The Inventory Velocity Playbook: A vAuto User's Guide

Your floorplan bill just went up again. The wholesale market is a coin flip. And somewhere on your lot, a 2019 Silverado that looked like a home run 67 days ago is now bleeding $42 a day in holding costs.

You can't control interest rates. You can't control what Carvana does when you try to sell your car to them. But you can control the system that decides what you buy, how fast you merchandise it, and how you price it to move.

This playbook is that system. It's a unified, repeatable framework designed to increase your used car turn rate by fixing the three places most dealers lose time and margin: acquisition, merchandising, and pricing. No theory. No fluff. Just the operational steps that separate 45-day average age from 28.

Every day a car sits on your lot, it costs you money. Not metaphorically. Literally.

Between floorplan interest, depreciation, and opportunity cost, the average used car costs a dealer between $35 and $50 per day after the first 30 days. That's conservative. If you're carrying premium inventory or dealing with rising rates, you're closer to $60.

Run the math on a 100-unit lot with an average age of 52 days. You're burning $4,200 a day. Over $125,000 a month. And that's before you account for the markdowns you'll take to finally move the aged units.

Here's the bigger problem: at around 60 days, a car stops being an asset and becomes a liability. Market data shifts. Buyer interest drops. Competing inventory floods in. The price you could have gotten at 21 days is gone, and now you're chasing a market that's already moved on.

Velocity isn't just about speed. It's about unlocking capital. Every car you turn in 28 days instead of 50 frees up cash to buy better inventory, respond to market shifts, and protect gross profit. High-velocity dealers aren't just moving metal faster. They're compounding their advantage with every turn.

The question isn't whether you need to improve inventory velocity. It's whether you have a system to do it.

Most dealers treat acquisition, merchandising, and pricing as separate problems. They're not. They're three stages of a single flywheel, and a breakdown in any one stage kills the entire system.

Here's the framework that connects them.

Source: This is where you decide what to buy and what to walk away from. Disciplined acquisition means using real-time market data, not gut feel, to appraise trades and set acquisition costs. A bad buy here becomes a problem everywhere else.

Syphon: This is your pipeline from the moment you own a car to the moment it's live online with photos, pricing, and descriptions. The faster you move through recon, photos, and listings, the more days you have to sell at full price.

Sell: This is where you price dynamically based on demand, days on lot, and competitive positioning. Pricing isn't a one-time decision. It's a feedback loop that adjusts as the market moves.

When these three stages work together, you create a self-reinforcing cycle. Smart sourcing gives you cars that move fast. Fast merchandising gives you more selling days. Data-driven pricing protects margin while maintaining turn. The flywheel spins faster, and your average age drops.

Break any one link, and the whole thing stalls.

Bad inventory starts at acquisition. You can't merchandise your way out of a car you paid too much for, and you can't price your way into profit on a unit the market doesn't want.

The fix is a repeatable, data-driven appraisal process that takes four minutes and prevents 90% of bad buys before they hit your books.

Start with the VIN. Use a vin lookup free tool or the nhtsa vin decoder to confirm year, make, model, trim, and options. This isn't optional. Appraisers who rely on the customer's description or a quick walkaround miss equipment, misidentify trims, and overpay.

Next, pull market data. Tools like vAuto, Black Book, or Manheim Market Report give you real-time comps, days to turn, and price trends for that exact vehicle in your market. You're looking for three numbers: average retail asking price, average days to turn, and current supply.

Now calculate your target acquisition cost. Take the average retail price, subtract your desired gross, subtract reconditioning costs, and subtract holding costs based on expected days to turn. That's your ceiling. If the trade value or auction bid exceeds that number, walk away.

Here's the workflow:

• Customer presents trade or you're bidding at auction.
• Run the VIN through nhtsa vin lookup to verify specs.
• Pull market data for that exact vehicle in your metro.
• Estimate recon costs based on condition (not hope).
• Calculate target acquisition cost using your margin and turn goals.
• Compare your number to the trade value or auction bid.
• Buy only if the math works.

This process eliminates emotion. It doesn't matter if the car looks clean or the customer seems motivated. If the data says you'll own it for 60 days and take a $1,200 hit, you pass.

Watch for these red flags during appraisal:

• High supply, low demand: More than 60 days supply in your market means you're fighting for buyers.
• Falling price trends: If retail asking prices have dropped 4% in the last 30 days, you're buying into a declining segment.
• Recon cost creep: If the car needs more than $1,200 in work, your margin is already compromised unless you're getting a steep discount.
• Unusual configurations: That diesel, manual transmission, or rare color combo might be interesting, but it's also a 90-day car unless you have a buyer waiting.

Create a simple scorecard that every appraiser fills out for every car. Include:

• VIN and vehicle details
• Market data source and date pulled
• Average retail price and days to turn
• Estimated recon cost
• Target acquisition cost
• Actual acquisition cost
• Variance and approval (if override needed)

This scorecard does two things. First, it standardizes the process so every appraiser is using the same logic. Second, it creates accountability. When a car hits 60 days, you can trace it back to the acquisition decision and see where the process broke down.

You own the car. Now the clock is ticking. Every day it sits in recon or waiting for photos is a day you're not selling it.

The goal is simple: get every car from acquisition to live online in 24 hours or less. Not 24 business hours. Not "within a day or two." Exactly 24 hours.

Most dealers have no idea how long their merchandising process actually takes. They know it feels slow, but they don't have the data.

Start by tracking every car for two weeks. Measure the time between these milestones:

• Acquisition to recon intake
• Recon intake to recon complete
• Recon complete to photos scheduled
• Photos scheduled to photos uploaded
• Photos uploaded to listing live

Add it up. If your average time-to-line is more than 72 hours, you're losing selling days and margin. If it's more than a week, you have a systemic problem.

Not every car needs a full recon. Some need safety and mechanical work. Some need cosmetics. Some need nothing but a detail and photos.

Create a three-tier system:

• Tier 1 (Mechanical Priority): Safety and drivability issues that prevent sale. Brakes, tires, lights, fluid leaks. These get done first, always.
• Tier 2 (High-ROI Cosmetic): Dent removal, paint touch-up, interior stain removal. Only if the cost is under $500 and the car will retail for $3,000+ more because of it.
• Tier 3 (Detail and Go): Everything else. Wash, vacuum, photos, list. Don't let a $200 scratch delay a $28,000 car from going live.

Most dealers over-recon. They spend $1,800 fixing cosmetic issues on a car that would have sold in three days with $400 in work. The market doesn't care if the car is perfect. It cares if the car is priced right and available now.

Photos and descriptions are the biggest merchandising bottleneck after recon. Dealers either do it manually (slow, inconsistent) or outsource it (expensive, still slow).

Here's where automation changes the game. Tools that use AI to remove backgrounds, enhance lighting, and generate descriptions can cut photo prep time from 45 minutes per car to under 10.

For example, Car Studio AI automates background replacement and generates market-specific descriptions based on the VIN and your inventory data. You shoot the photos, upload them, and the system handles the rest. No Photoshop. No copywriting. No waiting on a third party.

The ROI is immediate. If you're merchandising 40 cars a month and you save 30 minutes per car, that's 20 hours back. That's half a person's workweek you can reallocate to higher-value tasks.

Pricing is where most dealers lose the velocity game. They price based on cost, or gut feel, or what they "need" to make. The market doesn't care what you need. It cares what the car is worth today.

Not all inventory should be priced the same way. Segment your inventory into three buckets based on demand and days on lot:

• High-Demand, Fresh Inventory (0-20 days): Price at or slightly above market average. These cars will move fast if they're priced fairly. Don't leave money on the table, but don't get greedy.
• Average-Demand, Mid-Age Inventory (21-45 days): Price at market average or slightly below. You're competing for attention now, and every extra day costs you $40+. Small price cuts here prevent big markdowns later.
• Low-Demand or Aged Inventory (46+ days): Price aggressively below market to move it now. The goal isn't margin. The goal is recovering capital before depreciation eats the rest.

Use a car value estimator or vAuto's pricing tools to benchmark your price against the market daily. If you're priced in the top 25% and the car is over 30 days old, you're not being strategic. You're being stubborn.

Pricing tools give you a recommendation. Managers override it. That's fine, as long as you're tracking the results.

Create a pricing override log. Every time a manager overrides the system's recommended price, they log:

• VIN and stock number
• System-recommended price
• Override price
• Reason for override
• Expected outcome (days to sell, gross)

Then track what actually happens. Did the car sell faster? Did you make more gross? Or did it sit for 60 days and eventually sell for less than the system recommended?

This log isn't about blame. It's about learning. If your overrides consistently beat the system, great. If they don't, you need to trust the data more and your gut less.

Pricing isn't a set-it-and-forget-it decision. The market moves daily. Competitors adjust. Supply shifts. Your price needs to move with it.

Set a rule: every car gets a price review at 14 days, 30 days, and 45 days. Use real-time market data to see if your price is still competitive. If it's not, adjust immediately.

Tools like vAuto and others provide alerts when your price falls out of the competitive range or when a comp drops its price. Use those alerts. Don't wait for the monthly inventory meeting to realize you've been overpriced for three weeks.

You don't need to overhaul your entire operation to see results. You need to fix the biggest leaks first.

Here's a two-week sprint that will reduce your average age and free up capital immediately.

Pull a report of every car over 45 days old. For each one, ask three questions:

• Is it priced competitively? Check it against current market comps using a car value estimator or vAuto.
• Is it merchandised correctly? Are the photos good? Is the description accurate?
• Should it even be retail? If it's over 60 days and you're still overpriced, wholesale it now.

Make decisions fast. If a car needs a $500 price cut to move, do it today. If it needs new photos, schedule them tomorrow. If it's a wholesale candidate, send it to auction this week.

The goal is to clear the aged inventory so it stops dragging down your average age and tying up capital.

Look at your sales data for the last 90 days. What sold fast? What segments are you short in?

Now look at your current inventory. Are you overweight in slow-moving segments and underweight in fast movers?

Use this insight to guide your next 10 acquisitions. If compact SUVs are turning in 18 days and you only have three in stock, go find more. If full-size trucks are sitting for 55 days and you have twelve, stop buying them.

This is basic portfolio management, but most dealers don't do it. They buy what comes in the door instead of buying what the market wants.

Start tracking pricing overrides today. Use a simple spreadsheet with the fields mentioned earlier. Share it with your team and review it weekly.

After two weeks, you'll have enough data to see patterns. Are overrides helping or hurting? Are certain managers better at pricing than others? Are you consistently overpricing certain segments?

Use that data to adjust your process. If the data says trust the tool, trust the tool.

Rolling out a new system is easy. Making it stick is hard. Here's how to implement this framework without it falling apart in week three.

Week 1: Audit and Baseline

• Measure your current state. Pull reports on average days on lot, time-to-line, and pricing accuracy. Identify your biggest bottleneck (acquisition, merchandising, or pricing). Assign owners for each pillar of the framework.

Week 2: Fix Acquisition

• Roll out the acquisition scorecard. Train every appraiser on the four-minute appraisal process. Start tracking every appraisal decision. Review the first week's scorecards and identify any appraisers who need additional coaching.

Week 3: Speed Up Merchandising

• Map your current time-to-line process. Identify the bottleneck (usually recon-to-photos or photos-to-listing). Implement the 24-hour rule for at least 50% of incoming inventory. Consider automation tools for photo editing and descriptions.

Week 4: Tighten Pricing

• Segment your inventory into high, average, and low demand. Implement the pricing override log. Set calendar reminders for 14-day, 30-day, and 45-day price reviews. Wholesale or markdown everything over 60 days.

By the end of week four, you should see measurable improvement in at least one of your key metrics: average age, time-to-line, or turn rate.

The biggest reason velocity initiatives fail is that managers don't trust the data. They override pricing recommendations because "they know the market better." They skip the acquisition scorecard because "they've been doing this for 20 years."

Here's the truth: your experience matters, but the market is bigger than your experience. Data doesn't have ego. It doesn't get emotional. It doesn't care if you paid too much or if you really like a car.

If you're going to override the system, fine. But log it, track it, and review the results. If your overrides consistently lead to better outcomes, the system needs to be adjusted. If they don't, you need to trust the data more.

All of this falls apart if your data is bad. If your VINs are wrong, your market comps will be wrong. If your recon costs aren't tracked, your acquisition math will be wrong. If your photos are uploaded to the wrong stock number, your pricing tool won't work.

Data hygiene isn't glamorous, but it's foundational. Assign someone to audit your data weekly. Check that VINs match vehicle specs. Verify that recon costs are logged accurately. Make sure photos and descriptions are linked to the right inventory.

Clean data is the difference between a system that works and a system that gets abandoned in month two.

You can't control the wholesale market. You can't control what Carvana offers when customers try to sell their car. You can't control floorplan rates.

But you can control your acquisition process. You can control how fast you merchandise. You can control how you price.

This playbook gives you a repeatable system to do all three. It's not theory. It's a step-by-step framework that connects sourcing, merchandising, and pricing into a unified velocity engine.

Start with the 14-day sprint. Triage your aged inventory. Implement the acquisition scorecard. Track your pricing overrides. Measure your time-to-line.

The dealers who win in this market aren't the ones with the best inventory or the biggest budget. They're the ones with the best system.

Download our free Acquisition Scorecard Template to standardize your appraisal process and stop bad buys before they hit your books.

Get the complete Time-to-Line Checklist to identify your biggest merchandising bottleneck and cut days from your process.

Ready to turn merchandising from a multi-day bottleneck into a 15-minute task? See how Car Studio AI automates photo backgrounds and descriptions, giving you back hours every week and getting your inventory online faster.

Schedule a free strategy call to diagnose your velocity gaps. We'll help you map your current process against this playbook and identify the highest-impact changes you can make in the next 30 days.