When does dealership inventory go stale?

[Timberline]

Do we have any current or recovering car salesmen here?

I know, there are many variables such as the financial tolerance to endure dwell time, economy, new vs new/used lots, demand for a particular vehicle.....

But in general, how long does a used vehicle sit on a dealers lot before it becomes "stale" and they start getting antsy about moving it?

 

[SkylineGTRracer]

1-2 months otherwise they might sell the vehicle to other dealers

 

[Lexusbstrdchild]

Do we have any current or recovering car salesmen here?

I know, there are many variables such as the financial tolerance to endure dwell time, economy, new vs new/used lots, demand for a particular vehicle.....

But in general, how long does a used vehicle sit on a dealers lot before it becomes "stale" and they start getting antsy about moving it?

90 days, especially after that. you should be able to come to an agreement much easier at that point.

 

[MikesToy]

Me thinks the stealerships keep vehicles upto 4 yrs unless it's a supra then they auction it off.

 

[Lexusbstrdchild]

suppose it depends on the dealer. my wife works for one and they get a little nervous after 90 days. depending on the car it will either go to auction, or another dealer if it sits too long. although they have had this yellow mid 90's corvette on the lot since this summer if anyone is interested lol. they cannot find the right midlife crisis customer to buy that thing, it seems to defy all logic that they havent moved it somewhere else

 

[SkylineGTRracer]

suppose it depends on the dealer. my wife works for one and they get a little nervous after 90 days. depending on the car it will either go to auction, or another dealer if it sits too long. although they have had this yellow mid 90's corvette on the lot since this summer if anyone is interested lol. they cannot find the right midlife crisis customer to buy that thing, it seems to defy all logic that they havent moved it somewhere else

If its an Automatic than it'll sit there till it rusts. until my mom decides to buy one lol

 

[Timberline]

Thanks guys - got a couple candidate T4R's I've been watching a few weeks and wondered how long to let them set before re-visiting them with a lowball offer.

 

[toto]

I agree that 90 days is the longest a dealer would like to sit on a car.
Some of you may have read about the concept of "manufacturer holdback" when researching car pricing on Edmunds or KBB. Although the dealer pays invoice price for the car, the manufacturer gives back to the dealer about 2%-3% when they sell it. The idea of that is to cover the cost of the interest the dealer paid to finance the car while it was sitting on the lot. If they pay more interest than they will get back, then the dealer could lose money on the car. Although there are some variables involved, that holdback usually covers about 3 months of interest. Because of the way the holdback works, sometimes the best time to deal is the moment the car comes off the delivery truck. If the dealer moves the car immedaitely, they can pocket the holdback.

After the car has sat long enough to eat up the value of the holdback, the dealer has to decide how much money they're willing to lose on the car to move it. A dealer may or may not take a lowball offer at that point - they may take a shot at holding out for a higher selling price to minimize their losses.

An extreme example... Someone I work with tried to buy a 2008 4Runner well into the 2009 model year. They made what I considered to be a very fair offer - only about $1000 below invoice before applying a big Toyota rebate. The dealer wouldn't take it and therefore lost the sale.