Dealership Operations
New Cars
Volume without a plan is just inventory with a due date.
01
Operating Philosophy
New-car operations live inside constraints a used-car department doesn't have — OEM allocation, incentives, and a pricing structure set well above the store level. The operating job is to convert those constraints into a plan: know your days supply by model, know which units are aging before the OEM's own reports flag them, and manage the desk so volume and gross are a daily balance, not a month-end scramble.
02
What I Measure
- Days supply by model
- Aged units (over 60/90 days) by model
- Sales pace vs. forecast, daily and monthly
- Gross vs. volume mix by day of month
- Lead-to-sale conversion by source
- New-to-used trade capture rate
03
How I Manage It
- Daily pacing review against the monthly forecast, adjusted in-month rather than at month-end
- Aged-unit list reviewed with the desk before it becomes an OEM problem
- Trade strategy set before the deal, not negotiated unit by unit
- Manager accountability tied to both volume and gross — never one without the other
04
Where Dealerships Lose
- Forecasting once a month instead of adjusting weekly against actual pace
- Letting model-specific aging hide inside a healthy overall days-supply number
- Treating gross and volume as a tradeoff instead of a daily balance to manage
- No consistent trade-appraisal discipline, so new-to-used capture leaks away
06
Tools & Dashboards
Resources Coming Soon
Dashboards, spreadsheets, and scorecards will appear here as they're published.
Ready to raise the floor here?
Executive operations review, department-specific training, or a full operating assessment.