There's a number that quietly erodes used vehicle profitability at Canadian dealerships every month — and most managers aren't looking at it the right way. It's not gross per unit. It's not close ratio or advertising spend per lead.
It's days-to-sale. And the carrying cost math behind it will reshape how you think about every acquisition decision you make.
The Carrying Cost Calculation Most Dealers Underestimate
Floor plan interest is the most visible carrying cost, but it's rarely calculated at the unit level in a way that impacts daily decisions. Here's what it actually looks like:
A vehicle acquired for $22,000 at a floor plan rate of 7.5% annually costs you approximately $4.52 per day to carry. That's $136/month. At 30 days, that's manageable. By day 90, you've spent $407 in interest alone — and the unit may now need to be marked down or wholesaled anyway.
On a $35,000 acquisition at the same rate: $7.19/day, $216/month, $648 by day 90. On a unit that might sell at $37,500 retail with $1,800 gross, a 90-day turn has cost you more than a third of your gross in carry before you factor in anything else.
Floor Plan Is Only Part of the True Carrying Cost
Interest is the obvious line. Add to it:
- Lot insurance: allocated per unit, ongoing regardless of activity
- Opportunity cost: the lot space and floor plan capacity that aged unit is consuming could hold a unit turning in 22 days
- Management attention: repricing discussions, re-presenting aged units on the lot, apology conversations with salespeople who can't close it
- Reconditioning re-investment: units sitting longer often need a detail refresh, a tire rotation, an additional repair that surfaces after sitting
- Buyer perception: a vehicle that's been on the lot for six visibly long weeks reads as "what's wrong with it?" to any browser who notices
When you add all of this together, the true cost of aging a unit from 30 days to 90 days is materially larger than the floor plan interest alone. For many dealers, it's the primary driver of the gap between their theoretical gross and their actual gross at month end.
What Days-to-Sale Actually Diagnoses
Days-to-sale is a direct leading indicator of acquisition and pricing quality. It's not a sales metric — it's an upstream metric that tells you how well you're buying and how accurately you're pricing.
- Short turn (under 25 days): You bought right, priced to market, and your mix matches demand. This is the pattern to understand and repeat.
- Medium turn (25–45 days): Acceptable with most vehicle types. Investigate whether earlier pricing or a better acquisition price would have moved the needle.
- Long turn (45+ days): Acquisition price was too high, segment was wrong for current demand, or the unit was priced above where comparable inventory is actively transacting. All three have different fixes.
Tracking Turn Data by Segment Changes Your Buying
Most dealers know their average days-to-sale. Far fewer track it by segment, price range, acquisition source, and season — which is where the actionable intelligence lives.
When you can see that three-row SUVs turn in 18 days in your market while entry-level sedans average 55, that's not just an interesting data point. It's a clear signal about where to focus your acquisition capital and where to be more conservative. When compact trucks from private purchase turn in 28 days but the same trucks from auction turn in 42, you're learning something about what your buyers trust and what they pay for it.
Dealers who actively track turn by segment and let it inform acquisition decisions consistently outperform those who don't — not because they're more talented, but because they're removing a significant source of preventable loss from their process.
The 45-Day Line and Why It Matters
Once a vehicle crosses 45 days on lot, retail probability drops in a non-linear way. Carry costs have compounded. Buyer perception has shifted. Your team's motivation to present it as a fresh unit is gone. Markdown pressure is real.
The dealers who manage this best have a hard policy: at 45 days, every aged unit gets a clear decision — reprice to where market comparables actually sit, or move it wholesale before day 60. The dealers who don't have this policy keep carrying units through day 90 hoping retail shows up, spending more in carry than they'd have lost in a timely wholesale move.
How to Use This in Your Acquisitions
Every time you consider acquiring a vehicle — at a trade appraisal, in an auction lane, or in a private purchase — the right question isn't just "what can I sell it for?" It's "what's my realistic days-to-sale on this, and does the margin I'm buying at justify the carry risk if it takes longer than expected?"
Running that calculation explicitly, even roughly, before you commit changes the quality of your acquisition decisions in a compounding way. The vehicles you pass on at the margin because the carry risk isn't worth it are the ones that, in aggregate, produce the aged inventory problem that erodes your monthly gross.
Buy right. Price to market. Know your turn. That's the entire used car business, and days-to-sale is the number that tells you whether you're doing it.