Priced Aggressively, Still Not Selling? 90% of What

Five things to take from this tip.

Your 90% is measured against inflated asks. Dealers who stopped adjusting through September and October are holding $30,000 prices on cars that should be at $28,000 or $29,000. Ten percent under that ask is only five percent under the real market.

The market moves under your price. Jasen watched cars priced at 97% of market drift to 99% in less than a week without a price change, because the market average dropped about $500. You have to cut again just to stand still.

Compare to sold transactions, not listings. Active listings show what dealers hope to get. Recent solds show where cars actually leave. Jasen's read is that you check solds first, then current and recent listings.

Late model used competes with new after rebates. A current year used unit at 90% of a $40,000 average was still within $2,000 of a new one at $37,000 to $38,000 after incentives. It took 80 to 85% of the used market to matter.

Eyeballs before another price cut. When a unit is already aggressive and has no leads, the fix is attention: VIN-specific ads, a spotlight on AutoTrader, a special on CarGurus and your website, a spot on the showroom floor, and a team that knows the car.

What Jasen covers in nine minutes.

Why the aggressive dealer is still sitting

Jasen opened this tip because his weekly market reviews kept showing the same thing in the fall of 2025: dealers who were as aggressive as they had ever been, with tighter margins than ever, still not moving cars. The reflex answer is to keep cutting. His answer is to ask what you are cutting against.

Through late August and September, the market itself was dropping fast. A car priced at 97% of market would be at 99% a week later with no change to the price, because the market average had fallen roughly $500. Dealers cut again to get back to 97%. That happened across the board, cheap cars and high dollar cars alike. Then it slowed down. Dealers who had made their adjustments got tired of making more, and a lot of them stopped.

The result, in Jasen's words, is a stalemate. The middle bucket, the 30 to 60 day cars, is fatter than normal across most competitive sets. Everybody is holding a high ask to protect what margin is left. So when you price at 90% of that market, you are 90% of a number nobody is actually paying.

Run the math on a $30,000 car

Here is the example he uses. The competitive set is asking $30,000. You price at 90%, which is $27,000, and you feel aggressive. But customers are not paying $30,000 for that car. Where the market is really transacting is closer to $28,000 or $29,000. Against that number, your $27,000 is 95%, not 90%. Was 95% ever going to move that unit in a slow month? Probably not.

This is why Jasen argues the right comparison is active sold transactions. Look at what recently left other lots and at what price, then look at current and recent listings second. If cars are selling at $25,000 or $26,000 in your market and you are at $27,000 calling yourself aggressive, you are not as aggressive as you think. Our guide on pricing as a retailer instead of a wholesaler covers how to hold that line without giving the car away, and why "my market is different" usually is not the explanation.

Look at the transactions that are happening, not just what people are trying to sell it for.Jasen Rice, LotParty Quick Tip

The late model trap

The sharpest example in the video is a dealer partner with a current year used unit. Every store in the set was around $40,000, and this dealer was at 90% of that, roughly $35,000 to $36,000, wondering why it sat. Then they looked at MSRP: $42,000. After rebates and incentives, a new one was going out the door at $37,000 or $38,000. Even at 90% of the used market, the used car was only about $2,000 cheaper than new.

The fix was not 90%. It was 80 to 85%, because that is where a used unit becomes relevant against a new one after incentives. Jasen's point is that the same logic applies to a 2022. If you are 10% under a market that is priced high because everyone is protecting gross, your 10% is not doing what you think it is. This is the same reason a lot of $35,000 used inventory stalls when new car incentives loosen up.

Why cheap cars sit in the fall

The other pattern he flags is sub-$15,000 cars sitting with no leads at 90% of market. Some of that is seasonal. Cheap cars move in tax season, when a $4,000 refund becomes a down payment or a cash purchase, and in July and August when a kid is heading to college or starting to drive to school. Heading into winter, the buyer is a need buyer replacing something that will not start in the cold. They want more reliability than a $13,000 car, and as new incentives improve they are shopping $20,000 to $40,000 instead.

Before you cut again, get the car seen

Jasen is not against repricing. The whole tip assumes you are moving with the market every two weeks, and a weekly repricing cadence is the baseline. But when a unit is already aggressive against sold data and still has no leads, the problem is exposure. He lists the moves: VIN-specific advertising to active shoppers on that make and model, a spotlight on AutoTrader, a special on CarGurus, a special on your own website, a spot on the showroom floor, and a sales team that actually knows the car exists. As one Friday morning Clubhouse regular puts it, you make your own economy. Sometimes on these cars you have to.

Three moves for Monday morning.

Pull sold comps on your ten oldest units

For each one, find what comparable cars actually sold for in the last 30 days, not what they are listed at. If solds are running $1,000 to $2,000 under the average ask, recalculate your price-to-market off the sold number and see how aggressive you really are.

Check every late model against new after rebates

For any current or prior model year unit, look up MSRP and the current incentives on the new version. If your used price is within about $2,000 of a new one out the door, you need to be at 80 to 85% of the used market, not 90%.

Give one stuck unit eyeballs before another cut

Pick the aggressively priced car with the fewest leads. This week: VIN-specific ad, AutoTrader spotlight, CarGurus special, website special, front row on the showroom floor, and tell every salesperson it exists. Judge the price again after a week of real exposure.

Where LotWalk fits.

Everything in this tip can be done with a spreadsheet and a lot of patience. What LotWalk does is put the market and the unit on one desktop screen. Market View shows your listings, shopper counts, and competitive set, and the Predictor forecasts what each unit will do over the next two weeks so the "> Predictor" filter flags the cars priced above what will actually sell. Your Performance Engineer then walks the list with you on the call, which is the part that keeps the "90% of what" question from getting asked once a quarter.

Read the whole tip.

Show transcript (lightly edited for readability)

Why aggressive pricing feels like it stopped working

Here for another Quick Tip. The title of this one is: are your used cars priced aggressively and still not selling? Let's go over it.

The reason I wanted to cover this is I have a lot of dealers struggling with gross profit right now. Just last week I did a market review on what's going on in the market. We know we're going into the slower months, but here's the thing. Retail hasn't really caught up to the adjustments that need to be happening.

What happened at the end of August and beginning of September, and I did a video about this too, is we were watching cars where I was priced at 97% of market, and within less than a week that 97 turned into 99% of market. Not because I raised my price. The market adjusted 2%. The market average dropped maybe $500. So my price went from aggressively priced at 97% back up to market average at 99%, and I had to drop my price again just to get back to 97% and keep up with the market. We saw that across the board on every car, from cheap cars to high dollar cars. That's not happening as much anymore, other than on late models, and it has really slowed down.

So a lot of dealers are saying, man, I don't get it. I'm at 90% of market and these things still aren't moving. I'm not getting leads. Do I just keep dropping my price? And it's hard to say. You're 45 days old, you might be losing $500, and you're at 90%. There's no reason you should drop this price other than the fact it's not converting. No one's opened the door. You don't have any leads. Unless there's some marketing magic you can do behind it, and there is, I'm not discrediting that, a lot of times you're forced to drop the price and it leaves you scratching your head.

90% of what?

Here's what's happening. You're aggressively priced, but compared to what? Go look at your competitive set. What you're seeing is a lot of dealers whose middle bucket, their 30 to 60 day cars, has a lot more cars than normal, or a lot more aged cars than normal. They made their adjustments through September and October and now they're saying, gosh, how many more adjustments do I need to make? And they've stopped making them. So you have a lot of dealers with an inflated price, inflated compared to what the market really is.

You're at 90% of dealers who are keeping their prices high to protect margin, which is common sense. But you're 90% of 30 grand, and no one's buying, because the customer is saying, I'm not paying 30 grand for that. Where the market really should be is probably 28 or 29 grand. Now, if the market was really at 28 or 29 grand, you're not at 90% anymore. You're 95%. Was 95% good enough to get it gone? Maybe not. So what's going on is you're 90% of a 30 grand price that everybody's priced high at, and they shouldn't be. Things are starting to stalemate and it's slowing down. That's why the aggressive dealer still sits. It's not blindly adjusting, it's being blind to the market.

One of the hosts on our Friday morning Clubhouse says it all the time: you make your own economy. And sometimes you're going to have to on these cars. I'm talking to a dealer right now who's in that spot. We're so aggressively priced, and I'm like, gosh dang it guys, I don't want to move this price anymore. Why isn't it selling? This car just needs more eyeballs right now. What I suggested to them is getting VIN-specific advertising, getting this car in front of active shoppers looking for that make and model, getting it spotlighted on AutoTrader or in the specials on CarGurus, making your team aware of it, making it a special on your website, putting it on your showroom floor. There are other ways than spending money and dropping the price, but you have to draw attention to this car. At some point your 90% will turn into 93% again as the market adjusts.

Why cheap cars are sitting right now

That's the other thing we're seeing: a lot of cheap cars sitting too. Around this season you see these cheaper cars, 15 grand or less, and you're like, man, it's a 13 grand car, I'm at 90%, I don't have any leads, it's not moving. Some of that is seasonal. Going into the winter months, your battery is dying, your car's not starting in the cold, your tires are slick. People want a more reliable car going into winter.

Cheaper cars have phases. Tax season is a cheaper car season. People get four grand back, they put it down on a 15 grand car to keep the payment low, or they pay cash for a car because the tax return gave them enough. Then there's back to school in July and August. My kid's going off to college, my kid's starting to drive to school, I need to get them a cheap car. Outside those phases, these cheaper cars start sitting. As new car incentives get better, people say, if I'm going to get a car, I need something better than what I've had the last three or five years. They're looking past a 15 grand car. They want 20, 30, 40 grand. And a lot of these buyers going into the slower months are need buyers, not want buyers. A need buyer is typically replacing what they've got.

Compare to what's selling, not what's listed

So you might be feeling it right now. I've never been more aggressively priced, my margin compression is tighter, I'm getting less and less gross profit. I'm at 90% and still not selling. It's 90% of what?

We ran into this a couple weeks ago. One of our dealer partners had a current year used model, and we were at 90 or 95% wondering why the thing was sitting. Compared to what? We looked at all these dealers, let's say they were all priced around 40 grand, and we were at 35 or 36 grand. But go look at the MSRP on the car. It was 42 grand. You could buy a brand new one for 42 MSRP, and after rebates and incentives it was more like 37 or 38. So we were 90% of the average, but even at 90% we were only two grand cheaper than what they could buy a new one for after rebates. We had to drop the price. We were 90% of what every other dealer was trying to get, which was pretty much as high as or higher than a new one. We had to be more aggressive than that 90%. We had to get down to 80 or 85% to be relevant against a new one after rebates.

Same point on a 2022. You're at 90%, 10% below the market, wondering why it's not selling. But 10% against what? These guys are keeping their prices high at 30 grand when it should really be at 27 or 28, where cars are actually leaving and selling. If cars at 25 or 26 grand are selling, are you as aggressive as you think? So really look at active solds. Compare your number to that before you compare to current and recent listings. Look at the transactions that are happening, not just what people are trying to sell it for.

Hope this was helpful. I hate posting these on Fridays because a lot of people are tied up heading into the weekend, but I wanted to get something out this week. Give me your feedback, and if this is happening on your lot and you'd like to see how we can help, go to lotwalk.com.

Transcript lightly edited for readability from the live stream. Watch the video above for Jasen's screen share.

Questions dealers ask about aggressive pricing.

Why is my used car priced below market but still not selling?

Because the market average you are pricing under is usually built from asking prices, and in a slow market a lot of those asks are inflated by dealers protecting margin. Jasen's example: 90% of a $30,000 ask is $27,000, but if cars are actually transacting at $28,000 to $29,000, you are really at 95% of the market. Check recent sold transactions and recalculate your price-to-market off that number.

Should I price used cars against active listings or sold data?

Jasen's read is sold data first. Active listings tell you what other dealers hope to get. Recent solds tell you where cars actually leave, which is the number a customer is comparing you to whether they know it or not. Use current and recent listings as a second check, not the primary one.

How do you price a late model used car against a new one?

Look up the MSRP and the current rebates and incentives on the new version of that car, then compare your used price to the new car's real out-the-door number, not to other dealers' used asks. In Jasen's example, a used unit at 90% of a $40,000 used market was still within $2,000 of a new one at $37,000 to $38,000 after incentives. It took 80 to 85% of the used market to make the used car relevant.

Why do cheap used cars under $15,000 sit in the fall?

Cheap cars have seasons. They move in tax season, when a refund becomes a down payment or a cash purchase, and in July and August when families buy a car for a kid heading to school. Heading into winter the buyer is typically a need buyer replacing a car that will not start in the cold, and they want more reliability than a $13,000 car. As new car incentives improve, that buyer often stretches to $20,000 or more instead.

Priced at 90% of market and still not selling? 90% of what?

Five things to take from this tip.

What Jasen covers in nine minutes.

Why the aggressive dealer is still sitting

Run the math on a $30,000 car

The late model trap

Why cheap cars sit in the fall

Before you cut again, get the car seen

Three moves for Monday morning.

Pull sold comps on your ten oldest units

Check every late model against new after rebates

Give one stuck unit eyeballs before another cut

Where LotWalk fits.

Read the whole tip.

Why aggressive pricing feels like it stopped working

90% of what?

Why cheap cars are sitting right now

Compare to what's selling, not what's listed

Questions dealers ask about aggressive pricing.

More Quick Tips

Why does a used car that sits cost you $1,000 every two weeks?

Why does your competitive set say 98% of market when you're really at 102%?

Wholesale is up and turn is 35 days. So why is your lot losing money?

Want someone to walk your lot with you?