AutoPro
Ask five dealers what to stock and you will get five confident, contradictory answers. All of them are describing their own lot, their own city and their own buyers. The only stock advice that reliably applies to your business is the record of what your business has already sold.
Turn rate beats margin per car
A vehicle earning thirty thousand and selling in three weeks is a better use of your money than one earning sixty thousand and sitting for three months. The first turns your capital four times in a quarter; the second ties it up and picks up costs on the way. Most dealers can name their best-margin car. Fewer can name their fastest-turning one, and that is the one to buy more of.
Look at your own numbers by band
Split what you sold last year three ways and count units and average days-on-lot for each:
- By budget band. Under 4 lakh, 4 to 8, 8 to 15, above 15.
- By segment. Hatchback, sedan, compact SUV, SUV.
- By fuel and transmission. Petrol against diesel, manual against automatic.
The picture is usually blunt. One band carries the business, one is respectable, and one is a hobby you have been subsidising because a car in that class once sold well.
Automatics and the shift underneath it
Automatic share in the used market has moved steadily, and buyers who want one will usually not take a manual instead. If your automatics are turning faster than your manuals in the same segment, that is not a trend piece, it is your own data telling you what to buy next month.
The car you keep buying because you like it
Every lot has one. It photographs well, you know the model inside out, and it takes ninety days to sell every single time. Keeping one as a signature car is a defensible decision. Keeping three is a preference dressed up as a strategy.
Compare quarter to quarter, and to last year
Used car demand moves with the season and with the festive calendar. Comparing this quarter with the last one tells you about momentum. Comparing it with the same quarter a year ago tells you whether the business is actually growing. You want both, and you want them without spending a Sunday in a spreadsheet, which is the reason we built the comparison into the app.
