Oct. 11, 2025

Appraisal Landmines Costing Dealers $1,000's — And How To Defuse Them | Industry Spotlight

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Appraisal Landmines Costing Dealers $1,000's — And How To Defuse Them | Industry Spotlight

Welcome to Industry Spotlight—a focused series hosted by Sam D’Arc, highlighting standout dealerships and innovative companies, and exploring the trends driving success in today’s automotive market. Today, Sam sits down with Terry Chechakli, Director of Operations at Smith Auto Group, and Frederick Grimm, Co-founder of FIXD.


This episode of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast is brought to you by AppraisalPRO:

AppraisalPRO - Stop getting hammered on hidden trade-in costs. AppraisalPRO instantly reveals repair costs, alerts you to recently cleared codes, and integrates directly with vAuto— meaning diagnostic data populates automatically in your appraisals. Our comprehensive scans take seconds, not minutes, and are simple enough for anyone on your team to use. Join dealers saving $10,000s per month with the fastest and most accurate OBD2 appraisal solution in the market. Special deal for CDG listeners: FREE 1-week trial, then just $195/month with no setup fees and OBD2 scanners included. Visit @ http://www.getAppraisalPRO.com


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Topics:

01:22 Smith Auto's growth and acquisition strategy?

02:10 Biggest used car acquisition challenges?

03:12 Auctions vs. alternative inventory sources?

06:28 How AppraisalPro improves transparency?

10:30 Appraisal Pro's financial impact?

21:59 How do OBD scans help?

24:52 From fault codes to recon estimates?

27:31 Benefits of transparent dealings?

38:35 Future developments for AppraisalPro?


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