In regards to new vehicle sales, for that last two to three decades now, we have watched MSRP's climb, while profit margins reduced drastically by the manufacturers.  Not today's news; however, the pre-owned market has changed a lot in the past few years with the factory certification programs, internet leads, program cars, Cash for Clunker program, Buy Here, Pay Here's, Special Financing programs etc...  The supply and demand rule has shifted with the economy, the less expensive car is desired, but dealers are having difficulty buying them for less than retail! 

My question to you is:  What are you doing to maintain your high grosses in the used car department?  Are you adhering to the inventory turn rule and getting off of them in 90 to 120 days?  Do you have a great spiff program to motivate sales personnel to sell aged inventory?  What is your average wholesale gross per unit?  Are you stepping up to trades to acquire inventory?  Have you lowered the internal labor rate to keep the costs of used inventory regulated?  Do you adjust inventory costs monthly to wholesale value?  Have your managers compensation plans been adjusted to promote better average used car grosses?  How is your service contract penetration on used and what can we do to increase that?

We want to hear from you.......