Dale Pollak: A Case of Moonshots and Missed Shots in Used Vehicles

Cox Automotive has been reporting on the rise of used-vehicle prices for months now. Lately, a new variable has entered the mix – rapidly depleting used-vehicle inventory levels. With the current demand-supply dynamics at play, dealers may be tempted to default to moonshot pricing. However, Dale Pollak, founder of vAuto and executive vice president of Cox Automotive, wrote a recent blog post addressing trends he spotted related to the inventory shortage and the volatility in the market. By analyzing vAuto’s data, which monitors activity across 12,000 dealerships in the U.S., Pollak makes some observations related to the pricing polarity across dealer inventories and the opportunities they represent.

“If you examine how dealers are pricing used vehicles in the current market based on the investment value of each vehicle, it amounts to a tale of two cities,” Pollak wrote. “Or, more specifically, it boils down to a case of moonshots and missed shots.”