Car Dealership Guy Podcast Apr 1, 2026

Beard on Street Purchases, Johnson on Service > Sales Handoff | Daily Dealer Live

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Concept

return on investment

ROI means “is this worth the money we put into it?” For a dealership, it’s about whether marketing efforts bring in customers and make the business more profitable.

Concept

used cars

They’re talking about used cars, which dealerships sell for profit. The key is how you find them, price them, and get them ready to sell.

Concept

Artemis program

Artemis is NASA’s effort to send people back to the Moon. The segment uses it to talk about how big the program is and how much testing and troubleshooting goes into getting launches ready.

Term

hydrogen leak issues

Hydrogen is used as rocket fuel, and a leak is dangerous. If there’s a leak, they have to stop and make sure everything is sealed and safe before trying to launch.

Car

Mercedes-Benz Mercedesbenz Usa

The Mercedes-Benz SL is a luxury sports car. It’s designed to feel sporty and premium to drive. The podcast mentions it while talking about Mercedes’ plans to increase sales in the US.

Car

The Mercedes-Benz GLE is a mid-size luxury SUV. It’s made for families or anyone who wants more space than a smaller car, with a premium interior. The podcast mentions it because it’s part of a focused lineup strategy for dealers.

Company

Hello Auto Group

Hello Auto Group is the dealership group that owned the Santa Clarita stores before this sale. The episode says those stores were sold off as part of a larger restructuring.

Company

Girwati Auto Group

Girwati Auto Group is the company buying these dealerships. The episode is highlighting that they completed the last step of a multi-store purchase.

Concept

M&A activity

M&A means mergers and acquisitions—basically companies buying or combining with other companies. Here, it refers to dealership groups buying and selling stores.

Brand

John Elway Cadillac

That’s the name of a Cadillac dealership in the John Elway group. Cadillac is a luxury car brand, and dealerships like this often sell both newer and pre-owned cars.

Concept

EV

EV means electric vehicle. It’s a car that runs on electricity from a battery you charge, instead of gas.

Concept

ICE

ICE means the traditional gas (or diesel) engine. It’s the type of car most people are used to buying compared with electric cars.

Concept

incentives going away

If discounts or tax breaks for certain cars end, those cars cost more. That can reduce demand and push buyers toward other options, including gas cars.

Concept

shortage on new cars

When new cars are hard to find, people often buy used cars instead. That can make certified used cars more popular and sometimes more expensive.

Concept

Colorado marketplace

They’re talking about how different states buy different kinds of cars. Colorado seems to prefer gas cars more than some other places, so dealers there plan inventory differently.

Concept

CPOs

CPO means “Certified Pre-Owned.” The dealer checks the car and usually offers extra warranty coverage, so it’s meant to feel safer than buying a random used car.

Concept

Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace is a place online where cars are listed for sale. The dealer is using it to find cars without going through an auction.

Concept

recon costs

Recon costs are the money spent to fix and prepare a used car so it’s ready to sell. If the car arrives with hidden issues, those repair costs go up.

Concept

Incorrect condition reports out of auctions

The big problem being discussed is that auction paperwork about a car’s condition can be inaccurate. That means the dealer may think the car is fine, then discovers extra repairs once it arrives.

Concept

recalls on new cars

A recall is when a car maker says, “We found a problem and you need a fix.” If a car has recalls, it may need repairs before it’s fully ready to sell.

Concept

discrepancies with the CR

“Discrepancies” here means mismatches or inconsistencies in the condition report—either between reports and reality, or between different inspections. In a dealership/auction context, discrepancies can drive reconditioning surprises and disputes over condition and value.

Part

grill

The grille is the front part of the car you can see through (often with openings). If it’s broken, it usually looks bad and may mean the front end took a hit.

Company

OverFuel

OverFuel is a company that helps dealerships with their websites and online marketing. They’re advertising a discount code during the episode.

Concept

used vehicle acquisition

Used vehicle acquisition is how a dealership gets pre-owned cars to sell. It’s basically the buying/sourcing part—finding the cars, checking them out, and paying the right price.

Brand

Mohawk Honda

Mohawk Honda is a Honda dealership. The guest is the general manager there, so his comments are about how that specific store is doing.

Concept

automate appraisals

Automating appraisals means using software to generate trade-in values based on set rules and vehicle inputs. This can standardize offers, reduce manual data entry, and speed up customer response times.

Brand

Kia

They mention Kia because Kia EVs are also coming back from leases and selling quickly. That can influence what kind of deals show up for used EV shoppers.

Brand

Hyundai

They’re bringing up Hyundai because Hyundai EVs are showing up on the used market in a way that affects pricing. It’s an example of how lease returns can change what deals are available.

LIVE

We're doing better as a result of social media presence.

If it doesn't do those three things, then it's on the chopping block.

It's in return on investment discussion.

Hey, everybody, welcome back to The Daily Dealer Live.

I'm your host, Sam Dark, and thanks

for choosing to be here on this Wednesday, April 1.

And happy April Fools.

If you want a great April Fools joke,

check out the Cardiola Ship Guy.

Social media posts all everywhere,

acquiring Cardiola Ship Guy dealership groups.

Tongue in cheek, happy April Fools, everybody.

And marches in the books.

Excited to hear how our guests did and how the industry did.

Post your comments into the feed today.

Again, we're broadcasting across all CDG social media

platforms.

We'll bring your comments into today's show.

First up from SWAT team.

I love it.

Let's effing go.

Today, we're going to talk used cars, CPO strategy, service sales.

We've got two operators with two great strategies.

You can learn from today.

You can implement today.

This is one of those episodes where you're going to rethink

how you run your store.

And before we jump in today, I need a minute.

Because today, something is happening

that hasn't happened in 54 years.

Right now at Kennedy Space Center,

four astronauts are suiting up.

And at 6.24 p.m.

tonight, all things going well, whether all the things they're

launching around the moon.

The last time a human traveled this far from Earth, Apollo 17.

That was in December 1972.

I wasn't born then.

No human being has gone beyond low Earth orbit since.

That's 54 years.

This mission will shadow records standing since Apollo 13.

Victor Glover becomes the first person of color.

Christina Koch, the first woman.

Jeremy Hansen, the first non-American.

Canada, not to the north.

Ever to travel beyond low Earth orbit.

You can watch it on NASA YouTube.

It begins at 6.24 p.m. Eastern.

Check it out even for 60 seconds.

Because what happens tonight on that launch pad at Cape Canaveral

in Florida isn't just about space.

It's about what happens when you refuse to let a vision die.

The Artemis program has run $100 billion.

That's a lot of money, but it's less than half a percent

of the federal budget.

This rocket was scrubbed twice in 60 days.

It had hydrogen leak issues, helium issues.

They rolled it back.

They fixed it.

And today, things appear to be all go.

And today traces back to a speech that happened first in 1962.

A then-young president looked out at a crowd and said,

JFK, we choose to go to the moon.

Not because it's easy, but because it's hard.

There was at that time no roadmap, no technology.

Many of you have heard me talk on this show.

At that time, Russia was going to win the moon race.

And everybody seemed to concede that the first words

on the moon would be Russian.

Even Kennedy had doubts about the cost.

He wasn't a huge fan.

But he did understand something most leaders never figure out.

Bold vision, spoken out loud, it rallies people.

It rallies teams.

It aligns industries.

It forces invention that wouldn't happen any other way.

We didn't just land on the moon.

We created industries, technologies that we still use today

that have made our economy, our country, and the globe better.

Plus, we showed the world what's possible

when people are pointed towards something bigger than themselves.

Now bring us back to us, to the daily dealer live

in our auto industry.

Last week on this show, a guest said the US might be losing

its dominance in the global auto industry.

I chuckled.

Many kind of conceded it.

He said that we've gone reactive instead of visionary

because right now, many conversations in this industry

are about optimizing what already exists,

plus a healthy dose of AI.

Nobody's standing on a stage saying,

here's what this industry becomes.

So when the rocket goes up tonight and you see it,

and if you're able to see it, go outside and watch.

If you can't watch the live stream,

ask yourself one question.

Who will be that JFK for automotive in the future?

Who is going to challenge this industry to do something hard,

something uncomfortable, maybe even something impossible

and mean it?

The next 54 years will be shaped

by whoever answers that question first.

And we want those with that vision,

sharing it here, selfishly, on the show

for the benefit of all our audience.

Thanks for letting me rant for a few minutes,

but I couldn't be more excited about what's

going to happen tonight.

So today, auto industry headlines.

All right, let's dive into today's auto industry headlines.

First up today, a federal judge in California

has denied Volkswagen and Scouts' motion

to dismiss the California New Cardular Association's

lawsuit, allowing the case to move forward.

The court ruled that Scouts' $100 reservation program

already constitutes competition in the sale

of new motor vehicles, and rejected the argument

that the law only applies after a completed sale.

Scouts' own general counsel acknowledged

the law could prohibit the DTC model in California,

which the court noted in its ruling.

With a class action suit filed just weeks ago

and a Florida case also still active,

dealers now have three fronts moving simultaneously.

And this rule could signal how the others develop.

Next up in another news today, Mercedes-Benz USA CEO

Adam Chamberlain outlined a plan to grow US sales by 30%

by the end of the decade.

The goal, 400,000 annual US units,

backed by $7 billion in US investment.

More specifically, the strategy centers on the GLC,

GLE, and GLS, a streamlined dealer approach

and staying competitive on price.

Chamberlain added that Mercedes has raised prices

only 1.3% since tariffs hit, well below inflation,

and that by leaning in and executing closer retail

coordination, they can hit these marks.

Up next, a district judge has cleared

Stellanus financial services to seize $12.3 million

in vehicle collateral from Sky Auto's to Iowa locations.

The alleged double flooring, uh-oh, scheme

involved transferring vehicles between stores

without notifying lenders, letting multiple lenders

unknowingly finance the same vehicles,

while Sky Auto kept dual accounting records to hide it.

Ford Credit has already asked the sheriff's office

to seize 10 vehicles under a parallel writ.

Naturally, this is a stark reminder that floor plan

and inventory financing issues can quickly escalate

into a major operational and legal battle,

making the need for strong inventory controls,

transparent accounting, and clearer

lender communications crucial.

And finally today, closing out with news

from the Bicell Wire, CDG Bicell, that is.

CDGBicell.com.

There, we love it, we love it.

Girwati Auto Group just closed on the last

of Hello Auto Group's Santa Clarita stores, March 30th.

This is a Kia dealership now renamed Kia of Valencia,

completing a three-part divestiture

of Hello's entire Santa Clarita platform.

Dave Canton repped the buyers across all three deals,

while Hague Partners handled the sell side.

You can learn more about CDG's coverage of all M&A activity

across the automotive industry at the full tracker

at CDGBicell.com.

And we do love our trackers, so thank you for clicking,

let's back up with that to the production team

who's working hard behind the scenes today

to deliver today's show.

Again, a reminder coming into the comments.

Let's look at this, we've got yoga cars.

I always wondered why we didn't go back to the moon

for 50 years.

Dan C, I love it, solid ransom, thank you.

I wasn't quite, you know, listen,

our effort to go to the moon inspired awe in me

as a young kid, because it happened before I was born,

but the fruits of that, I saw the Space Shuttle program.

We saw satellites, and it's fascinating,

there's something about seeing a rocket go up into space

that is just on spike.

I don't care if it's Artemis tonight, I'll be watching.

I don't care if it's the Shuttle of the 80s and 90s.

I don't even care, like Elon Musk and the unfolding

of those Starlink satellites over the past few years,

you watch that in the sky, and it is truly amazing.

And that type of leadership, that type of vision,

automotive, the automotive industry in the United States

needs that today, and I'm excited to see that unfold,

is those leaders with real vision

about the future of this industry,

stand forward, enunciate that vision,

and help us realize an even greater,

more powerful industry as a result.

So today though, let's talk used cars.

We're gonna go first to Jonathan Baird,

used car director at John Elway Cadillac.

Jonathan, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me, Sam, appreciate it.

Are you gonna watch the launch tonight?

I guess I gotta pull this thread all the way through.

Did you know that there was a rocket being launched tonight,

first of all, that people were going to the moon?

I did not know that there was a launch tonight,

but your enthusiasm and your rant was amazing.

I love it, there you go, there you go, all right.

Watch and see, it's gonna be interesting.

They're gonna go around the moon and come back.

I think it's 10 days or something like that,

so pretty cool.

So first off, tell us who you are, what you do,

and how was March on this first day of April, April Fools, March?

So again, my name is Jonathan Baird.

I'm with the John Elway Automotive Group in Lone Tree,

which is a suburb of Denver, Colorado at John Elway Cadillac.

March finished up pretty strong with certified and used cars,

a very high demand there in regards to our transition

from EV and ICE balance with the market.

We finished with 20 certified reported sales.

Which got us fourth in our region,

which includes Arizona, Nevada, California,

which puts us in the realm with the high volume new car dealerships

that are typically 50, 60, 70 plus.

Finished up pretty well, never really satisfied,

but happy with the result.

Yeah, so you've been props on your success this past month.

You've been very focused, you know, that's interesting.

Let's talk about that for a minute,

the conversion between EV back to gas.

What have been some of the challenges

and what's been your overall goal with that?

Like when did it hit you?

Hey, we need to make this conversion.

And with the increasing price of oil right now,

given the war in Iran, are you rethinking that strategy?

It's extremely tough to juggle.

Funny with the segue from launching a rocket into space,

we can sometimes have some analysis to paralysis

on if this is rocket science or not

and how to juggle the market in that sense.

But transitioning from EV kind of back into ice vehicles

with some of those incentives going away,

gas coming back up and Cadillac transitioning

out of some of their gas ice models,

which are no longer gonna be produced as brand new,

has kind of built a demand for the used car market.

So where not only are some of our guests

not as much considering EV vehicles

and going back into ice,

but not having options there for new vehicles,

which is kind of increasing the demand again

on ice certified pre-owned vehicles.

So we're seeing an uptick in demand on our gas vehicles

and whatnot, but yeah, it's definitely a tough timing

with a little bit of the war,

getting away from EVs, shortage on new cars,

oil kind of where it's at, and it's just a moving target.

Yeah, I mean, in your Colorado marketplace,

it was never all EV, right?

There's some markets, California and others

that were trying to go all in EV.

Colorado still loves gasoline, right?

So is that dedication to gasoline coming under pressure

as gas prices go higher?

And do you think there's a dollar per gallon

where people will start to return back to EV

or get excited about EV again fully?

Yeah, so surprisingly enough,

Colorado is actually the second highest volume market

for EVs besides California.

They're very...

I'm wrong then, why is that?

How is that the case?

We have a lot of state incentives that are unavailable

at other states to help push some of our larger

Escalade IQ and IQL vehicles

and our mid-sized crossovers that compete with Tesla

and stuff like that.

So we've actually been very, very high volume,

probably 40-ish percent at least from a Cadillac standpoint.

And now with some of those incentives going away

and anticipating those off-lease vehicles coming back

and some of those residuals being so low,

making them more affordable on the pre-owned

certified market, which is...

We've only had a couple thousand return back as a whole

with Cadillac, but they're expecting close to 20,000

throughout the end of the year.

So it's definitely something we're monitoring

and got our finger on on where that affordability

structure is gonna be compared to jumping back

to ICE vehicles.

In regards to a dollar amount, I've had friends

that are in California that have sent me pictures

of 689 on gas in certain areas.

We just approached like the mid-4 mark,

we're around 450-ish or so, which seems extremely high

for us, but anything under $4 a gallon or so,

I think, I don't think there's an exact price on gas,

but more so all over the news and just allowing people

to be enthralled with all of that negativity

in the market, just dictating all of their thoughts.

All right, so we wanna talk CPOs,

but we also wanna talk about this buy center.

So you've created a process and a program inside your store

where you've said 100% of staff in the dealership

participates in street purchases.

How does that actually work?

Yeah, so we are a standalone Cadillac store.

We don't have any other GM brands with us,

so we're standing tall as just the Cadillac store.

For us to be able to stock and have the,

to hit our budgets and what we're planning for,

for volume and profit and all that stuff,

we need to acquire cars and that margin compression

and that affordability standpoint that everybody's talking

about on how to add that profit to the bottom line.

We have to buy street purchases.

We have to buy from our service drive.

We need to capture our off lease vehicles,

but we have, we are a buying center local to us,

but we also have a concierge pickup and drop off program

where our concierge driver has been with us for 20 years,

has phenomenal relationships with all of our service guests

who is constantly on the hunt for vehicles.

Our advisors get incentivized.

And how do you, so break this down for our audience.

So first off, what do you say to the dealer

or the salesperson of the manager that says,

you know what, service drive is old

because we've tried it, we've done it,

it doesn't yield anything and everybody's trying

to buy that used car off the curb from a customer.

There's not any used cars left.

What do you say to that person that just says,

hey, it's played out.

There's nothing left on the tree.

It's always going to be played out

if you feel like you're just not getting any results, right?

Like that excitement and that adrenaline

is going to feed from those success stories.

So you just have to have the law of averages

and the buy-in from everybody

to have enough of those success stories

to where it can breed positivity

and competitiveness within the staff.

And that's ultimately what has helped us out dramatically

is people just competing within themselves,

within the store, even within different departments.

So is it incentive-based?

Do you pay a flat dollar amount

for different roles throughout the dealership?

Yep, so not for different roles.

We pay the same that we would for sales

as we would with our advisors or quarters or anybody else.

How much do you pay?

So for non-catalax, we split a 250 by fee and whatnot.

So if it's coming outside of sales, it would be 250.

Sales people get 500.

And for certifiable Cadillacs,

which are extremely hard for us to come by

because Cadillacs, a lot of Cadillac volume

isn't coming from Colorado.

So we're bringing them in from Michigan, California, Arizona.

Stay away from the Michigander volume.

We actually have a $1,000 certifiable by fee

on anything that could be certifiable in our drive

or in our store.

So you pay any employee $1,000 for a vehicle

out of state certifiable as a CPO.

Anything that's in state that we can have,

that we can buy,

we pay $1,000 for a certifiable Cadillacs.

Very nice, very nice.

So as an example last month and the month of March,

how many were you able to acquire

through means other than auctions?

So using this staff purchase model.

We finished with about 30 non-auction purchases

through our staff,

through outside sources of the auctions and whatnot.

So Facebook Marketplace, the street,

outside of our drive also.

And how many does that compare to auction?

Is that about half the volume of acquired vehicles

or what is that?

No, so I want to say we probably had six or seven

that we brought in from Michigan and whatnot

from closed GM sales, executive demos and stuff like that.

So a huge portion of it is non-auction based

because transport, auction fees, buy fees,

that $1,000 has helped us more locally convert people

than bringing them in for $2,000, $3,000 over MMR

or what it could be.

Are you able to quantify the difference

between those acquired at auction in terms of recon

and time to speed a sale off the curb versus auction?

Do you know that dollar?

So CR results or any type of pre-inspection

that we can get often isn't gonna match

when we get in person.

So we can account for that type of stuff ahead of time

and through different CRs or inspections from auctions.

As we receive then, they're often incorrect.

They're often wrong to meet the certified standard

of Cadillac 172 point inspection to where there's surprises.

A lot of those are gonna exceed $2,500 per copy on recon.

We have a door rate of 229

and we have to be able to make them certified.

And then once they're here,

we're kind of at the mercy of having to fix it

no matter what.

So those recon costs can be higher

from our street purchases where we can deal with a person.

More often than not, it can have a walk around with us

or a pre-purchase inspection

and we can convey that reconditioning cost

and we can account for that significantly

is less closer to $1,500.

So you mentioned something that is a hot topic on this show.

Incorrect condition reports out of auctions.

Well, how is this happening?

In 2026, when we're sending people back to the moon

or around it anyway,

how can a CR report not be accurate

on a vehicle being appraised or looked at at auction?

What's your perspective on it or your opinion?

My ultimate thought is kind of like how it's rumored

to kind of be recalls on new cars and stuff like that

where cars that are made on Mondays

can often have a higher recall rate

and cars that are made on Fridays

can often be a lower recall rate.

We don't know who the inspector is that's going out.

We don't know if they're having an awesome day

or a bad day with a lot of the weather

in the Northeast and the Midwest.

We don't know if they're inspecting these cars in the snow

and they're just trying to get through their day.

I think some of it is not able to be made sense

at this day and age that we can still have

this many discrepancies with the CR.

But a lot of what I think can be on the inspector.

How do you fix it?

Because it's got to be fixed.

Like, I've seen so many discrepancies in CRs.

I've seen so many problems even down to,

hey, there's two keys in this vehicle.

It turns out there's only one set of keys.

Will you run the math on the cost to buy a key,

reprogram it?

That's a significant recon cost multiplied

over multiple units, right?

How do we fix this in the industry?

It's a problem.

That could be something that could be quantified

as the same type of struggle that it could be

to go around the moon tonight on a rocket.

There you go.

I often say that anything that's unexplainable

could be Chinese arithmetic and I don't really understand.

I don't get it either.

I would say half of the vehicles that I do buy

from some of these auctions just have dummy keys

attached to them to where physically there is two keys,

but they're not programmed.

The mechanical key isn't cut for that specific car

and that passes the CR to where they weren't even used.

And we get those in there $479 to replace

and you do that on a car that you're paying

a little bit over MMR for a $1,300 certification fee.

An unexpected 600 bucks instantly puts you in a spot

where you are already having little to no profit

to compress it even more.

Yeah, there's gotta be something we can do in 2026

to fix the problem and we'd love to have a round table

on CRs and what the problem is and how we fix it.

We'd love to invite you back for that conversation,

but note to Hannah, let's get that scheduled up

because I think that'd be a fun conversation to have.

So going back to that street purchase, right?

There are dealers that are watching this today.

Are you training your teams in the stores

to go out and do this?

What's the message that they're sharing with friends

and people across social media?

And which channel is best, like most efficient today

in April of 2026?

So I think a lot of the times why planes

are trying to sell vehicles on their own

is they want the retail type number

and they don't want the low ball type number

that they could receive at the doorstep of a dealership

or the old reputation of what car dealers are gonna be.

So we try to compact our word tracks

to just be very short and simple.

We're gonna be awkwardly higher than what you think

and we're gonna be, the only difference

is gonna be reconditioning on your vehicle.

Most clients are always gonna convey their cars

as 10 out of 10s.

So we can convey a number that's based on a 10 out of 10

and then we just need to do a quick 15 minute

pre-purchase inspection and the only difference

between what we've agreed upon

is gonna be the reconditioning of the car.

So it's not a long, crazy script,

it's just very short and compact

because their defense mechanisms are already triggered

when we reach out to them.

So just very short of, we're gonna be closer

to where you're at than what you think

and the only difference is reconditioning

and that's when you have the customers selling their car

of I religiously go to the dealership,

I have tire and wheel, I have prepaid maintenance,

I have extended warranties.

And then that's when you can even walk them

through cancellations of products

to help close in that gap of where you wanna be

and where they're at.

Okay, so employees bring friends, acquaintances,

they're going out to the street of those people

that come into the dealership for that appraisal,

what's your close rate on those off the street

and what's the biggest reason a deal might fall apart

in that case?

Yep, so look to book on that type of stuff,

it's gonna be in the mid 60s, close to 70%.

Strong.

And for our area of where we're at,

where we have snow, we have mad chloride,

we have a little bit of rusting,

we have hail and whatnot.

Not that I wanna say that word at this point

of the season.

Don't say the word, don't say the word, yeah.

And Jesus, but it's any surprises,

cosmetically mainly, a lot of clients do take a lot

of pride in paying for the reconditioning

and paying for maintenance and servicing.

And that's the high cost that we have

to be able to be prepared for.

But it's mainly cosmetic differences

to where they didn't know a grill was broken on the car.

They didn't know that their sunroof shade

was not gonna retract correctly

and that's a $1,500 repair.

And a lot of the times they're just trying us on

to see how thorough our inspection is

because there's a lot of dealerships

and bad practices out there

where people aren't walking these trades with clients.

They're not driving them with their clients

to even find those mistakes.

And then we blame them and blame the market

for not having the money to fix them.

But we did it to ourself in the first place

by not inspecting the car correctly.

Yeah, so hey, a couple of comments from online.

Paul Solzman asked a great question.

He's like, what about using a condition scanner

on entering the service department?

There's a lot of great tools out there.

UVI has a tool as do, I know, there's something called,

there's another tool, I forget what it's called,

but there's multiple tools that can sit

as you enter into the service drive

and scan the vehicle.

Have you had any success with that

to help with that inspection?

ACV has Viper, I think.

Any tools that help with that process?

Yeah, super familiar with UVI and ACV

of having that stuff done.

And we've even had talks with them sometimes

about having a buying event

where we can have some of their inspectors on site

to where we can utilize their technology

and try to maximize purchasing in one day

and perhaps have 30 cars show up on one day,

maybe put a little bit of money into a spend

or whatnot to make an event out of it

to capitalize of not having that cost.

UVI is amazing, but at our store on where we're at,

the cost sometimes is always considered, right?

But I think the way that we've tried

to overcome that a little bit is knowing the vehicles,

knowing more often than not,

reputations of cars, what issues are on cars

and having a team that's been together

for close to 10 years.

A lot of us speak the same language.

We know the same languages.

We've had the good successes of catching stuff

and we've all been burnt on our mistakes before.

And it's just understanding that we don't do

the same mistake twice.

Yeah, all right, one thing that stands out,

then we gotta wrap,

because we'll have you back

for the round table at the very end.

So one of the things that stands out

about your organization is your speed to lot

on these used acquisitions,

whether it's CPO or its vehicles purchased off the street,

you're doing a great job of getting cars cleaned,

stickered, priced and photographed

within hours of acquisition.

What does that operation look like?

Who owns that task?

Yep, so the salesperson, use car manager

and our lot boarders,

we ultimately have a system that's down pat

to where as soon as the deal is signed upon

and logged for F&I,

those plates are coming off,

we're getting those cars rinsed off,

we're doing quick vacuums on those cars.

And we more often than not are waiting for the guests

to get out of finance before we publish the car online,

because the last thing we wanna do is have that feed,

even hit our website fast enough

and the guests isn't even burning gas

in their replacement vehicle yet,

but it's literally within hours.

And I would think that that speed to the lot

in terms of getting all those steps completed

has something to do with your fast turn time.

We go to a lot GPT stats,

it says John L.A.'s Cadillac on brand,

so that would include CPO and Cadillac,

used moves, it's 15 days faster than market competitors,

is that part of what's creating that advantage

in the marketplace?

Your acquisition process and then your speed to lot,

or is there something else that's driving

that 15 day faster result than market?

Merchandising obviously is,

we're obsessed with merchandising.

We feel like you can't sell what you can't see,

whether that's on the lot in person or online.

So when we're purchasing these vehicles and whatnot,

we have a very, very strict 60 day turn.

And if we're at seven to 10 days on those cars coming out,

I've already consumed 10 to 15% of our,

a lot of times, of selling these things.

Not a lot of people see that, yes, you're right.

When I get the car, if I'm feeling like

I'm already eight days behind,

there's too much anxiousness with that.

It's easier for us to just work up front

and get it online immediately.

And with us having to purchase some of these cars

and the price point that we're in right now

and what we're experiencing in the market

is kind of the margin compression of something

that's 60, 70 grand, that's a V8.

And we need to be able to price these cars secondarily

just as fast and just as aggressive

so that we can acquire trades of lesser values

that can maybe have faster term times also.

But it's just pricing them out of the gate

below the market up front and understanding

that it's not just this,

but if we can flip this trade in

or flip this street purchase two to three times this month,

we're gonna be huge.

Yeah, which, you know, you've got a strategy

that says, hey, we're gonna price vehicles to market.

We're not gonna price up from cost.

You seem to be disciplined in that stance.

Do you ever take grief from ownership

or anyone else you're accountable to for taking a loss

if the market dictates it regardless of what you bought it for?

100%.

I mean, they're obviously,

what's always good for the goose

isn't always good for the gander and vice versa sometimes

to where we need to ultimately think in a big picture

when we have Iran and EVs to ice

and margin compression and oil where it's at

to where my true cost has absolutely nothing to do

with what it's gonna sell for.

And if I acquired them on a street purchase

where my front end PBR or my F and I PBR

can be double what they are at the auction,

I have to assume with volume,

that's gonna balance itself out

and just hope that I get enough of those street purchases

into the month to help offset some auction purchases.

But it can't be dictated based on my pride

or what I own the car for.

I have to sell that quickly.

And even faster, if I have no profit

or if I'm pricing that car at a $500 loss immediately

because of all the expenses,

looking at that secondarily deal that's coming

versus this problem now and just hanging onto it

for three weeks or a month or something.

Yeah, pricing vehicles at a loss

is a problem of our new age and new era.

Jonathan Beard, use car director at John Elway Cadillac.

We'll have you back for the round table

at the very end of the show,

but we appreciate you coming on today

to share your perspectives on all things use car,

CPO, vehicle acquisition, including fixing your team up

to go out and buy the best of the best vehicles

on in their own social circle.

Jonathan, thanks for being on today.

Thank you, Brad.

We appreciate it.

Lots of great comment online.

In fact, we'll ask this yoga car says,

do you shoot video for every new and used vehicle?

We'll have that as part of the round table.

So that'll come up.

And I do think that the condition scanner from Paul,

that's a great question as well.

Dan C also says,

aren't the people who perform the CR certified?

You know what, any of the auction providers

that are doing CRs,

I'd love to hear the perspective on that.

Like I just have this hunch,

like there's so much variance in some of these CRs

and in narrowing margins,

it makes it tough to price vehicles, right?

And understand what you're buying

and get aggressive enough or not aggressive enough

without knowing the true condition of the vehicle.

There's, as Jonathan said,

there's not enough margin in used cars right now

to ship it, recon it, put it on the lot

and not know that CR,

not be able to have faith in it,

not be able to act on it.

And you know, unfortunately,

if you're shipping across country,

you can lose your shot at ARB too,

if the CR is not right once the vehicle hits your lot.

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And supporting today's content,

including that conversation with Jonathan

on all things used vehicle acquisition.

And again, we'll have Jonathan back at the end of the show

as part of the round table.

But right now we'll turn to a repeat return guest,

Greg Johnson, general manager at Mohawk Honda.

Greg, welcome back to the show.

Hey, thanks for having me.

I really appreciate you guys getting this set up.

It's good to have you back.

It was good to see you at NADA.

And what an environment selling wise we're in right now.

A lot has changed even since NADA.

Before we go into the meat of our content today,

tell us how was March in your store, Mohawk Honda?

March was awesome.

You know, we had a little bit of a slow start.

The weather in the Northeast was cold,

but a strong finished, 564 cars.

So 349 new and 215 used.

So it was a super strong month.

And we're sitting at number four in the nation

for certified cars year to date.

Oh, awesome.

Number four in the entire country among Honda dealers.

Interesting.

And we were sitting at number nine,

so we're climbing the ranks.

That is strong.

In fact, so last time you were on,

you were talking about acquisition of vehicles.

You were talking about your service to sales strategy.

We'd love to learn more about the CPO piece.

But before we go into that, tell us a little bit

about how that service to sales strategy is progressing.

Sure.

So yeah, when I was on last, we were talking about acquiring

a ton of cars at the auction, you know, 60 to 80 a month

to fulfill the need we had here at the store.

And I knew there was a better way.

We'd been trying to tweak the process with the service

to sales handoff.

And we were doing 25 or 30 a month.

And we knew 3,000 customer paying warranty arrows a month.

And I knew there was way more potential.

So change up the people, the process, and the pay plans.

And align that.

And we just finished with March with 75

acquisitions on the service drive, which was incredible.

But it comes down to the people.

We have two bodies back there.

One was a salesperson.

One we got who was a greeter at a gym, bubbly personality.

And they do a phenomenal job at just having

a soft touch with a customer, but being extremely transparent.

And we discovered that the more information

we could give a service customer upfront,

the better chance we had of converting them over.

And by this, I mean, we use automotive mastermind

for our equity tool.

And we go in, and if somebody is in a phenomenal position

to upgrade, we give them the numbers.

Here's the numbers.

Here's your estimated trade.

And here's the new deal.

And just being that transparent, instead of, oh,

do you want to look at a new car?

What do you say?

Here's the hook.

Like, boom, you can upgrade and keep your payments

same or similar.

Why wouldn't you?

So step one, you said, is to have the right person doing

that meet and greet.

And it's not your traditional salesperson that's

trying to get that new car sale.

It's literally somebody that makes the customer feel at home

and comfortable.

And then second, it's giving an appraisal on the vehicle.

Is there technology that you're using

outside of the equity mining tool to do that?

Are you using some sort of a scanner or a condition report

generator, or is there something that is texting the quote

back to the customer?

Sure, great question.

So we partner with Auto Hub, which

will automate appraisals as long as it meets the criteria

that we've set forth.

And it's a great tool.

You can always go through, and if you're

looking for a specific car, up the value

that you're offering for those cars.

So that's the first engagement with the customer.

When they check in, a text will automatically go out

and say, hey, would you like an appraisal on your car?

And it doesn't miss anybody.

And if they engage and say, hey, we want an appraisal,

we have a slight delay on the system

to where it doesn't fire it back immediately,

but we will actually find the customer in the waiting area

and proceed with an appraisal.

But if we're super busy and we can't do that right at that

moment, boom, within two minutes,

it fires back a $500 range of an appraisal

if we don't get the human interaction in there first.

How does the technology know whether you're

busy or not, whether to do it fast or slow?

Is there a human intervention at that point,

or is it based on deals on deck?

What happens is when a customer engages and says,

hey, we want an appraisal, we can go in there and say,

boom, check the box that we're going to go out

and do a human interaction and stop the system at that point.

OK.

And then is the appraisal itself a use car

manager, an expert in the service lane?

Who's appraising the vehicle, putting the number on it?

Sure.

If we do it automatic through Auto Hub,

that is a range that we've set up based on MMOR

and Kelly Blue Book Accommodation,

and we found the right parameters that work for most

of the appraisals.

But if we stop that system and go out and do the human

interaction, yes, my use car managers

will go out and do an appraisal right on the spot.

What's your strategy as it relates to putting

a number on the vehicle?

So I've had conversations with a few of our GMs.

Do we go super aggressive?

Do you go average?

I think a tendency of a typical use car manager

is to under-appraise something in the service drive,

because they sort of assume it's a captive customer.

I think that's the wrong approach in 2026, yes?

Yeah, you have to rule out the red carpet.

If you're willing to pay the moon for a car at the auction

and fees and transportation, pay the moon

for a car that's in front of you, that you see, you touch,

you smell, you know what the recon's going to be.

These cars, I can't tell you how easy they are to resell

in the use car market too, because a customer comes in,

they look at the car back and they're like,

oh my gosh, it was bought here, it was serviced here,

and it makes it as such an easier sell

compared to going and buying a car at the auction.

There's no service history.

Oh, this car came from Kentucky, oh, nothing about it.

So as you ramped up that many of used vehicle acquisition,

that's a tremendous number.

A question from the comments, Paul Salisman says,

what percentage of service volume is 75 cars?

That's really great.

Sure, so the way I broke down the math,

I was actually talking to Brian Kramer about this last week,

and we have the same philosophy.

15% of the customer ROs, we want to get appraised.

If we can get 15% to engage, I want to acquire 20% of those.

So if I've got 3000 CP of warranty ROs a month,

I'm going to acquire, based on that math, 90 of them.

So my goal is between 90 and 100 acquisitions a month,

but I got to get 15% of the people to say,

I want an appraised.

Yeah, and is that bearing out,

or are you having to push for that,

or does that seem to be the natural demand, 15?

It seems to shake out right around there,

between that 13, 14, sometimes upwards

of 20% appraisal rate.

And then the team just locks in.

Part of it was the culture too,

because in the past, a salesperson would get walked out,

somebody that was in for service,

and they wouldn't convert right away.

And they're like, oh my gosh, this is a waste of my time.

I can't believe it.

Don't bring me any more of those customers.

No, you almost have to beat it into them.

Like, these are going to be good deals, good customers.

The time to sale sometimes is a little bit longer

when you average them together.

Some people are taking it same day,

but we do look at the ROI reports,

and it's saying that the average day to sale

is a little over 10 days

with some of these customers converting.

So you got to stick with it.

You got to do the follow-up.

And then I asked the question of Jonathan earlier.

What do you say to the dealer today that's watching the show

that says, yeah, I'm familiar with the acquisition strategy

in the service lane, but every time we try to do it,

we kind of piss our customers off.

They're getting all these different text offers

for trade-ins and salespeople bothering them.

And let's just leave our customers in service alone.

Is that a mistake or is that a viewpoint with some merit in 2026?

Yeah, I would love to look at their use car operations

in those stores because I guarantee

they're missing opportunity.

Yeah, it's a soft approach.

We're not hard selling.

We're not pushing.

It's a very, very soft approach.

And out of 100 customers, we might get one person that's like,

leave me alone, but that might even be high.

Yeah.

Yoga Cars comes into the comments and says,

do you have a dedicated employee for that service drive

acquisition and then continuing?

Yeah, do you have a dedicated employee?

And then what does compensation look like on that?

Sure.

So we have two dedicated employees that

work our service drive all day and one manager

that oversees them.

Their compensation is an hourly rate per car acquisition

and then a month-in bonus based on volume.

And as you've stood up this process,

as you've gotten this engaged into the service drive,

what's a couple of the biggest lessons you've learned

where you tried something and you're like,

that did not work?

Like, we thought it would, but it didn't.

Were there any lessons learned as you went down this road

that you had to kind of?

Oh, my gosh, there's a lot of them.

I mean, where do I start?

How much time do you have?

10 minutes.

No, I'm kidding.

No, I would say one thing that is super important

that a lot of people overlook is making sure

that your service advisors get paid on the internals

on the cars that you're taking in.

Because this customer will come in

and you're essentially taking money out of the service

advisor's pocket if they're not paid on the internal for it.

And that's one of the easiest and quickest ways

to get pushed back from service and service advisors

like, no, you're not taking this customer.

Like, I'm not going to help set you up.

But the second that you start paying them on the internals

on those, they are so bought in.

They walk people to our exchange consultants and say,

hey, this person's interested because they know

that they're not going to lose out on anything.

Yeah.

So that's a big lesson.

The exchange consultant ends up selling the car

or it turns to a salesperson at that point.

It turns to sales, right?

They're just the concierge and they turn them over

to the sales consultants.

I have a super long tenure sales staff

and most of them are still here that sold the car originally.

And we try to get it back to the original salesperson.

Yeah.

So I have a note here.

Last time we talked, I showed you were up $210 an RO.

But I don't recall what that metric was tied to.

Is that held?

That's.

I mean, service is definitely rocking.

We implemented that greeter system

that I talked about the last time where somebody pulls

into the drive.

Our greeters have iPads.

The customer is greeted by name.

We know exactly what they're here for.

Hey, Joe Blow.

You're here to see Doug today.

He's got you ready for your oil change, your tire rotation.

Let me go grab Doug.

Doug comes out.

He's got his pre-write all done.

He knows what they declined the last time.

That was a huge upswing for us in our service department.

And we saw growth immediately when we put

that greeter system in because people don't want to drive

into the service drive and be like,

oh, do you have an appointment?

What are you here for?

Yeah, where do we go?

No, like, hey, I see that you're here for this boom, boom, boom.

And then all of a sudden, the guard comes down,

and it's a much easier conversation.

Yeah, yeah.

I also think last time we talked,

you were targeting 800 units, right?

That was your big rally cry, your goal.

You hit 650 last March.

Is 800 still the goal?

Is that the target?

800 still the goal.

We talk about it all the time on near term 700,

long term 800.

I know we can do it.

We've got the people.

It's just executing the process 100% of the time.

And I talk about that to the staff a lot.

Sometimes it's like whack-a-mole.

We'll take a process.

We'll make sure we get it dialed in,

and then we move on to the next one.

And it's like, oh, boy, here comes this mold back up,

whack it again.

But I want to buy one of those for the show room, honestly,

to have a whack-a-mole game out there.

But no, the people in the process make all the difference.

And the staff is ready.

They know the marching orders, and they know what we're

trying to do.

Yeah.

All right, so related to fixed ops

and that experience and service,

Eager K comes in with a comment.

How are you guys doing with tire sales?

Most dealers are struggling with selling tires.

So I'm wondering how you guys are doing with that.

Do you have a particular strategy?

Great question from Eager.

No particular strategy.

I mean, during the winter months up here in the Northeast,

we obviously sell a ton of tires.

The first snowstorm that comes out,

and people are sliding off the roads,

they're coming in and buying tires.

Our tire sales are pretty consistent.

We're one of the top performers with Honda for tire sales.

So I don't think it's anything that we're

doing out of the ordinary, other than presenting people.

You talked about it earlier, UVI.

We've partnered with UVI.

And every single person that drives through,

drives through the UVI machine.

And it tells tread depth and alignment and everything.

And it makes it a super easy sell for tires.

Yeah, yeah.

All right, you've been on this your second time on.

We appreciate you being on.

What's the next big thing you're working on here?

Greg, before you go to our ground, I might have lost, Greg.

The producers.

OK, there you are.

The producers were thinking I was queuing up the round table.

They're super good because they're on this thing.

As we wrap up, Greg, what's the next big thing

you're concerned about as you're thinking about the rest of 2026

and seeking to solve within your team

to help ensure you guys are producing it

at an elite level at Mohawk Honda?

Sure.

Yeah, I think one thing that a lot of people are scared of

is used EVs.

And I think you touched on a little bit with the earlier

speaker, but there's a huge market for these.

And the prices are going to be so cheap on them

that I think if you're not in the used EV game,

you are going to miss out.

I could get egg on my face for that one,

but I really think used EVs are going

to be a big portion of business when they all come off lease.

So all right, let's trigger that with a round table.

Let's bring Jonathan back in.

Because actually on that, I want to actually have a conversation

on EVs.

I was shocked to learn that Colorado had such a robust EV

cell market.

I haven't been there forever.

I did grow up and lived in Utah, which is neighboring.

And it's definitely, I mean, it's got EV adoption,

but it's not to the extent not nowhere near California, right?

So what's your take?

I have an opinion on used EVs.

Are used EVs the pot of gold as they come off lease

in affordability?

Or will demand for EVs under this Iran war

and closing the straight, are they

going to increase as gas prices go up?

Jonathan, what's your take?

Yeah, I was surprised to hear that Hyundai and Kia off lease

EVs have an under 30 day market day supply

because they are coming back so cheap.

And I know Honda has a couple of vehicles

that are coming back extremely inexpensive and whatnot

as well.

And if we can get, I've been saying that I don't think

that until these off lease vehicles are being sold back

from the leasing companies, we might not

see as strong of incentive on the new ones.

And so we help them flood them out.

And they're going to be really incentivizing us

towards like our stair step money and different ways

that we're compensated to help them with that.

And these residuals are coming back so low.

I had a client that recently bought a Cadillac Lyric,

which was German card year.

We sold a ton of them.

It was amazing.

She was unsure on how her experience was

going to be at the dealership because it seemed too cheap.

It was less than 50% of the MSRP.

That was $72,000, $73,000, and it had 12,000 miles on it.

And she thought we were going to have an addendum

or some type of catch to it.

And she was just the most pleasant, easy buying experience

that we had last month.

But they're coming back so low residual-wise,

I definitely think, across the country,

but Colorado in general, so where the money's

going to keep incentivizing clients that buy them.

So residuals are low.

But just because it comes off lease at that

doesn't mean the lease company has to flip it at that, right?

It's not a, it's, it almost reminds me of some of the lease

by outstoring COVID, right?

The banks refused to turn them back to the dealership.

There was two prices, back to the consumer,

back to the dealer.

You know, I'm seeing this, Greg, in the comments.

PMRO 58 says Honda just reduced prologue MSRP

by $7,500 across the board.

Will we see low residuals being raised

by the OEMs as lease returns as demand increases,

if it increases, and where do you see

the opportunity, Greg, in used EVs?

Used EVs, I've been telling this to Honda for a while.

I've envisioned this, that there's a sub vented lease program

on a certified EV.

And I think that's really where you're going to capitalize.

Because people are coming out of these leases

that are $299 a month, $349 a month,

and they didn't put a whole lot of money down.

Yeah.

If they're coming off lease at 25 to 30 grand,

the payment's much higher than that.

So they need to do a sub vented lease program

on the certified EVs.

And I think that's one 99 a month with not a ton of money

down and release it again.

I think that is the sweet spot that a lot of people

are missing in this.

Jonathan is one 99 the sweet spot.

There are a lot of comments that came in during your part

where they said, hey, basically leases in Colorado

were net zero for a time during highly incentivized.

Is that true?

And will they move it even 100 some odd bucks a month used?

Yeah.

So a lot of these Nissan leases and stuff

that we've seen, I mean, there was like $19 Nissan lease

deals and whatnot.

But as they're coming back, we've

been talking about this with our executive management team

on the dealer board level to how they can incentivize us.

They're currently doing that now on purchasing them off lease.

Obviously still at a little bit of a higher amount

that we're comfortable with.

But some type of sub vented program interest rate.

And there's even talks of maybe trying

to waive any type of certification fee

or anything else like that to help us unload them for sure.

But I think from a luxury standpoint,

being a little bit different from Honda or Kia or Hyundai,

our cars are a little bit more expensive.

And if we can get these back off lease,

where we were leasing them at $400 on a $75,000 car,

and we can get them back with no money down,

financing it at 500 bucks a month being certified,

it's amazing and try to include some type of charging

station or anything else like that.

So I think it's interesting, both of you

have talked about this more as a cure for payment

affordability, not the fuel piece, right?

It's fascinating to me because I was in automotive retail in 08

when gas went to five bucks.

And at five bucks, everybody sold their Tahos

and their Suburbans.

Stupid cheap.

They just dumped that inventory.

I don't think there's that same dollar ceiling today

in the fuel economy side.

I think people will continue to buy and just kind of accept it

as sort of just cost of doing business in automotive.

Do you agree, Greg?

I do.

I mean, everything has gotten more expensive.

I mean, there's nothing that hasn't gone up at price.

So I think people are getting a little numb to it.

Luckily for us, Honda has the most fuel efficient fleet

in the US.

So there you go.

Promotion.

It comes to that.

So I'm not worried there.

And Cadillac has one of the more EV friendly

Ford in the fleet right now.

All right, so let's talk inventory sourcing.

Jonathan says, go outside for store inventory.

Greg said, it's already in your service lane.

Who's right today in March, April of 26?

I think I'm right.

I don't think it's ever enough.

And if we were being hosted here talking about crushing

both of them, we'd probably be in Barbados or something

and not even.

Yeah, there you go.

There you go.

So what could you both?

We do buy a bunch off the street too.

I mean, I think last month we did like 30 drive or 40

off the street through our ICO program.

So we are doing both.

So somewhere in the middle and or both,

we'd be expat somewhere retired if we crushed it up both

today, right?

Right.

So which scales faster in your both opinion in April of 2026?

If you had to focus on one lane, street purchases

or the service lane, which one could you get up and running

faster?

Both of you had great examples.

Jonathan, you on the street and Greg, you in the drive.

If a GM watching wanted to just scale it quickly,

who could scale faster?

I would think the service lane, you

could scale quicker because the customers are already coming

and they're coming to you.

You're not going out.

So if you have 50 service appointments a day or 100

or 100 fit or whatever the number is,

those are all people that are already coming to see you.

Although I'm going to challenge you because I think

one of the biggest hurdles to service lane acquisition

is mindset of your team and also putting the right plot process

in place where you don't bug the heck out of your customers.

And you got to solve for both those you have.

But that's not easy.

It's not simple.

It's not easy, right?

So correct.

But I want you to do that.

I mean, the service lane, you get a retail trade 90%

of the time, most of them are in wholesale.

And you get a retail deal out of it

versus going and buying a car off the street.

You're just getting one deal when you get a service acquisition.

You get two.

Yeah, yeah.

Jonathan, has your mind changed?

It's definitely catching a customer

at a different point in their cycle or their ownership time.

It's where when guests are coming in,

being able to be on a Honda that has a phenomenal resale value

and you can swap keys like that with great programs,

that's very, very easy.

From a luxury standpoint, we would love to do that.

But GM and Cadillac haven't won any residual awards

in the last couple of years or anything else like that.

But with my staff, you stress the staff part.

There is a confidence that is instilled within our staff

when they feel like they're the customer.

And it's a role reversal standpoint.

And customers then are trying to do what we do for a living.

And they've already ran into some experiences

where they want a customer to meet them at Cabela's

in a parking lot at 9 o'clock at night or something.

And it's just not working.

Yeah.

So Jonathan, tell me this.

You bring up residual values.

And I think it's an interesting comment.

We had the head of GM on this show at NADA.

And he talked about their discipline in production.

And there are some OEMs that are overproducing today.

We could probably list those off.

They've gone into stair step and some pretty extreme methods

to try to move inventory outside of demand.

GM, it seems, is exercising a lot more discipline.

Would you rather have more new cars

or would you rather have them protecting,

or at least making efforts to protect residual

by limiting production?

And do you think that will work long term, Jonathan?

I think through the last seven or eight years or so

when we've had COVID and microchip shortages,

and now the war and gas and oil and everything else,

the cure for us not having high volume new car leasing,

the answer has been CPO.

And the answer has been these cars.

So I think from an affordability standpoint,

especially at this time in age right now,

if we were to, we have about a 60 day supply

of new cars right now.

If that, we're still doing a lot of ordering every month.

Those orders are coming in fairly quick,

but we only, we probably have a 10 day market supply

of escalates, which can help drive that demand on new cars.

But I think our answer to volume is CPO use sales

because we don't have those lease programs that are there

because we don't have an over day market supply of stuff.

It's new like with the CPO, right?

It is new like.

It's previous to Android.

Yeah, yeah.

Mar48 comes in, says 58th Street purchases last month

from an Arizona store.

So he's definitely seeing your side.

And then I've got a Mannheim comment

we'll bring in towards the end of the show today, but.

All right, question for both of you.

You give me your perspective on this.

We'll start with Jonathan and then Greg.

So who has the biggest advantage for the rest of this year?

2026 dealers with strong fixed ops, well run, well executed,

or aggressive acquisition teams?

Let's put those two ideas against each other.

Jonathan, first up, I guess the first way to think of it

is if you're signing the front of the check

or the back of the check, right?

So with market day supplies being down a little bit,

that demand being there, but fixed absorption

and whether there's any ways to retain more profit

on your service side with affordability

and the average transaction prices on a used Cadillac

being a 47 grand and brand new being a 72 grand.

I would think definitely net bottom line

would be on the fixed off side.

But I do think that the percentage of our internal

that pushes all of those KPIs comes from Street purchases.

You want both, you want both sides.

All right, Greg, give me your take.

Strong fixed ops or aggressive acquisition?

Strong fixed ops all day.

You know, I'm a fixed ops absorption guy.

Let's make sure we're absorbed.

There's so many ways to dial in fixed ops

that people are missing to just get a little more juice

out of the squeeze.

And I think a lot of dealers miss it.

And I think it's a huge opportunity for everybody.

But if you can get your fixed dialed in,

you got nothing to worry about.

All right, so question for both of you as we wrap up today.

And again, thank you both for being on.

What are dealers getting wrong about used cars today?

In April of 2026, we'll start with Greg then

and with Jonathan.

What are they getting wrong?

They're still buying cars at the auction,

paying too much for them, and having those CR issues.

And I think that a lot of dealers struggle

with shop to lot times.

And they're still, if they actually looked at the numbers,

it's taken them 10 days to get this car merchandise.

And that's 9th grade.

Too long.

So way too long.

When I look at it for us, our break even

is right around 27, 28 days.

So if it takes 10 days to get a car to the front line,

that's a third of the time I have to sell a car.

So we're right around three days.

I wish it was better.

But that's where we're at right now and in something

we're consistently pushing.

And Greg, you got a comment from Gainzo too.

My guy Greg, great GM and great leader.

So Jonathan, thank you.

How good for an ADA Academy within.

Great guy.

Very cool, very cool, very cool.

Jonathan, your perspective.

Yeah, so I think ultimately, if we're

going to miss an appraisal from a competitive store

or a CarMax or something else like that for $500,

and then have a sloppy process where our holding cost

is going to be greater than what we missed with the appraisal

on in the first place, it's just pride at that sense.

And I think the momentum that could be built from not

missing that street purchase or that service lane purchase,

that energy and that competitiveness that will then

breed within our team is just not missing opportunities.

I love it.

Jonathan Baird, used car director, John Elway,

Cadillac, Greg Johnson.

Repeat return on Daily Deal Live.

General Manager, Mohawk Honda, thanks to both you gentlemen

for coming on the show to talk about all things used cars,

fixed ops, and the like.

Thanks for being here.

Awesome, thanks for having us.

We appreciate it.

And to you, our Daily Deal Live audience,

it's thank you for being here on April 1st, April Fool's,

and it's not a joke.

For heaven's sakes, go outside if you're able.

If you're in the view, line a site.

Watch this thing go up into space.

Take humans around the moon and back.

It is an extraordinary feat by any measure.

Otherwise, you can go to NASA and watch it online.

To you, thanks for watching Daily Deal Live,

where we always break down the biggest moves in the car

business as they happen as we did today.

Don't forget we're here live every Monday, Wednesday.

That means we'll be back this Friday, 1 PM Eastern.

And we got a special guest for you.

Excited to bring that up.

So if this is your world, hit like, hit subscribe.

Turn on those notifications so you never ever miss a beat.

We'll see you next episode.

Thanks for being here, everybody.

About this episode

Daily Dealer Live tackles used-car strategy and fixed-ops leverage, framed by a big “vision vs. optimization” rant tied to an Artemis-era moon launch. Jonathan Baird (John Elway Cadillac) explains how his team buys CPO inventory via a “street purchase” program where all staff chase off-auction deals, using incentives and fast merchandising to beat recon surprises and auction condition-report variance. Greg Johnson (Mohawk Honda) details a service-to-sales handoff that converts warranty RO customers using transparent appraisals, greeters, and service advisor buy-in—hitting 75 service-drive acquisitions in March. They also debate used EV demand, residuals, and scaling street vs. service-lane acquisition.

Artemis program automate appraisals Colorado marketplace CPOs discrepancies with the CR EV Facebook Marketplace Girwati Auto Group grill Hello Auto Group

Mercedes-Benz GLE Mercedes-Benz SL

Original notes

Today's show features: - Jonathan Beard, Used Car Director at John Elway Cadillac  - Greg Johnson, General Manager at Mohawk Honda Check out Car Dealership Guy’s stuff: CDG Circles ➤ ⁠https://cdgcircles.com/⁠ CDG News ➤ ⁠https://news.dealershipguy.com/⁠ CDG Jobs ➤ ⁠https://jobs.dealershipguy.com/⁠ CDG Recruiting ➤ ⁠https://www.cdgrecruiting.com/⁠ My Socials: X ➤ ⁠https://www.twitter.com/GuyDealership⁠ Instagram ➤ ⁠https://www.instagram.com/cardealershipguy/⁠ TikTok ➤ ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@guydealership⁠ LinkedIn ➤⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/company/cardealershipguy/⁠ Threads ➤ ⁠https://www.threads.net/@cardealershipguy⁠ Facebook ➤⁠ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077402857683⁠

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