2026 Car Market CHAOS Ford & Mazda Dealer Explains | Episode 999
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31:10
Car
Tata Motors Aria
The Tata Motors Aria is a type of SUV made by an Indian company called Tata. It has a lot of space inside and is designed to be comfortable for passengers, but it hasn't sold very well outside of India.
Brand
Buick
Buick is a car brand that makes luxury vehicles. It's part of General Motors, which is a big company that owns several car brands.
Term
brake pads and rotors
Brake pads and rotors are parts of your car that help it stop. The pads press against the rotors to slow down the wheels, and they need to be replaced regularly to keep your car safe.
Term
cabin and engine air filters
Cabin and engine air filters are parts that keep the air in your car clean. The cabin filter cleans the air you breathe inside, and the engine filter keeps dirt out of the engine.
Term
wiper blades
Wiper blades are the parts on your car that wipe the windshield clean when it rains or snows. They need to be changed regularly to make sure you can see clearly while driving.
Car
Mazda Cx30
The Mazda CX-30 is a small SUV that offers a mix of space and sporty driving. It's popular for its stylish design and fun-to-drive nature.
Concept
incentives
Incentives are special offers that car companies give to help sell cars. This could be money off the price or lower interest rates for loans.
Car
Mazda 3
Mazda is a car company from Japan that makes cars that are fun to drive and look good. They are known for making reliable cars that use less gas.
Term
stair step programs
Stair step programs are a way for car manufacturers to encourage dealerships to sell more cars. The more cars a dealership sells, the bigger the rewards they get, like bonuses or discounts.
Term
dealer fee
A dealer fee is a charge that car dealerships might add when you buy a car. It can cover things like paperwork and other services, so it's good to know about it because it can make the car more expensive.
Term
financing
Financing is how people borrow money to buy a car. Instead of paying for the whole car upfront, you can pay a little bit each month, usually with some extra money added for interest.
Term
reconditioning cost
Reconditioning cost is the money spent to fix up a used car so it can be sold. This includes things like repairs and cleaning to make the car look good for buyers.
Term
recon cost
Recon cost is the money a dealer spends to fix up a used car before selling it. This can include cleaning and repairs to make the car look and work better.
Term
auction
An auction is a place where cars are sold to the person who offers the most money. Dealers use auctions to sell cars they don't want anymore.
Term
reconditioning dollars
Reconditioning dollars are the costs that car dealers spend to fix up used cars so they look and run better. It makes the cars more attractive to buyers.
Car
Mazda Cx9
The Mazda CX-9 is a type of SUV that can fit many passengers and has a lot of space for cargo. It's designed for families and is known for being comfortable and practical.
Term
used car price
Used car price is how much a second-hand car is worth. It can change depending on how well the car is maintained and how many people want to buy it.
Brand
Chevrolet
Chevrolet is a popular car brand in the United States that makes many types of vehicles, like cars and trucks. They are known for being reliable and affordable.
Term
multi-point vehicle inspection
A multi-point vehicle inspection is a thorough check of your car to make sure everything is working well. It looks at important parts like the engine, brakes, and tires.
Car
Mazda Cx90
The Mazda CX-90 is a bigger SUV made by Mazda that is designed for families. It looks nice and has lots of features, making it a good choice if you want a comfortable car that’s also fun to drive.
Brand
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is a well-known car maker in the United States that makes many different types of vehicles.
Car
Ford Maverick
The Ford Maverick is a small truck made by Ford that is meant to be affordable and useful for everyday tasks.
Car
Ford Escape
The Ford Escape is a small SUV made by Ford that many people like because it's useful for families and everyday driving. However, Ford has decided to stop making it.
Car
Ford Ecosport
The Ford EcoSport is a small SUV made by Ford that is easy to drive in cities. It's being discontinued, which means Ford will no longer make it.
Car
Mazda Cx50S
The Mazda CX-5 is a slightly larger SUV compared to the CX-30, offering more space for passengers and cargo. It's designed to be comfortable and fun to drive.
Term
days on market
Days on market is how long a car has been for sale before someone buys it. It helps sellers know if their price is right or if they need to lower it to sell faster.
Car
Mazda MX-5 Miata
The Mazda MX-5 Miata is a small sports car that is very light and fun to drive, perfect for those who love driving.
Term
day supply
Day supply is how many days a car dealership can keep selling cars based on how many they have in stock. If they have a lot of cars, they might lower prices to sell them faster.
Car
Ford F150
The Ford F-150 Tremor is a special version of the F-150 truck that is built for off-road driving. It has better suspension and tires to handle rough roads and trails.
Car
Tesla By Model
The Tesla Model Y is a type of electric car that looks like a small SUV. It's popular because it can go a long distance without needing to be charged often and has a lot of cool technology inside.
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It's noon here in Ventner City, New Jersey
and our nation's capital, Washington, D.C.
And this is Car Edge Live for Friday,
January 23rd with your hosts,
me, Ray, Deck Dalton Green here in Ventner City, New Jersey
and Will Zack hanging out with the Spanish Moss
of Savannah, Georgia, even though he's really in D.C.
How are you today, handsome?
I'm doing fantastic.
Happy Friday, everyone.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
We've got a special guest on today's show,
Joe Lewis from JC.
Lewis will bring Joe in here in just a second.
Before we do, a friendly reminder,
today's show is brought to you by caredge.com.
Me and my dad for six years now
have been working on building this business.
If we can help you buy a newer used car,
check it out back at caredge.com.
But dad, the big story
that we're gonna be talking about today
is we're gonna bring Joe in for this here.
Joe, good to see you.
Thanks for being here with us.
We're gonna talk about the end of probably 25 and 2026.
Joe, give a brief intro to our community,
those who don't know you,
and then we'll jump into all the fun conversation.
Yeah, thank you all for having me.
It's always a pleasure to be on the show.
I'm the general, one of the general managers here,
JC Lewis, I manage our Lincoln and Normasa stores.
We've also got four Ford stores,
so six in total in the Savannah Southeast area.
Love it.
And I'm just gonna pull up your website
really quickly here.
Joe's website is jcluis.com.
If you're interested,
we have no commercial relationship
between Car Edge and JC Lewis.
We just love Joe's insights.
Love bringing him on the show here
so check out his website to learn more.
Pops, I'll let you ask the first question here,
but fingers crossed it has something to do
with how they performed in 2025.
Well, lucky you.
Good guess on your part, Joe.
How was December?
How did 2025 close out?
Was it what you had expected
or hoped for or was it less?
Yeah, you know,
December is usually a strong month in the car business.
It's usually starts out with a slow first couple of weeks
and then those last,
that last week, week and a half is usually really busy.
And that was the same that we saw this year.
So a pretty good close,
not quite as crazy as we had hoped,
but a pretty good close to the year.
All right, so did 2025 end in a way
that you felt really confident about?
How things started to look here in 2026?
We know from looking at the data,
we just talked about it yesterday.
I can even pull it up on the screen here.
Ford and Mazda, two of the brands
that your group represents,
you go to the new inventory market day supply
and they're both to the right
of the national day supply metric here.
So how did 2025 kind of end relative to your expectations
and how are things starting to look here in 2026?
Yeah, you know, we were up a few percent
year over year in total units for all six stores.
Obviously Mazda got hit with tariffs pretty hard
in the middle of 2025.
So, you know, Mazda ended down a little bit
as far as units went,
but overall the Ford stores were way up.
Lincoln was pretty flat.
So it was good.
And we project that 2026 is as we continue
to kind of get in this high volume mindset,
high volume, less gross.
You know, we ended the year with 804 retail units.
And we expect to hit closer to that 900, you know, threshold.
And that's for one month.
We ended up 804 as like an average
and we're hoping to get to that 900 number.
Interesting.
So, Joe, let me ask you a question if I may.
We know that the Mazda CX-30
was a very popular car at one point in time.
But because it's built in Mexico,
it seems as if Mazda decided to cut back
the number of CX-30s that they were going to import
into the United States.
Has that impacted your Mazda business
not having one of the more popular models available
in the numbers that you had in the past?
Yeah, it has.
And like I said, tariffs through wrench
in the Mazda business in a big way.
And what we've been told is that, you know,
CX-30 went from one of their most profitable cars
to, frankly, Mazda's losing a couple thousand bucks
on every CX-30 they produce.
Wow.
Their mindset is the incentives
and special interest rates have gotten worse on CX-30.
They're making less of them.
And the Mazda 3, the hatchback in the sedan
went from being one of their least profitable cars
to now it's one of their most profitable.
So we've seen kind of a seesaw effect there
where now the Mazda 3, sedan and hatchback,
they're putting crazy incentives on them
and they're starting to produce more of them.
So Mazda's really hoping that we can start
to sell a lot more of their Mazda 3s.
May I ask a follow up to that?
Sure.
Last year and 2024 was the first time
in Mazda's history in the United States
where they had consecutive years
of 400,000 plus sales for the company.
What is Mazda's projection for what they hope 2026 to be?
They're expecting it to be better than 2025.
25 was good, but we went from a record year in 24.
I think they sold like 420,000 right around there.
And their next goal before, their eventual goal is 500,000
but their next goal was 450.
And we were on pace to possibly do that in 25
and then tariffs happened and then that was out the window.
So I think whether it's 26 or 27 their next goal
is 450,000 and they're pushing really hard
to get that done.
Now, if you have a question for Joe,
Joe Lewis from JC Lewis, leave it in the chat.
We'll pull up some of those on today's show
and ask them.
You said something before that really struck a nerve with me.
Something to the effect of less gross, more volume.
And you said something about 800 to 900 cars sold per month.
Can you talk to us about as you manage a dealership
in this moment, how your strategy
for managing the dealership has evolved over the past year?
And obviously as you head into 2026,
break down those two comments, 800 to 900
and less gross, more volume.
What does that actually mean for our audience?
Which as you know,
as people end up calling you after we do these shows
these people are interested in learning more
about how to get a good car deal.
So help us understand what those mean.
Yeah, the simplest terms I can put it in
is it's gone from a seller's market to a buyer's market.
It's way easier to get deals now
than it was a year or two, three years ago.
And most of that's driven by inventory.
Now that the manufacturers are back
to fluff an inventory down our throats,
you either can sit on them and try to make all the money
or you can just try to move the metal really, really quick.
And that's our philosophy.
So what's the incentive to sell more cars
with less profit per vehicle sold?
Because my dad's shared many stories with me Joe
about monthly incentives, things like that.
Like is that legitimate, is that true?
Like is there an incentive to evolve your business model
as you're kind of realizing that, okay,
maybe less people are gonna come in and buy
at certain price points?
Right, it's, you know,
some manufacturers have stair step programs,
some don't, you know,
Mazda and Lincoln right now do not.
But, you know, every car you sell is, you know,
another dealer fee you get,
another chance you get to get back in financing.
More cars in your backyard means more people
returning for service.
It's just feeding that machine.
And a lot of it's like a long-term dividend
versus, you know, a short-term.
A short-term would be, you know,
selling the car and making all the money.
But when you put a ton of cars out there,
it's kind of that long-term effect.
Makes sense.
If I can add to that,
you know, we know from the sixth largest
publicly traded dealer groups out there
that in quarter three of last year,
the average F&I profit, finance profit
in the back end of most stores
was $2,282 car vehicle sold.
So, when the question becomes,
will you take a little less gross of the front end?
Well, you get, you have the opportunity
to make it up in the back end.
Do you not?
Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right.
So, you're hoping for that.
You know, if you lose one or 2,000 bucks on the front,
you're hoping for that 2,000 on the back.
And that's an average, of course.
You know, if someone writes a check,
doesn't buy anything, you're getting none.
But then there's someone you make three or four.
You know, Mazda's one of the brands
where Mazda's a decent bit below that 2,200.
Mazda's closer to, you know, 1,300, 1,400 on the back.
Just as our most import brands like Honda and Toyota as well.
But yeah, that's exactly what we're trying to do.
Can we take a moment here, Joe?
So, that's the new car side of things.
Heard you loud and clear.
It's evolved from a buyers market,
excuse me, from a sellers market to more of buyers market.
You used the term inventory coming down your throat.
So, it's like obviously on the new car side of things,
things are evolving.
And I'm sure you could talk about the nuance
between brands as well.
Things that Lincoln are different than Ford
and things that Ford are different than Mazda.
But I want to pivot here quickly.
What are you seeing on the used car side of things?
And I'll bring up from Cox Automotive as well.
They had a headline recently.
Used vehicle inventory holds steady to start 2026
as sales momentum builds.
We've been talking about it on this channel forever,
the affordability crisis
and more people looking for used options.
What are you seeing on the used car side
of things at your dealerships?
Are there a lot of used car shoppers?
Are they able to get approved?
Also tied to this, like our trade and value is high
still right now.
What are you seeing on the used car side of things?
Yeah, the used car business continues to be tough.
That's one of the big focuses of our group right now
is everybody wants all the money for their trade
and when you're selling the used cars,
everyone wants the best deal.
That's the name of the car business.
We try to get as much as we can for it
and consumers try to get as little as they can for it.
Used cars is a tough business right now,
but we don't buy a ton of cars from the auction
where our mindset is just to sell a ton of cars.
So we're getting back to that volume perspective,
sell a ton of new cars and get a ton of trades.
And with those trades, try to flip those quickly too.
But used cars are sitting longer
as inventory ramps up, used cars do too.
So it's not as hard to find used cars now.
So they're sitting longer
and that goes back to the whole.
It being tough right now.
Are you finding that you're keeping older,
higher mileage used cars
that you might not have kept in the past, say pre-COVID?
I would say for most dealerships, yes,
but we've always been a group
that tries to retail everything possible.
So if it's on our website and it's for sale,
it means that we've had certified technicians
do a full inspection on the car
and we fixed everything that needed fixing on that car.
If it comes in, even though it might seem like a retail piece,
if it's a five-year-old car with 50,000 miles
and it should be retailable,
but the cost to fix that car was too much to retail it,
then we would wholesale it.
So we're doing everything we can to retail
as many as possible.
What would you say is your average reconditioning cost
for your retail used cars?
And just for everyone that doesn't follow the jargon,
reconditioning cost is how much money,
which I'm giving Joe a second year to look it up,
how much money the dealer actually has to spend
to get the car up to being showroom-ready
to sell it to another retail customer.
This can, my dad's always said this year,
this can make or break the used car deals,
how much your recon cost was.
Yeah, so and keep in mind,
month to date we're at $1910 and 61 cents average recon.
Last month we were 1875, but keep in mind
that's only the cars that we've kept and we've retailed.
So there's another bucket of wholesales.
Right now we've got 24 in our wholesale bucket
and that's just for the three stores in Savannah
that we haven't wholesaled yet.
So those cars might have three, four, five, eight,
10, $15,000 recon estimates that we declined
and put in wholesales.
So if you added those wholesales into that number,
it's way higher than the 1910.
Go for it, Ted.
Well, I was gonna say,
when you look at what the expense
that's expected on those wholesale cars,
no wonder you don't wanna buy cars at the auction
because whatever cars dealers typically
are sending to the auction are cars
that they didn't wanna spend the reconditioning dollars on.
So you know pretty much you're buying that dealer's headache
and you're either taking a lot of Thailand oil
when you buy that car
or you're not gonna do all the repairs
that are necessary so that you can still sell it
and make a profit.
I was 100% and a lot of people think like,
oh, $5,000 or $10,000, that's ridiculous.
You'd be really surprised at how many cars have trade-ins
we get that have serious issues.
I'm looking at one right now, just as an example.
It's a 2018 Mazda CX-9 with 134,000 miles car
we took in on trade, recon estimate $11,707.
So that one's going to wholesale.
I don't know why, Joe.
And people think, oh, that must mean it's a needs an engine
or transmission, not in this case.
In this case, it's just a whole bunch of stuff added up.
You throw in an oil leak and it adds up.
I just wanted to butt in because this level
of transparency is why we love Joe.
Joe manages dealerships over at JC Lewis.
It's in his last name.
It's in the family business.
JC Lewis.com.
Check out their website,
learn more about what they're doing over at JC Lewis.
They've got over 1,500 vehicles in stock
and this is why we love Joe.
The transparency is just unparalleled here
and it really is appreciated.
And I want to point out one comment.
If you can pull it up, the turbo diesel 73 made
is so adding another 10% to use car price right up front.
So that's incorrect.
So we price all of our cars to the market, right?
So our philosophy is we're going to price
all of our used cars at 97 to 98% of the market.
We try to be a couple percent below
so we can tell everybody who comes in,
hey, you're getting a deal compared to what's out there.
Whether I spent $5,000 in recon on that car
or 500 on the recon,
I'm still pricing that car at 97, 98%.
That's just where we have to appraise the car correctly
and know what we're going to have to put into it
before we acquire that car.
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Multi-point vehicle inspections vary
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Love it.
I can share stories with you when I was a closer
at a Mazda Volkswagen store
and the used car manager oftentimes
was quite capable of appraising a car
from his seat at the desk
without ever getting in the car.
And I thought to myself,
my God, what a disservice you're doing
to the owner of this dealership.
You can't know what a car might need
if you just ask the salesman to turn it on
and say, how does it sound?
So it is so important to actually drive a car,
appraise a car, really look for issues
that you might have,
because if you're off, for instance,
on that CX-90 you're talking about
or CX-9 you're talking about,
you very well might end up losing money
at the sale on that car.
And that's not necessarily what you had in mind
when you traded it, I don't believe.
Right.
Yeah, side unseen appraisals, of course,
we've got to appraise them
as if they're in perfect condition.
But once the cars come in,
it's a process here that we look at them,
we drive them and we inspect them as much as we can.
Obviously, you know, customers don't wanna wait around
for us to drive it back to service,
put it on the lift and get a full inspection.
But we try to do as much as we can
to figure out what that car is gonna need.
Makes a lot of sense.
Now, Joe, if we can just get
a couple more minutes of your time.
I wanna talk about Edmunds recently came out
with some really interesting data around negative equity.
I'm not sure if you've seen this,
but it is so interesting.
And they show that nearly 30% of trade-ins
had negative equity in Q4 of 2025,
which is the highest share since Q1 of 2021.
And the average amount of negative equity
is an all-time record of $7,214.
And more than a quarter, 27% of those
that have negative equity had more than $10,000
in negative equity.
What are you seeing at JC Lewis?
Are you seeing negative equity?
Are you seeing this blow up car deals?
Are you seeing how are people getting approved
for auto loans if they do have negative equity?
This data, when we saw it, was just like mind-boggling.
So I'm very curious what you're seeing
at the front lines with your dealership
when it comes to this.
Yeah, we're seeing that exact same thing.
You know, when that Edmunds data showed highest
since 2021, that's spot on.
We're seeing a lot of it.
And depending on the deal structure, the credit,
the loan to value, things like that,
we can still get deals approved.
But, you know, for instance, if you don't have good credits,
it's going to be really, really tough to get approved.
And even if you do have good credit,
you're not going to get approved typically
over 140% loan to value.
Doesn't matter how good your credit is, right?
If you're trying to borrow $60,000 on a $40,000 new car,
it's going to, or a $30,000 new car, make it 150%.
It doesn't matter how much or how good your credit is,
you're going to have to put money down to get that loan
to value for the bank down to a minimum of $130,000, $140,000.
Are you seeing loan terms get even further extended out
in order to keep payments on a monthly basis
affordable for a lot of your customers?
Yeah, you know, I mean, we have banks
that have offered 84 months for several years now.
I think there's some credit unions.
We don't work with any banks, but there's some credit unions
that offer 96 months.
We actually just had a bank graph come in here yesterday
that said that they just, they're piloting a new program where
Don't say it, Joe.
Don't you dare say it.
Don't say it.
Y'all are going to love this.
We're not taking this bank on, but I thought
it'd be great to share with y'all.
For jumbo loans, over $100,000.
So for your high ticket items, I'm
trying to think of all of the things you have to check off
to be able to qualify for it.
But I think it was, if the loan was over $100,000
and you had 15% down, they would finance you for 120 months.
Oh my god.
Oh my god.
You know, and the sad reality is that there's not really
a whole heck of a lot of people that can qualify for $100,000
plus for a vehicle.
And if they can, they typically would have enough money
to put a sizable chunk down.
I mean to subject a customer to 10 years worth of financing.
Oh, I know that the negative equity would just
be through the roof.
And we're the type dealership that would say, hey,
if you've got to go 120 months on a car loan,
we probably just need to look at a different car.
Because when you tend to trade that thing in in three
or four years, you are going to be so far upside down.
So you are seeing this in your business
over the last quarter and here in 2026
you are seeing more negative equity in customers.
Obviously, still trying to get into a new vehicle
and finding ways to make it happen.
But this phenomena that Edmonds is reporting
is real in your backyard is what you're saying.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
It 100% is.
Are you seeing the manufacturers
captive lenders offering better lease programs
in order to try and come up with ways
to make the monthly payments more affordable?
Yeah, in all three of the brands that we work with,
they're always trying to come up with better residuals,
lease rates, things like that.
But here in the South, leasing has never
been as popular as up north.
And the main reason for that is someone
that leases a car up in New York versus down here in Georgia,
there's going to be a decent spread in that lease payment
on the same car just because leasing programs are
typically better up there.
But yeah, we do see manufacturers
trying to work on that as much as they can when they throw
incentives on these cars.
May I ask one more question, Zach?
Go for it, Dad.
And then, Joe, I've got one more for you as well.
And then we'll get back to running your business.
Yeah.
Ford Motor Company has publicly come out
and said that there is an affordability issue for Ford
and that they're going to try to address that.
And I assume the way you address that
is you begin to build more of your entry-level vehicles
at a lower MSRP.
Have you seen Ford's action match their words yet?
You know, I mean, I loved when they came out
with the Ford Maverick a few years ago.
I think that was a great addition to the whole affordability
crisis.
But you know, it's kind of tough because Ford's
one of those brands that their bread and butter is the bigger
SUVs and the bigger trucks.
And we're seeing the Ford Escape go away now,
which they had the EcoSport that one away
and now the Escape's going away,
which isn't a bad thing for me because, hey,
if you want an EcoSport or Escape,
come look at some Mazda CX-30, CX-5s, and CX-50s.
We got you.
But you know, they're talking about coming out
with some other alternatives.
So I mean, we'll see how that looks in the next few years.
Got you, Danny.
Joe, I want to put you on the spot really quickly here.
I pulled up a vehicle that's for sale at your dealership.
And I want you to talk a little bit about this.
We've got a 2026 Mazda CX-90 select package, the MSRP,
your advertised price, the invoice price.
And I'm going to run down here to days on market
and market days supply.
So you know here at CarEdge,
we love to preach the importance
of understanding market conditions.
So talk us through a little bit here,
your current inventory situation,
this vehicle in particular.
You've had it for 89 days.
The under 80 days supply in your local area.
How does this type of information influence
how you manage your business?
And are there particular makes and models that,
I guess in your case with Mazda,
just specific models that have
a little bit more days supply than others?
We're in that buyer's market,
like you talked about a second ago.
Does this market information influence
how you approach your business?
And should it influence how customers come into the dealership
and think through their deal?
Yeah, it does.
And keep in mind that that market day supply info,
it's different for every region, right?
So if you look at just my store with inventory,
I have and what I sell at the Mazda store.
We've got a 64 day supply of the current inventory,
which that kind of goes back to,
we're trying to just sell it really, really quick,
get it out of here.
My goal is to have a lower day supply
than other Mazda dealers.
And to that point,
because this number that we're looking at here of 180
is specific within a 100 mile radius.
So including all other Mazda dealers
and it's specific to 26 CX90 select package options,
which again, there's only three
that have sold the last 45 days, but 12.
And I'm thinking not all 12 are at your dealership.
And so it does show that there are some dealers out there
that are willing to sit on stuff
or not be as aggressive on pricing
or provide as good of an experience, et cetera,
to sell those vehicles because you're at 64.
Well, the market's at almost three times that.
Yeah, and you know, it's interesting
because it's different for every car.
So I'm looking at our inventory spread for Mazda right now
and CX90, this takes into account all trim levels,
but CX90, I'm at a 133 day supply.
CX50 hybrid, I'm at 130 day supply.
Mazda 3 hatchback, I'm at 181 day supply.
But then you can look at the cars
that I'm really, really low day supply
and like Miata, 36 day supply.
CX50, 40 day supply, 30, 46 day supply.
CX5, 50 day supply.
So we definitely do take that into account when selling.
If it's a car that we sell really, really quick,
might not want to be quite as aggressive,
but if someone comes in here on a Mazda 3 hatchback
that I've got 181 day supply on,
or a CX90, 133, or a CX50 hybrid, 130 day supply,
we need to kind of sharpen our pencil a bit more on that.
You know, and not that we're not going to sharpen our
pencil on the other ones,
but it's important to take all of those factors in,
how long the car's been here,
how quickly that type of car moves.
You know, a lot of factors when penciling car deals.
Last question for Joe,
and then we got to let him run his business
from Orange Rubber Ducky.
What do you drive, Joe?
What's your daily drive?
Right now it is a, you know,
plug your ears, Mazda and Lincoln, OEM,
if you're watching this,
but right now I'm driving a F-150 trimmer.
There it is, we appreciate it.
See, he's honest, he's transparent, we appreciate it.
Well, Joe, it's always a treat to have you on again.
JCLewis.com is the group that Joe represents.
It's in the family name.
We love his transparency.
He joins us with some frequency, which we appreciate.
So, Joe, thanks so much for taking the time today.
And if you do reach out to Joe and his team,
let them know courage sent you,
but stay safe with the snowstorm
and the ice storm coming through, Joe.
We really appreciate you.
Y'all too, appreciate it.
Yeah, it's like again, Joe.
What a treat, man.
Yes, yeah.
What a treat.
I wish the conversations that we could have
with all dealers could be as open
as the information we get from Joe.
I mean, he sat there and broke it down by model for you.
So, you know, what's selling well in his market
and what isn't.
And so, if you're looking for a deal,
just look at what isn't selling as quickly.
He told us his recon cost broken down by month.
I mean, it doesn't get any more.
Like, obviously we're in the weeds
of the car business at this point,
but you got to appreciate the transparency.
You got to appreciate the candor there for sure.
Oh, absolutely.
And if you can pull up the comment I just started
from Igor, Ray, talk about blizzards and deals.
So, for those of you who are in the Midwest
and Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast,
we are heading into a, well,
what has been described as a very major winter storm.
And one of the things I can tell you
from having worked in automobile dealerships
is the threat of storms and during storms,
there are very few people that actually go
into a dealership to look at or purchase vehicles.
Now, what you have to remember is that salespeople
earn commissions on vehicles that they sell.
They don't earn anything for sitting
at a dealership 12 hours in a day
and not talking to anybody.
Sales managers get paid off of gross profit
that is produced.
And the only way they produce gross profit
is by selling cars.
So, if you're ever looking for a great deal,
do it when it's really cold outside.
Do it when there's the threat of a storm
and very few people will be showing up at the dealership
or do it at the beginning of the storm.
They will take you as being a serious buyer
because you showed up when most people wouldn't
and truth of the matter is the sales manager's job
and the sales person's job is not to screw that up.
So, if you show up and you're serious,
they will figure out a way to have you go home
in a new vehicle and they'll help and pray for you
that you don't have an accident on the bad roads
on the way home.
All right, folks.
A friendly reminder, caredge.com.
We do have a promotion running right now.
So, if we can help you out with our car buying service
or Car Edge Pro, check it out back at caredge.com.
We're gonna head into the weekend here
and get some nice rest and relaxation.
We're back for a normal full week
of Car Edge Live next week.
So, please tune in.
We expect to see everyone here
at 12 p.m. Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Monday.
We're excited for it, so please tune in.
Dad, enjoy the weekend, be safe.
I promise I'll do the same here.
And again, thank you to Joe from J.C. Lewis,
Joe Lewis from J.C. Lewis for joining us
and sharing his insights.
Pops, I love you.
Enjoy the afternoon.
I'll catch you on Monday.
I love you as well.
Please be careful this weekend.
I believe DC is going to get worse
to know that I'm going to see,
but they are predicting probably three to six inches of snow
and a quarter inch of ice on top of that
here in the Atlantic City area.
And, well, that doesn't bode well for old men
with old bones.
So, I'll be staying indoors, I promise.
Can't wait, Dad, be safe.
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Thank you for listening.
About this episode
Insights from Joe Lewis of JC Lewis dealerships reveal the evolving dynamics of the car market as 2026 begins. With a shift from a seller's to a buyer's market, Joe discusses inventory challenges, particularly for Ford and Mazda, and the impact of tariffs on vehicle availability. He shares details on new and used car sales, including the struggles with negative equity and the strategies dealerships are employing to adapt. The conversation highlights the importance of understanding market conditions and how they influence pricing and sales tactics.
Original notes
Today on CarEdge Live, Ray and Zach are joined by Joe Lewis from JC Lewis to discuss the current state of things at Mazda and Ford. Tune in to learn more! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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