Used vehicle net profits have diminished in recent years, even as sales volumes have increased for dealers. This trend finds many dealers achieving record-setting sales volumes while losing money in their used vehicle departments.
This session offers a data-rich dive into the factors that have caused net profits to decline and reveals new metrics dealers can use to right-size their inventory investment to retail demand, identify each vehicle’s unique investment value and align their used vehicle acquisition, pricing, and reconditioning decisions to maximize each vehicle’s optimal return on investment.
The session will deliver take-home strategies that help dealers increase sales volumes without sacrificing net profit.
Learning Objectives
- Recognize the shorter retail shelf life of most used vehicles
- Base critical used vehicle management decisions on each vehicle’s investment value
- Create an investment management strategy to drive sales and net profit improvement
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Speaker
Dale Pollak, vAuto Founder, vAuto
Dale Pollak's career in the automotive industry spans more than two decades. As a dealer, technology entrepreneur and best-selling author, Pollak has helped over 10,000 automotive dealers in North America make dramatic improvements in their new and used vehicle operations.
Pollak pioneered the Velocity Method of Management™. It maximizes a dealer’s profitability through the use of new and used vehicle market-metrics. Pollak crafted this approach during his years as a Cadillac dealer in Chicago in light of his unique circumstances of not being able to physically observe his used vehicle inventory due to blindness.
His investment and market based approach served as the foundation for vAuto, Inc., the company that he founded in 2005. Since then, the company’s technology and tools have been adopted by thousands of dealerships in North America. In late 2010, AutoTrader.com acquired vAuto, with both companies now operating as a part of the Cox Automotive family. Pollak continues to guide strategic product development/integration for vAuto and other Cox Automotive companies. Prior to vAuto, Pollak helped build and lead Digital Motorworks, Inc. to its successful acquisition in 2002.
Pollak has written three books that detail the application of the Velocity Method of Management™ in dealerships. The latest, Velocity Overdrive: The Road to Reinvention, was released in 2012. His most recent book, Gross Deception: Shifting Markets, Shrinking Margins and the New Truth of Used Car Profitability was released February 2020.
Pollak holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Indiana University, a law degree from DePaul University's College of Law, and is a four-time winner of the American Jurisprudence Award. In addition, Pollak received the 2010 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and in 2011, Pollak was inducted into the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame. In 2014, Pollak was named as Poling Chair at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.
Moderator
Steven Finlay, former senior editor, WardsAuto
Steve Finlay has retired from his roles with WardsAuto Dealer Business magazine and WardsAuto.com. His journalism career spanned 48 years, starting as a newspaper police reporter.