In today’s competitive dealership services landscape, it seems like every consulting firm, every coaching company, and every fixed operations vendor has added physical inventory to their list of offerings. It sits right there on their website alongside warranty rate reimbursement consulting, parts department coaching, management training, and half a dozen other services. Physical inventory is […]

One of the most underutilized tools in a dealership parts department is also one of the most valuable: the manufacturer’s parts return program. Every major automotive OEM provides franchised dealers with some mechanism to return slow-moving or obsolete parts for credit. But the details — how much you can return, how often, which parts qualify, […]

Technology moves fast in the automotive industry, and nowhere is that more apparent than in dealer management systems. If your dealership is still running on a legacy platform like CDK or Reynolds & Reynolds, you may not realize how much has changed — or how much your parts department could gain by making the switch […]

When parts managers talk about growing their business, the conversation almost always gravitates toward wholesale — more accounts, more delivery runs, more volume. Wholesale absolutely has its place, but there is a sales category sitting right in front of you that often gets overlooked, underdeveloped, and understocked: retail parts sales. For dealerships willing to invest […]

For many new car dealership parts departments, wholesale is an afterthought — a few accounts here and there, orders taken when they come in, no real strategy behind it. That is a missed opportunity. A well-developed wholesale operation can add significant gross profit dollars to your department, improve your parts velocity, reduce obsolescence, and give […]

For most automobile dealership parts departments, inventory is the single largest asset on the balance sheet. It represents hundreds of thousands — sometimes millions — of dollars in capital. Yet in departments across the country, that asset is quietly being eroded by inaccurate on-hand counts, undetected obsolescence, and inventory records that no longer reflect reality. […]

Walk into almost any dealership parts department and you will find the same scenario: a dealer management system loaded with powerful features, and a team using about twenty percent of them. The DMS is the central nervous system of your parts operation, yet most managers treat it like a glorified cash register. If you are […]

Most parts managers know the traditional levers for improving profitability — tighten up obsolescence, improve fill rate, watch your pricing matrix. These fundamentals matter. But in today’s competitive dealership environment, the parts departments that truly stand out are the ones going beyond the basics, finding creative ways to grow both gross and net profit while […]

Acquiring a new car dealership is one of the most significant financial transactions a dealer group or individual operator can make. There are attorneys, accountants, and brokers involved at every step — and rightfully so. Yet one critical piece of the process is often handed off to the lowest bidder or, worse, handled informally with […]

If It’s Not in the Bin, It Doesn’t Exist Ask any experienced parts manager what separates a smooth-running department from a chaotic one, and chances are they will mention bin checks. Perpetual bin checks — the regular, systematic process of physically counting and verifying parts inventory against what your dealer management system shows on hand […]