All Podcast Episodes

In this episode of the Industry Spotlight, joining host Sam D'Arc are David Donaldson, Senior Vice President of DLR50 at DLRdmv, and Justin Buzzell, Vice President of Financial Services at Morgan Auto Group to discuss why out-of-state car deals so often fall apart weeks after the customer drives away, and how getting every tax, fee, and form right before they leave protects the lender's claim on the car and keeps the dealership out of trouble. Justin admits his team used to close a deal and h...

Today's show features: - Benjamin Cartaya, General Manager at Kunes Hyundai of Sycamore - Frank Knox, Chief Operating Officer at AutoAcquire AI - Charlie Spradlin, General Manager at Art Moehn Auto Group - Rob Ruth, President / Owner at Bob Ruth Ford - Brooke English Guy, General Manager at Coastal Chevrolet Cadillac Nissan This episode is brought to you by: Haig Partners – Toyota’s market share varies widely by state, but share alone doesn’t determine dealership value. Read Haig Partners...

Stuart Hayim spent 20 years selling $3 handmade rugs before he ever owned a dealership, and a Walmart buyer who asked for a 50-cent discount in exchange for a bigger order taught him the lesson that built his dealer group. He walks through how that deal grew from 1 million rugs to 2.5 million, and argues that the best deals in the car business are the ones where the dealer, the customer, and the employees all walk away ahead, instead of a tug of war where one side wins and the other loses. Stu...

Today's show features: - Drew Cullen, General Manager at Terry Cullen Chevrolet - Omar Mohammad, CEO at Nomad Content Studio - Benjamin Cartaya, General Manager at Kunes Hyundai of Sycamore This episode is brought to you by: Haig Partners – Toyota’s market share varies widely by state, but share alone doesn’t determine dealership value. Read Haig Partners’ analysis of the local market dynamics dealers should understand here: https://haigpartners.com/resources/toyota-dealership-values-local-...

Today's show features: - Eddie Palomba, Parts and Service Director at McGovern Automotive - Chris Wood, VP Client Strategy (Automotive) at LocalIQ/USA Today - Andrew Batenhorst, Body Shop Manager at Pacific BMW This episode is brought to you by: CarMax Auctions – Access thousands of cars weekly at 50+ locations nationwide through our 100% online auctions. From high-end to high mileage, CarMax Auctions has the inventory you need to source smarter and accelerate sales. Register now for free a...

Online car buying was sold to dealers as a way to sell cars on the internet, but for years it delivered little more than a souped-up lead, and the idea became a dirty word across the industry. Noah Lee explains why the technology has finally caught up, with deals that start online now closing about 46% more often and bringing in about 26% more gross profit, and argues that the biggest thing still standing between most stores and a one-hour car deal isn't the technology, it's fear of change. No...

Today's show features: - Jason Wilkins, Dealer Principal at Joshua Tree CDJR & Victorville Mitsubishi - Charles Dortch III, Senior Vice President of Sales at CrossCheck, Inc. - Walker Strong, GM at Strong Automotive This episode is brought to you by: CarMax Auctions – Access thousands of cars weekly at 50+ locations nationwide through our 100% online auctions. From high-end to high mileage, CarMax Auctions has the inventory you need to source smarter and accelerate ...

Jay Healey is the Chief Marketing Officer at Healey Brothers Automotive Group, the largest dealer group in New York's Hudson Valley, with 10 stores, more than 750 employees, and a newly added Cadillac franchise. A third-generation leader of the business his grandfather started nearly 50 years ago, he works alongside his father and uncle, while his 94-year-old grandfather still reads the store numbers every single morning. He speaks candidly about earning trust with manufacturers, why AI made h...

Today's show features: - Kip Miles, Director of Automotive Operations at Tom Wood Group - Korey Pulluaim, Vice President at Pocket20 - Ben Stapleton, GM at McGraw Ford This episode is brought to you by: CarMax Auctions – Access thousands of cars weekly at 50+ locations nationwide through our 100% online auctions. From high-end to high mileage, CarMax Auctions has the inventory you need to source smarter and accelerate sales. Register now for free at https://www.carmaxauctions.com/CDG. Pock...

Today's show features: - David Thomas, Director of Content Marketing at CDK Global - Greg Johnson, General Manager at Mohawk Honda - Mark Payne, President at Total Dealer Solutions - Scott Painter, Founder and CEO at TrueCar - Joeseph Ruppel, Parts and Service Director at Meier Chevrolet Buick This episode is brought to you by: Zurich North America – Turn everyday service visits into opportunities to build customer loyalty and long-term dealership value with Zurich Lifetime Repair. Give c...

Mike Gilson believes that five years from now, the car business will look back and laugh at the software dealers run on today. Groups with 50 to 100 stores often juggle dozens of different store management and customer management systems, stacked up through decades of acquisitions, and replacing any one of them, he says, is like open heart surgery. Meanwhile, 64% of car buyers now use AI tools to compare models and payments, yet most dealerships can't even be found by those tools, and he argues...

Today's show features: - Bobby Preston, President at Preston Auto Group - Kim Saylor, Sr. Director of Product Marketing, Fixed Operations at CDK Global - Mark Shivers, GM at Suburu of Orillia This episode is brought to you by: Zurich North America – Turn everyday service visits into opportunities to build customer loyalty and long-term dealership value with Zurich Lifetime Repair. Give customers greater confidence in choosing your dealership, knowing covered parts and labor are warrantied f...

Jim Speck walks through how he turned down a $125,000 job in Arizona for $4,000 a month plus 8% of a profit that didn't exist yet, and argues that a young operator trying the same climb in a big metro market today would get squeezed out by the public companies. Jim Speck is the Pesident of Circle Auto Group in Southern California, where he built an 11-store group alongside his late partner Hank and still runs the business with Hank's trust today. He built his foundation on the fixed side of th...

Today's show features: - James Seale, Managing Partner & General Manager at Parkway Family Auto Group - Jamie Kent, Chief Strategy Officer at Overfuel - Michael Salicco, CEO at On.Page - Michael Meisinger, CEO at Mauer Auto Group This episode is brought to you by: Zurich North America – Turn everyday service visits into opportunities to build customer loyalty and long-term dealership value with Zurich Lifetime Repair. Give customers greater confidence in choosing your dealership, knowing c...

Today's show features: - CJ Wilson, Owner and GM at Porsche Fresno - Sarah Grajewski, Chief Operating Officer at PureCars - Luke Goerlitz, Service Manager at Napleton Palatine Subaru - Maureen Martin, VP Strategic Aliances at Dynatron - Damon Egan, Service Director at Sherwood Ford This episode is brought to you by: Presidio – Today’s episode is brought to you by The Presidio Group, one of the automotive industry’s leading buy-sell advisors. Visit Presidio’s new Research & Reports portal ...

71% of the brands a car shopper will ever consider are already in their head before they type a single search, and Jason Goldberg says that's exactly why dealers putting 90% or more of their ad budget into search and social are showing up too late. He walks through how dealers in one automaker's regions pooled their ad dollars into streaming TV and audio to buy the customer instead of the network, and argues that as AI shopping agents start requesting quotes on their own, dealers who don't buil...

Today's show features: - Brian Kramer, EVP, Dealer Growth & Success at Cars Commerce - Ben Sporn, CMO at VIP Automotive Group of Long Island - Zach Pucillo, Regulatory Director at KPA This episode is brought to you by: Presidio – Today’s episode is brought to you by The Presidio Group, one of the automotive industry’s leading buy-sell advisors. Visit Presidio’s new Research & Reports portal for M&A insights, blue sky multiples, exclusive benchmark data with NCM Associates, dealer sentiment,...

Alex Perdikis walks through how his AI texted service customers about selling or trading their car and drew a 60% response rate at his Ford store, with cars bought the same day, and argues that the customers you've already sold are the best source of used car inventory you will ever find. Alex Perdikis is the Owner/CEO of Koons Motors Inc, which runs Ford, Lincoln and Mazda stores in the Washington, DC area, and the founder of inRide, an AI company closing in on 100 dealerships after about six ...

Today's show features: - Alex Keenan, Corperate Head of Market Strategy (CHoMS) at Ewing Automotive - Marc Steiner, Founder & CEO at Turn Automotive - Eric Wilmeth, VP of Operations at Waxahachie Chrysler Dodge Jeep and Ram This episode is brought to you by: Presidio – Today’s episode is brought to you by The Presidio Group, one of the automotive industry’s leading buy-sell advisors. Visit Presidio’s new Research & Reports portal for M&A insights, blue sky multiples, exclusive benchmark dat...

Today's show features: - Dennis Gingrich, Platform / Group Executive at The Niello Company - Cody Short, CRO at The Laundry Guy - Travis Graddon, General Manager at Wilder Auto Center This episode is brought to you by: Carmax – Access thousands of cars weekly at 50+ locations nationwide through our 100% online auctions. From high-end to high mileage, CarMax Auctions has the inventory you need to source smarter and accelerate sales. Register now for free at https://w...

Joining host Matthew Haiken today is Michael Brown. Michael was running his father's Jaguar and Porsche store on Long Island when his dad sold it out from under him in 1998, a move that left him devastated and turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. He walks through learning the business under Roger Penske and John Staluppi, the handshake deal where he signed over his house and every asset he had for a piece of the stores, and the $350,000 health insurance bill that nearly pu...

Today's show features: - Vaughn Triolo, Platform GM at Pedder Auto Group - Peter Franco, Head of P&C Acquisition, Direct Markets at Zurich U.S. - Mahima Raghav, AVP/Senior Consultant, Staff Legal, Judicial and Legislative Affairs at Zurich U.S. - Chris Kennedy, Dealer Principal at Kennedy Auto Group This episode is brought to you by: Carmax – Access thousands of cars weekly at 50+ locations nationwide through our 100% online auctions. From high-end to high mileage, CarMax Auctions has the ...

Aaron Baldwin estimates that coordination between dealers, automakers, and vendors is maybe 10% effective today, and argues that a bad car buying experience doesn't start in the showroom, it starts with the very first ad a shopper sees. Aaron Baldwin is the President of Mobility Global Sales Solutions, the division that brings Automotive Mastermind, MarketScan, and Polk under one roof. He started out selling cars and working deals at Asbury Automotive Group in the mid-2000s, was the foundi...

Today's show features: - Andrew Reutsky, Business Student at Harvard - Eric Frehsée, President at Tamaroff Group - Spencer Webb, General Manager at Audi Salt Lake City This episode is brought to you by: Carmax – Access thousands of cars weekly at 50+ locations nationwide through our 100% online auctions. From high-end to high mileage, CarMax Auctions has the inventory you need to source smarter and accelerate sales. Register now for free at https://www.carmaxauctions.com/CDG Check out Car ...