Free · No signup · Shareable URLs

Free Tools for Used Car Dealers

The calculators we built for our own lot first. No signup, no rate limits, no email required. Bookmark the result URLs — your numbers stay in the link.

VIN Decoder

Paste any 17-character VIN. Decode year, make, model, trim, engine, transmission, GVWR, safety features — instantly, from NHTSA.

  • Powered by the official NHTSA vPIC database
  • Deep-linkable: /tools/vin-decoder?vin=… is shareable
  • Free, no signup, no rate limits
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Profit Margin Calculator

What's your real take-home per car? Plug in cost, recon, holding days, sale price, and F&I — see front gross, holding cost, total gross, and margin %.

  • Front-end gross + back-end F&I broken out separately
  • Verdict banner flags margins under 8%
  • URL keeps your numbers — share the result with a partner
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Auction Profit Calculator

The car's cheap in the lane — but is it still cheap after the fee, transport, recon, and days it sits? Get your net margin, break-even resale, and the max bid that still hits your target.

  • Reverse calc: the most you can bid and still clear your target margin
  • All-in cost includes buy fee, transport, recon, and floor-plan holding
  • URL keeps your numbers — send the scenario to your buyer
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Dealer License Cost Calculator

Pick your state and credit tier — see license fee, surety bond premium, application fees, and what Year 1 vs ongoing actually run. 10 states seeded.

  • MA, FL, TX, PA, OH, CA, NY, GA, AZ, NC with verified data
  • Surety bond premium by credit tier (1.5% / 4% / 10%)
  • Deep-links to our full state license guide when one exists
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Floor Plan Calculator

What is floor planning actually costing you per car? Daily interest + origination and monthly fees, plus a cost-by-days-held curve at 30/45/60/90/120.

  • Provider APR table — NextGear, AFC, Westlake, Manheim, OPENLANE
  • Effective per-day cost (interest + amortized fees)
  • One-click hand-off into the profit margin calc
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Recon ROI Calculator

Before you authorize the work: does the reconditioning pay back? Enter recon cost, the retail value it adds, and shop days — get net gain, ROI, and a verdict.

  • Includes the holding cost of days in the shop
  • Sensitivity table stress-tests your retail-lift estimate
  • Typical recon-cost reference to help you estimate
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Holding Cost Calculator

What is a car really costing you per day it sits? All-in holding cost — floor-plan interest + depreciation + overhead — and how fast it eats your front-end gross.

  • Cost-by-days-on-lot curve at 30/45/60/90/120
  • Shows how much of your gross is left as it ages
  • Broader than the floor-plan calc — adds depreciation + overhead
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Wholesale vs. Retail Calculator

Dump an aging unit at auction now or retail it? Compare the two nets — retail after recon and holding — and see the break-even day where wholesale wins.

  • Side-by-side net of both paths, with a verdict
  • Break-even-days table: where retail stops beating wholesale
  • Hands off to the holding-cost and recon-ROI calculators
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Inventory Turn Calculator

Enter your average stock and monthly sales to get your annual turn rate and days' supply — plus what the same inventory dollars could make at a faster turn.

  • Turn rate + days' supply, with a benchmark verdict
  • Sensitivity table: same lot, different turn → more units & gross
  • Shows why turn is the highest-leverage number on a small lot
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BHPH Payment Calculator

Structure an in-house note: enter price, down, rate, term, and weekly / bi-weekly / monthly to get the payment, total interest, payoff, and what it collects per month.

  • Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly — compare payments side by side
  • Total interest, buyer's total cost, and your monthly collections
  • Feeds the deal jacket + running ledger in DealerVLO
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BHPH Payoff Calculator

Quote a payoff on an in-house note: enter the amount financed, rate, payment, and payments made to get the current balance, per-diem interest, and a payoff good through a date.

  • Balance + per-diem — the real payoff, not the remaining payments
  • Payoff good through today / +10 / +20 / +30 days
  • Flags negative amortization when the payment won't cover interest
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Out-the-Door Price Calculator

The real number that closes a deal: sale price + tax on the right base + doc, title and registration, minus the trade and down — plus the monthly payment if they finance.

  • Trade-in credit applied to the taxable base (the common method)
  • Full OTD, amount to finance, and estimated monthly in one view
  • Email the customer their number before they leave the desk
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Deal Structuring Calculator

Buyers shop the payment, not the price. Work backward from the monthly number they can hit — with rate, term, down, and trade — to the highest vehicle price you can structure.

  • Max amount financed, out-the-door budget, and vehicle price
  • Term-sensitivity table: how 48 vs 72 months stretches buying power
  • Sell to the payment and hold gross — no incumbent tool does this
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Marketing ROI Calculator

Enter your monthly ad spend, leads, closing rate, and gross to get cost per lead, cost per car sold, your real ROI, and the units the spend must produce to break even.

  • Cost per car sold — the number that actually matters, not cost per lead
  • Closing-rate sensitivity: see how a better close lowers your cost per sale
  • Flags a channel that's efficient vs one quietly losing you money
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Sales Commission Calculator

Enter the deal's gross, your commission rate, the pack, and the mini to see the salesperson's commission — and what's left for the house.

  • Commission on gross after pack, with a mini floor
  • Front-gross-only or total-gross (front + F&I) basis
  • Rate-sensitivity table + split-of-gross chart
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Lot Health Grader

Enter your units by age and get a letter grade against turn benchmarks, plus what your aged inventory is quietly costing you every month.

  • A–F grade on your age mix (past 60 / past 90 days)
  • Monthly carrying cost of your slow movers
  • Email yourself the prioritized move-list for aged units
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Questions about these tools

Are these dealer tools really free?

Yes — all four are free to use with no signup, no account and no trial. They run in the browser and you can use them as often as you like, whether or not you ever become a DealerVLO customer.

Do I need a DealerVLO account to use them?

No. Nothing here is gated. They're the same calculations our dealer management software runs internally, pulled out onto the public web because every independent dealer should be able to run these numbers.

What does the free VIN decoder tell me?

Paste any 17-character VIN and it returns the year, make, model, trim, body type, engine, transmission and other build details from the NHTSA vehicle database. It's the same lookup that auto-fills the inventory form inside DealerVLO.

How do I work out the profit on a used car?

Front-end gross is your selling price minus what the vehicle actually cost you — acquisition plus reconditioning plus any transport. Holding cost then eats into it for every day the unit sits. The profit margin calculator does that math, and the floor plan calculator shows what the interest adds over a given number of days.

How much does a used car dealer license cost?

It varies widely by state, because the surety bond requirement ranges from roughly $10,000 to $100,000 and you pay only an annual premium on it rather than the face value. The dealer license cost calculator estimates your first-year total by state, and links to our full guide for that state where one exists.

Can I share a result with someone else?

Yes. Each tool encodes its inputs in the URL, so you can copy the address bar and send a specific calculation to a partner, an accountant or another dealer and they'll see exactly what you saw.

These are the calculators behind DealerVLO

We pulled the math out of our DMS and put it on the public web because every independent dealer should be able to run these numbers — not just paying customers. If the standalone tools are useful, the full app does it automatically for every unit and every deal.

  • VIN auto-fills the inventory form from NHTSA the moment you paste it
  • Per-vehicle cost ledger rolls acquisition + recon + holding into one gross number
  • Aging report flags units past 60 days for repricing — no calculator needed
  • Bill of Sale, FTC Buyers Guide, Federal Odometer Disclosure on every deal
  • Public dealer website + inventory feeds (CarGurus, Facebook, Cars.com)

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