Guides
Guides for independent car dealers
Everything from VAT and compliance to pricing, stock turn and choosing software — written for UK independents running small teams, with worked examples rather than theory.
How Long Should a Car Remain in Stock?
What a healthy days-in-stock figure looks like for a UK independent dealer, what ageing stock actually costs, and the repricing routine that keeps the forecourt moving.
Dealer Management System Buyer's Guide
How to choose a DMS as an independent UK dealer: the modules that matter, the questions to ask on a demo, pricing models, data migration and the red flags to walk away from.
How to build a consistent vehicle preparation workflow
A practical workflow for moving newly acquired stock from arrival to retail-ready without losing track of jobs, photos or handovers.
A repeatable stock photography workflow for dealerships
Create faster, more consistent vehicle listings with a simple shot list, preparation routine and upload process.
How to build a dealership lead follow-up process
A practical way to capture, assign and progress vehicle enquiries without relying on memory or scattered inboxes.
What is a Dealership Management System (DMS)?
The foundational guide to DMS software, its core modules, and why independent dealers need one.
Switching from spreadsheets to a DMS
A step-by-step migration plan for dealers moving from Excel and Google Sheets to Lotra.
Vehicle inventory management for car dealers
How modern inventory management works — from auction purchase to sold, without spreadsheets.
Dealer CRM: managing customers and enquiries
What a dealer CRM does, how it captures leads, and how Lotra keeps every enquiry warm.
Multi-channel vehicle listings and syndication
Publish once, sell everywhere. How dealers push stock to AutoTrader, Facebook and more.
AI for car dealers: what it actually does
Practical AI use cases for independent dealerships — pricing, descriptions, and follow-up.
Dealership reporting and KPIs to track
The metrics that matter: days in stock, gross per unit, lead-to-sale conversion, and more.
Beyond AutoTrader: where UK buyers actually search now
The channel mix has shifted. A look at where enquiries really come from in 2026 — and how to cover them all.
How AI changed the day-to-day of a small forecourt
A candid look at what AI actually replaced (and what it didn't) inside a two-person independent dealership.
Five spreadsheet mistakes quietly costing dealers thousands
The everyday spreadsheet errors that eat margin — and how a DMS closes them off automatically.
Stop doing this by hand
Lotra keeps the numbers behind these tools up to date automatically — every vehicle, cost, invoice and days-in-stock figure in one place.