Dealership groups are companies that own multiple car dealerships. The “top 150” rankings are a way to compare which groups are doing best, and the segment will talk about what strategies are working.
This means some dealership companies sold more cars without opening new dealerships. They likely improved how they sell and serve customers instead of just expanding locations.
Customer experience is how the dealership treats you and supports you from start to finish. The point here is that dealers want to make the whole visit feel better and more professional.
“Execution” here means actually getting the cars built and delivered, not just having good ideas. It’s about making the factory and parts flow work in real life.
Supply chain issues mean the company can’t get the parts it needs on time. If a key component is delayed or missing, the factory can’t build as many cars.
Lucid Gravity is Lucid’s SUV. The discussion is basically saying that parts shortages—like a seat-belt component—are slowing down how many of these SUVs they can make.
The Public Investment Fund is a large government-backed investment fund. Here it’s described as the main owner/investor for Lucid, helping fund the company when it needs more money.
AI enablement means using AI software to help the dealership run better. It can help staff respond faster to customers and handle tasks more efficiently.
ZT Automotive is a dealership group/company name mentioned in the discussion. The speaker from ZT Automotive helps share what they’re seeing in how dealerships are operating.
M&A (mergers and acquisitions) refers to companies combining or buying each other, and consolidation is the broader trend of fewer, larger companies controlling more market share. In dealerships, this often changes pricing power, inventory strategy, and how stores are managed.
This is a metaphor for “playing it safe.” The speaker suggests big dealership groups may aim for a consistent, average level of performance rather than pushing for standout quality.
AutoNation is a big company that owns and runs lots of car dealerships. Here, they’re talking about how the deal terms AutoNation negotiated changed the costs compared with running as a smaller, independent operator.
“Scale based” means the bigger you are, the more your buying power and contract terms can change. It can make deals cheaper or more expensive depending on how the contracts are structured.
They’re saying customers expect more from dealerships over time—better communication, smoother service, and a better experience overall. The dealership has to keep adjusting to meet those expectations.
They’re talking about what customers feel right away when they enter the dealership. It’s about making the first part of the experience smooth and professional.
“Pivot” here means quickly changing strategy or operations in response to market or customer conditions. The speaker contrasts smaller groups’ ability to make decisions faster with larger companies that may take longer to redirect resources.
They’re talking about Chinese car companies growing fast and selling more cars. That can make it harder for traditional dealerships to keep customers, especially if the new cars are cheaper and arrive quickly.
They’re asking how dealers can keep cars dependable and keep repairs and maintenance done well. That matters because customers judge the brand by how it’s supported after they buy.
Pricing is central to how new automakers win market share, especially in EVs where buyers compare total cost and value. The segment highlights that lower price can shift consumer attitudes even when brand origin is a concern.
They’re stressing that opening dealerships is hard and takes time. If a company can’t set up service and parts support, it’s harder for customers to trust the brand.
“Footprint” here means an established market presence—existing sales channels, dealer relationships, service capability, and brand awareness. For automakers, having a footprint can dramatically lower the cost and time required to scale operations.
LIVE
Welcome to Daily Drive.
For Tuesday, April 14, 2026, I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas.
Today on the show, Ford CEO Jim Farley warns against Chinese automakers entering the U.S.
Volvo delays its XC40 redesign as sales plunge and Lucid names a new CEO.
Plus, we'll hear from dealership executives on the trends shaping this year's top 150
dealership group's rankings, including how many grew sales without adding stores.
We're constantly evaluating that relationship with the customer to provide more, to give
better service, much more high quality experience when they walk in the dealership.
Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.
Ford CEO Jim Farley isn't mincing words when it comes to Chinese automakers.
He says they need to stay out of the U.S. market.
Speaking on Fox and Friends, Farley called the prospect devastating to American manufacturing.
We should not let them into our country. Manufacturing is the heart and soul of our
country and for us to lose that to those exports would be devastating for our country.
He's particularly worried about Canada's recent deal to import 49,000 Chinese cars a year,
saying he hopes they don't cross the border. Farley also raised security concerns.
Those Chinese EVs have 10 cameras that could collect a lot of data.
Volvo's pushing back the redesign of the XC40 compact crossover to early next year,
extending production of the current model through late 2026.
It's a tough time for the Swedish brand. U.S. sales crashed 32% in the first quarter
to just under 23,000 vehicles. The XC40 got hit especially hard.
Sales dropped 47% to only 3,403 units. That's the lowest first quarter performance since the
model launched back in 2018. Auto forecast solutions analyst Sam Fiorani says the update
can't come soon enough. Volvo needs fresh product to keep volume flowing to dealers.
And Lucid has appointed Silvio Napoli as CEO. That's as the EV maker works to expand into lower
cost models and robo taxis with Uber. Napoli is former chairman and CEO of Schindler. He's
credited with modernizing the elevator maker's global supply chain. Napoli spoke today with
Bloomberg News. My job is to come in and to make a sustainable business out of this incredible company.
He replaced his interim CEO Mark Winterhoff. Here to talk more about the leadership move
is our own Lauren Siliff, who covers Lucid and other brands for us at Automotive News.
Lonnie, welcome back to Daily Drive. It's great to be here.
So Lonnie, what kind of challenges does Napoli inherit at Lucid and what is the company hoping
to get from someone with this kind of experience? I think the keyword is execution. Lucid launched
its first car in late 2021. And they said, you know, we've had supply chain issues to explain
like the poor sales and the poor supply. They launched a second vehicle in December of 2024.
And that one also has like supply chain issues. Just this last quarter, they have a problem with
the rear seat belt from the seat supplier. And so that's why they're not making a lot of their
second model, the Gravity SUV. And they're going into a partnership with Uber and Neuro,
which is providing the RoboTaxi software. And so I think there's a lot of execution, supply chain,
you know, just kind of getting that machine running that we really haven't seen it. There's
been a lot of good products. There's good vision. You know, they win a lot of awards,
but, you know, getting those factories right, getting the product out, getting that supply
chain right, and then moving into a whole new area with RoboTaxi. And even though the new CEO
doesn't have, you know, automotive experience, he comes from, you know, a really heavy duty company.
He was there a long time and he has good reviews. So I think that's what they're looking for.
Lucid has also been raising funds from a variety of sources. What's going on there?
Okay, so Lucid burning through billions and billions of dollars every year. And so they
need to keep getting more money. And so generally where they get money is from the Saudi Arabia
Public Investment Fund, which is the majority owner of Lucid Group. So they announced today
that there would be $550 million additional from the Public Investment Fund, $200 million from Uber.
So Uber is both investing in them and buying their vehicles and then $300 million from a public
stock offering. What's interesting about this is the stock went up when you saw that the Saudis were
putting more money into this company that's burning money and that Uber was investing in the company
and that Uber has committed to buy 35,000 cars, 20,000 previously. But as soon as they announced
that they're going to go to the market and issue more sales and dilute their shares,
then the stock went down. And you've got to remember this is a stock that's down
more than 95% since it's high. And so there's kind of a mixed reaction there. Obviously a new CEO,
a serious guy, more money, partnership with Uber, that's all good stuff. But the shareholders are
a little bit upset about getting diluted. Good stuff, Lonnie. Thank you so much for joining me.
2026 top 150 dealership group rankings. That's next on Daily Drive.
Are you a dealer creating a workplace culture your employees are proud to be part of?
Applications are now open for the 2026 Automotive News best dealerships to work for program.
This isn't just an award. It's a chance to get real insight into what's working at your dealership
and where you can improve. And we've expanded the categories this year, recognizing everything
from technician experience and leadership development to AI enablement and employee
retention. The registration deadline is April 17th. Find out more and apply at AutoNews.com.
Welcome back to Daily Drive. I'm Kellan Walker.
Automotive News is out this week with our 2026 top 150 dealership groups rankings,
assistant managing editor Hannah Lutz and retail reporter John Hutter hosted a Congress
Conversations livestream to discuss the findings on Monday. They were joined by Rick Moreno,
vice president of dealership operations for ZT Automotive, Brian Kilby, owner of Jones Junction
and Brian McCaffery, owner of One Automotive in Avondale, Arizona. Here's a piece of that
not increased their store count, even though there's been so much talk of M&A and consolidation
over the past few years. So if we look at the numbers, more than half of the groups held their
dealership counts, about a third added dealerships and 17% shrink their footprints. Brian Kilby,
I'll start with you on this one. If more than half of the growing groups didn't add stores,
what is your take as the industry overestimating the value of scale as something shifting here?
Well, for us, we went through a big change with our Hyundai brand, where we had Hyundai and
Genesis in the same facility. And as we call, we went to the Brown facility. So we updated into
the new GDI 2.0. So I think when you do the separation, it helps. And I think it just gets
you reengaged into the product. And I think the manufacturers have made it. So if you want to
do volume and you hit your retros and you understand everything that has to be done day in and day
out, and you got to decide if you're going to hit those retros from day one, and you'll have growth
because that's how they're playing the retro, to pay you the extra bonus on facilities, etc.
So I do think that the footprints that you have, if you're achieving the objectives that the
manufacturers are putting out there, that's how a lot of the growth is happening. For the
dealership that has the horsepower to handle the trade, handle the financing, etc., I think it's
made them, you know, it's kind of made you stand out in increased volume.
Go to Brian McCaffrey on this one. When you're competing against public groups or the much
larger private groups, where do you feel like, where's the pressure? Where do you feel that the
most? Is it pricing, inventory, talent, something else? Probably not going to be a popular answer,
but I don't feel a lot of pressure from that segment. You know, those guys are so focused on
scale. I don't know how honest I can get about all this stuff in this forum, but you know, my
feeling about it is, especially companies like AutoNation, different large public groups, these
guys get so big. As I said in your article, John, they have to manage to the lowest common
denominator. And when you have 400 stores, your focus does not have to be excellence. It can be
a good high level mediocrity. And as long as we're really solidly mediocre, they're returning a
good investment to their shareholder. They have a different set of parameters that they're looking
at than an independent single owner dealership. One of the things that I was always surprised
when we became acquired by AutoNation back in 96 or 97 was the contracts that they negotiated
were more expensive than the contracts that we had as a single operator, because they were
so scale based. It didn't make any sense to me. So I don't view that as our primary competitor
out in the broader market. I don't feel that pressure from them.
So who are you competing against most of all?
Our big deals, and I think the reason we've grown to the level that we have, we compete against
ourselves. We're constantly looking at our own metric and saying, how do we improve on our previous
performance? And how do we get a better relationship with the customer? What is evolving in the field
of customer service and customer expectation that we need to address? So we're constantly
evaluating that relationship with the customer to provide more, to give better service, much more
high quality experience when they walk in the dealership. That's how I've always looked at it.
If our strongest competitor is ourselves, let's keep competing against ourselves and just try
to do better every year. All right. For the next one, I'll start with Rick, but
feel free to jump in when he's done responding. Rick, we found that small and mid-sized groups
were leaders in revenue and new vehicle sales results per capita, not the larger dealership
groups. Can you talk about maintaining and maximizing individual store performance as your
group grows? I mean, this is a good question for you since you have been on such a spree at the
end of last year. Well, I think it's, you know, and I think Brian was kind of touching on that
as well, is that, you know, this, our business is really fairly simple. It comes down to people
in processes and it just managing our activities on a daily basis, right? And he's right. The thing
I will tell you that when you look at it from the larger group to the smaller groups, I think we
have a lot more flexibility in the way we make decisions and how we can pivot, right? When
situations where these bigger companies do, they have to, it's a little, it takes a little time
for them to get that, you know, ship moving a different direction where we can actually pivot
very quickly. But at the end of the day, here's what I'll tell you. It's, for us, it is all about
managing our processes on a daily basis. And that is, you know, not only what our employee
experiences, but what our customer experiences. We have multiple relationships that we have to,
and I think we take our relationship with our manufacturers much more serious because they
are extremely important to us, right? In terms of our growth, our ability to grow over the next
few years, which is very strong in our radar right now, is that we want to continue to acquire
more stores. That comes down to people in processes. And I think that's one of the things that we
truly focus on in our, in our world. Yeah. So speaking of processes, there are a certain metric
that, that any of the three of you watch that others might, you know, kind of overlook.
Brian Kilby, any thoughts on that one? Well, you know, we definitely have, I have my, our team
goes through obviously every day, we look at it every day, and we do have a sequence of events
that we look at every day to be successful. And what we think makes us successful. We always
follow that process because if you follow the process, follow the bouncing ball, so to speak,
it'll, it'll answer your question for you of what's being done, what's being done right.
So yes, we do have a process and we're vigilant every day about it. It's emailed,
it's talked about, and we, we work it every day. It starts in that morning meeting, right? It's
that morning meeting and throughout the day, it's a keeping the numbers and the, the opportunities
in front of your, your team, measuring, making sure that you're measuring every day. That's right.
All right. John, I think there's an audience question that you're going to ask next, right?
Right. Yeah, throw this out to the group here. We'll start with, we'll start with you, Rick.
With the rapid rise of Chinese manufacturers in small and electric vehicles due to lower cost
and faster development cycles, how do traditional dealership groups plan to compete while maintaining
reliability and service quality? It's a long one there, but basically, yeah, you compete there
with the Chinese vehicles. Personally, I don't feel like we're going to be competing against
the Chinese vehicles. Obviously, it's a different, they're bringing a different model to market.
Well, we saw that in the electric world, right? It's not something that I feel is that we need
to focus on in, in, in, in our markets at least. Brian, any thoughts there? Brian McCaffrey?
I mean, it'll be interesting to see if the Chinese are able to get into this market.
There's a lot of barriers to that occurring in the first place. I think when you look at what's
gone on in Mexico, where the Chinese have been in the market for, I think it's less than six years,
and now have 19% of the market, you have to be able of, you know, the, the risk that come with
them being in the market. You know, when, when people are interviewed and they talk about,
would you buy a Chinese car? They say, absolutely not. And then they say, well,
would you consider a car that has all the airbags, 300 miles of range, electric vehicle,
and it's $28,000? They, they answer changes. So I think there's some concern about that.
I just see a lot of operational problems in, in A, them getting the cars into the country,
and then B, when setting up a dealer network in that situation is, is I think it'll be challenging
too. So I don't know, it'll be interesting to see. I do think it's something that you're gonna have
to talk about in the future. And I do see them trying to come into the country, of course.
But I think they might come in under another manufacturer that's already doing business here
that, you know, as you read, I mean, that would be a very, very likelihood scenario,
in my opinion, that they come in with a manufacturer that already has a footprint.
That's my opinion. But I think you have to look at what they're taking to market because it's a
real car, you know, with the pricing and the range, it's a big deal. And I think currently with the
current administration, obviously the views of it, but who knows moving forward, what you're
gonna have. But I do think that they're not going away. And they know how to build a car and they
make it work with, with all the pricing too. So that's what I would say. I think that's everybody's
concerned, honestly.
Come back tomorrow for a conversation with Ford's Andrew Frick.
About this episode
Ford CEO Jim Farley issues a blunt warning against Chinese automakers entering the U.S., citing manufacturing impact and even security concerns tied to Chinese EVs’ camera-heavy designs. Volvo delays the XC40 redesign into early next year as U.S. sales tumble 32% in Q1, with XC40 down 47%. Lucid appoints Silvio Napoli as CEO, aiming for better execution amid ongoing supply-chain snags and a push into Uber robo-taxi plans—while fresh funding triggers mixed shareholder reactions. Dealership leaders also debate why top performers grow without necessarily adding stores, focusing on processes and customer experience.
Ford CEO Jim Farley warns against Chinese automaker imports. Lucid appoints Silvio Napoli as CEO to lead turnaround efforts. Plus, dealers offer insights from Automotive News’ 2026 top 150 dealership groups rankings, including how groups are growing sales without adding stores.
