Under the Number
The buy side, with sources.
What the used-vehicle data actually says about acquisition, margin and the lane. Every figure here is linked to where it came from. So are the four we had to throw out, including one of our own.
- Trade captureThey are not retailers competing with you. They are buyers.The two national outfits retail just under 3% of the used cars in this country. They acquire 13% of the ones consumers sell.Cars Commerce, August 2025
- Trade captureSeventy percent have a trade. You are capturing thirty-four.The single widest gap in the store, and it is not a sourcing problem. Those customers are already standing in front of you.Cars.com
- Trade captureAppraise two for every one you sell.The cleanest operating rule anybody has put on trade capture, and the dealers running it hit 53% or better.Cars.com
- Trade captureOnly 14% of your service customers were ever offered a number.A third of them want one. The cars are in your own drive, with your own history on them.Cox Automotive Fixed Ops and Ownership Study, April 2026
- Trade capture86% of high performers have a service-lane process. Everybody else is at 72%.It is one of the few clean separations in the Cox data between the stores that are winning and the stores that are not.Cox Automotive Fixed Ops and Ownership Study, April 2026
- Trade captureThe two reasons dealers who buy off the street do not go back.Less auction, and less recon risk. The second one is the one that does not show up in a spreadsheet.Cox Automotive Fixed Ops and Ownership Study, April 2026
- Trade capture$3,195 is where your customer stops fixing it.And the threshold is moving fast. In 2022, 70% would rather repair. By 2024 it was 53%.Cox Automotive Fixed Ops and Ownership Study, April 2026
- Trade captureYour customer wants to know what his car is worth. All the time.69% want to always know. Among people who service at a dealership it is 76%. And 84% trust the number more when somebody independent stands behind it.Cox Automotive Fixed Ops and Ownership Study, April 2026
- MarginUsed front gross is $1,528. It was worth half again as much.Down 36.6% from the 2021 peak and back at 2019 levels, while the cars are nowhere near 2019.Haig Report, Haig Partners
- MarginThe new-car side is not going to cover for you.New GPU fell 9% year over year to $2,881. The department everybody quietly leaned on is compressing too.Haig Report, Q1 2026
- MarginThe home run is gone, and it is not coming back.Two to four thousand a unit is increasingly rare in a market where the customer has the same screen you do.Dale Pollak, Cox Automotive
- WholesaleThe index peaked in March. It has ground down since.Manheim at 210 in July, 207.4 in mid-August. Roughly flat against last year, and off the top.Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index, July 2026
- WholesaleThree months down on the three-year-old book.Down 1.3% in May, 1.9% in June, 2.8% in July. The declines are accelerating, and that is the core of most used inventory.Manheim
- WholesaleThe off-lease drought is over. The ramp is the problem now.Supply is building hard through the back half of 2026, EVs especially, and Cox economists are naming it as the risk to segment pricing.Manheim, May 2026
- WholesaleWholesale is running 26 to 28 days of supply.With conversion at 54 to 60%. Which is to say four in ten cars in the lane do not sell the day they run.Manheim via Automotive Fleet
- WholesaleThe cheap cars are the ones going up.Older units are appreciating faster than newer ones, and compacts are up 12.3% since December. Affordability is the throughline in this market.Manheim, May 2026
- StaffingYou will teach the floor twice.Total dealership turnover hit 46%, a record. Salespeople are around 80%, and it is the third straight annual increase.NADA Dealership Workforce Study
- What nobody can proveThe most important number in acquisition does not exist.There is no published street-versus-auction gross comparison. Not ours, not anybody’s. Ask whoever quotes you one where it came from.Our own review of the public literature
- What nobody can proveNADA did not say that.BDC turnover of 52%, 68%, 65 to 80%. All widely attributed, none of them published. Here is what NADA actually reports.NADA Dealership Workforce Study
- What nobody can proveNobody actually knows what share of your leads arrive after hours.Published claims run from 35% to 65% depending on who is selling what. There is no authoritative figure, so you will not find a percentage on this site.Our own review of the public literature
- What nobody can proveAlmost every AI adoption number in this business comes from someone selling AI.Including ours. Until a neutral party publishes, treat all of it as marketing.Our own review of the public literature
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