“How many cars do I have to move this month?” The honest answer is your overhead divided by your gross per car. Put in your fixed costs and your average gross, and see the number — plus how many it takes to hit a real profit.
Every car you sell splits into two jobs: the first few just pay the rent, the payroll, and the floor plan, and only the cars after that put money in your pocket. If you don't know where that line sits, a “busy month” can still be a losing one — you moved metal and finished behind.
The math is simple once you have it: fixed overhead ÷ average gross per car. The trap is that most dealers don't know their real average gross (front and back, after recon) or their true fixed overhead. Get both right and you can set a volume goal that actually means something — and see instantly what an extra $300 of gross per car, or one fewer staff position, does to the number.
This calculator is only as good as the average gross you feed it — and guessing is how lots end up upside down. DealerVLO tracks the true gross on every deal (buy price, reconditioning, holding, front and back) so your average isn't a hunch. Run the lot on it and the break-even math writes itself from real numbers.
$29/month · 14-day free trial · Cancel any time
Paste this where you want it to appear. It stays up to date automatically.