Franchise lots and independent used-car retailers live or die on which units they buy, how fast those units turn, and when they dump a car that will not retail. New vehicles arrive through factory allocation and a pipeline the rooftop does not fully control. Used vehicles are bought one at a time from trades, auctions, and the service lane, then either retailed or sent to wholesale.
Market appraisals, stocking grades, internet prices, aging queues, and exit bids live in this layer. Most rooftops buy it as Software as a Service (SaaS) and park it on top of the Dealer Management System (DMS) rather than replacing the store’s books. The Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is the unit of record, not a Stock Keeping Unit (SKU).
Lot Work from Appraisal to Wholesale
Unlike a general Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suite, this platform is built around one vehicle’s profit and loss from the moment someone considers buying it until it leaves the lot.
- Appraise: Trade-ins, auction purchases, and service-lane units get a market-based offer before they hit the books. The desk sees a recommended price to pay, recon cost, and whether the car matches the store’s stocking plan.
- Stock: Buy what the local market will turn. Franchise new cars follow OEM allocation and pipeline. Used cars follow stocking grade, days supply by segment, and holes on the lot.
- Price: Retail and internet prices move with live comps and cost-to-market, then step down on a time-based waterfall so a unit does not sit at day-one money on day 45.
- Age: Buckets such as 0–30, 31–60, and 60+ days flag units before floorplan interest and depreciation eat front-end gross. Top operators treat 30 days as a warning, not 90.
- Wholesale: When retail will not clear the car, the platform surfaces a Business-to-Business (B2B) or auction exit while a bid still exists.
Factory Pipe, Store OS, and Lot Brain
The DMS is the store’s system of record. It stocks the unit in, holds cost and floorplan, writes the repair order, and books the deal. Operational inventory is a different job. Pricing against live market data, watching days-to-turn by segment, and forcing action on aged units is what this layer is for.
The Dealer Communication System (DCS) is the factory pipe. Allocation, orders, warranty, parts, and incentive files move between OEM and rooftop there. This layer may consume those signals. It does not replace the pipe.
| Layer | Job | What It Moves |
| DCS | Factory pipe | Orders, allocation, warranty, parts, and incentive files from the OEM. |
| DMS | Dealership operating system | Accounting, contracting, service repair orders, stocking-in, and the deal record. |
| IMS | Lot-level inventory | Appraisals, market pricing, days-to-turn, aged-unit queues, and wholesale exits. |
New Allocation versus Used Turn
Franchise new-car desks live on allocation, days supply, and factory incentive calendars that arrive through the DCS. This layer still prices and ages those units, but the buy is mostly a factory problem.
Independent lots have no factory pipe. Every unit is an appraisal. Turn targets commonly sit in the 30–45 day band. Past 60 days, holding cost usually beats another retail markdown.
Application Programming Interface (API) feeds keep VIN, cost, and status in sync with the DMS. Some factory files still move as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) through the DCS. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) stack and the public inventory feed consume the same stock file so the site does not advertise a car the lot already sold.
