The Fiat 124 Spider is a sporty car from Italy that many people love for its good looks and how well it drives. It was made a long time ago but is still popular today.
Mazda is a car company from Japan that makes a variety of vehicles. They are known for their unique engines called rotary engines, which are different from most other cars.
The Mercedes-Benz GLC is a fancy SUV that offers a smooth and comfortable ride. It's known for its stylish design and high-quality features, making it a good option for people who want a nice vehicle that feels luxurious.
The Mazda RX-4 is a car that uses a special type of engine called a rotary engine. This engine is different from the usual ones and gives the car a unique feel when driving.
Ford is a well-known car company that makes many types of vehicles, including cars and trucks. They have been around for a long time and are very popular in the United States.
The Great Recession was a big economic downturn that happened around 2008, causing many people to lose jobs and spend less money, which hurt car sales.
The Dodge Ram is a big truck that people often use for carrying heavy loads or towing things like trailers. It's known for being strong and comfortable, which makes it a favorite for many drivers who need a reliable vehicle for work or outdoor activities.
A franchise dealership is a car store that sells cars from a specific brand, like Nissan. They have permission from the brand to sell their cars and help customers with services.
Plymouth was another car brand in the U.S. that made affordable cars. It was known for models like the Barracuda and Voyager, but it stopped making cars in 2001.
Carmack's is a place where you can buy used cars. They don't sell new cars, just pre-owned ones.
LIVE
Hey folks, Lenny Lawson here, the car guru.
I had to go to the ophthalmologist this morning and it's my annual checkup to make sure and
see how my cataracts are doing and they're pretty much stand put so there's no reason
to have any surgery done, which is fine with me because the idea of lasers being shot
into my eyeballs does not make me feel warm and fuzzy but I was sitting there
talking to my ophthalmologist about my car guru and she said what's that and I
said well that's my podcast. You have a podcast? You remember what Jesus said a
prophet is not accepted in his own hometown? Well not saying that I'm a
prophet but I am a car guru and I am respected in my hometown. I mean we've
only been a new car dealer in this small East Tennessee town since 1971 when my
dad bought a little underperforming Chevy dealership and we were pretty much
standalone Chevrolet until he started I guess getting interested in in a
Japanese brand. We had a guy show up one day in a little yellow car and it was a
bite-sized car. It was actually a Honda and he was trying to go around the
different dealers especially in in our market trying to find somebody who
wanted to be a Honda dealer and back then if when you thought Honda you
thought motorcycles not cars and so that was my dad's thought process and he
said no I don't think I want to sell Honda cars. That turned out to be a big
mistake. A couple years later he decided well we didn't get Honda let's
try to get Fiat. I know I don't know what he was thinking either. I think it
was my brother's influence. My brother is a well he at that point he was in
medical school or no he was in college headed to medical school and he really
liked the Fiat 124 Spider and thought that was a cool car and I thought they
handled really well and they're made in Italy so you know he's a big Ferrari
fan and all that so we pursued the Fiat franchise. Thank goodness we
didn't get it and so one day I was at UT University of Tennessee sitting on my
bed at the fraternity house and I was looking at a sports illustrated and I
opened it up and I was just going through it and finally found an
advertisement for Mazda. Well I mean I'd heard of Mazda I knew they made
cars with rotary engines and also knew that they really sucked gas and
probably sucked as well but they really didn't they were really cool
cars very well made and they were coming out with this new car that was a
piston engine car called the Mazda GLC and so I called my dad I said dad maybe
we ought to look at Mazda because we had just lost Fiat and so anyway we
pursued it I think within six months a well several truckloads we got 30
Mazda GLCs in it once I think we got a Mazda RX4 an RX4 wagon an RX3 those are
three rotary engine vehicles and a I think it was a rotary engine truck so
that was our first shipment of Mazdas so we had Mazda from 1977 until 2010 when
I gave it up to get the Nissan franchise but I'll get into that in just a
minute I'm trying to stay chronologically correct here so the Chrysler Dodge
Plymouth dealership in our small town came up for sale so we thought that
would be a great decision to have that and it was not a great decision to
have that we had it but it turned out that we just really weren't really
motivated enough we were General Motors people okay and Mazda people and
Chrysler had done a pretty good thing they came out with the minivan pretty much
invented the minivan and then we were selling their K cars I don't know if
you remember those or not but their trucks were crap I mean they just had
a lot of stuff that just very poor quality the Chrysler New Yorker the
Chrysler Fifth Avenue to me just pretty much junk and you know if you don't
believe in a product it's really hard to get fired up about selling it so instead
of selling the product we sold the entire dealership and we took that money
and built us a brand-new Chevrolet Mazda dealership on a four-lane highway
about four miles away from our current crappy location where we work so that
lasted a while and then you know we just wanted to expand and and we had a guy
that that well two guys that wanted to become partners of ours so we hooked up
together so that we could grow and part of that deal was becoming an Oldsmobile
dealer so I added Chevrolet Olds and then or to our Mazda store well then
we wanted to expand some more so Mazda was wanting us to do a whole bunch of
signage in a different showroom so I do we just bought a building moved Mazda
there and then we felt like we needed another franchise so we added Mitsubishi
to that and then one day I ran into the Ford dealer in town and he was
meeting with some people and I decided well this is odd because the people
that he was meeting with at this little restaurant happened to be car
dealers in another town and they were meeting on a Sunday and I was born at
night but I wasn't born last night and I looked up and I thought about that
introduced myself to them the guests and said hi to the dealer and I called him
that next Monday I said if you're thinking about selling your dealership
I would really be interested in that he said no no they were just coming
down visiting well apparently they weren't just visiting so he calls me on
Friday of that same week and said are you still interested in possibly buying
our dealership and the short answer was yes it took a long time to pull that
deal off it took a year from that date it was a year trying to put that
together he had multiple partners and it just made it real difficult but within
a year we were a Ford Lincoln and Mercury dealer in addition to being a
Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Mazda and Mitsubishi dealer we were operating out of
three locations and then my partner wanted me to get involved in his Chevrolet
store in another town and that was a pretty large town not too far from us
and I said okay I'll see what I can do and I managed to get involved in that
business then he said well I have another Chevrolet store I want you
to be a partner in so then I've gotten as a partner in that dealership let's see
oh yeah and then there was a Toyota dealership in the Tri-Cities that came
up for sale well my partner wanted to buy it so we all bought into that
dealership so then we had a Toyota dealership in the Tri-Cities and at
that point let's see I think that's all at that point there was this small
financial problem that developed it was called the Great Recession do you remember
that yeah that was a doozy and demand for cars and trucks and SUVs and so forth
went down dramatically interest rates went up the economy was very very
fragile and you had General Motors declaring bankruptcy you had the
Chrysler Corporation declaring bankruptcy Ford did not because they had borrowed
$32 billion to be able to weather the storm and they were canceling Chevrolet
dealers all over the country we didn't know if we were going to be canceled or
not but one thing that we did know is that we were going to let it defeat
us and we were able to maneuver and adjust and survive that and you know
why because we decided to work together and failure was not an option and so we
did and that's why I am where I am today is because of all those lessons all
those franchises all the schools that I went to for that period all the
training sessions that I went to to learn how to be a salesperson and to
run parts departments and service departments and so forth and basically
that's my 47 year journey that's how I became a car guru and that's not a
title that I gave myself that was given to me in the showroom of my Ford
dealership by an elderly lady and we were talking about just I don't know I
don't even remember the exact details but she came out and said were you
just like a car guru dang and she's right I mean and so what I've decided to
do is to take my knowledge and experience and in the car business and use
it to help my fellow citizens of this country and any other country since we
go to so many I think I'm up to 93 countries now with the podcast actual
downloads in 93 different countries can you believe that and through the
miracle of the internet they're able to get something out of this program
that will help them improve and manage their car life and that makes me
smile and I'll be back in just one minute
okay I have returned now one of the things that a lot of people don't
understand about car diggers is that we are for the most part independent
business people or it could be a large I guess a corporate entity that owns a
bunch of different dealerships just like Auto Nation you know they're traded on
the New York Stock Exchange or Sonic Automotive and then you have privately
held groups that you know I know one particular that I bought a Nissan
franchise from he was a what was he had Chrysler Dodge Jeep and Ram and
Nissan here in our hometown and I just got wind that he wanted to sell his whole
operation so I called him and I said I understand that you're wanting to sell
but what I'd be interested in buying is just your Nissan franchise and he said
nope no Lawson he never called me any Lenny ever he just said Lawson Lawson
not interested in just selling the song will sell the whole thing and I said
okay for change your mind let me know so I went on a harassment campaign with him
about once a week I'd send him a text message and say have you changed your
mind about the Nissan and some most of the time he wouldn't respond but
occasionally he would respond cryptically and say no and then I would
ask again and then it would be no in capital letters and then it would be
no with the exclamation mark beside it but you know what I kept asking and one
day it was okay and he put a dollar sign and a bunch of numbers beside it and
it was a pretty big number but it was very doable as a matter of fact it was
less than I thought it would be so I typed out these four letters S-O-L-D and
that took about eight months because at about the six month period after I had
applied the Nissan for the franchise to be approved as a Nissan dealer see it's
not as easy as you think it is it's kind of like buying a car and you pick
the car out on a lot that you really want you test drive it you get all
fired up about it and then you go in you give me your credit application and the
bank turns you down well that's kind of what I felt like except I didn't get
turned down by the bank I got turned down by him he changed his mind he
didn't want to sell me the Nissan franchise he said I'm just gonna back
out and I'd already you just can't imagine the amount of paperwork that
you have to complete to become a dealer of any brand but I got gotten
approved by Nissan and one day I'm driving up to the radio station to
record one of these programs before it became a podcast and I get a phone call
I'm right about sulfur springs folks and I'm got in my mind what I'm gonna
record and all of a sudden I get this phone call on something I've been
working on for six months and he says I've decided not to sell it to you
and I said well we have a we have a contract a buy-sell contract he said yeah
yeah just go ahead and sue me if you want to but but yeah I'm not gonna do it
so I sued him and there was a waiting period I mean he had a certain amount
of time to respond he waited till the last day of the waiting period called
me back well awesome I've decided to sell you the dealership I said I'd
figure you'd change your mind but I had to apply for Nissan all over again but I
finally did get the franchise now when you want to become a dealer they look
for competence they look for capital and they look at your character the three
C's and they want to put the right people in the right places selling
their brands and we'd been here in Greenville for a long time when we moved
to Greenville Tennessee there were eight new car dealers now there are three of
course a lot of the brands have just gone away Oldsmobile there was a standalone
Oldsmobile dealer a standalone Plymouth dealer if you can imagine that I can't
remember who else went out of business but there were eight of them and now
there's three the industry has been consolidated but if you want to become
a dealer you still have to apply for it because an automotive franchise is
free doesn't cost anything it's not like deciding to become a franchisee of you
know Jersey John's or whatever the deli place is you know whatever any type of
franchise is typically going to have a franchise fee that you have to pay
that's not the case with the car dealership but you have to capitalize
your business you have to provide them with a facility that meets their standard
you're going to buy all your tools and equipment I mean it's a major major deal
to be able to get one and then there's no guarantee that you'll be able to
keep it because if you don't over a long period of time if you don't meet
their sales standards they call it market effectiveness if you violate
their policies and one way or another commit warranty fraud they don't like
that at all no they can take your franchise from you and then you're stuck
with your facility and a bunch of people that don't have anything to sell now
that has not happened to me but it has happened to a bunch of dealers well I say
a bunch probably four or five that I know of in East Tennessee from Knoxville
up that have lost their franchises because they committed some type of a
fraud when dealer in particular that I remember in Morristown Tennessee that
was selling cars to people taking folks trade-ins and he was not paying off the
floor plan the money that he owed on the cars that he was selling but he also
wasn't paying off the customer's trade-in if they had a payoff balance
on it so that's a really bad deal it's one of the things you have to make
sure of when you trade in a car that has a payoff balance you got to make sure
that it gets paid off you know if you get another statement from the from I
don't know Ford credit or whoever that you are delinquent on your payment
something is wrong the dealership has not paid off your trade-in and it
doesn't do any good to call Ford credit need to call the Ford dealer that
didn't pay off your car now one other thing you know these used car dealers
you see all over the place you know you see big box used car dealers like
Carmack's what are they do they have any new car franchises no but they do sell
they are in the car business they look like a new car dealer but they just sell
used cars they're big-time you know publicly traded company and so is
Carvana they're the ones that deliver to your your door but most of the use
cars that are sold in this country the vast majority are not sold by car dealers
at all they're sold by individuals in and between individuals but the next
category up our little used car dealers they're all over the place now do they
have to follow any kind of standard not really other than the ones that are
established by the regulatory authority in Tennessee it's the Motor Vehicle
Commission and so you know they have certain requirements they have to meet
in order to be set up other than that the Motor Vehicle Commission is going to
come around maybe once every 90 days and on the board where you're supposed to
post all of your licenses they're just going to look up there make sure it's
up there that your dealer license is there other than that there's no
accountability except for the individual and the accountability that he creates
if he's wronged like if fraud is committed if you buy a car that has a salvage
title and you didn't know about it but all of these things have to be
enforced through either the Motor Vehicle Commission in your state or
they have to be enforced through the courts which is a pretty tough row
it's expensive too when you have to hire lawyers if you buy used car from a new
car dealer there's more protection there because you can always complain to the
manufacturer and car dealers do not like it when their consumers complain to the
manufacturer because it gets right back to them really quickly it's a pretty
speedy feedback loop and then you also have social media the things that you
can do and say about some dealer on social media and it can really impact them
you know one of the things that I always say about that is always complain in
person first to the dealer don't blast them on social media first because if
you do you've blown your leverage I mean it you can't threaten I've
mentioned this a few days ago you can't threaten a dealer that if he
doesn't do what you want him to do then you're gonna go after him on
Twitter or Facebook because that's extortion and he can sue you for that
okay I'm gonna take my last break I'll be back in just one minute
okay thanks for listening to this edition of my car guru the most important
thing that I can do as a car guru in my mind is to provide something that
you can use in your car life to make it easier to deal with a lot of the shady
characters that are out there and to be able to point them out you know to know
when you're being led down the wrong path because there's a lot of dealers
out there that seem really nice when I say dealers I mean they're sales
people service advisors anybody that works in the store they seem really
nice and they probably are really nice but they they have their ethical
compass doesn't point in the same direction as yours does and their motives
are to make money first not to take care of the customer first I've always
thought that if you take care of the customer first and you make them
happy then the money will come you know it's you got to get your
priorities right I mean we all want to survive we want to we need money in
order pair bills and to live a good life well to live a good material life but
not necessarily live a good life there's too many people don't think about
that and the kind of things that they need to do in order to honor their
fellow man honor their Lord do what needs to be done do as they would have
done to them right the golden rule so that's what I try to do that's a void
that I tried to fill you can do that with in my car guru guidebook 32 pages I
just had a lady this morning she called into the dealership 4 2 3 6 3 9 51
51 said I need a copy of the guru guidebook so my operator writes down
your name and the address and then I print it out and I mail it to you now if
you want a PDF version just send me your email address to my cell phone 4 2 3 5 5
2 2020 and you'll have it in a hurry so it doesn't take a genius to be able to
do this a lot of people think it does they think you have to be a
negotiating expert to be able to get a good deal on a car you do not not if
you use my system if you follow the four targets and you achieve them you will
always get a good deal on a vehicle are two people going to get the same deal
only if they walk in the same time and buy the car at the exact same moment
otherwise you're on your own but it doesn't hurt to go in with some pretty
good operating instructions that's what the my car guru guidebook does for you
or you can just send me a text message if you've got a specific question about
something that's really giving you a hard time with your vehicle a mechanical
problem or you know some type of a situation with a family vehicle you
don't know how to sell it you know a lot of people leave vehicles to their
family members and the family members don't want them they just want the
money well I can help with that kind of stuff trade values whatever you
need to know about the car business or about cars I can help just send me
your information by my cell phone 423-552-2020 or to my email at Lennie
Lawson 2020 at gmail.com and I'll see you next time
About this episode
Lenny Lawson shares his journey from a young man in East Tennessee to becoming a respected car guru. He recounts the evolution of his family's car dealership, including missed opportunities with brands like Honda and Fiat, and the eventual success with Mazda. Lawson discusses the challenges faced during the Great Recession, the importance of adaptability in the automotive industry, and his commitment to helping others navigate car ownership. He emphasizes ethical practices in the dealership world and offers insights from his extensive experience.
