Car Dealership Guy Podcast Nov 4, 2025

13 Years at Ford — Why He Now Owns a Dealership (and How He Drove a 7% Profit Turnaround) | Doug Gilmour, Dealer Principal of Malone Ford

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Term

EVs

EVs are cars that run on electricity instead of gasoline or diesel. They use batteries to power an electric motor, making them more environmentally friendly.

Term

ICE vehicles

ICE vehicles are cars that run on fuel like gasoline or diesel. They use engines that burn this fuel to power the car, unlike electric vehicles that use batteries.

Concept

cycle plan

A cycle plan is a schedule that car companies use to decide when to make and sell new cars. It helps them keep up with what people want, especially as more electric cars are being made.

Brand

Jeep

Jeep is a well-known car brand famous for making tough vehicles that can go off-road, like the Wrangler.

Brand

Ram

Ram is a brand that makes trucks and vans, and it's known for building strong vehicles that can carry heavy loads.

Brand

BYD

BYD is a car company from China that makes electric cars and batteries. They are known for being innovative and competing with other car brands.

Brand

Hyundai

Hyundai is a car company from South Korea that makes many types of vehicles, including sedans and SUVs. They are known for offering good quality at affordable prices.

Brand

Kia

Kia is another car company from South Korea that makes a variety of vehicles. They are known for their stylish designs and good warranties.

Brand

Mercedes

Mercedes is a famous car brand from Germany that makes luxury vehicles. They are known for their high-quality cars and innovative features.

Company

Stellantis

Stellantis is a big car company that makes many different brands of cars, like Jeep and Dodge. It was created when two companies merged together.

Brand

Nissan

Nissan is a car company from Japan that makes many types of vehicles, including electric cars. They are known for their reliable cars.

Brand

Volvo

Volvo is a car brand from Sweden that is famous for making safe and reliable cars. They have different types of vehicles, including family cars and SUVs.

Brand

Land Rover

Land Rover is a car brand from the UK that makes luxury SUVs. They are known for being able to drive off-road and handle tough terrains.

Brand

Jaguar

Jaguar is a luxury car brand from England that makes stylish and fast cars. They are known for their beautiful designs and high performance.

Brand

Mercury

Mercury was a car brand that used to be part of Ford. They made cars that were stylish and comfortable, but the brand is no longer around since 2010.

Brand

Aston Martin

Aston Martin is a luxury car brand from the UK that makes very fast and stylish sports cars. They are famous for appearing in James Bond movies.

Brand

Toyota

Toyota is a car company from Japan that makes many popular and reliable cars. They are one of the largest car makers in the world.

Car

Lincoln Aviator

The Lincoln Aviator is a mid-sized luxury SUV that offers a comfortable ride and many high-end features.

Car

Lincoln Navigator

The Lincoln Navigator is a big luxury SUV that offers a lot of space and comfort, making it great for families or long trips.

Car

Lincoln Nautilus

The Lincoln Nautilus is a luxury SUV that focuses on comfort and has many modern features for a pleasant driving experience.

Brand

Tesla

Tesla is a car company that makes electric cars. They are known for being high-tech and environmentally friendly.

Term

moon roof

A moon roof is a glass panel in the roof of a car that can open to let in light and air. It's different from a regular sunroof because you can see through it.

Term

massaging seats

Massaging seats are special car seats that can give you a massage while you sit in them. They are designed to make long trips more comfortable.

Term

aftermarket companies

Aftermarket companies make car parts and accessories that you can buy after you purchase a car. They can help you customize your vehicle or improve its performance.

Car

Ford Explorer

The Ford Explorer is a large car designed for families and adventures. It has lots of space inside for passengers and their stuff, which makes it great for road trips or everyday use.

Concept

incentives

Incentives are money or deals that car companies give to help sell their cars. They can make the price lower or make it easier to buy a car.

Concept

below the line margins

Below the line margins are extra costs or profits that aren't shown in the main price of a car. They can include special deals or incentives that affect how much money a dealer makes.

Car

Cadillac ELR

The Cadillac ELR is a fancy car that can run on electricity and gas. It's designed to be more eco-friendly while still offering a comfortable and stylish ride.

Company

Dynatron

Dynatron is a brand that makes tools and equipment for fixing cars. They help mechanics do their jobs better and more efficiently.

LIVE

Dealers, early access to our private dealer chat groups

is now open.

Join top dealers at cdgcircles.com,

that's cdgcircles.com or hit the link in the show notes.

I'll see you inside.

Today I'm joined by Doug Gilmore,

dealer principal of Malone Ford.

After nearly two decades climbing the ranks

at Ford, Doug took the ultimate leap

buying and running a dealership.

Not only did he leave behind an impressive career,

but he bet the farm on his one shot at his ultimate dream.

A big thank you to our sponsors

for making this episode possible.

Open lane, repair 360 and cdgcircles.

And now let's get into the show.

Doug Gilmore on the cdgpodcast, Doug, welcome.

Thank you, I'm pretty sure you made a mistake.

I don't know why I'm here, but this is awesome to be here.

I did not make a mistake.

Actually, the mistake that I thought we made

was when I saw a 13 year factory guy

in the marketing department most recently, I believe,

now a dealer.

I was like, Doug, what's going on over here?

Like, how did this happen, right?

Give me, I need the backstory.

Who did you meet while you were at Ford as a marketer?

And you're like, I need to be a dealer.

Like, what is going on over here?

How did this happen?

The best part is nobody at Ford knew

I was doing what I was doing.

So I ran everything behind the scenes

because my background was marketing, sales and service.

So I knew all the guys, right?

And I knew there'd be either a conflict of interest

or just, you know, these are all the people

that approved me are people that I know personally, right?

And I didn't want to put anybody in an awkward position.

So as I went down this path, I did it truly independently

on my own without asking for any favors.

I'm making anybody feel uncomfortable.

So when I presented an application, it was here,

here's everything, you know, you know,

sign, seal and deliver, what do you guys think?

And so it was a pretty shocking conversation

when I did that.

All right, so just so I understand this,

you're at Ford at the moment

and there isn't like a program, right?

Obviously there isn't like, hey,

Ford corporate, come be dealers.

So what, like, what goes through your mind?

This is a very atypical career path

to go from factory to dealer this way.

So like, what happened?

It's, well, that moment was going through your mind

as you, you know, your puckered off

because you have no idea what the response

is going to be, right?

So you're basically saying, I want to move on

and do something different.

And is there a conflict?

I didn't know Ford is going to be like, you know what?

Hey, yeah, we'll review this,

but you no longer have a job here, right?

Like that was the part that was nervous.

You know, just, you know, just made me nervous, right?

And so the initial conversations were very hard,

but the people that are at Ford were incredible.

I mean, they couldn't have been more gracious, you know,

leaders and mentors that I talked to, they were shocked.

I mean, by the second day after they submitted my application,

you know, the regional manager who also

was a good friend of mine, he was like,

Doug, they don't know what to do with you.

Like no one's done this in recent history

where they've left, you know, at Ford

where they've left the factory and bought a store.

A lot of people have left to go run stores

and go work for dealer groups.

And, you know, a lot of my friends have,

but, you know, no one had really tried

just truly buying a store while they're at Ford.

So yeah, so made for some very delicate

and interesting conversations.

I can imagine.

So what happens behind the scenes?

Why did you do this?

Well, and so that's, you know,

and since I love you, you'll see,

because we're gonna get into all the drama

and everything else, but it's a long, you know, journey

of, you know, I'm a, you know, maybe a wanderer, right?

Like I love challenges, I love new things.

I had a stint in retail a long time ago.

I mean, not only know where to start

to kind of get you to where we're at,

but, you know, if I jumped to the end,

it was, I probably wasn't happy anymore

being like in a big bureaucratic company.

Nothing to do with Ford.

I love Ford.

I bleed blue, but I was on that, you know,

that kind of that bureaucratic, you know, rat race, right?

I was on the wheel just spinning.

And I was good at what I did and I had an awesome career

and I can't say anything bad about Ford,

but then the day I wasn't making the kind of impact

that I wanted to make, which is interesting, right?

Because I was working on billion dollar programs

or running teams of billion dollar sales.

So the economic impacts working at the factory

just incredible, right?

But it was that bureaucratic, you know, atmosphere

and it was no longer for me.

And I didn't know it.

I was in Vermont at a cabin on a lake

and it was in the summertime

and we were doing a celebration of life

for my father after he passed away.

And this was, you know, maybe three,

three years ago, three and a half years ago.

And I was with some good friends,

friends from graded school, high school.

And aside from my father passing away,

I mean, it was a celebration of life for that.

That part was fun.

It was expected, no surprises.

But they're like, you're not happy.

Like, let's go and we're sitting by the water.

Like, what's going on?

I was like, what are you guys talking about?

So they tell you this.

They literally tell you this to your face.

Yeah.

Yeah, I was like an intervention because like,

I was like, what are you guys talking about?

I was like, have an awesome career, you know,

working all at that point in time.

I was a chief product marketing manager.

So I'm working on future vehicles.

What could be more cool?

Like, you know, future EVs and stuff like that.

And they're like, you just, we can tell.

And they got in my head and I started thinking about it.

And, you know, and then one of my buddies sent me a podcast.

So I think it was from like Peter Atea,

the doctor does all the cool like, yeah.

You know, interviews with people.

He was interviewing this guy talking about,

you get stuck in this bureaucracy

and you don't even know you're stuck.

And again, I'm not, it's the right thing for a lot of people.

But for me, and I think it's just my makeup,

it was they're like, no, we see you more like building things,

you know, making an impact and things like that.

Got my head.

And so, and honestly, being a dealer has always been

in the back of my mind.

It's always something I joke to my friends.

When I retire from Ford, I'm going to be a dealer.

I worked with dealers for, you know, for years with Ford.

I had a lot of field jobs, right?

Had a stint, you know, running a family dealership

for a few years, turning it around.

So something I was like, I knew the dealer world.

It wasn't, you know, foreign to me or like, oh, hey,

I'm just going to go, you know, whimsy, you know,

jump into something I had no idea about.

But they're like, I think it's time.

And so, you know, fast forward a few days after I was like,

you know what, I think they're right, you know,

and they're kind of, you know, breaking that mold for me.

There was an ad from the Dave Canton group.

And I'm sure you've heard of them

and they're huge, one of the biggest, you know, M&A firms.

But Dave was, he had a dealer,

I think it was an accelerator program.

So it's basically the ad was for,

hey, if you're like a GM or something,

you've always wanted to own your own dealership,

give us a call.

So I picked up the phone and I called them

and I said, I'm probably not at all what you guys,

you know, are looking for.

I'm a factory guy,

but I've always dreamed about owning a dealership.

I was like, what do you think about that?

And the guy was completely shocked

because usually he's talking to GMs and sales managers.

And he goes, you know, most people,

he's like, my job is pretty much to screen most people

and help them understand why this probably

isn't the right move or, you know,

their ability to do something like this.

He's like, you're a different story.

And he's like, I need to have some other people call you.

And so next thing I know, I'm getting a call,

you know, from Ivan Raskin

and he's from Biltmore Consultants.

So they're like the white label firm,

M&A firm that Dave Kannon hired to manage this.

And, you know, and Ivan was like, this is fascinating.

Now he's a former like corporate guy, GE, you know,

consultant for Hyundai Kia, now he does M&A,

but his firm, and they still do it today,

they help first time dealers.

Like they're the guys that know how to do

the unique financial engineering

and know exactly what the factory is looking for.

And so I started talking to Ivan and he's like,

I think there's something here if you're willing,

basically if you're willing to go on the journey,

he's like, this is a long journey.

And I was like, I know.

And that's the thing, like I had approved a lot of myself

on the other side of the fence.

I've been through them, I've helped dealers go through them.

You know, and if anything, I probably realized, you know,

I realized I knew enough about it to realize

if I ever wanted to buy a dealership, I would need help.

You know, I think a lot of people the first time you're like,

no, I can do this, I can figure it out.

It is complicated.

And it's complicated for someone who knows a lot about it.

And a lot of that complications

is just managing all the resources, you know,

from the right accountants, the right lawyers,

you know, the right insurance agents on, you know,

how do you set up, you know, an SBA loan,

the right banks, right?

So you went SBA route?

I went the SBA route, yeah, Connor Duncan from Live Oak.

Now granted, like again, this is why it's good

to have intelligent people on your team.

People much smarter than me is that

I wouldn't have known to reach out to Connor,

but Ivan had already had a relationship with Connor.

He knew it would be a good fit for Connor.

So we reached out to Connor Duncan at Live Oak

and put me in touch with him and helped me set up

with an SBA loan, which was way more financing

that I thought I'd be eligible for.

But again, why smart to just bring in people

that know a lot more than you think, you know.

So a couple of questions there.

First of all, you were working at the factory,

you purchased the four dealership,

clearly some testament to the durability of the brand,

your belief in the brand.

What is it that led you to believe in the future

of the brand to put your own money, you know,

to put your name in SBA loan

typically requires a personal guarantee, right?

So that's a very strong belief in the brand.

Why did you come out of there

and like what led you to have that strong belief

in conviction?

Cause you could have gone for any brand technically, so.

I mean, the good and bad about an SBA loan

is that you can stretch the loan over 20 years.

So, I mean, my conviction is really out there

on the far horizon.

So I can't ever get into like, you know,

what I'd know about like future products,

but I worked on future products, right?

Like I could see the vision behind the scenes

of what Jim Farley's taken to the board of directors

and, you know, people like Jim Bombeck

and what they want for the company, you know,

what they're trying to plan five and two,

I believe in it, right?

You know, I grew up with Ford,

I've had family in Ford, my uncle worked for Ford.

So I do believe blue and it's not that I'm at all opposed

to, you know, acquiring another franchise,

but I was very clear to Bill Moore and Ivan's like,

hey, I'm going to buy a dealership

because they had other stores for me.

They're like, hey, we can get you in a store today.

I said, no, if I'm doing this as Ford is for me.

And again, and it's, you know,

sometimes that's the irrational part of it, right?

Like, so there was an irrational part for me.

I was like, no, I'm going to, I'm doing it with Ford.

But I do believe in the company.

I believe they've got the right products, the right lineup.

You know, they've got the right leadership

and beyond somebody like a Jim Friley,

like the next tier leadership is awesome at Ford

and Andrew Frick or Jim Bombeck.

I mean, these guys are incredible in the depth

that they have and what they bring in their, you know,

their years within the auto industries.

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I think that question is especially important

given the fact that you worked at,

I saw on lots of EV marketing

and that was a pretty, you know,

tumultuous time for Ford EVs, right?

Things have gotten better and the market has changed

and shifted and credits have gone away.

And so I would say in some sense it's more stable now,

but again, you were working at Ford during this time

on, you know, EV marketing and it's just surprising to me

or it's, I mean, wow, to go from there,

I see you're smiling.

I mean, it's to go from there to acquire a Ford dealership.

It says something at least in your long-term, you know,

conviction.

So a lot of my history with Ford too,

but I mean, outside of like the product side, right?

Was being in the field, right?

I've been a marketing manager in the field.

I used to be the business development manager

for Quicklane in the central market area,

which is like Texas and Oklahoma going around,

helping dealers set them up and operate them.

You know, going to FDF meetings on the marketing side,

talking to dealers about,

hey, what are we gonna do for tier two advertising?

All the way up to, you know,

eventually as a regional manager in the Northeast,

you know, overseeing 130 dealers,

you know, helping them grow,

working on their allocation, their service growth,

their customer satisfaction.

So I spent a lot of time in the field working with dealers.

And the funny thing was is I always looked back

and I was so much working, I always found it fascinating.

Like I wasn't going,

I was the kind of regional guy going,

tell the deal, hey, this is how you're gonna run your business.

I mean, I just wanted to go in and just talk to people.

I mean, I just love learning from these dealers

and these guys.

And if I could give them a nugget of wisdom,

and it usually wasn't something that I was smarter than them.

I was like, hey, I've seen a few other stores

trying this, this, and this,

because I could bring that,

almost that 20 group worldliness a little bit to them.

And they're like, hey, yeah, I hadn't thought of that,

but let me go check it out, right?

But it was learning.

Like you had Fred beans on once, right?

So I used to call him Fred.

Fred the legend.

He is a legend.

And I love seeing Fred.

Every time I would see him,

it was so educational.

And I just love going to see Fred to sit down

and like take somebody like that,

that should know everything, right?

He's been doing it for, I don't know, Fred's in his mid 80s.

He's been doing it since the 50s,

started out with a gas station

and now he's got whatever, 30 stores

and one of the biggest parts guys in the country.

And he's so, to this day, he's still curious, right?

Like he's still learning about the business.

And I'm in there, he's shown me all his books on Audible

that he's reading as he's driving around

and he's used to escape, right?

But he's learning and he's sharing my nuggets.

And after I bought this store,

like I didn't know I had all this excess,

used in parts inventory, obsolete inventory.

And like, I'm just going to offload this now

and take the bite up front

so I can free up the space for my parts team

and just start clean.

But I couldn't get off of $50,000 of this whole person.

So I was like, you know what?

I'm going to give Fred a call.

I haven't talked to him in three years.

He probably doesn't even know, remember who I am.

I called him like at five o'clock at night.

He picked up like on the second ring.

He's like, Doug, how you doing?

I was like, oh my gosh.

He goes, I'm in a board meeting right now

with my, you know, wholesale distribution team.

But yeah, I saw you calling.

I was like, well, I was like,

I'm so sorry to interrupt you Fred.

No, what do you got?

I just bought a dealership.

And he's like, and I'm like, he was like, really?

And I start talking about what I'm doing.

I was like, I'm stuck on this obsolete inventory.

But I, I forget I just asked you if you knew anybody

I should call or how I should handle it.

He goes, I'm sending you over, you know,

I'm going to have the head of my, you know,

parts distribution center give you a call

and then we'll see what we can do.

And then he starts talking to me.

I was like, hey, how about your sales process?

I don't really have a sales process yet.

Fred, I just bought this store.

He goes, I'm going to send you over my sales process.

And he goes, what do you think about, you know,

you know, you know, single price, you know,

one vehicle price and all this other stuff.

And I'm like, why?

I don't know.

I think we're still negotiating.

He goes, I'm still negotiating too.

He goes, I don't like one price.

He goes, Doug, I don't like one price, you know,

because it's not the right price for every customer.

I mean, he's just thoughtful and energetic,

but it's something that I learned from all dealers, right?

Like it's, because I've met a lot of dealers that, you know,

within two seconds are just telling you,

they know how it is, right?

They're awesome.

A lot of those guys, I don't know,

he's the guys that have grown.

Yeah.

And the lifelong learner.

That was definitely the impression I got.

I had of him, you know, after he was on my podcast

and, you know, I've known of Fred for,

I grew up in this area near Fred,

near the Doyle's town and, you know, area.

But Fred is just such an incredible operator

and the enthusiasm, like you said,

the attention to detail.

It's very, very just incredible to watch from the side.

I got to ask you, and I want to talk more about your entry,

like you said, your kind of first initial days, months,

or weeks, months in the dealership,

but from your vantage point now,

you've been a dealer now for several years

and what is the factory getting wrong?

I bring on dealers all the time here and I ask them,

I say, hey, like, what would you do differently

or how do you operate with the factory?

But I don't really bring on many factory guys

or former factory guys in your case and say,

you know, what would you like the dealers

to do differently and why?

So you've seen both sides now at length.

And so what does the factory not understand

about dealers or dealerships?

What do you think, if anything?

The first one, and they've now fixed it,

was the importance of like a good field team, you know?

And, you know, during COVID, a little before that,

and this was a prior regime, you know, different leadership,

they cut way back, you know,

on the reps that call them the stores, right?

They cut them back and put more dealers

in the call centers and whatnot.

And then, you know, the few reps that were left

just had so many stores, you know,

and Ford sales and shares started falling, right?

And customer sat fell off.

And, you know, and dealers were frustrated

because they didn't have, you know,

the help they needed when something's going on

with the customer or the vehicle they're looking for

or something in service or parts, right?

And I feel like the OEMs or the best field teams

are the ones that kill it, right?

And Ford had that for years.

I mean, I think I was always so proud.

I felt like Ford had one of the best field teams,

the best partnerships with dealers.

I would see, you know, like,

I would be in dealer council meetings

when I was a regional manager

and Andrew Frick would be leading them.

And he is a dealer partner through and through.

And it was, if the, you know,

we had a rational conversation

and things that we were going in that management of us

to say, hey, you know what,

this is probably not gonna happen

or in the budget or whatever.

But we found a rational way talking about it

with the dealers.

Andrew would take it back and be like, no, we'll find a way.

You know, like a true partner of the dealers.

Then I felt like we've lost that for a little while.

And now Ford is getting it back, right?

They built up the field team.

You've got people like Rob Caffle, head of sales.

I mean, he is a dealer guy through and through.

So yeah, question.

When you say a good field team, how do you define that?

Like, because a lot of factory people

do listen to this podcast

and a lot of dealers complain about the manufacturer

and listen, dealers aren't perfect.

Manufacturers are not perfect.

It's at both sides, it's, you know, it's flaws.

But what's a good field team?

Like, what's your definition of that?

For any factory person listening, that might be curious.

It's the support and a lot of it,

it's not the individuals, right?

There's always great individuals in the field,

but do they have the resources to help the dealers, right?

And when the field team is, you know,

they're cut of their resources,

they have no budgets for customer sat.

Or again, one rep has, you know, 20 plus dealers

that the poor young man or woman's got a call on, right?

Straight out of college, right?

Or they've cut back on their training.

You know, it's hard for them to provide value.

But then when you get, you know, right now,

like my rep maybe has, my sales rep might have 10 or 12 stores.

I've got a service rep, you know, the same thing.

They're learning the business, but they're there to help, right?

So we got a question and I push this on my team every day.

They're struggles.

I was like, have you reached out to your rep yet?

You know, we call those sales rep and you call them

and they might not have the answer.

But what it is is they got the resources

to get the answer to help you out.

Of course.

Yeah, I mean, it's, you know,

and some of the ones that are consistent like Toyota,

I always, I'm so jealous, right?

But I always hear Toyota, like the Toyota factory

and that partnership with the dealers is just fantastic, right?

It's less about forcing programs on the dealer

and more about how do we partner together

and just, you know, you know, get rid of the roadblocks

and just help make the customers happy.

And Ford is back there.

So, I mean, Ford did the full U-turn on that,

which is awesome because that's always...

Yeah, and I'm not asking this question exclusive to Ford.

I think a lot of it will be from the Ford perspective

because you were there, but I think in general.

Okay, so putting the field team aside, that's one thing.

I believe you said you had another thing.

What else comes to mind as like a misunderstanding?

So, what you misunderstand is the consistency with products

and how important it is to dealers, right?

And the EVs is the most glaring example of that, right?

Like, there's a lot of ICE vehicles, not just Ford, right?

And you can name pretty much most manufacturers

where all these vehicles are getting, you know, chopped

from the cycle plan because they've got all these EVs coming.

Well, now the EVs aren't coming, you know,

and all of a sudden the cycle plan and your portfolio

is starting to look a little weak

on what you've got to offer for customers.

But for a dealer, a dealer needs a full family of vehicles

to offer for a customer, right?

And you can't pick and choose because you start

as a manufacturer.

If you're picking and choosing, you're like,

well, these are truly our highest margin vehicles.

Well, that might work in California or Michigan,

but does it work in Florida or Minnesota?

You need a full diverse set of vehicles

because certain ones are gonna sell better

in different parts of the market, you know?

And so, and again, now Ford's focused on vehicles.

I mean, I think, you know, I've heard a lot from friends

that have Stalanta stores, right?

Like they came up real short on a lot of vehicles for a while.

Now they're leaning back into like Tim Kaniscus,

I mean, which is awesome.

I mean, but just to think how far Jeep and Ram fell off,

I mean, those are iconic brands.

Like how could they fall when they did?

I mean, it's good for me and my local market,

but I mean, in general, I love the auto industry,

so I'd love to see great brands succeed.

What was your perception on foreign vehicles

or potential, I know Chinese vehicles is a bit further out,

but when you were at Ford and moving them to buy a Ford store,

did disruption go through your mind, right?

Like will Ford be here for another two decades?

Like what kind of thoughts went through your mind?

And do these existential thoughts cross your mind?

Because I'm genuinely curious, you know?

Like the EV program has cost a lot of money for Ford.

They've invested billions and billions and billions.

You know, they've gotten a lot of flak for that,

for better or worse, that's just a reality.

And so does just the staying power of the brand,

I know I asked you in the beginning, you know,

why so much, why go after a Ford store and you answered that,

but I'm still trying to understand if being in the factory

and seeing potential existential threats,

you know, other brands rising,

if that went through your mind as something to be,

you know, of concern in the near term.

Without, all right, so maybe this will help frame my answer too.

So for someone like me who's worked in the factory, right,

had a great career, which is, you know,

and I nothing can say bad about it,

but I'm not making, you know, dealer money, right?

Where I'm just going to go buy a store, right?

So for me to buy a store.

I'm not making dealer money.

I gotta make a shirt, I gotta make a shirt

and give it to people like on the pod.

I'm not making dealer money.

I love that.

Cause as you know, you'll see to buy a store,

I mean, even a small store is expensive.

And especially when the factory says, you know,

we want to see, you know, 50-50 debt to equity ratio, right?

Like, so you just got to show,

you got to show the money in your bank account.

Yeah, I got a huge SBA loan,

but I still had to show 50% of that as equity, right?

And for me to come up with that kind of equity meant

leveraging everything, right?

Like, like, I think this is funny to say,

because my dad was a no kidding cattle dealer.

Like, I bet the farm.

Like I leveraged our house by, you know, 401K,

the kids college funds.

I took a HELOC credit card debt, everything, knowing thou.

I was going to have 30 to 60 days of once I made my decision,

you know, to leave for to do this,

that everything's bet and then is a slim margin of error

to start paying it off, right?

Like, does that debt accelerate fast enough

that I don't make it in the first, you know, couple months?

So not like, so this is what's going through my head

as I'm thinking about, is this the right bet to make, right?

And I like risk.

And so it's one of those things that,

so I bet the farm, I rolled the dice.

And but part of that is, is, yeah,

I was looking kind of out of the future.

And Ford is one of those brands that's going to survive.

It gets a lot of, so this is part of it is,

and this is controversial.

I mean, because there's going to be a lot of, you know,

probably you pie the analysts from Wall Street listen

and who knows, but the Ford family still has

a tremendous amount of control and influence at the company.

A lot of people do not like that.

I think it's a good thing

because it gives it that long-term vision.

They're willing to make hard decisions for the future

to endure and they're willing to make decisions

that not only just impact the bottom line,

but also decisions that impact, you know,

the employees, the communities, the country, the world, right?

I mean, it's incredible to kind of see that, you know,

when you put it together and you hear something

like a Bill Ford talk or an Elena Ford

to see their passion for the dealers,

see their passion for the communities,

not only for dealers, but, you know,

where the factories are located,

the importance of having a manufacturing base

in the United States, you know, for our own, you know,

you know, economic security, right?

You know, and so not only with things like that,

but then it gives that long-term vision is, you know,

we're gonna have great products in the future.

I mean, because that's what we are, right?

And usually Ford, whenever Ford makes some mistakes

and they're backs against the wall, they always bounce back.

I mean, and it's been shown over and over again,

even in recent history.

And so, yeah, I think there's other, without a doubt,

because I mean, one of my jobs in product marketing

was studying all these brands, especially China.

I mean, I was working on products for China

with our China team.

So I was up, you know, late at night and early in the morning

just to deal with the time changes.

There's incredible, incredible, you know,

car companies in China, just with their tech

and what they're doing.

But, you know, some of the questions are,

and it's hard to see the full transparency.

Are they all profitable?

I mean, like, there's a lot of SEO, you know,

kind of going into that, you know, state-owned,

you know, financing going into that,

where, you know, are they there yet, right?

So it was great tech.

Is it gonna work everywhere?

You know, a lot of them have already gone under,

a lot have survived, a lot are incredible,

like BYD, which is, you know, a very cool company.

And honestly, just brings, we need that competition, right?

You know, like, if Ford was the only brand,

I mean, the products would be boring, right?

Like, so to me, it's good competition.

We don't have that competition though,

but we don't have any, you know?

No, we absolutely don't, that's why,

but I think having that globally,

we will at some point, I don't know when,

but I don't know how long you can kind of keep out

global brands like that, because they're global,

they're in Europe, they're in South America.

So Jim Farley has said he drives, you know,

a Chinese brand vehicle.

I forget which one specifically, you probably know,

but he said, you know, it's just phenomenal.

He said he hasn't seen anything like this,

or not to quote him, he tweeted this, I believe,

but it's something super impressive at, you know,

half the price point.

You're right, we don't know the economics of it.

It is state-funded to a certain extent,

and maybe they don't need to be profitable.

Maybe this begs into a larger, you know,

a different type of vision to where profitability

is just not the goal.

And so, you know, I don't think that's like,

I don't think it's a strong,

or it's just, we couldn't rely on that

because you just, you can have companies out there

that will just not be profitable for decades

just to, you know, win the market share

as the Chinese brands have done.

If you go to, you know, Europe,

and you go to certain countries in Asia,

I mean, it's just, you know, I don't want to say Africa,

which I haven't been, but I've heard, South America,

I mean, you see these things everywhere.

So it's pretty incredible.

It really is.

I mean, you know, we were so fearful

of new brands coming in, right?

But I mean, think of like, you know, the Koreans, you know,

like, and it's a little before my time,

but you think of when Hyundai Kia first

were coming to the US, I mean, and it, you know,

it looked like, you know, funny looking Mercedes

or whatever, look at them now.

Incredible, gorgeous, you know, world-class products.

I mean, but it's just driving us all to be better.

I mean, so things like that are coming.

I mean, it's, it's whether it's a year,

five years or 10 years.

I thought about this actually, what you just said,

and I'm probably going to butcher this

so someone is going to, someone who's just smarter

and while research right now is going to, you know,

listen to this and do some researching.

But when I think about how these brands

were able to enter the US, you know,

penetrate the markets and other brands have,

and the domestic brands flourished alongside them over time.

And again, they're bumps along the road.

I think of a couple of things, right?

Which is without seeing the numbers,

like immigration was under rise significantly, right?

And like, say up to the, I don't know,

I'm not even, I'm not even going beyond the year 2000,

but let's just go up to the year 2000.

So you had rising immigration, so more, more, you know,

more people, you also had a net positive birth rates

not that you don't have today, but last I saw,

I want to say on X was like birth rates

have been, you know, plummeted significantly

over the last two decades.

And so that of course results in reduced demand

and it takes time, but I'm just,

I'm just kind of putting these pieces together

and I was saying like is vehicle demand going to rise

or is it going to decline?

And how that is, how is that as a factor

going to impact these manufacturers in the future

and the ability for additional manufacturers?

Okay, so that's kind of the human macro side.

Then there's the other side, which is just technologically,

right?

If these things get so fricking advanced

and they need, you need such crazy budgets to, for R&D,

which means you also need to model them out

at greater numbers, greater volumes,

you're going to have to see consolidation, right?

Because in the past, maybe to build a vehicle

was less expensive or maybe not less expensive,

but required less research and development

or maybe that research and development did not need to be,

you know, reinvested so at such a high clip

every single year, then your overall operating model,

I would assume you just did not need to sell

as many cars to be profitable,

but now as those inputs have changed,

you need to sell higher volumes as we've seen with EVs.

We haven't even gotten close to them,

which all roads lead to consolidation.

So it's like, again, this is like super napkin math.

This is dealer math, right?

This is totally dealer math.

This is not Wall Street math, so excuse me, Wall Street,

but I just say like, I just, you know,

it's going to get tougher for the manufacturers.

If you could look at just macro,

you look at the, you know, population figures

or, you know, just consumption and you think about technology

and the needs or requirements from a brand

in terms of, you know, how much they can invest.

So I hope you enjoyed my dealer math there.

It is awesome dealer math.

It is fascinating to watch because some, you know,

especially when you talk consolidations,

like think of how, think of all the stories

where you see these big consolidations

and then you see these nasty breakups, right?

Like you were really set up.

I mean, Marchione did an amazing job.

You know, when it was, what he was doing with Stellantis,

right, before he passed away.

But now they're struggling,

but maybe they're going to figure it out again, right?

You know, or the, you know, the Nissan Reno,

like think about like how that fell apart.

But, you know, even Ford, I mean,

Ford is a poster child for it, right?

Like Ford consolidated, I mean, I forgot how many brands

they had, Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar, right?

You know, Lincoln, Mercury, I know I'm forgetting something,

but, oh, Aston Martin of all vehicles, right?

They had all these, and then it wasn't working.

And then Al Malawi chopped them all

and all of a sudden Ford started doing better again.

Like, so it's fascinating.

Cause you're right, the economics say

there should be consolidation.

It's just, it has worked.

You have pulled it off Toyota hasn't consolidated

and they kill it.

Yes.

They kill it.

I mean, no one's even close to them.

I don't know, they made, what, $30 billion?

Sold the most cars of anybody.

And they're, you know, their market cap

is a fraction of what Tessels is, but they kill it.

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Incredible.

Doug, what do you think you are a marketer for Lincoln?

Most recently, what do you think about Lincoln,

the future of Lincoln?

So I don't know the few, like I was working on future EVs

and that they've obviously changed course

since I was there, right?

I love the products that are out today.

I mean, you look at a navigator, you look at an aviator,

the new Nautilus want a tremendous amount of awards.

So I mean, we've got, you know, gorgeous products.

I'm just hoping the factory stays behind it, right?

They just need their resources.

They've got awesome dealers.

They've got great products.

They just need more products, you know?

And I hear that from Lincoln dealers like,

hey, we've got great products,

but there's four, give us a few more, you know?

And I get that now.

Now that I'm on the Ford side, I'm like,

yeah, I'd like a little bit more product diversity too.

So I totally get where they're coming from.

So they've got great products.

I'm just, you know, and I believe they will.

I just hope they get the vehicles to the dealers in time,

like the new products and new generations

over the next couple of years.

Is that your concern?

Yeah, it is because when you live in the product world,

everything takes so long.

It's not like, oh, well, the EVs are away.

Let's just come out with a new, you know,

flux capacitor for whatever.

It's like, it's like a five-year product plan, right?

It's the design, it's the engineering.

It's in the timeline, the lead time,

and it's for everybody, does take forever.

I mean, Tesla Braggs, but they're just updating software.

But if you're updating sheet metal and design

and platforms, you know, it's,

you need that time to do it right.

You need the design, the research

to make sure the customers are gonna love it.

You're forecasting out something

that's gonna look beautiful and sexy

and exciting in three to six years.

It is complicated, but that's how so many manufacturers

get it right and have awesome products on the road today.

But do you think there's something,

like there's, it seems like we have this tale of two worlds

where you have the Teslas,

you have very few SKUs, relatively speaking, right?

Like, couple models, a couple colors.

There's just not that many variations

of purchase in that vehicle.

And then on the other hand, you have other brands,

such as Ford, where you have, you know,

all these different variations, all these different colors.

Do you think it needs to be that way?

Like, could Ford go more Tesla with fewer models,

fewer variations, streamline the supply chain,

make it easier to get product into people's hands, right?

Likely also reduce costs along the way

because your supply chain is, you know, a bit simpler.

I know you're not like some,

you weren't like the head of supply chain or anything,

but you were a marketer

and you did have to control product and timing.

Is there a world where we see

that kind of stuff, the more simplicity?

It was like a former marketer, right?

Like, and as an owner of a dealership now,

which I think makes me just a customer advocate,

I truly believe customers want choice.

Could be paint colors, could be interior colors.

It could be options, you know, moon roofs, you know,

massaging seats, you know, with your luxury customer,

cloth seats versus leather, you know,

22 inch wheels versus 18s.

And like, all at the end of the day,

look at, there's so many aftermarket companies

that retrofit Teslas that put leather interiors in

or put packages on the outside

that make them look modified

and different than what their neighbors have.

You know, at the end of the day, customers do want choice.

And so I think customers,

what I believe I speculate and my hypothesis would be

is that customers are making a sacrifice for Tesla.

Cause what Tesla does have is they have awesome technology.

They really do.

And they got an awesome brand that Elon Musk has created.

That brand is volatile, but it's still awesome, right?

You know, and that's the speculation

that's driving the stock price so high too, right?

Like, so people are buying into the brand,

they're buying into the tech

and they're willing to make a sacrifice.

So it's like, I want a black Tesla with, you know,

or the black and cloth vegan interior

because, you know, it doesn't match my Birkenbeck,

but you know, right now I want an EV and I, you know,

and I want to be, well, now it's changing

based on politics, right?

But pre-politics, right?

Everybody just want to be part of the Elon crowd, right?

That was a very, you know, forward thinking,

tech forward type of crowd.

Now it's a different crowd,

but it's still brand-based, which is fascinating.

I agree with you that consumers make a sacrifice

when, you know, let's say that you buy a Tesla

or I should say differently,

you make a sacrifice in certain elements.

I think that there is a price or value associated

with choice and I think the danger for an OEM

is to be stuck in the messy middle, right?

If you maybe remove a couple options,

but not enough to create,

or you're not creating some other value alongside, right?

Maybe the vehicle is inexpensive enough

or cheap enough to where it's affordable or whatever maybe.

I do believe that it's at least worth exploring, you know,

where, what is of most value

and where can we maybe streamline to get costs down?

Because I really think affordability

is going to continue being the biggest challenge here.

We haven't seen a massive decline in prices

in the last couple of years.

And yes, prices have somewhat come down,

but average transaction prices, you know,

if you look at new vehicles have stayed very much elevated

in that we've now, you know, done away with the EV tax credits,

used cars are in no better shape.

They've come down, prices have come down

and used to like the mid-20s,

but you've also, you have a lot less supply.

So, you know, I just, I think about these things.

I try to go to like the source and say, you know,

is there a different way?

And I want to be very clear.

Like I'm coming to this with like full humility.

Like there's people that spend days, weeks, years on this stuff.

I'm just over here, you know, yapping away, giving my thoughts.

But, you know, I'm one consumer.

So I have an opinion and I welcome anyone

that's listening who's way more experienced in this

and deals with it on a daily basis,

maybe at the manufacturer to hit me up and give me their take.

No, you're absolutely right.

You'll see in these whole teams at the factory,

like I would spend hours with teams of engineers and finance

and everybody and how we can reduce costs, right?

And as a marketer, usually the counterpoint to those questions.

The interesting before I left, I remember I was like,

we had removed it, like Explorer was one of the vehicles.

We removed a ton of content and a ton of configurations.

But then they couldn't quantify, we were, we were,

we couldn't quantify the savings.

They're like, is it really saving us money at the factory?

Right. Some things clearly do, right?

Like if you can remove certain lines at a factory

and increase efficiency.

And then to your point, it's like the value.

It's like there are certain items that do have big value

and other ones that don't.

Like is really going from 12 paint colors to 10 paint colors

going to save that much money.

And I guess it depends how many paint colors

the line set up to manage, right?

So you're right.

It's all of an interesting dealer now.

Like I'm also, you know, speaking out on one side of my mouth

because I can't carry every combination on my lot.

And I sell most of my vehicles off my lot, right?

So our job is to help a customer who wants it as a vehicle

they've always wanted, regardless if it's the right color

or if it has a mood or if it's not.

Yeah. So you step into that dealership.

Now we fast forward to present day.

What aspects of just being a dealer have surprised you?

Is it maybe something that you're like, wow,

I can't believe this is being done this way.

We got to do better.

Or maybe something where you're just like,

I didn't even know that this exists.

Like what has surprised you?

For me, coming from the factory side of it, right?

It was, it's the human side of it, right?

You know, like on the factory side, you're in big teams

and people are moving around every 18 months

and so you kind of get to know somebody and they move on

and you're moving up or you get promoted.

And, you know, most people are successful

when you're high level in the factory, right?

So few people are talking about finance problems

or anything like that, right?

So when you're in a small business, you're there for everything, right?

You know, like these people, I've got people on the team

that have been on this same team in the same office 20 plus years,

you know, long before I got there, right?

You know, people with family issues, you know,

people with conflicts within the team, you know,

people that just need to be reassured.

And it was kind of like, wow,

I just need to have an open door every day

and I can do an open door.

But I mean, so much of it was, I wasn't, I was thinking,

hey, this is going to, you know,

coming from the factory, I'm ready for it to be all numbers.

PowerPoints, right?

I can analyze and put together a great, you know,

PowerPoint presentation of what we're going to do.

And I found out of, like, oh, my God, it's so much

about hard conversations or uncomfortable conversations.

And it's not just emotional.

The emotional intelligence.

Emotional. Yeah.

Yeah, the EI side of it.

Other than emotional intelligence, how has the store performed

when you came in today?

I mean, how profitable are we talking?

Like, where are you at?

So the most stressful the first couple of months, right?

You know, like so coming in, you know, I'm a long time ago

as a former Marine, right?

And so, you know, all about planning.

I had no way.

Why didn't I know that?

I don't know. But I had, you know, so like coming into it,

like I planned out everything, right?

We're going to take this and we're going to, you know,

conquer the world.

And luckily, one of the the biggest things that you are in the Marines is,

you know, every good plan, you know, doesn't survive first contact.

So you better be ready to adapt, right?

And I was pretty sure, right?

Nothing matched up on my pro forma, you know, like we're losing

money the first month in, last more money the second month in.

I mean, you're always talking about like, you know, profit as a

percent of sales, like mine was like negative four percent.

And, you know, going to the store with like, you know, a million

and a half working capital, like there's only so many more months

I can do this before, like I was like, this could be embarrassing

if I, you know, go bankrupt in six months, you know, just before you got

to call before you got to call Fred Beans to bail you out or I got

Yeah, we were losing money, but what I could tell, right?

You know, and this also is like where I can just, you know, tribute,

you know, just the lessons I learned in the Marines is just being calm, right?

Like, yeah, there's a lot going on, but be calm and look through.

Like, are we doing things the right way?

And I, I had, I luckily, I inherited an awesome team, right?

And I could tell, you know, we were changing things, but we were

doing the right things, you know, I bought it the end of October.

We're going into November and December and when you're in Northern,

Northern, Northern New York, I mean, basically Canada, those are your slow

months, right?

I mean, despite what's going on in the rest of the country.

And so we were slow.

I had started up, I mean, we weren't really selling cards till mid

November, because getting DMS is online and everything else.

Once we had that online, all of a sudden, you know, started making a little

bit of money, but I was like, but my, my bank account is going, why is

my bank account still going down?

Like, I'm running out of cash in my bank account, but I was like, everything

is showing us making money.

It turned out there was some clerical era in India with Ford paying me

on all my incentives and everything else.

So now I'm all of a sudden, I'm not getting my weekly incentive, you know,

and, and everything else that Ford's do, you know, based on the vehicles

you buy and all the, you know, the below the wine margins.

And then how much are we talking about?

How much money were you at?

By those 50,000 a week or something or more.

Wow.

You know, so I'm burning through cash and I, and it was all coming up

right before the NAD meeting.

I was like, guys, I was like, and I was all the regional team.

I was like, if we don't figure this out before the NAD meeting, I'm

going straight to the top at the factory meeting and let them know that

you guys are going to be the ones that put me out of business because I just

the cash was, and finally got that back on and they, you know, but it was

like a true up of like several hundred thousand dollars.

When you're in startup mode, doesn't sound like a lot of money today, but

when you're in startup mode and you hadn't made money yet, that's a lot

of money, especially when you lost money or course.

So it's, you know, just kind of going into it, you know, from that mindset,

it was like, you know, it's just staying calm and having trust in your team and

a confidence in your team that, Hey, if we're doing things the right way, it's

going to come around.

We're taking care of customers with selling cars, returning wrenches.

It's going to come in a dip and it's come around and the team is grown tremendously.

Right.

You know, one of the things I instituted and again, it's just kind of like

the discipline from the military side of it is like, everyone's going to be trained.

You know, you know, as a small rural store, so it wasn't a lot of formal training,

right? But I joined NCM 20 groups.

I'm a part of an NCM 20 group joined it pretty much day one.

They reached out to me and invited me to join.

I was like, yeah, this sounds great.

I'd reached out to an ADA and it didn't get a call back.

And then a group from NCM called me and said, Hey, we heard about you.

Somebody, somebody knows you and I joined that group.

Those phenomenal deals from around the country, hard chargers.

I mean, this isn't a kind of a group, but we're just going to have fun.

I mean, we're drilling each other, you know, every time, you know, all day long

in the meetings, I mean, they've made me so much better.

So I got lucky there.

But I learned a lot about it in NCM.

They've got this awesome training program.

They have their own, you know, General Managers Academy.

They've got senior training for like sales managers, service managers.

So I bought into the full training program and said, Hey,

all the leadership team is going through this and everybody's been through it.

And it's just amazing how much it's opened up their eyes.

It's one thing for me to know something, right?

But it's getting by and like, I'm the factory guy coming to something

this guy's been doing for 20 years.

Like I might know how to conceptually do something and I can say it.

But if they don't believe me, like, well, you know, what kind of

real credibility do I have coming in, right?

So I can be the guy that just starts barking orders and you will do this.

But I knew if I didn't get buy-in, nothing was going to happen.

It was all about the buy-in, right?

And that's, I mean, again, like that's a lesson for the military.

It's not about barking orders.

It's about trust, earning respect, getting people to buy into whatever the mission is.

And so I knew I was like, well, you know what, I'm going to be telling them this,

you know, but I'm also going to get other industry experts because they're

with other sales managers from across the country, other service managers across

so they're hearing how important it is to use cars and focus on ELR and new video

MPIs, you know, getting the team to go through that.

So with that, you know, so tying it all together, you know, whether it's

training and focusing on the key metrics that are going to drive the distance growth.

I mean, yeah, we're doing great.

The store has had its, you know, in August, we had our best month ever,

including the store's 60-year history.

In September, we had our best month ever, including the store.

What's the net?

What's the net to sales percentage there?

We're now at 3%, which is, I think is great considering where I came from.

And I, there's a lot of starting from a 7% swing.

That's a big deal.

And there's a lot of startup.

I'm still paying down all my debt is also, but not all of it.

A lot of my debt is still tied up in my expenses.

So, which is, but I can tell you also, like my NCM group, I think that

averages 4.8, you know, so like my guys are like, I'm still on the right

side of the page.

I'm like, but I'm up to three minutes, you know, like in there.

Like, and I've got guys in there that are four dealers that are over 7%.

If I remember correctly, I mean, they're killing it, right?

You know, so like, I'm with people that know how to, you know, you know, operate

a business profitable.

The four dealers over 7%, what do you think they're doing?

They're doing every, that's the thing you'll see.

They're doing everything.

You can't, they're not just a new car dealer, right?

They're a used car dealer.

They're a great service shop.

They're great parts.

They're not one dimensional.

They're not.

No, it's multi, multi-dimensional.

And they're, and they're consistent too, right?

You know, they're, there's discipline and consistency.

Um, and there's a lot you can learn.

Like I've, I, you know, like a lot of my vendors, vendor ideas came for them.

I was like, I knew things I needed to work on, but then I'd get these vendor

ideas from them, go back and implement and just, you know, wow, you know, huge

step forwards and different things.

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Incredible.

So what's next?

Are we going to buy another store?

Are we going to continue growing this?

Do you have any entry?

Your family, you put them through quite the roller coaster with this.

I didn't even ask you about that.

Like what was the family impact and how did that go?

I was shocked at how supportive my wife is, right?

Like, I'm like, honey, well, we'll we'll leverage everything.

We're just going to put it out there.

You know, she's, you know, she's because I've moved so many times.

She's a keeper.

She's a keeper, right?

Like, so she's been, you know, this last move to Michigan, you know, Jamie,

it's hard for her to keep any sort of job because I was moving every two years, right?

And so where did you move from?

Doug, where did you move from?

So for me, it's been bouncing between like New York and Texas, Michigan,

multiple times.

And so those types of moves, you know, mostly with four and then, you know,

most recently, we had nothing to fall back on, right?

Like, I'm because I'm betting the cushion to run that.

And, you know, like, we got nothing to fall back on.

And she's like, and she's like, I know you can do it.

You know, she had confidence in me and I couldn't have done it

had she not been there, you know, supporting me like that.

So yeah, the family family is getting me a little misty.

Thinking about because it's what it's all about, right?

It's so you're bad.

Yeah, it's so, so important.

Having that support system, it's just it sounds it sounds cliche,

but it's not like I, you know, when I'm when I'm 12 hours in the office,

someone's holding the four down.

You cannot do it alone, you know.

So I totally respected it.

I understand where you're coming from because to do anything great,

you know, as they say, you need a team.

So no, yeah.

So some of the sacrifice, the sacrifice I made, like we thought,

please, so we're in Girls Point, Michigan, that'd been where we were at

were out for three years.

And so I bought the store in Northern New York, beautiful town.

It's on the edge of the Adirondacks.

It's near Lake Placid.

I mean, there's lakes and mountains where skiers were hikers.

I mean, it's just it's just gorgeous, right?

We were going to move and then it was kind of like we moved the kids

so many times, right?

And then we started talking about like they're doing good in school,

they don't get in high school, they don't get in middle school.

You know, can we make this work?

You know, can we make it work where it's all of a sudden what I forgot,

what I didn't know, I guess I didn't forget is that going into small

business and entrepreneurship, I get a little more control of my schedule back.

Like I was a slave to the bureaucracy.

And it's just because I let myself be a slave to it.

When I was at Ford, like I had no problem working around the clock all day long.

You know, because you want it.

You wouldn't you want it to win.

You know, I would take perspective like in you were playing the game on the field

and you wanted to be the best at it, you know, which I would do the same.

Like if I was in your position, I would be putting my heart into it

because that's just if I do something, I literally I actually have this tattoo

to myself, but it's like, do what you do and do it well.

Like if you do something like you go all in.

Yeah. And that's how I was at Ford.

I loved it, right? But it was burning out like.

So the funny thing is, is right now I split my time between Northern

New York and Michigan, and I now spend more time with my kids

than I was when I was with Donald's at Ford, right?

Like a more present, you know, back for the the moments when it when it matters.

And so like I fly back on the weekend.

So I'm out the dealership during the week.

And again, it was skills that I learned, you know, from this so long ago.

Like some I went to business school, like, you know, got in my MBA.

I have all these trainings and things.

And like some of my best military lessons is like when I was a kid in the Marines, right?

But it's so much of it was is how do you create a team

that if you take a bullet in the head that they're going to keep running

and keep, you know, keep on the mission, right?

And so I've always led a team like that every time.

And it's the same way I set up this dealership.

Like I built a team from a general manager down that I can trust, right?

And these this team is killing it for me, right?

And it wasn't like that when we started, but we built it up.

And I want them to have that ownership.

I want them to have that, you know, that success from from winning.

You know, they didn't have the transparency.

They've got the transparency of seeing, you know, all their metrics.

Many of them are paid off their own department, bottom lines.

They've got big commissions.

So as they've been killing it, I mean, they're they're reaping the rewards of it, right?

Like, and I love it, you know, it is awesome.

So like, I've got a team there.

So like, it's, you know, here it is, you know, Friday afternoon,

you know, I was able to fly back and be with the kids for the weekend.

And, you know, like, I've got that flexibility.

And it's, you know, you know, the funny thing is I fly into Montreal.

So like people still show you like, so you're in New York.

Yeah, I was like, yeah, but I fly out of Montreal into Detroit.

Like I'm an hour from Montreal where the dealership's at.

Well, you have a very calm demeanor about you.

You're very easy to talk to.

So I'll give you that as a compliment because I think in the dealership

setting, that's a very important thing, right?

To be, you know, easily approachable.

So take that.

All right.

So before we wrap up, you mentioned a couple of things throughout.

I was writing this down.

You mentioned earlier like video MPIs, little technology stuff.

I'm curious to know as you've had this, again, seven point swing

from unprofitability to profitability, right?

And working with your team to get there.

Has there been anything meaningful changed within, you know,

your systems, your tech, how you do business?

I know process tech is obviously related, but anything specific

that comes to mind that you've implemented that's been very successful for you?

Yes.

Some of the things were implemented.

Some of the things we added, right?

So like when I got there, the store had been using the auto, right?

But we didn't sell hardly any used cars, but they had the auto, right?

And I was at my NCM 20 group.

I'm like, and I was the worst in the ratio of new to new to use.

Like we'd be selling, you know, 40 to 50 new a month and 10 used a month, right?

So I was like, not even non-existent.

I'm like, Hey guys, what do I need to do?

I was like, it's and one of the one of the guys, William, he's like, he's like,

you got the auto.

I was like, yeah, he goes, how often do you meet him with your coach?

I said, well, I think the team meets with him once a month.

And he's like, he's like, our team meets with our coach weekly.

And he's like, and I'm in most of those meetings and we do everything

the coach says.

And I'm like, Roger that.

I guess.

And so I started realizing, like, and all of a sudden, just me being in the

meeting for one, the auto realized, you know, our coaches, the auto guys are very

good, they're very good.

They're training, you know, their background, their experiences.

And once they realized, OK, these guys are, looks like they're getting engaged.

They saw me getting in the meetings.

They saw us asking for weekly meetings.

My team, I think they saw how important I, you know, I considered it now.

And all of a sudden there's like, when we're having a merchandising

because yep, we're going to make sure there's, you know, pictures of everything

or we're going to improve the stories of all these vehicles or yeah, we're

still, you know, wholesaling too many cars.

Right.

So I mean, our used is, you know, already jumped just they jumped the first

year and just year over year is where we're up another 30 percent.

Right.

We're now averaging, you know, like 35 to 40 used a month.

And with the sky is a limit on the use sign.

And we're still figuring it out and learning it.

But that's been, you know, one of our pessimistic success is like, we do

great on the new side, we 200 percent sales expectancy.

So it's only so much how you can go on the new side.

Right.

But use the sky is a limit.

And so many of the dealers that I respect, I'm like, wow, you guys are awesome.

Like, you know, you realize they're also great use car dealers.

Right.

And it's understanding that that side of it.

So that's that's one of the ones we're getting better at.

One of the ones we implemented is like, I was like trying to figure out

like the service side and another guy's like, Hey, you ever heard of Dynatron?

So I know there's some other competitors out there to Dynatron, but Dynatron's

a great one.

So we signed up with Dynatron.

It's kind of like the Vado, you know, service, right?

And so then we started really diving into ELRs and we're still

had and then doing weekly meetings with a service manager there.

And we're like, wow, our pricing is all off.

And all of a sudden realize, and then there's real data behind it.

So it's, you know, we're guessing, you know, team was had to guess.

What did you, yeah, what did you figure out about ELRs?

Like, what did you discover there?

That ours is incredibly low, right?

We were one, we were discounting a ton.

We weren't using a price pricing matrix, right?

Like that's another one.

Like if you have to job short, then it should probably have a lower, you know,

you know, you know, price, right?

But if you've got like an eight hour heavy duty diesel job, you know,

why wouldn't you be charging more per hour for that?

Because, you know, a doctor would write, you know, like, and that's kind

of their word tracks, right?

And it's like, it kind of makes sense.

And those, and then that is also something that you can kind of explain.

And you start understanding that.

And so we started tweaking our pricing.

And again, we've got, they have the benchmarks also know, like, wasn't

just like throwing big prices is knowing what the prices in our region of the

country where we should be at, and we were low.

And once we started tweaking that, I mean, once I submitted for a warranty rate

increase with Ford, I got a $50 warranty rate increase with Ford.

I mean, which was that's massive.

That's just all straight to the bottom line.

Then we did the same thing with Parsons.

We got like a nearly a 40% you know, parts markup increase.

I mean, just money going to the bottom line because we were leaving it on the

table and not because we're overcharging customers.

It's just because we weren't being smart about our pricing.

We weren't watching it.

We were discounting only too much, too much control for service advice.

And they were doing the right thing, can't blame it.

You know, anybody trying to make a customer happy wants to give something

away, it's just, you don't have to, right?

You know, in certain times you do, but not all the time.

And so it was balancing that.

But I mean, huge successes, you know, from, you know, vendors like that.

And it's just using, these aren't even, you know, earth shattering types of

vendors are not talking AI yet or anything kind of crazy.

These are some common vendors, but it's leveraging them the right way.

You know, using the tools you got.

Mm hmm.

Wow.

Well, Doug, I mean, you've done an incredible job in a very short period of time.

You have an awesome story.

Love to hear the, you know, that you were a Marine, of course, a 13 year

factory guy.

And now this, do you think you're going to go for another store?

Or are we kind of happy with one?

What do you think you're going to do?

I'd definitely go for another store, but it, I'd wanted, it just need to be organic,

right?

You know, need to be in the same area, you know, and, and then I think absolutely.

And it's just got to come up, but I'm in a rural area, right?

So it's not like there's a bunch of dealers for sale.

But if something comes up, somebody's selling, then I'd love to talk to them.

I'd love to go in.

And for me, it's being a big part of the community.

And that's kind of how I work this deal.

The former family had the store for 60 years.

They wanted someone's going to be a part of the community.

And we give, you know, I mean, just, I don't know, 50,000 already has just gone

back into the community this year between like charities and sponsorships and things

like that.

And so that's a big part of it.

And that's part I like.

Um, so yeah, absolutely.

I'm always, it's, it's fun.

You'll see, I just, I love it.

It's fun, you know, just getting started.

Just getting, do you, do you subscribe to our newsletter?

Do you get our newsletter range chance?

I do.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Cause there's, um, we're launching a fixed ops pulse right now as well.

Uh, but other than that, you know, there's a lot of very tactical data that we

share and just best practices and stuff that I think you could really benefit

from, um, so I'm glad to hear that.

Love it.

Awesome.

Um, this was fun.

This is awesome.

Great story.

And I'm really, you know, just happy to see how well you're doing.

And, um, I hope, I hope, uh, Fred gets to listen to this.

So Fred beans.

No, I, you'll see, I'm still shocked that I'm here.

Like I listened to you.

So like you've got these amazing dealers.

You've got the greats on here.

You've got people, massive stores, massive groups.

Like I never dreamed I was getting a call to, you know, come chat with you.

I mean, I just, um, I'm glad to have you on, man.

Shocked and you have a great story.

I appreciate it, man.

Great story, brother.

Doug, Doug Gilmore.

Thank you so much for coming on.

It's been truly fun.

Thank you so much.

Awesome.

Thank you.

All right.

Hope you enjoyed that episode.

Please give the podcast a rating.

Consider subscribing to the show and check the show notes for links to what we talked about.

Thanks for tuning in.

I'll see you guys next time.

About this episode

Doug Gilmour, former Ford marketing executive, shares his journey from a 13-year career at Ford to becoming the dealer principal of Malone Ford. He discusses the challenges of transitioning from corporate life to dealership ownership, including the emotional and financial risks involved. Doug highlights the importance of building a strong team, implementing effective training programs, and leveraging technology to improve profitability. He also reflects on the evolving automotive landscape, the significance of customer choice, and the role of community engagement in his dealership's success.

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Original notes

Today I’m joined by Doug Gilmour, Dealer Principal of Malone Ford. We get into Doug’s 13-year run at Ford, the 7% profit swing that put him on the map, and the all-in gamble that made his dream a reality. This episode is brought to you by: 1. OPENLANE - The world’s best online dealer marketplace for used cars, bringing you exclusive inventory, simple transactions, and better outcomes. Learn more @ http://www.openlane.com/cdg 2. Repair360 - If you’re in the used car business, you know wasted time is wasted money. Check out Repair360—the first and only reconditioning software that connects every function in the dealership to tighten recon and help you sell more cars — No more hounding vendors. Goodbye endless texts and hallway chases. Repair 360 connects all the dots. See where every car is and what its recon is costing minute-to-minute in real time. Go to @ http://www.repair360.com ⁠ 3. CDG Circles – A modern peer group for auto dealers. Private dealer chats. Real insights — confidential, compliant, no travel required. Visit https://cdgcircles.com/ to learn more. Check out Car Dealership Guy’s stuff: For dealers: Industry job board ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://jobs.dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Dealership recruiting ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgrecruiting.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Fix your dealership’s social media ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.trynomad.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Request to be a podcast guest ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgguest.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For industry vendors: Advertise with Car Dealership Guy ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgpartner.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Industry job board ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://jobs.dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Request to be a podcast guest ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgguest.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Topics: 00:34 Why leave Ford for dealership ownership? 05:12 How to pursue a dealership dream? 07:23 Biggest complexity in dealership ownership? 11:06 Key insights from the field? 14:54 Future of the auto industry? 32:51 Tesla vs. traditional automaker approach? 35:53 Solving vehicle affordability challenges? 43:09 Best team building and training strategies? 56:14 Future plans for the business? Car Dealership Guy Socials: X ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠x.com/GuyDealership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/cardealershipguy/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tiktok.com/@guydealership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠linkedin.com/company/cardealershipguy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Threads ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠threads.net/@cardealershipguy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077402857683⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Everything else ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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