How to Sell Aged Powersports Inventory: Monetize Units Without Spending More

When we first published this piece in 2019, it was a video interview with a dealership inventory manager about getting more money out of the inventory already on the floor, without spending more on marketing. His starting point still holds: see how many units you have and how many dollars are tied up in them, then look unit by unit at cost, advertised price and expected profit, and focus on what is aged, because aged inventory is not creating value. (The original video is no longer available.)

This update turns that into a playbook for the sales manager, inventory manager or GM who has to move units already past their age limit.

Setting the age limit, the weekly aged-unit meeting and floor plan cost per day are covered in our powersports inventory management best practices. Measuring how fast each category sells is covered in our guide to calculating powersports inventory turn rate. This article starts where those leave off.

Start with a one-line sheet for each aged unit

Before changing anything, put these on one line per unit. You cannot choose between a price step, a bundle and a wholesale bid without them.

The aged-unit playbook

Work the steps in order. The first three cost little or nothing; later steps cost margin, so earn the right to skip them.

1. Diagnose before you discount. Few views or leads means shoppers cannot find or are not drawn to the unit: a merchandising problem. Plenty of views and leads but no deal means price, payment, spec, color or condition: a pricing or product problem. Treat them differently.
2. Re-merchandise on the floor. Move the unit to a front row, clean it, charge the battery, set fresh tire pressure, and make sure it is ready for a test ride the moment someone asks.
3. Reshoot and rewrite the listing. Replace stock or tired photos with a full walkaround of the actual unit, and rewrite the description around what a buyer of that model wants to know. Our photo standard and shot list for powersports units covers this step.
4. Reprice in planned steps. Decide the steps when the unit crosses its age limit, not under pressure on the day. Use one clear step at a time, hold each long enough to be a real price, and record the date of every change.
5. Bundle before you cut deeper. Adding accessories, a first service or gear at your cost often gives the buyer more perceived value than the same dollars off the price (worked example below).
6. Re-engage past shoppers. Pull customers from your CRM who asked about, test-rode or were appraised on a similar unit in the last year and did not buy. Send a personal message about the specific unit, not a blast. Use only the channels each customer agreed to, and honor opt-outs. Our guide to texting powersports customers the right way covers consent.
7. Move it to where the demand is. If another rooftop in your group, or a dealer you trade with, has shoppers for that model, a transfer or dealer trade can beat another price step.
8. Use OEM programs only if they are real. If your OEM has published a retail program, prior-year incentive or exchange option in writing that covers that VIN and model year, use it and advertise it exactly as written. Never advertise a rebate you have not confirmed.
9. Decide wholesale on numbers. Get a wholesale or auction bid and compare it with what holding will really cost (worked example below).
10. Close the loop. For every aged unit that goes, record why it aged: ordered too deep, appraised too high, listed late, or the wrong model for your market. Then fix that cause.

Decision table by age band

These bands assume a 90-day age limit, our suggestion for a typical unit rather than an industry standard. Shift them to match your own limits and floor plan dates, and move seasonal units forward a band as their season closes.

Every unit in the last two bands gets a written decision, an owner and a review date at your weekly inventory meeting.

Worked examples: cut, bundle or wholesale?

The numbers in this section are hypothetical. Use your own.

Does interest alone justify a price cut?

A used side-by-side is on day 95. It is advertised at $16,995, its all-in cost is $14,200, and $12,800 of that is floored at a hypothetical 10% a year on a 365-day basis.

• Daily interest = $12,800 × 0.10 ÷ 365 = $3.51 a day ($3.507 before rounding).
• Interest to date at day 95 = about $333.
• A $500 price cut equals about 143 days of interest ($500 ÷ $3.507). A $1,000 cut equals about 285 days.

So interest alone rarely pays for a cut. The reasons to cut are evidence that the price is wrong (views but no deals, comparable units priced lower), a season or model year about to turn, and curtailments that take cash out of your account. The OCC's floor plan handbook notes that a unit can lose value rapidly once it is a demonstrator, no longer a current-year model, or previously owned, which is why lenders curtail aged units. If the unit has few views, fix the listing first: a cut nobody sees gives margin away.

Bundle instead of a bigger cut

Instead of another $600 off, include an accessory package that retails at $600. Say the parts cost you $360 and installation costs $90 in labor at your cost, so the package costs $450. The buyer sees $600 of value; you give up $450 of gross instead of $600, keeping $150. Install it before the unit is photographed, so the listing shows what the buyer gets.

Hold or wholesale a seasonal unit

A used snowmobile is still on the floor in April. Its all-in cost is $9,400, with $8,500 floored at a hypothetical 10%, or $2.33 a day.

Holding wins by about $1,000 only if the $10,495 estimate is right. If the unit needs one more price step next season, holding ends up about level with wholesaling today, after seven months of risk, any curtailments, and $8,500 of floor plan line that could have carried a unit selling this spring. Hold only when your own sales history for that model in that season supports the retail estimate.

Advertise price reductions honestly

This is where most aged-inventory advice goes quiet. The pages that rank for this topic cover clearance events and discounts (a 2017 Powersports Business column, for example, treats discounts as the last resort and suggests clearance events only once or twice a year), but not how to advertise a reduction without misleading anyone. A price cut that is not genuine can cost more than the unit.

The FTC's Guides Against Deceptive Pricing (16 CFR 233.1) set out the test for "was" prices. A former price is a legitimate basis for a comparison if it is "the actual, bona fide price at which the article was offered to the public on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time." The guides list as fictitious a price "that was not maintained for a reasonable length of time, but was immediately reduced," and they warn against implying a former price was a selling price ("Formerly sold at") "unless substantial sales at that price were actually made." Where an ad just says "Sale," the reduction "should be sufficiently large that the consumer, if he knew what it was, would believe that a genuine bargain or saving was being offered." Their example: "Reduced to $9.99" when the former price was $10 is misleading.

What that means for an aged unit:

• Keep a dated price history for every unit and every place it is advertised.
• Show a "was" price only if the unit was actually advertised at it, openly and for a reasonable period, recently. Do not raise a price so you can cut it.
• Say "was" or "previously advertised at", not "sold for", unless units really sold at that price.
• Make each step meaningful. A string of tiny cuts trains shoppers to wait and adds little.
• Show the same price everywhere. A lower price on one site than on your own website or showroom tag undermines every claim.
• Keep the unit available while it is advertised, and take it down the day it sells. Our best practices guide covers the FTC's bait advertising guides on this point.
• Check state law. States can add their own rules on former-price claims and sale advertising.

This is general information, not legal advice. Ask your attorney about your ads and your state.

Where inventory software fits

PSX Ascend's powersports inventory management software shows inventory aging (which units are fresh, gaining attention, or need a pricing and merchandising decision), brings unit, market and dealership context together before a price changes while people keep control of the final price, and compares unit and rooftop activity to support transfer decisions across a group. Guided mobile capture makes a reshoot quick, and one connected unit record helps keep the new photos, details and price consistent across supported website and marketplace destinations.

Because inventory runs inside the same platform as the PSX Ascend powersports CRM, vehicle context can support customer conversations and marketing activity, which is where step 6 happens. After a short period of active follow-up by salespeople, ALMA, the Automated Lead Management Assistant, takes over re-engaging stalled prospects and ones who chose not to buy, to bring them back to a live conversation with a person. It makes no AI voice calls.

You can also see the same inventory management tools on our sister site, PSXDigital's inventory management tools page.

Sources

• Federal Trade Commission, Guides Against Deceptive Pricing, 16 CFR 233.1, Former price comparisons (text via Cornell Legal Information Institute).
• Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Comptroller's Handbook: Floor Plan Lending, version 1.2, January 2017: curtailments and depreciation of prior-year, demonstrator and used collateral.
• Powersports Business, Aged inventory: Time to let go, August 23, 2017.