Standing time is rarely a decision. It is the sum of small delays: a missing photo, an open workshop item, a price that nobody re-checked. Each of them is harmless on its own — together they quietly decide how much of your capital is parked on the lot.
Why ageing hides so well
In most dealerships the age of a vehicle lives in someone's head, in a spreadsheet exported last month or in the date on a purchase contract. None of these places is looked at daily. The vehicle is visible; its age is not. That is why a car can pass 45, 60 or 90 days without a single conversation about it.
automotiveDMS treats standing time as a property of the vehicle record, not as a report. It appears on every list, on the dashboard and on the vehicle file — and it flags ageing vehicles automatically. The number is simply there, every time anyone opens the stock.
What a day of standing time costs
Floor space, financing, insurance, the risk of another price correction: dealerships that run on automotiveDMS see roughly 100 CHF per vehicle and month in lower parking and holding costs once vehicles rotate faster — and an average standing time cut from around 75 to around 37 days.
Three habits that shorten it
- Give every vehicle a status from the first minute — in preparation, ready, ageing — and let the system set it from the work your team actually does.
- Publish as soon as the data is verified: one record, pushed to your website, AutoScout24.ch and mobile.de in a few clicks, with price and status kept in sync.
- Look at the ageing split every morning. The owner dashboard shows ready, in preparation and ageing as one picture — so the conversation about a slow vehicle happens on day 20, not day 60.
None of this requires more meetings. It requires that the information exists where people already work. That is what a dealership management system is for.