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Car Guy Coffee Podcast Live from NAMAD 2025: Vegas. Special Guest Matt Jones “60,000 Customers”
Car Guy Coffee Podcast Live from NAMAD 2025: Vegas. Special Guest Matt Jones “60,000 Customers”
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About this episode
Live from NAMAD 2025 in Vegas, Matt Jones shares insights from a study involving 60,000 customers, revealing that the buying experience often matters more than the car itself. He emphasizes the importance of customer control and independence in the purchasing process, highlighting a shift towards online retailing. The conversation dives into the evolving landscape of car buying, generational differences in car ownership attitudes, and the need for dealerships to adapt to customer preferences. The episode is filled with engaging anecdotes and practical advice for automotive professionals.
Cars:
Chevrolet Traverse
Car Guy Coffee Podcast Live from NAMAD 2025: Vegas. Special Guest Matt Jones “60,000 Customers”
Welcome to the Car Guy Coffee Podcast. Kickstart your day the right way and join us as we tap into the brightest minds and most passionate voices across the automotive world to bring you the education, motivation, and inspiration you need to thrive. From the showroom floor to the service lane, prepare to Upshift and Uplift your perspective.
In this next episode of our Mini Series “NAMAD 2025 Recap”, Lou Ramirez and Fred Leonard are excited to welcome Matt Jones as we discuss the significance of understanding consumer behavior and adapting sales strategies accordingly.
📲Stream it. Share it. Let's Brew.
Don’t forget to share and subscribe!
carguycoffee.com
certifiedsolutionaries.com
Welcome to the Car Guy Coffee Podcast. Kickstart your day the right way and join us as we tap into the brightest minds and most passionate voices across the automotive world to bring you the education, motivation, and inspiration you need to thrive. From the showroom floor to the service lane, prepare to Upshift and Uplift your perspective.
In this next episode of our Mini Series “NAMAD 2025 Recap”, Lou Ramirez and Fred Leonard are excited to welcome Matt Jones as we discuss the significance of understanding consumer behavior and adapting sales strategies accordingly.
📲Stream it. Share it. Let's Brew.
Don’t forget to share and subscribe!
carguycoffee.com
certifiedsolutionaries.com
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Term
NAMAD
"OK, so first, this is NAMAD, the 45th victim. And for those who don't know, I think NAMAD is probably Automotive's biggest secret. National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers."
NAMAD is a group that helps car dealerships owned by minorities. They work to make the car industry more diverse and support these businesses.
NAMAD stands for the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers. It is an organization that supports minority-owned dealerships and promotes diversity within the automotive industry.
Car
Chevy Traverse
"But there was a person who bought a Chevy Traverse. And they lived in West Virginia."
The Chevy Traverse is a large SUV that can carry many passengers and has a lot of space for cargo. It's designed for families and long trips.
The Chevy Traverse is a mid-size SUV known for its spacious interior and family-friendly features. It offers a comfortable ride and a variety of tech options, making it popular among families.
Term
model year miles
"So I looked at the fact that she was getting model year miles in price. And I did a search, like, within 50 miles of her zip code."
'Model year miles' means how many miles a car has been driven since it was made. It's important because it helps people understand how much wear and tear the car has.
'Model year miles' refers to the mileage on a vehicle that corresponds to its model year, indicating how much the car has been driven since it was manufactured. This is an important factor in determining a car's value and condition.
Term
scarcity
"So it wasn't because of scarcity, right? Ella pricing was around the line with her pricing at home."
'Scarcity' means there aren't many of something available. In cars, if there aren't many of a certain model in an area, it can make that car more expensive.
In the automotive context, 'scarcity' refers to the limited availability of a particular vehicle model in a specific area, which can affect pricing and purchasing decisions. When a vehicle is scarce, it may command a higher price due to demand exceeding supply.
Term
shipping
"But when she had to pay for shipping"
'Shipping' means moving a car from one place to another, which can cost extra money. This is important to know when buying a car that isn't nearby.
In the automotive industry, 'shipping' refers to the process of transporting a vehicle from one location to another, often involving additional costs that can affect the overall price a buyer pays for a car. This is particularly relevant when purchasing a vehicle from a distant dealer.
Term
adaptive cruise control
"...Let me tell you why adaptive cruise control is something that you're gonna want on your drive from Los Angeles to San Jose."
Adaptive cruise control helps you keep a safe distance from the car ahead by automatically changing your speed. It makes long drives easier because you don't have to constantly adjust your speed yourself.
Adaptive cruise control is an advanced driver assistance system that automatically adjusts a vehicle's speed to maintain a safe distance from the car in front. It uses sensors to detect the speed and distance of other vehicles, allowing for a more relaxed driving experience on long trips.
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What's going on, CarGuy's and CarGuy's?
It's the Ramirez, the CarGuy.
It's brother in-art subprime.
Here we are.
And we are having a great time at NAMAD in Vegas
and having an awesome time with this guy that just
rocked the mic, the one, the only, Matt Jones.
What's up, brother?
Matt Jones, that's right.
Brother, I love you.
I love you, too.
Love you.
I appreciate you so much.
Thank you.
We just watched you on stage.
And you brought so much amazing data using
60,000 different customers who did an online experience.
And there was so much stuff that I took away from that.
I know it's going to help me be able to service
my customers a little bit better.
And I know that the people that were in that room
are excited to be able to go back and implement that
in their stores immediately.
Because it's a big deal, what you talked about.
And to know that we still need people.
And people still want to deal with people.
At the end of it all, they're going to most likely wrap it
up with people.
And I was one of the data points that I really absolutely
love.
But man, you killed it up there.
But we were just sitting here talking.
And you were talking about how your level was a little bit
because you wanted to be so precise on stage.
And you knew that you were in front of people
that you absolutely cared about.
So tell people why the nerves came up
right before you went on.
OK, so first, this is NAMAD, the 45th victim.
NAMAD, right?
And for those who don't know, I
think NAMAD is probably Automotive's biggest secret.
National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers.
And for those people who don't know,
this is not a place exclusively for minorities,
first and foremost.
There's about 1,300 people here.
I'd say it's an even mix that probably represents America.
But the focus point here is getting and expanding
and retaining minority dealers and helping people get better.
With that said, the brains that show up
to this particular conference are incredible.
You hear data points from places standard and poor.
Chase, just had the CEO of Techion on stage after me, right?
The information level that you get here is so high.
It's so strong that if you don't come with the right kind
of game, you're exposed here, right?
You're exposed.
And we've all been to conferences where it's like,
OK, that doesn't happen here.
So I was very nervous to be on the same stage
with these other powerhouses.
But nobody died.
The sun is still shining.
So it worked.
I think you did amazing.
I've watched a lot of presentations.
And you'll always go up and rock.
Any time that I've had a conversation with you,
brother, your passion just shines through,
even if it's just with a handshake.
Your passion inside a handshake is phenomenal.
So I know that your passion was on stage.
But no, again, thank you for that data,
because it's really going to help a lot of people.
Thank you.
I think so.
And it's to your point, there's
new world that's emerging.
About two years ago, I don't know if we talk about it
as much as we should have as an organization.
But about two years ago, we did a study of about 1,500
in-market car shoppers.
This had nothing to do with digital retailing.
We talked to people who had just bought a car,
had bought a car six months ago,
or were planning a buy car in the next six months.
So real people, these weren't even true car shoppers.
And we asked them all sorts of questions
about what their hot buttons were.
And we uncovered that 25% of those people said, for them,
the way that they purchased their vehicle
is actually more important to them
than the exact right car or the exact right price.
And it's an oddball statement.
But I think of like, in real life,
not everybody cares about cars.
There is probably somebody in the world
who really cares about the refrigeration.
Oh, yeah.
I don't.
I want it to be silver.
I want the doors to open like this.
I want the little water thing there.
And I want it to fit.
I don't care about brand.
I don't care about its lead.
I don't care.
I don't care, right?
There's people who feel like that about our industry.
Apparently, there's a lot of them.
So when I think about, I don't need a mic.
But if I did, you know where I'd go buy it?
Because I don't care about mics.
Amazon.
Amazon.
Because that's my preferred way of transacting.
Yes, that's all right.
So there's people who feel the same way about cars,
because they just don't care.
So you take that piece of data,
and then you merge it with the information that we've
learned from the 60,000 car shoppers
who've gone through our digital retail platform.
And it actually proves out.
These buyers don't care about the car.
They don't care about speed.
They don't care about the right, the best deal.
All they care about is I want to buy the car the way that I
want.
I want to control the process.
I want to feel independent.
And these people plop down their money for it.
But the interesting thing that surprised all of us
is that for every one person who said
I want to buy the car completely online,
five people went in store and bought that car.
Now, so to that stat, and I'm glad you brought that up.
That was what made my head go wild.
I was like, wow, that's crazy.
But it's not just a one in five for people buying cars.
It was one to five of people that
started their path inside of a digital retail stage.
Absolutely.
And so this is what we're summarizing, OK?
We've created an environment where the customer can come in
with no conversation, no guardrails.
It's a pick your own adventure.
We'll run your credit.
Sure.
We'll give you a real approval.
Sure.
We tell us your down payment?
Sure.
On this car, at the dealer's terms, sure.
You got all this stuff.
And it comes down to, with your interest rate,
with your price, with your down payment,
your payment is $489.
And they print that document straight to the store,
and they buy it.
And they buy the exact same car.
Now, since we were all talking
about only a quarter of people generally prospect
and buy the same car, these people are 80% of what they do.
80% of what that means?
Wow.
I'm protected.
I'm done.
This piece of paper means I'm done,
because if they didn't feel that way,
normally they're going to be like everybody else,
and they're going to bounce to different cars.
These people are like, nah, nah, this.
Nobody does that.
So that behavioral of start here, finish in store,
was really strong.
And honestly, we didn't expect that.
We weren't even looking for that.
The only way that we found it is we
did a data merge with that dealership group,
and we saw, look at all these people who
bought your product that never prospected in your CRM,
that we thought they had dropped off,
and it was for a year, months after months,
and it stayed at five, five to one.
It's nuts.
I think that's amazing.
But the one that actually bought all the way through,
those guys and gals, they're buying back end products,
doing all those things at the click of a button.
We see it with companies like Carvana and all of them
who are just crushing it on front and backside.
So people are like, how are they doing it?
Because they're offering it to them.
They're not selling it to them.
There's a difference.
They're showing value and saying, hey, do you need this?
It's no different than Amazon saying, hey,
you want to put insurance on this product.
They click a button and there you go.
Absolutely.
We have some, I don't want to dig too deep in it
because I'm not sure how deep the data set is.
But we do have data that when you service
like a back end product, and you give a person time
to think about it, they might buy it.
As opposed to the traditional environments that we've been in.
Right now, we're never supposed to be quick.
It's got to be quick.
You're introduced to something that costs thousands of dollars
and you're given like five minutes to make a decision.
And you might make that decision.
But it's like, ah, I'm a little off-kilter.
I'm a little rest versus you put that in front of somebody.
They got a couple of minutes to mull it over,
talk to their wife, talk to their friends,
talk to their neighbors.
What do you think about this?
Yeah, I got it.
It was a good deal.
I'm going to sign up for it because we're seeing a buyer.
And you shared a time on it.
Usually, we're trying to get the customer out
of the showroom hour and a half, three hours.
You said that the average person doing it this way
takes about 15 hours to get everything loaded.
That's 15 hours just to load their stuff.
Right.
After they've got their approval.
And then wait for the car.
Yeah, and then you still got to wait for the car.
Right?
And you know what they're doing?
They're like, OK.
I'm cool.
That's fine.
I got my car.
And so the stats in the data
shows that it's not about the speed of the process.
It's a group of people.
With this group of people, you're right.
Because everyone's different, right?
You're 100%.
I'm a little different.
You're a little different.
But at the end of the day, with these 60,000 people
who started their online voyage through,
it wasn't a speed thing for them.
It was about getting what they wanted at the time they wanted
it and feeling comfortable about it.
And it wasn't a price thing.
Oh, I saw that, too.
That's huge.
I had a person.
And I didn't want to really talk about on stage
to talk up too much time.
But there was a person who bought a Chevy Traverse.
And they lived in West Virginia.
Now, I remember my pilot dealer is in Central
California.
So this person is literally across the country.
Wow.
So she buys a Chevy Traverse where she's about to.
And I'm watching this whole deal happen in real time.
And I'm like, are there no Chevy Traverses in West Virginia?
So I looked at the fact that she was getting model year miles
in price.
And I did a search, like, within 50 miles of her zip code.
It was plenty.
So it wasn't because of scarcity, right?
Ella pricing was around the line with her pricing at home.
But when she had to pay for shipping
to get the car from across the country, she paid more.
And so we're seeing over and over and over and over
for these people, I want control and independence.
It's not a function of price.
It's not a function of time.
It's not a function of the car.
They're buying these cars the same way that I would buy this.
I need something that solves my transportation
or microphone needs.
And that's how they act.
But that's a fundamental challenge for any of us
that are trying to communicate,
trying to help out a customer,
trying to help them do what needs to be done.
Because really, the hardest thing for a person to do
is get over the hump of decision.
Once they get over that hump of decision,
they make a choice.
They choose what it is that they want.
Then they pace it their way.
Us in the car business and retail, we're like, hurry up.
You're under the ether.
You're in the moment.
We've got to hurry up and get you out.
But they made a decision.
Tomorrow, right.
Because they're afraid to lose the deal.
But the customer is only, they take their time
to figure out what's best for them.
And when they make that decision, they're OK at coasting.
If they don't need the car yesterday.
That's exactly right.
And if we look at the real world,
I was at a concert on Sunday, a local concert.
And who was the concert?
Who was it?
It was actually a, what do you call it, a tribute band.
OK.
It was a tribute band at Amy Winehouse.
OK.
It was great.
But I happened to live in a postal city.
And it was on the beach.
And I said, I can't say no to this, right?
OK.
So the performer was like, I didn't know
how this was going to work.
Because before the show, we had only sold 30 tickets.
But at the door, we sold 140, right?
Great news.
But what that means is you have 170 people who
were all going to the same destination, 40 of them were
like, I need to get ahead of this.
The other 130 were like, nah, I'll just go.
I'll just go.
I'll get it when I get there.
That's the world, right?
So I can't impress my world upon you.
And it's not going to work.
And you can't impress your world upon me.
It's not going to work.
We have to be thoughtful.
One of the reasons I think I was successful
as a salesperson, I was an internet salesperson.
And my fewest success was I matched and mirrored
the way the person talked to me on my lead.
If I sent the response back to their lead request,
and my response is this big old thing,
and they hit me with two lines, guess
what my responses are going to be?
Two lines.
If they hit me with a novel, guess what they're getting?
They're getting a novel, right?
Because I don't matter in this.
I got to talk to them in their love language.
That's right.
And talking to people in love language can do time.
Their love language could be leave me alone, right?
And what we found is that's a quarter of the people
who buy cars today, right?
Yeah, so I'm glad.
Hey, there's my name on staging them.
I'm glad that we've got a chance to talk about it
because I say this with the utmost love.
And I wish I would have said this on stage.
Everybody's attributing online buying to EVs.
I wish I would have said this on stage.
That's not our case.
Less than 7% of the deals were EVs.
Because it's not an EV thing.
It's a generational thing.
It could be a generational thing.
It is a generational thing.
My son, I love him to death.
He's the most important thing on the university.
I don't know if he really cares about cars
like I did when I was his age, right?
And I don't know if he and his girlfriend,
if they ever have kids, I don't know if their kids
are going to feel the same way about cars
that he felt or I felt.
So are they going to want to be?
Let's go.
They're going to get it like the same way
I buy a fridge when I freaking get to it.
So you explained something that we attribute to.
We try to preach this everywhere we go,
is that a person isn't necessarily just buying a car.
We are transportation problem solvers.
You brought that from the stage and explained that.
That a lot of the times, the customers
aren't even sticking to one particular brand.
They're open to different brands.
They're stretching themselves in what's out there.
But I'm with you.
There is a different time.
Cars, the EVs, all these.
There is a different, I guess the word
would be like attraction to the awesomeness
in the automobile.
But I think almost the more quiet a car gets,
the less interested we get.
Man, this doesn't have that rumble that we're looking for.
I got this that I love, OK?
He is in his 80s.
He's done everything that Americans are close to do.
He went to school.
He went to college.
He got a good job.
He met his lovely wife at that job.
They've been married for 45 years.
When he retired from his job at IBM, he said, you know what?
I'm going to teach physics at the local college
because he's a smart cat.
And his wife, my aunt, she retired.
She decided she was going to go teach calculus
at the local high school because she's a smart person as well.
OK, nowhere in this did I say anything about cars, right?
But my man says, you know what?
It's time.
I deserve me something hot, fast, and sexy.
And he's got the means, and he's retired, and he's earned it.
So he goes to buy a particular two-door American sports car.
My uncle tells me, because I'm the car guy in the family,
he said he walked in to go buy.
I've known this name plate since the 60s.
And he walked into this dealership,
and he wanted to go buy that car that has that name plate
that he's been admiring since the 60s.
He didn't treat him well.
So you know what he did?
You know what he did?
He went to the same auto law and bought another luxury
fast two-door car on the top of the dime.
Does that man care about the car?
No, no, because he was totally experienced.
And he is the person that we sometimes forget, right?
We have to create that experience for my uncle, right?
And my aunt, we have to create those experiences for them
in our tool chest of experiences that we offer for people
based on what we learned by interviewing them
and monitoring how they talk to us.
We match in mirror, we match in mirror.
And I don't know that we do a great job with that.
I know that we do a great job of following the process.
And maybe within that process, maybe step one,
maybe step zero should be,
hang on, how's this person coming at you, right?
How do they talk to you?
I'm a man of many words.
What?
You give me a salesperson who says, yes, no, maybe.
That ain't gonna work for me.
No, I hear you.
But if you give me a salesperson who's,
oh, I got you, man.
Let me tell you why adaptive cruise control
is something that you're gonna want
on your drive from Los Angeles to San Jose.
This is how it works.
Tell me more.
That's me, right?
It's got adaptive cruise control.
That ain't me, right?
But that might be fine for my sister.
You gotta figure out who your people are.
And what we're identifying is,
I love that.
People want if some people will buy your product.
They don't really care what your product is.
They ain't even focused on the price.
If you give them the opportunity
to do it the way that they want.
And online seems to be one way.
It's one way.
It is, it's one way.
But on the screen, man, like Tesla did 630,000 cars
last year called, I wanted it 415,000 cars.
I didn't even talk about Carnax's business.
I didn't talk about anybody else's business.
It ain't everybody, but it ain't nobody.
Right.
That's a million people.
It's a lot of people.
It's a lot of people.
Yeah, and I, who knows what digital retailing
is gonna end up.
I think it's gonna have a firm place in our business.
I agree.
I think it's going to.
I agree with that.
And I'm gonna be eyeballing it
and I'm gonna be watching it.
And hopefully I get opportunities
to share some of this information
because if you're not in the game,
how would you know that it skews mail?
Exactly.
How would you know that it skews minority?
Right.
Like, while.
So I hope to keep sharing this.
I love that.
I have 60 plus in both those categories
we've talked about in that situation.
Yeah, alibis was over 60% male
and over 60% people who'd be considered ethnic minorities.
But when we watch the commercials
and we see what we're basically talked about,
it's generally not that.
Yeah, right.
100%.
And so, those people exist,
but these other people exist too.
And large numbers.
Large numbers.
And I love you said,
you want to change your bottom line
and just get a little bit more market share.
There it is right there for you.
So get more digital and go out there.
I'm gonna tell you,
if you guys are looking for someone
that can partner up with you,
get what you're part of.
They know what's going on.
They're always trying to help.
Again, they're not there to sell you.
They're there to solve some problems for you,
much like he talks about the sales people
should be doing today.
So true.
You guys make that connection happen.
You're dynamic.
You're dynamic.
Everything, man.
I appreciate you.
Since the day we first met you, man,
you've been nothing but in support of what we do
Why wouldn't I?
You guys are dope.
Right?
Listen, if you weren't dope,
I wouldn't care.
But speaking of dope,
this is a dope event.
There is.
And you're talking about,
you're talking about family.
You're talking about the right people.
This is our first time being at this event.
And we should have been here a long time ago.
But so tell us,
how long have you been coming to these?
This is my fifth year.
Fifth year.
This is my fifth year.
Yeah, this is my fifth year.
And I won't miss this particular conference.
Because like even from a pragmatic standpoint,
some of the other conferences,
like they may beat this conference by numbers.
Right?
But as far as access, right?
As far as access to people.
So I could talk to dealership group heads, right?
I could talk to bank heads.
We took the OEMs.
I could talk to OEMs.
I could talk to people who are just like me.
I could talk to dealers.
And when you're here,
everybody feels like we're in a fraternity
or a sorority.
We're all connected.
I feel that way already.
I feel like I was accepted and it gave me a handshake
immediately when I walked in.
All you have to do is be here.
All you have to do is be here.
If you show up, you're accepted.
Nobody checks your credentials.
Nobody cares who you are or what you do.
If you've taken the time to come be in this environment,
that's for everybody,
you're immediately part of this club.
So I just had a conversation
with a legend in this automotive space.
You saw me talking to him, right?
Would I have had that space
necessarily some of the other conferences?
I don't know.
No, probably not.
But here I'm just sitting down
and we're having coffee together and it's great.
So this is a place to be.
If you haven't been here and you can't get here,
shame on you, but if you can't get here,
follow the org, sign up to be a member at least.
Get on the newsletter, read the magazines,
follow the leadership on LinkedIn
and at least get a taste.
But if you're following this dude
and you're following this dude,
then you trust what they say
and they're telling you this place is phenomenal.
This is where you need to be.
Come on, and you're so right.
And it's because of people like you
and so many others that are out here
really trying to make a change
and really trying to bring some information
that's gonna shift your dealership.
And that's what you do.
And that's why this guy,
as amazing as he is as a speaker,
even getting in front of his peers,
he wanted to bring some flavor for them
and make sure that they left it with a full
of stuff to go back and forth to their team.
So man, thank you so much for that.
Thank you so much.
My man.
You are the man.
You know what we do before we get out of here.
What is it?
We gotta drop some F-bombs.
We dropped F-bombs, man.
And F-bombs, you know all the top of the bombs, right?
You know the moves.
These are not the F-bombs
and the moms, everybody.
You already know that, right?
It's to forgive, focus, fly and keep growing.
So I'm gonna go ahead and drop the mic over here.
Let's do it ahead and get the moves out.
Hands on the shoulders.
Some of us can't do that.
I'm with you.
I'm with you.
Here we go.
On three, one, two, three.
To give, focus, fly and keep growing, keep growing.
Thank you so much, everybody.
We are live out here right now at Name At.
You're probably not gonna see this live,
but it's all okay.
We do have an incredible speaker out here.
He's just a great car guy that's just connecting people
all the time.
We're honored to have you on the show.
Ladies and gentlemen, the one,
the only,
Matt Jones.
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