Guides
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.
In short
Aim for 45 to 60 days from purchase to sale. The clock starts the day you buy, not the day you advertise. Past 90 days, depreciation, funding and advertising are usually costing more than the margin you are holding out for — so set a repricing routine and a hard exit point, and stick to both.
What a healthy figure looks like
There is no single correct number — it depends on your price point and your stock profile — but these bands are a reasonable frame for a UK independent selling mainstream retail stock:
| Average days to sell | Annual stock turn | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Under 45 | 8×+ | Strong — watch you can restock fast enough |
| 45–60 | 6–8× | Healthy for most independents |
| 60–90 | 4–6× | Capital is sitting still; tighten pricing |
| Over 90 | Under 4× | At risk — the stock is working against you |
Specialist, prestige and classic dealers legitimately run longer, because the buyer pool for any given car is smaller. What matters is whether your figure is stable and whether the tail is growing. Work out yours with the stock turn calculator.
What ageing stock costs
Dealers hold on to price because the alternative feels like losing money. It is worth doing the arithmetic on what waiting costs. For a £10,000 retail car, a typical month looks something like this:
- Depreciation at 1.5–2% of value: £150–£200
- Stocking loan interest, if funded: £70–£110
- Advertising you keep paying for: £30–£60
- Insurance, space and the attention it takes: hard to price, not zero
Call it £250 to £350 a month. Holding out for an extra £400 for three months is a bad trade even if you get it — and there is also the opportunity cost: that £10,000 could have bought another car that turned twice in the same period.
A repricing routine that works
The dealers who keep their stock young are not better negotiators; they have a routine and they follow it without emotion.
- Day 0–5: preparation complete and advertised. Every day beyond this is a day lost before you even started.
- Day 21: check views and enquiries. Low views means a listing problem — rewrite the description, add photos, check the price position.
- Day 35: first price review against live comparables, not against what you paid.
- Day 50: second review, and decide honestly whether this car will retail.
- Day 70: price to sell this month, not to protect the margin.
- Day 90: exit — trade, auction or online disposal.
Book fifteen minutes on the same day each week. The routine only works if it happens when the forecourt is busy, not just when it is quiet.
Why cars stick
Ageing stock is nearly always a symptom of a decision made earlier. The four usual causes:
- Bought wrong. Overpaid at auction, or bought a car that does not suit your pitch's buyers.
- Prepared slowly. Two weeks waiting on a part is two weeks of stock days with no advert running.
- Listed badly. Six photos, two lines of description, no video. The car is invisible next to a properly listed competitor.
- Priced on cost. Pricing from what you paid rather than what the market is paying today.
The stock photography workflow fixes the third one in an afternoon and is usually the cheapest lever available.
Setting an exit point
Decide in advance what happens at 90 days and write it down, because you will not make a clean decision about a specific car in the moment. Most independents settle on: trade or auction it, take the hit, and put the cash into stock that moves.
A £400 loss on a stale unit that releases £9,000 into a car turning in six weeks is a better month than protecting a margin you were never going to get. That is the whole argument for measuring days in stock at all.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a used car stay in stock?
As a rule of thumb, 45 to 60 days from purchase to sale is healthy for a UK independent dealer. Under 45 days is strong. Past 90 days a car is usually costing you more than the margin you are protecting.
When does the clock start?
The day you buy the car, not the day you advertise it. Preparation days are stock days — they tie up the same capital and depreciate the same asset.
What does an ageing car actually cost?
Depreciation of roughly 1.5 to 2% of value a month on most mainstream stock, plus funding interest if the car is on a stocking loan, plus insurance, space and the advertising you keep paying for. On a £10,000 car that is commonly £200 to £300 a month before you touch the price.
Should I cut the price or improve the advert first?
Improve the advert first if the car has had few views — photo count, description and price position against live comparables. Cut the price when the car is getting views but no enquiries, which usually means it is priced above the market for its condition or spec.
Related resources
Stock Turn Calculator
Measure how fast your forecourt turns over. Enter units sold and average stock to get stock turn, average days to sell and a plain-English read on where you stand.
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.
See your ageing stock before it ages
Lotra counts days in stock from the purchase date on every vehicle, flags anything past your threshold and shows the whole forecourt's average in reporting — so the conversation happens at day 45, not day 120.