The national players never had better buyers. They had more of them, plus software that would not let a buyer overpay. We built that software for our own 40-car lot in Daytona Beach. Everything we learned doing it goes here, free.
Independent dealers sold 9.8 million vehicles last year out of roughly 38.6 million total used sales (NIADA Used Car Industry Report). Collectively that is the biggest force in the business. Individually, you are one person making a buying decision while the phone rings and a title run is waiting.
We are not going to pretend a 40-car lot competes with a company doing $20 billion in revenue on marketing spend or logistics. But underwriting is not a scale advantage. Underwriting is a set of rules, and rules can be written down and handed out.
So that is what this page is. Our screening rules, published. The arithmetic that decides your deals, explained in the words you actually use. The cars we rejected and why. And a wholesale list where every number is showing.
Sources: NIADA Used Car Industry Report.
The bank does not advance against your sticker. It advances against a book value with a hard cap. Here is how the price you paid six weeks ago decides whether a customer can put $700 down or $2,700.
Read: Why clean trade equity decides your cash down →Retail spread is not profit, it is room. Without room you cannot move on price, and the dealer down the street who can will take your customer.
Read: Retail spread is your room, not your profit →A CR score is an average, and averages hide the thing that costs you $4,000. Here is the hard-failure list we use and why every rule on it exists.
Read: A CR score tells you almost nothing →Our full qualification workflow, published — every hard failure, both spread thresholds, and what happens when evidence is missing.
Read: Our underwriting standards →Four one-pagers. No email, no form, no gate. If they are useful, print them and put them where your buyer can see them.
The online references are available below. Downloadable files have not been published yet.
| The Cash Down Formula | The one page of arithmetic that decides whether a subprime deal closes. Selling price plus fees, minus the advance, equals cash down. Worked example on the back. | Read online · PDF not yet available |
|---|---|---|
| Condition Report Screen | Our hard-failure checklist, printable, for whoever bids on your behalf. | Read online · PDF not yet available |
| Landed Cost Calculator | Auction fee, transport, recon, and selling costs in — real net spread out. | XLSX not yet available |
| Underwriting Standards | The complete rule set we buy our own inventory on. | PDF not yet available |
We gate nothing. A PDF traded for an email address is not a gift, it is a transaction, and this page is not a transaction.
All dealer tools →The rejection report will show how many units we scanned, how many cleared, and the top reasons the rest did not.
No reports published yet.
See all reports →DriveWide is an independent dealership at 1312 LPGA Blvd in Daytona Beach, about 40 to 60 cars on the ground. We built our own CRM because the vendor options did not fit, and we built the Manheim scanner because reading every condition report by hand was costing us cars.
We are not a software company selling to dealers. We are a dealership that writes software, publishing what works. When something we tried failed, that shows up here too.
Request dealer updates through our wholesale form. Our team reviews your dealer details and follows up about availability and updates.
Request dealer updates →Florida licensed dealers. We do not sell or share your information.
Cars we bought, offered to Florida independents at our number before they hit our retail line. No buy fee — our margin is in the car. Confirm arrival, title status, and sale terms for the specific unit.
