The Situation
Sanjay's forecourt holds around twenty cars and turns them steadily. Prep was never the problem — the cars were well presented. The problem was where the prep money went in the books. Tyres, MOTs, welding, a diagnostic, a valet: it all went onto the general card and was never attributed to the car it belonged to.
At month end the forecourt had clearly made money, but nobody could say which cars made it and which quietly lost it. Some vehicles carried £900 of prep that no one had ever set against them.
The Trigger
A car written up as a £1,200 margin turned out, once the prep was totalled, to have made £300. It was not an unusual car — it was a normal one, and that was the worrying part. Sanjay realised the forecourt's headline margins were largely fiction.
What Changed — Every Cost Against the Car
Recon and prep now log against the specific vehicle as steps — tyres, MOT, bodywork, diagnostics, valet — so the true cost sits under each car and the margin is real before it is advertised. Sanjay runs the forecourt on car stock management, and for the first time the month-end figure matches what actually happened.
Costed Stock — Before and After
Share of stock with fully-costed true margin
Within a quarter every car on the pitch carried its own true cost, so pricing decisions were made against real numbers rather than a shared pot no one could untangle.
Where the money was hiding
Prep spend attributed to a vehicle — before vs after
Before and After
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prep cost attributed per car | 0% | 100% | |
| True margin known at point of sale | few cars | all cars | |
| Hidden prep uncovered / year | — | ~£9,800 | |
| Underpriced cars caught pre-advert | none | routine | |
| Month-end margin accuracy | guess | actual |
Key Takeaways
- A shared prep pot hides your worst cars. Costs that are not attributed cannot be managed, and the losers stay invisible.
- Per-car costing pays before the sale, not after. Catching an underpriced car pre-advert is worth far more than spotting it at month end.
- Headline margin is not profit. Until prep sits under the car, the margin you write down is a story, not a number.
- Twenty cars is plenty to matter. Roughly £9,800 a year was hiding in a shared pot on a modest forecourt.
