“Dealers Are Fed Up!” — Inside the Automaker Squeeze, FTC Crackdown and an Industry on Edge | Matt Bowers, Todd Blue and Andy Wright
Car Dealership Guy Podcast
Car Dealership Guy Podcast Apr 14, 2026
“Dealers Are Fed Up!” — Inside the Automaker Squeeze, FTC Crackdown and an Industry on Edge | Matt Bowers, Todd Blue and Andy Wright

“Dealers Are Fed Up!” — Inside the Automaker Squeeze, FTC Crackdown and an Industry on Edge | Matt Bowers, Todd Blue and Andy Wright

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“Dealers Are Fed Up!” — Inside the Automaker Squeeze, FTC Crackdown and an Industry on Edge | Matt Bowers, Todd Blue and Andy Wright
Brand

Ford

Ford is a major everyday car brand. In this conversation, it’s grouped with other mainstream brands to explain what they mean by “mainline” dealerships.

Brand

Chevrolet

Chevrolet is a big, mainstream car brand. Here it’s mentioned as an example of the kinds of brands that sell through regular dealerships.

Concept

geography

Where you sell cars changes how easy it is to move inventory and what prices you can get. California, for example, has different buyers and rules than many other states.

Brand

Land Rover

Land Rover is a luxury SUV brand. People usually associate it with comfortable rides and strong off-road ability.

Concept

EVs

EVs are cars that run on electricity instead of gasoline. The speakers are saying the industry spent a lot of money on EVs, which may have changed what cars are available to buy.

Brand

Mercedes

Mercedes is a well-known car brand. They’ve been putting a lot of effort into making electric versions of their cars.

Company

private equity

Private equity is a type of investor that buys companies with the goal of making them more valuable over time. In car retail, that can mean owning dealership groups or backing companies that run them.

Oldsmobile
Car

Oldsmobile

Oldsmobile was a car brand owned by General Motors. In the past, dealers often focused on selling one GM brand, like Oldsmobile, in their local area.

Concept

ice vehicles

ICE vehicles are regular gas or diesel cars. The phrase is used to contrast them with electric cars.

Concept

negative equity

Negative equity means your current car is worth less than what you still owe on it. When you trade it in, that gap often gets added to the new loan, making the new car more expensive each month.

Company

Edmonds

Edmunds is a car research website that tracks pricing and market trends. Here, they’re being used as the source for the numbers about how common negative equity is.

Concept

rolling that forward

“Rolling it forward” means the extra amount you owe on your trade-in gets added to your new car loan. So you can end up owing more than the new car is worth again.

Concept

trim levels

Trim levels are different “packages” of the same car—some have more features than others. If the automaker changes what’s included, they can make the car cheaper to build and easier to buy.

Concept

supply shortages

A supply shortage is when there aren’t enough cars available. When that happens, prices usually stay high because buyers have fewer choices.

Concept

OEM partners

OEM partners are the car companies themselves—the ones that make the vehicles. The idea is that dealers can’t fix pricing alone; they need the automaker to help too.

Term

OEMs

OEMs are the companies that actually make the cars. Think “the automaker,” not the dealership.

Concept

OEM brands

An OEM is the company that actually makes the cars. When they say “OEM brands,” they mean the car brands the dealer sells for.

Term

GPS

GPS in a car helps you find where you are and where you’re going. It’s basically built-in navigation.

Part

ABS brakes

ABS is a safety feature that helps your brakes not lock up. That means you can usually steer better while braking hard.

Concept

UAW

UAW is a workers’ union in the U.S. auto industry. The point here is that labor costs and agreements affect whether companies build factories in certain places.

Term

CarPlay

CarPlay is Apple’s way of showing your iPhone on the car’s screen. If lots of cars use the same CarPlay setup, they can start to feel the same instead of unique.

Brand

Tesla

Tesla is referenced as the benchmark for a screen-and-software-first approach to vehicles. The speaker argues that some automakers are copying Tesla’s model, but they personally prefer cars that feel connected to the road and driving rather than “transportation” as an app-like experience.

Concept

Instagram, TikTok, YouTube

The speaker highlights social media platforms as the modern “voting” mechanism for dealership visibility and customer engagement. For dealers, consistent short-form and video content can directly influence lead generation and showroom traffic.

Company

trynomad.co

That’s the website they mention if you want to learn more about the company they’re promoting. It’s basically where you’d go to check out their service.

Concept

stair step programs

A stair-step program is a sales bonus system with levels. If a dealer is close to hitting the next sales target, they may be able to offer a bigger discount right then.

Concept

market share

Market share is how much of the market a brand sells. If the automaker wants to sell more cars, it tries to increase its share.

Concept

consumer experience

This is about how the customer feels about the buying process. If prices change depending on timing, it can feel unfair and make people angry.

Concept

inventory levels

Inventory levels are basically how many cars are sitting around to be sold. Too few cars means lost sales; too many cars means money gets stuck and discounts may be needed.

Concept

franchisees

Franchisees are the local dealership owners who run the brand’s stores in their area. They’re responsible for day-to-day operations and follow the brand’s rules.

Concept

dealer partners

Dealer partners are the local dealerships that sell the cars for the brand. If the automaker changes the sales model, those dealerships can lose money or control, so the relationship matters.

Company

Carvana

Carvana is an online used-car retailer that sells vehicles directly to consumers. It’s mentioned alongside Tesla as part of the broader shift in how cars are bought and sold.

Term

aggregator sites

Aggregator sites are websites that collect lots of car listings in one place. The key point is that dealers can’t assume only their own website will be checked—third-party listing sites may be monitored too.

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