Dealer glossary
The words the business actually uses.
Front gross, back gross, pack, curtailment, spot delivery, we owe. The vocabulary of an independent dealership is mostly learned on the job, which is inconvenient if you are new to it, buying software for it, or trying to read your own reports. Here is the plain version.
All terms
A
Adverse action notice →
The notice a customer receives when a credit application is declined or approved on less favourable terms than requested.
Aged inventory →
Vehicles that have been in stock longer than the store target, usually measured in days since acquisition.
Appraisal →
Determining what a dealership should pay for a vehicle, whether taken in trade or bought at auction.
B
Back gross →
The profit made in the finance office: F&I products, and the dealership share of the finance reserve.
BDC →
The team or function responsible for responding to inbound leads and calls and turning them into appointments.
Book value →
A published estimate of what a vehicle is worth, from a valuation guide, used as a reference in appraisal and lending.
Buy Here Pay Here (BHPH) →
A dealership model where the store finances the customer itself and collects the payments, instead of selling the loan to an outside lender.
Buyers Guide →
The window form the Federal Trade Commission requires on used vehicles offered for sale, stating warranty status.
Buyers order →
The document setting out the agreed terms of a vehicle sale: the vehicle, the price, the trade, the fees and the total.
D
Days supply →
How long the current inventory would last at the recent rate of sale, expressed in days.
Deal jacket →
The complete set of documents for a single vehicle sale, historically a paper folder and now usually digital.
Dealer management system (DMS) →
The core software a dealership runs its operations on: inventory, sales, deal paperwork and accounting in one system of record.
Dealer reserve →
The portion of a financed deal the dealership earns for arranging the loan, based on the difference between the lender rate and the contract rate.
Desking →
Structuring a deal - price, trade, down payment, term and rate - into payment options a customer can choose from.
F
F&I →
The finance office: arranging the customer financing and presenting the products sold alongside the vehicle.
Floor plan →
A revolving line of credit a dealership uses to buy inventory, secured by the vehicles themselves and paid off when each unit sells.
Front gross →
The profit on the vehicle itself: selling price minus what the store has in the car.
N
P
R
Reconditioning (recon) →
The work done to a vehicle between acquiring it and putting it on the front line, and the cost of that work.
Related finance company (RFC) →
A separate company, affiliated with the dealership, that holds and services the notes the dealership originates.
Repossession →
Recovering a financed vehicle after the customer has defaulted on the loan.
T
A note on scope
Definitions, not compliance advice.
Several of these terms have a legal dimension — the Buyers Guide, adverse action notices, spot delivery, repossession. Where they do, the entry explains what the thing is operationally and points at the authority that actually governs it.
It does not tell you what you must do, because that varies by state and by situation, and a software vendor is the wrong source for it. Take those questions to your compliance advisor or attorney.
One system for most of the words on this page.
Inventory, the CRM, desking and F&I, the books, floor plan, in-house notes and your dealer website, on the same records.
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