Definition
Days on lot
Days on lot (DOL) is the number of days a specific vehicle has been in a dealer's inventory, from acquisition to sale.
Days on lot is the standard yardstick for inventory age. Dealers track it per vehicle and as a lot-wide average, because a rising average means cars are turning slower and cash is tied up longer.
The number is only useful if something happens when it climbs. A vehicle crossing the lot's average days on lot is a prompt to act: reprice, recondition, or, most often, remarket it before the cost of carrying it eats the margin.
Related terms
- Inventory agingInventory aging is how long a vehicle has sat unsold on a dealer's lot, usually measured in days since it was acquired or first listed.
- Aged unitAn aged unit is a vehicle that has been in inventory longer than a dealer's target, often 60 days or more, and needs attention to sell.
- Inventory turnInventory turn is how many times a dealer sells through and replaces its entire inventory over a period, a core measure of how healthy sales velocity is.
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