How it is computed
For every unit retailed in the period, count the days from the date it entered stock to the date it sold. Average them. Run it by acquisition source (trade, auction, service drive, street purchase) and by lane, because a blended average hides the source that is slow.
Why it matters
It is the buying desk's report card with the answers filled in. A source that produces cars that sell in twenty days is worth paying up for; a source that produces cars that sell in seventy is costing floorplan and price drops no matter what it paid.
It is the honest denominator for front gross. A thousand dollars of front gross on a car that sold in fifteen days and the same thousand on a car that sold in ninety are not the same thousand.
How operators read it
- Read it beside cost to market by source. The pair says which sources buy the right cars at the right price and which only buy cheaply.
- Read it with the aged share of the sold units, not only the average. An average of forty days can be made of cars that sold in ten and cars that sold in a hundred and twenty.
- Remember it only counts the cars that sold. A lot full of cars that have not sold yet is invisible to days to sale and loud in days supply; read both.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between days to sale and days supply?
Days supply looks forward: how long the current lot would last at the recent pace. Days to sale looks back: how long the cars that sold had sat. One is a forecast, the other a result.
Should recon days count?
Count them, and know how many there were. A car that spent twenty of its fifty days in the shop had a thirty-day lot life, and the fix for the other twenty is in reconditioning, not pricing.
How A.D.A.M. reads it
A.D.A.M. computes days to sale by acquisition source from the sold units, averaged to one decimal, and reads it beside cost to market and the aged share of what sold. He reads it beside the numbers it trades against, names what the gap is worth, and leaves the decision where it belongs. What an AI advisor should do, and refuse to do.