Dealer glossary
Curtailment
A required partial paydown on a floored vehicle once it has been in inventory beyond an agreed period.
Definition
Floor plan lenders do not let a dealership hold a financed car indefinitely at full balance. After an agreed number of days, the store has to pay down part of the principal. That payment is a curtailment.
Curtailments are a cash-flow event that arrives on a schedule the store did not choose, on units that by definition are not selling. Missing one is worse than paying it, so the value of tracking them is mostly in seeing them coming.
Because a curtailment attaches to a specific unit rather than to the line as a whole, it is properly tracked per vehicle, with its own history, rather than as a lump sum against the lender.
See how this works in one system.
DealersCloud runs inventory, the CRM, desking, the books and your dealer website on the same records - so the things in this glossary stop living in separate places.
Trusted by 500+ independent dealerships · 4.7 on Google