Guide
Car consignment for dealers
A practical guide to running consignment at a used-car dealership: how it works, how to structure the agreement, how to price a consigned vehicle, and how to keep owner payouts clean.
Overview
What this guide covers
Consignment lets a dealer sell a vehicle on an owner's behalf without buying it outright, which keeps cash free and widens the lot without the acquisition risk. Done well, it is one of the most profitable ways an independent dealer can grow. The catch is that most legacy dealer software treats consignment as an afterthought, so the workflow ends up living in spreadsheets and paper. This guide covers how to run it properly, and how CarcoCRM makes consignment a first-class workflow.
In this guide
The topics that matter
What consignment means for a dealer
Selling a vehicle on the owner's behalf instead of buying it into inventory, and why that changes the risk and cash math for an independent lot.
Structuring a consignment agreement
The terms that protect both the dealer and the owner, and how to capture and e-sign them so nothing is left to a handshake.
Read morePricing a consigned vehicle
Landing on a number the owner trusts and the market supports, grounded by Carco Technologies rather than guesswork.
Read moreTracking owner payouts
Keeping the payout tied to the signed agreement so settlement is clean and auditable when the vehicle sells.
Read moreConsignment vs buying inventory outright
When to consign and when to buy a unit in, and how a dealer can run both models side by side on one lot.
Software built for consignment dealers
What it looks like when consignment is a first-class workflow instead of a repurposed sales form bolted onto a legacy system.
Read moreKeep exploring
Related on CarcoCRM
FAQ
Car consignment for dealers questions
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