Holding Cost Calculator
Every day a car sits on your floor plan costs money. Enter what you financed, your APR and how long the car has been on the lot to see the daily interest, the total holding cost and the price cut that breaks even with waiting.
- Daily interest
- $2.63
- Daily total (interest + overhead)
- $2.63
- Total holding cost over 45 days
- $118.36
- Break-even price drop
- $118.36 (1.0% of cost)
The formula
- Daily interest = unit cost x APR / 365
- Total holding cost = (daily interest + daily overhead) x days held
- Break-even price drop = total holding cost
Example: a $35,000 unit at 5% APR costs $4.79 a day in interest. Over 60 days that is about $288. A $12,000 car at 8% costs $2.63 a day, or about $118 over 45 days. Interest is the floor. Insurance, lot costs and depreciation come on top, which is why the overhead field is there.
Cox Automotive publishes a fuller per-unit formula that spreads a dealership's monthly operating expense over its stock, and flags 60 days as the point where a unit starts to look like frozen capital. We walk through both in Floor plan cost per day: what holding a car really costs.
Use it with real days-to-sell
The calculator needs a days-held number. For the car you are about to buy, look it up before you bid: see days to sell by model, the market reports for your state, and the max bid calculator to work back from resale to a bid. Auction fees are on the Copart and IAAI calculators.
FAQ
How do you calculate floor plan interest per day?
Multiply the amount financed by the annual rate and divide by 365. A $35,000 unit at 5% APR costs $35,000 x 0.05 / 365 = $4.79 a day. Some lenders use a 360-day year, so check the day-count basis in your agreement.
What is the break-even price drop?
It is the total cost of holding the car for the days you enter. If the cut you would take to sell today is smaller than that number, selling now leaves you ahead of waiting those days, all else equal.
Does this include depreciation?
No. It covers interest plus any daily overhead you enter. Depreciation and market drift are real costs on top, and they are not in this number.
Does the calculator send my numbers anywhere?
No. It runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server.