 3+ days to make decisions on work that needs to be done...

Service Department Reinvention: From “Back End” To Beacon Status

  In my day as a dealer, I held the same view of my service department as many dealers do today: It was the “back end” of the business. I understood, of course, that my service and parts operation...

Rethinking Reconditioning Expenses

  A question and my response below comes from Chad Tessman, who earlier this year, opened his own used car dealership. We’d both like to hear any thoughts on the subject of reconditioning as a...

A Call For Velocity-Minded Used Vehicle Reconditioning

Road to Reinvention Series The following is an e-mail shared by used vehicle consultant Tommy Gibbs. His pass-along originates from a used vehicle manager at a Midwest Honda store who read Gibbs’...