Every extra day in stock has a price tag - here's how to see it

Every extra day a car sits in stock has a price tag. Most dealers never see it.

Here's a quick, illustrative way to make it visible. Take one €20,000 used car:

→ Depreciation: used cars commonly lose roughly 1.5–2% of value per month as they age and the market moves. On €20k, that's about €10–13 a day.

→ Holding cost: floorplan interest, insurance, space, prep, cleaning. Call it another few euros a day.

→ Tied-up cash: that €20k can't buy the next car that would have turned faster.

Add it up and a single mid-priced unit can quietly cost you €15–20+ every day it doesn't sell. Stretch that over an extra 30 days and you've handed back €450–600 of margin - on one car.

Now multiply by a lot of stock.

The point isn't the exact number. The point is that "it'll sell eventually" is not free. Aging silently eats the margin you negotiated so hard to win at purchase.

So watch the metric that actually matters: margin-at-risk. Not just days in stock, but how much profit is bleeding out of each unit, each day, right now - so you can act on the worst offenders before the margin is gone instead of after.

How do you track aging stock today? Gut feel, a spreadsheet, or something that flags it for you?

#inventory #usedcars #dealership