They’re using a website search tool to look up cars dealers still have on the lot. They filter the results so they can compare how many older “new” cars are still unsold.
Dealer inventory just means the cars a dealership currently has available to sell. If they don’t have the model you want (or only have a few), sales get harder.
Supply and demand is the basic idea that people want cars, but the market only has as many cars as manufacturers can deliver. If there aren’t enough cars available, dealers can’t sell new ones easily.
Production constraints are reasons factories can’t make as many cars as they planned. If cars can’t be built, dealerships end up with fewer vehicles to sell.
Concept
model-year rollover
Model-year rollover is when carmakers switch from one model year to the next. If the new cars show up late, dealers can’t sell the newest year right away.
Different brands can have different amounts of unsold cars sitting on lots. If a brand has more leftover cars, it’s more likely you’ll find better deals.
This means some brand-new cars from the 2025 model year are still unsold on lots. Because they’ve been sitting there, the dealer may lower the price to sell them.
Incentives are deals that help lower the price of a new car. They can show up as rebates or cheaper financing, especially when cars aren’t selling as fast.
“Better rates” means the loan interest is lower, so the car costs less over time. Dealers often get more aggressive with financing offers when cars have been sitting.
“Aged inventory” just means cars that have been sitting at the dealership for a long time. The longer it sits, the more likely the dealer is to offer a better deal.
A “stock number” is the dealer’s internal identifier for a specific vehicle in their inventory system. It helps shoppers and sales staff quickly reference the exact car being discussed, especially when comparing multiple listings.
The Ford Maverick is a small pickup truck. In this conversation, it’s an example of a truck that’s been sitting on the dealer lot for a very long time, so it’s likely priced to move.
In automotive retail, “merchandising” is how a dealer presents and markets vehicles—pricing, photos, listing details, and how they’re positioned to attract buyers. The host is implying the dealer’s approach to presenting an aged unit affects how it sells.
A courtesy vehicle is a temporary rental the dealer gives you. It’s often used while your car is in the shop, and that can mean the “new” car was driven or sat around longer than you’d expect.
A loaner program is when the dealer lends you a car for a short time. If a “new” car was used as a loaner, it may have been driven or tied up for a while before it was sold.
“Days old” here means how long the car has been sitting around since it was new. The longer it sits, the more likely the dealer will lower the price to sell it.
Term
XLP
XLP sounds like a trim or option level on the Maverick. The transcript doesn’t fully explain what it stands for, so it’s hard to be certain from this clip.
Lariat is a higher trim level, meaning the car usually comes with more features than the base model. They’re using it to show that some Mavericks get expensive.
“411 days” means the car has been sitting at the dealership for a little over a year. The longer a car sits, the more likely the dealer will be to accept a lower offer or add incentives to sell it.
The Bronco Sport is a Ford small SUV. They’re using it as an example of cars that have been sitting at the dealership for a long time, which changes how willing the dealer is to move on price.
“Turn inventory quickly” means selling cars off the dealer lot faster rather than letting them sit for months. Dealers often have financial pressure to reduce aging inventory because holding cars ties up cash and can lead to bigger discounts later.
Interest is the extra money you pay for borrowing. If the dealer keeps a car on the lot longer, the borrowing cost keeps adding up until the car sells.
Term
incentivized
They’re motivated to sell quickly because keeping cars sitting costs money. The longer the cars sit, the more it hurts financially.
If a car sits on the dealer lot for a long time, it can mean it’s not selling easily. That might be because of the price or because the specific options/configuration aren’t what most buyers want.
This is a Lincoln Aviator SUV in the highest “Black Label” trim. The “Black Label” version usually comes with nicer features and costs more than the regular versions.
Within the top “Black Label” version, this is a special edition with extra features or styling. Those added items can make the car more expensive and sometimes harder to sell.
A “full rear console” is the big, feature-filled center area for the back seats. It often adds storage and convenience features, which is why it’s considered a luxury upgrade.
“Reserve” is a mid-to-upper trim level for the Aviator. It’s positioned between the regular versions and the top Black Label trim in terms of features and price.
Here, “sticker” means the car’s official listed price (the price printed by the manufacturer). They’re saying the dealer had to advertise it at that exact listed price for a while.
These are special marketing rules for the Black Label cars. The dealer had to follow them, and for a while they could only show the official listed price online.
MAP pricing means the manufacturer sets a minimum price that dealers are allowed to show in ads. Dealers might still be able to sell for different amounts, but they can’t advertise super-low prices right away. It’s meant to stop everyone from undercutting each other publicly.
OEM is the car maker itself—the company that builds the vehicles. Here, the OEM sets the rules for how dealers can advertise prices. So dealers can’t always advertise big discounts immediately.
Minimum advertised pricing is the rule behind MAP pricing. It limits how low dealers can advertise a car for, so big discounts may not show up publicly until later. That can change what you see when you search online.
“Call for price” means the dealer doesn’t list the exact price in the ad. Instead, you have to ask for a quote, which can help them follow the manufacturer’s advertising rules.
A “pressure test” means “let’s see if this holds up when we check it.” The dealer is basically verifying whether the host’s guess about car counts is accurate.
Dealers often track how many cars they have compared to how fast they’re selling. A “two month supply” means they have enough cars to cover about two months of sales at the current pace.
This is another way of saying how many cars the dealer has relative to how quickly they’re selling them. “Three month supply” means they’re stocked enough for about three months of sales.
This is the 2026 Mazda CX-5, a compact SUV. The dealer is talking about how people are reacting to it, including a noticeable change to the gear shifter/knob.
That’s the part you use to choose gears (like Park, Drive, and Reverse). If Mazda changed or removed the familiar knob, some people don’t like the new feel or look.
Unsold cars are the ones sitting at the dealership that haven’t been bought yet. Dealers usually want to sell them quickly so they don’t keep piling up.
A “factory rep” is someone from the car company checking on how the dealership is doing. The point is the automaker wants the dealer to sell the cars, not just keep receiving more.
It means the dealer has too many cars sitting around compared to how many people want to buy right now. That usually makes it harder to sell cars without lowering the price or adding deals.
“Days supply” is basically how long the dealership’s current stock would last if sales keep going at the same pace. If it’s high, the cars aren’t selling as fast, so discounts tend to increase.
“Miata” is a Mazda roadster (a small two-seat sports car). Here, they’re saying there are more of them sitting at the dealership than normal, so discounts and deal-making get more aggressive.
The Mazda CX-30 is a small SUV. They’re using it as an example of a car that’s not selling quickly, so the dealership has a lot of them sitting around.
Term
authorized to do
Dealers often set rules for what salespeople are allowed to approve. This part is about how much discount or deal-making power the sales team actually has.
The Supra is a sports car from Toyota with a focus on performance. The podcast is talking about how long cars like this sit in inventory, using “days supply” as a measure. If it’s over 90 days, it’s considered higher than average in that discussion.
“Day supply” is a way to estimate how long the cars on the lot would last if sales keep going at the same rate. Less than 60 days means they don’t have many cars sitting around.
The Lincoln Navigator is a large luxury SUV. It’s built to be comfortable and roomy, especially for families or groups. The podcast mentions it as part of a discussion about how to explain Lincoln options to customers.
Concept
inventory has grown
This means the dealer has more cars than it used to. When that happens, they usually have to start pushing harder to sell them so they don’t pile up.
An internet lead is someone who reaches out to the dealer online—like filling out a form or asking about a car. It’s basically a potential buyer the dealer can follow up with to try to make a sale.
Gross profit is the money a dealer makes from selling a car, before paying the dealership’s other bills. If prices get cut to move cars, the gross profit per car usually goes down.
Commission is the part of a salesperson’s pay that depends on sales. If each car sale makes less money, their commission may shrink unless they sell more cars to compensate.
MSRP is the “sticker price” the manufacturer sets for the car. It’s used as a reference point, so when someone says “X% off MSRP,” they mean cheaper than that sticker price.
The FTC is a U.S. government agency that protects consumers from misleading advertising. Here, they’re talking about rules that make dealers show pricing details more clearly.
A dock fee is money the dealer charges to cover the car’s shipping/arrival costs before it reaches the dealership. It’s one of those extra fees that can raise the final price.
They’re saying the dealer changes the car’s advertised price periodically, not just once. The longer the car sits, the more likely they are to lower the price to attract buyers.
Invoice is basically what the dealer pays to get the car from the manufacturer. People use it to judge whether a discount is truly a bargain—if the sale price is below invoice, the dealer may be making very little money.
Holdback is money the manufacturer pays the dealer after the car is sold. It can make the dealer’s real profit higher than what you’d guess from the sale price alone.
These are fees for paperwork—getting the car registered and the title processed. They’re usually not optional, but you should know the exact amount before you agree to the deal.
Dealer installed options are extras the dealer adds to the car. Since the dealer is the one adding them, the cost can be higher than you’d expect—so make sure you see the price breakdown.
Accessories are extra add-ons for the car—like add-on equipment or packages. They can be legit, but they can also be used to raise the price, so check whether they’re truly optional.
“Out the door price” means what you’ll actually pay at the end of the deal. It includes the car price plus things like taxes and fees, so it’s easier to compare two dealers.
Concept
job one
In car manufacturing, “job one” means the top priority—what the factory is mainly focused on building. The comment suggests that priority has changed.
Leftover inventory refers to unsold new vehicles sitting at dealerships or in the distribution pipeline. When inventory builds up, manufacturers and dealers are more likely to offer bigger incentives to move those cars.
Memorial Day weekend is a big holiday time when lots of people shop for cars. Car companies and dealers often run stronger deals during that period to attract buyers.
That’s the price the dealer puts out where shoppers can see it. If the dealer can’t change it, they may be stuck marketing the car at a number that isn’t working.
These are set rules for how the dealer changes the price. In this case, they lower it on a schedule (every 30 days) and can go lower if the car still isn’t selling.
LIVE
It's noon here in Venter City, New Jersey, and our nation's capital, Washington, D.C.,
and this is Car Edge Live for Wednesday, April 29th with your host, me, Ray, here in my living
room in Venter and Zach hanging out somewhere in Washington, D.C. I'll keep it brief today.
How you doing, Hanson?
Doing fantastic.
Thanks so much everyone for tuning in for another episode of Car Edge Live.
We appreciate you being here with us, Dad.
Here's the deal.
Yes.
We're going to be talking about how dealers can't sell unsold new cars and got a great
guest.
Before we bring in our guest, a friendly reminder, today's show is brought to you by CarEdge.com.
Me, my dad and our incredible team provide car buying services and car buying support
back at CarEdge.com.
Learn more at CarEdge.com.
Dad, let's bring in a guest of the channel, a friend of ours at this point, Joe Lewis
from JC Lewis.
Joe, introduce yourself to our community.
While you do, I'll pull up your website, jcleous.com, folks, but Joe, introduce yourself, please.
Glad to be a friend.
Glad to be on the show.
Thank you, Chefskis, for having me as always.
I'm the general manager and fourth generation Lewis at the JC Lewis Motor Company.
We've got six stores.
I managed two of them, the Lincoln and the Mazda, Dabble and Ford a little bit, do whatever
I'm told.
Glad to be on the show.
For all of you who are interested, Joe's down there in the Savannah, Georgia area.
If you're interested in anything you hear today, reach out to Joe and his team and let
them know.
CarEdge.
Dad, let's start here.
You and I, for many weeks now, I think we're even going on months, have been talking about
unsold new cars.
Joe, what we do is we do this live experiment every time we talk about this topic, which
is we go to the CarEdge car search and we toggle new cars for sale nationwide that are
still 2025 or older.
There are 210,000 of them nationwide.
What's interesting, Joe, is that this is disproportionately a Ford problem when we start
to break it down.
I'll scroll down here and show you.
Here we go.
Make.
You can see Ford has 81,000 of those unsold new cars.
Talk to us a little bit about what you're seeing at your Ford dealerships.
Are you seeing some unsold 2025 still out there?
Yeah.
No.
Luckily, we don't have too many of them.
I think the last to look, we had 28 between our four Ford stores on the lot, which is
a good bit, but it's April and I'd like to think that we're going to have a couple months
to sell these.
If you're a car shop and the best deal is to buy a car that's now a year and a half
old, it's still got the rates, the incentives, all that fun stuff on it.
Can I ask a silly question?
Yeah.
What are you, and I know you're primarily overseeing the Mazda and the Lincoln store,
but what do you attribute that to on the Ford side of things that they should have so many
2025s nationwide?
Is it that they produce 2025s much later into the year than they would have in the past,
or was it sales were just off?
Yeah.
No, I think it's a combination, but I think it mainly boils down to production and constraints
and supply and things like that.
You know, obviously in a perfect world, they would like to be completely sold out of these
and having just 26s on the lot and starting to get the 27s and the funnel to come on the
lots later this summer or fall, but that's not the way it always works, and it's harder
a lot of times for the bigger manufacturers like, I was just talking to Zach before the
show, Mazda is almost completely sold out of 25s.
I'd be curious to see how many are nationwide out there.
Yeah, let's look at that because you said, Joe, we don't have any of them.
Yeah, yeah, you have zero 2025 Mazda's for sale right now.
Is that correct?
Yeah.
And it looks like nationwide.
4,000.
Yeah, there was 4,000.
So that's not bad.
No, really not bad.
So what does that make for car shoppers out there, Joe?
Explain to us a little bit because we're going to turn our attention here in a second
to some of your oldest most aged vehicles.
You sent over some screenshots before the show, so we're going to turn our attention
to these here in just a second.
But before we do, what does it mean for car shoppers if there are brands out there that
have lingering 2025s, have lingering on sold, the inventory versus brands that don't?
Like if I'm a Mazda shopper versus a Ford shopper right now, does the market look different?
Yeah, it looks way different.
You know, I mean, if you can find the 2025 Mazda in the lot, there's typically going
to be better incentives, better rates on those cars.
They're going to be sitting there for a longer amount of time, so the dealer is going to
be eager to get rid of them.
You're probably going to get a better deal on them.
And same thing with Ford, even though there's a lot more of them.
You know, these dealers don't want to continue to hold on to these cars.
They're still new, but they've been sitting there for a year.
So you're not going to have as big of a selection as you will if you want to go in and buy a brand
new 26. But if you're hunting for the deal, find leftover 25s.
And that's where the best deals are going to be.
Yeah, if you're hunting for a particular vehicle in a particular color with a particular set
of options, that becomes difficult.
But if you are looking for the biggest savings and you're open to color and options, then
looking at a leftover, again, most dealers are extremely motivated to finally get rid
of those, I would think.
Yeah, absolutely.
Let's talk about some leftovers.
So like you said, Joe, J.C. Lewis, you all have six dealerships.
You've been on the program many times.
This is for what it's worth, Car Edge Community, the type of transparency that just makes my
heart full and makes me happy.
I asked before the show if Joe would take a screenshot of his most aged inventory on
the Ford side across the whole dealer group and the Lincoln side and also on the Mazda side.
And here we go, Joe, we're on the Ford side first.
And everyone can see here the column that says age, the column that says year, and the stock
number.
So I've pulled up a few of these over on the J.C. Lewis website.
Let's start here.
Let me find it.
We've got, ah, that's this Ford Maverick.
This Ford Maverick has been sitting on your lot for what did it say?
It was like 450 days or something like that, so 411 days.
Too long.
That's how long is that?
Help us all understand this here.
This is how you guys are merchandising it.
It's a courtesy vehicle.
You've got a $3,000 discount, $2,500 in incentives.
Help us understand why this hasn't sold.
What goes through your mind and the dealer group's mind here for this particular vehicle?
Yeah, you know, what goes through my mind is, you know, first off, it's black.
You know, it's the right color.
You know, it's not some strange red or green or yellow or anything.
You know, my assumption not being involved in Ford as much is there was probably a recall
that prevented it from being sold for a while.
You know, it could have been 100 days old when we put it in the loaner program and then
it could have sat in there for a little while.
So maybe it didn't come out and was available for sale till it was 200 or 300 days old.
I don't know the specifics, but it is a, as far as Mavericks go, it's on the higher end,
you know, at 38 grand MSRP.
So that might be part of the reason, but can we hit on that just for a second?
The Maverick is like the best selling, you know, new, new hot thing that Ford has, but
it's because it's affordable.
I didn't even know Mavericks to get up to $38,000 MSRP.
That's an XLP.
You can, you can hit 40 with the Lariat.
Holy cow.
That's expensive for a Maverick.
Yeah.
So 411 days, there's a lot of incentive to get rid of this thing over on the Ford side.
100%.
And, and, and let me ask you a silly question, Joe, with, with the discounts and the
incentives, it's advertised at $33,281, and, and you can choose not to answer this because
you don't work at that store.
But if somebody came in and made a reasonable offer slightly below that, considering the
fact that the vehicle has been there for 411 days, do you think your counterparts at the
Ford store would probably maybe perhaps accept a slightly lower offer than what it's advertised
for?
I don't want to speak for them.
They would certainly entertain it, but, but if you, if you call me, I'll, I'll certainly
work you heck of a deal, I'm all in.
I'm sorry, diplomatic Joe.
Can you actually do one more thing for me, Joe, here, which is I'm just going to pull
the list again.
So you've got 411 days on that Maverick.
We've got a Bronco sport here, and we're going to switch over to Lincoln in a second
because that's actually where you have your oldest post-age unit.
Here's that Bronco that's been sitting for 411 days as well.
And then we've got another Bronco sport that's been sitting for 337 days.
It's this one.
Help us all understand, we've talked about it, me and my dad ad nauseam for years now.
There is not an incentive on your side to hold on to cars that long.
Can you explain the financial incentive to actually turn inventory quickly?
We'll look at the Lincoln next.
I think that'll be a good parlay into your situation with Mazda right now, what you're
seeing there.
Yeah, you know, a lot of people don't realize that we don't own this inventory
outright. You know, we don't when Ford drops, you know, a truck load of cars off,
we don't write them a check for three, four hundred grand for all the cars on the
truck. We floor plan it.
It could be with Ford credit.
It could be with a number of different banks.
But, you know, we're we're paying six or so percent interest in all these cars on
these millions of dollars of cars we have in the lot.
So every day that those cars sit there, we're paying interest.
So we're incentivized to sell them as fast as possible.
Sometimes there's programs like if you sell them within the first 30 days, you
don't pay any floor plan.
After that, it starts adding up.
So, you know, a car that's been sitting here for four hundred and eleven days,
we've we've paid a lot in interest to hold that car here.
If I may, many customers would then think and you can you can help them
understand why their thinking is incorrect.
But many, many customers would then think, well, because you have all this added
costs in floor plan interest over those four hundred and eleven days,
why would they want to discount the car to get rid of it?
So could could you explain to people why it becomes incumbent upon a dealer
to just eat the loss and move on with life?
Yeah, you know, I've I've always said that if a car has been sitting there,
you know, every now and then there's a chance that just we haven't had the perfect
buyer come in for that black and black Maverick XLT.
But, you know, sometimes there's a reason it's been sitting there that long.
Maybe it's just a weird configuration.
Maybe it's the most expensive in that model lineup.
Usually there's a reason it's sitting there.
Got to get rid of it.
And then my my other best analogy is if, you know, your dog uses the bathroom
in the living room, do you want to clean it up right away or do you want to wait
a week? You know, it's going to get worse.
The longer you wait, so you need to just get rid of it.
Yeah, it makes sense.
I like that. Yes.
Speaking of getting rid of it, Joe, you oversee the Lincoln dealership.
This is going to be a hard screen to look at, but let's spend a moment on it.
I've worked hard on this list, too.
Yeah, what goes?
Yeah, so let's actually do two things.
What goes through your mind when you see this?
We're going to talk about stock number LA 5006.
It's been on your lot for 506 days.
And you just said something that I think is so and you had a visceral reaction
to it, too, which, again, is the transparency for the car edge community.
You're looking for transparent, honest dealers.
Joe's a great example of that.
You were visibly upset right there, saying I'm working on it.
You don't want to see cars sitting on your on your lot for 293,
320, 343 and 506 days.
I'm going to pull this up on the screen.
Here's your here's your 2025 aviator black label that's been sitting for,
you know, a year and a half now with you talk us through this.
So, you know, this one in particular,
you know, one of the reasons why it might be it might have sat for a while is
as far as aviators go, if you went and built a 2025 aviator,
this is probably the most expensive one you can build out.
And not only is it a black label, but it's on the it's on the higher end
of the black label.
It's got the black label special edition.
It's got the full rear console.
It's got the Asher Gray metallic paint, which is a 750 ad.
So, you know, when when a tip when you can buy a reserve aviator,
which is the the nicer trim level aviator for high 70s, low 80s,
you know, this one's ninety seven five.
So it's it's it's on the higher end like we were talking about earlier.
But, you know, it is the it is the the right color, you know,
dark gray with black interior is usually a pretty easy sell.
And then also a good thing to note is that black labels were not allowed
to advertise anything but sticker.
So for probably a year that we had this car,
we had to advertise it at sticker on our website per link in black label rules.
And then as soon as they took that away, because like over 50 percent
of the 25 aviators had had sold nationwide or whatever the number was,
I massively discounted it online.
And then about a week or two ago, I discounted it another 1500 bucks.
I mean, right now it's almost I think it's around two grand below invoice
on our website right now.
You know, just wait for just waiting for the right person to see it.
There's so much to dig into there because map pricing is literally what
most people don't know what map pricing is.
We should explain that to you.
You contractually could not advertise
an aggressive price until the OEM realized, oh, crap,
we've only sold half of our inventory.
We've been screwing our partners, the dealers.
Like that's something that a lot of people in the college community,
dad, you and I don't talk about map pricing, minimum advertised pricing all the time.
Joe, did you like double down on that?
Like you literally couldn't merchandise that at an aggressive price until more recently.
Yeah, you know, I mean, it's it's it's one of those double edged sword things.
I think, you know, manufacturers do it to protect the value of their cars.
They don't want, you know, dealers racing to the bottom, advertising low prices
and then hitting the consumer with a ton of fees and all this stuff
that we talk about all the time.
But it's it's also really tough when I've got a $97,000
aviator black label that I that I know is going to be difficult to sell
once it comes on the lot.
And I've got to wait, call it a year to advertise that car aggressively.
You know, you're you're hoping that someone clicks on it or calls in on it,
hoping to negotiate with you.
But but, you know, and even cars that aren't black labels.
So say you're looking at a normal Lincoln or a normal Mazda or a normal Ford,
you know, you're not allowed to discount it under X percent of MSRP
until the manufacturer tells you you can.
Is is there a way around that in the sense for the black labels
where you can't advertise it for less than MSRP?
Is it just the way to say, hey, call for price?
Are you not allowed to do that?
Or yeah, no, you can you can say call for call for price, request more info,
get personalized price like we have in our website.
But you just can't physically advertise an actual price that's lower
than MSRP on the black label.
Yeah, that that has to make your on a specialized vehicle like that,
where you're looking for a particular customer.
And let's face it, there's not going to be a lot of people
that would would be interested in spending close to $100,000.
It's it's got to be difficult from your perspective.
Yeah. And I saw when you looked at the list as well.
I mean, to look at that and go, oh, geez, it's been there five hundred days.
It's yeah, it's you know, when you're thinking yourself,
well, it better not have a birthday or a half.
It better not have two birthdays.
It is it is one of the more frustrating aspects of trying to manage inventory
when sometimes you make a bad bet as to what vehicle
you should bring on to the lot.
Yeah, no, you're spot on.
And a lot of times you don't even have the chance to tell the manufacturer
yes or no, they just send it to you and your jobs to sell it.
Yes. Yes. It's nice.
How have I put that on your shoulders?
I know, right?
Joe, let's switch gears here a little bit again for anyone who's watching tuned into this.
Yeah, this is a general manager who gets grilled, joining us here in car
Edgeland every once in a while and keeps coming back for more.
So you got to appreciate Joe's willingness to share the details of what's going on.
There are multiple link.
It's let's switch gears and there are multiple forwards.
Let's switch gears down.
Let's talk Mazda Joe.
I'm going to put myself on the spot here for a second.
I did a little analysis of your new and used car inventory
and let's see how close my numbers are to your numbers over at the Mazda store.
I've got you with maybe between new and used, maybe like 270 ish vehicles
between new and used.
I don't know.
You'll you'll you'll pressure test me here in a second.
And I'm seeing that most of them are moving pretty quickly again across new
and use that seems like an awful lot of cars.
How many cars are on the Mazda lot right now?
Do you have a lot of inventory?
What's been going on on the Mazda side of things?
So our Mazda and Lincoln used cars are blended.
So you might be seeing both of those combined.
I've got late.
Let's go to Mazda.
I've got 100 and 176 new Mazdas on the lot right now.
And used cars combined, I probably have about 60.
So, you know, they're call it half of those are at Mazda stuff.
I've got over 200 cars over there.
So talk to us a little bit about that.
That seems like an awful lot of inventory at your dealership.
Where does that fit relative to where you've been historically running that
miles to dealership?
Yeah, you know, historically, I've been closer to a two month supply of inventory.
So, you know, if I sell 60 new Mazdas a month, two months would put me at 120 cars.
And I've been barking up all of my Mazda reps trees and, hey, I need more cars.
Get me to that two and a half, three month spot.
So I've got more cars to sell and they answered.
You know, they've flooded us with inventory in the last couple of months.
So I'm sitting pretty close to a three month supply right now, which I'm which I'm
happy about, you know, it's it's springtime.
The rates are good.
The rebates are good.
I think it's a good time to have a lot of inventory.
But at the same time, you know, it puts pressure on you because you know,
you've got to move it because now, you know, speaking earlier about floor plan,
now I know my floor plan expenses is going to be 30 percent more than it was six months ago.
So we got to we got to get them out of here.
How's the it has the has the new 2026 CX five arrived at the dealership yet?
And I'm pretty sure it has.
And how how have those been received in comparison to the previous generation?
They've been received well, you know, the they've they've gotten increases
on the MSRP versus the 25s, which you would expect with all the new technology in them.
But, you know, we we sold out of the first few.
We got pretty quick and then they've they've been quick to send us a handful more.
So I've got 10 on the lot right now.
Most people are happy about the changes.
Some people are, you know, sad about the the the shifter, the knob being gone.
Yeah, I'm familiar with that knob.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So I mean, that's, you know, Mazda fans have known about that for for a decade or so.
And to see that go away, you know, some people are upset about that.
But overall, it's a it's a car that has looked
pretty much the same since about like 2015 or so.
So it's it's long overdue.
Joe, talk to us a little bit.
So we've got on one side, unsold cars.
We've got on the other side, you were looking for more inventory.
Now you've got more inventory.
It seems like regardless of the scenario, unsold cars where I've got more inventory,
the game for you doesn't change.
You're trying to turn it over quickly.
So I just I always like to come back to that, like,
you know, use your analogy of a dog having an accident in the house.
Either way, you're trying to clean it up quickly.
Like you're just trying to sell these things as fast as possible.
And I think that's like a really good takeaway for all of our car edge
community, doesn't matter if it's been unsold or it's brand new on your lot.
Your incentive is still the same.
Right. Right.
You know, it's when when inventory gets real scarce like it did at one point
during covid, dealers are incentivized to to, you know, hold on to prices,
not discount as much.
Because, you know, if if I sell 60 cars a month and I've got 60 cars on the ground,
you know, I'm not going to want to move as much on those cars
because I'm going to know if I sell 60 cars, I'm going to be out of cars
unless they continue to send them to me.
Whereas, you know, if I've got 180 cars on the on the lot,
I know I need to sell them before they start dropping more off.
So I've got to get them out of here quick.
And I'm pretty sure you don't want your factory rep coming in going, OK,
I got you the extra cars.
Why aren't you selling them?
Right. Exactly. Exactly.
What is what has for traffic been like for you?
Is is this spring so far been what you've expected?
Is it less than what you've expected?
Just just to get like a on on the ground look of what's going on.
Yeah, you know, March, you know, January, February were slow, kind of as they always are.
March was a lot better and April was somewhere in between.
So, you know, we're we're still waiting on the on the year to kind of to kind of
wake up kind of as we always are.
I mean, the car business, it kind of starts in the spring, summer is good.
And then, you know, you finish the end of the year well.
So it's it's up and down, though.
You know, there's just there's just a bit of uncertainty in the
in the economy and politics and war and gas prices.
And you name it, there's just everything's disrupting.
So, you know, we'll have one week that's really, really busy.
And then we'll have one week that's dead.
So it's just kind of it's pretty pretty cyclical.
I want to pull up one comment here from
turbodiesel who always tunes in.
So we appreciate and get you guys one guess and don't want to upset them.
But these are softball questions ready for a fastball, Joe.
Yeah, let's have it.
All right, on the Mazda side, you've got the oversupply of inventory.
Where are you going?
Biggest on discounts.
Where do you have the most oversupply and educated customer comes in?
What type of deal?
Like how much how much do a discount can they really be getting on some of these
new mostas?
Give us as much as you can.
Yeah, so I'm looking at our current most inventory right now.
So days supply, the ones that stand out for the longest.
Miata's up there, but, you know, it's only because I've got 10 of them,
which is way higher than normal.
So let's take that one out.
CX 30, I've got a 200 day supply of 220.
And then an educated customer comes in on a CX 30.
Like what type of deal are your salespeople like authorized to do?
What are you approving?
Like, like let's get into some of the nitty gritty here.
Like, yeah, that's a bad day.
Supply is just too high, right?
Like you don't like all.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
You know, if I've got an average of a three month supply, you know,
anything, any car that's over a 90 day supply is higher than average.
So, you know, my salespeople are probably going to work at the same.
Couple of my more seasoned veterans might work a little differently,
but my myself and my managers know, you know, to get more aggressive
on a car like that versus a 2026 CX5 that I have less than a 60 day supply on.
How?
And what does it sound like at your Saturday morning sales meetings
when when you have a hundred seventy six day supply of Mazda's?
I mean, what what is it that you're sharing with them to to to, I don't know,
maybe light a little bit of a fire under their butt?
The, you know, we got you these cars.
Now we have to move them.
What are you doing to move?
But how are you going to help us get these cars sold?
I mean, what what's working like a true former sales manager right?
You know, you have to, you know, those Saturday morning sales meetings,
you have to have those conversations.
You have to point out like that that Lincoln aviator, you know, you point
that, you know, I need I need you guys to help me move this stuff.
What are we going to do?
How are you going to?
So what what are those?
What are those sales meetings sound like as your inventory has grown?
It's it's similar to the conversation we're having now.
It's it's hey, guys, we've been asking for more inventory for months and months
and months, and they finally gave it to us.
Now's the time to show them, you know, put our money where our mouth is.
You know, we can't get the inventory and then and then slow down.
You know, we've got to we've got to make it happen.
Bring every deal to us.
Bring every every call to us, every internet lead, let us work everything.
The do do the salespeople understand when you have the amount of inventory
that you have that perhaps the average gross profit is going to drop a little bit.
And so the average commission might be down a little bit, but but they'll
be able to make it up in volume.
Do they understand that?
Or is that is that something you have to remind them of on a daily basis?
I think the newer the the newer people, you know, it'll it'll just go right over
their head. But but the people who've who've been in this business for a little
while, I think they do understand it.
You know, you just don't want it to affect them enough where it where it gets
in their head and they start getting worried about, you know, I don't want
to make mitties on every single car I sell and blah, blah, blah, blah.
So, yeah, I think I think some of them are aware.
Now, dad, we got to let Joe get back to actually run his dealership.
But before we do, yeah, he could be doing this, but we've got from Steve.
Notice he didn't say how much he would discuss.
We're doubling down here.
I pulled up a specific car on your website right now.
Let's put Joe on the spot.
And this is incredibly transparent and and like, I don't know how much more
he can do here. So we're on a particular vehicle.
You've got it advertised at what is this?
Thirty one thousand three hundred thirty five dollar MSRP.
You've got it advertised, which now the FTC is mandating.
You have to have your dock fee.
This is this is the average dock fee in the state of Georgia.
So you're at twenty eight thousand six hundred and fifty seven.
Are you going any lower than that?
If a customer calls you today on this or is this with the prices?
Yeah, you know, I've got all of my Mazda inventory set up where like every
thirty days it it adjusts the price.
So if from the looks of that one, it's probably over a 90 day mark,
which triggers, I think, a five percent discount off MSRP.
You know, on a on a six thirty, which is we have a two hundred and twenty five
day supply, I would not mind at all going lower than that.
That's still a great price on that car.
That's still lower than invoice.
But I wouldn't mind at all going to, you know, seven percent or so off MSRP,
which is call it like another six, seven hundred bucks.
There you go, folks.
That's the transparency you want.
Godspeed finding car dealers like Joe and the JC Lewis team would do it.
You come on a YouTube channel and I don't know.
I don't know, Dan, I don't know how you can say that's not a real answer.
He's literally said he'll go to seven percent off of MSRP on a car
that's already under invoice.
I don't know what more you could ask for.
Go to your local dealership and ask the general manager for this info.
He's got he's got laugh at your face.
Is the general manager coming on the internet
doing YouTube videos with two knuckleheads looking at his inventory?
Why like, I don't know.
I don't know, man.
Like that's pretty damn cool as far as I think I think Joe will appreciate this.
There were times that the customers would have no idea
how good a deal they were getting.
Oh, yeah, regardless of how hard you tried to explain to them,
how good a deal they were getting.
It's there's always this something in the back of their head
that says, oh, it could be better than that.
Well, sometimes again, I've got a funny story for you.
You know, and this has happened multiple times.
You know, myself and my managers, we've printed out the invoice from Mazda
and showed it to customers in our showroom and say, hey, look,
you know, invoice on this car is twenty nine five.
We're selling it to you for twenty nine or twenty eight five or whatever the number is.
And most people just think that that I typed that invoice up
a Microsoft Word and printed it out.
You know, yes.
And you can't convince some people, but you know, all you can do is is keep trying.
So well, Joe, we want you to go have a great day.
Now that being said, Steve once said the cost of that CX 30.
So maybe maybe we'll get maybe we'll do next time we have you on the show
or maybe I can convince you that.
Hey, yeah, I mean, next next time next time you have me on,
I can send you the invoice and we can we can break it down and we can break down hold back.
We can break down for like we could break it all down.
There's as far as I'm concerned, I'm curious your take on this.
And then we'll get out of your hair.
I think the information asymmetry is gone.
Like dealers who lead with this transparency, you know,
the FTC is really pushing to get rid of things, which I would like this is the new normal.
And so it'll be interesting.
Hopefully we can convince people, dealers and car shoppers that like you actually
can both have the same amount of information and sell product and be happy.
But it's going to take a lot of work for them.
And it'll be great to get that, you know, get the invoices from you and do all that.
That'll be fun.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And I I see some comments coming in saying, you know, seven to 10 percent below MSRP.
You know, it's easy for a dealership to do that.
What you have to be on the lookout for is what's their dealer fee?
What's their tag title fee?
Are they charging accessories, dealer installed options?
You know, I can show you 10 percent off my CX 30, 31 grand.
I can take $3,100 off, but is my dealer fee $1,400.
Am I charging you $599 instead of, you know, our $139 for tag and title and registration?
You know, so you've got to look at all that stuff.
It's it's easy just to, like I said, you know, show that super, super big discount.
But what's the out the door price these guys always done, Joe?
Always throw in there.
All right, y'all. No, no.
Joe, we appreciate you being here again.
His website, jcluis.com.
If you reach out to Joe and his team, let him know.
Car Edge sent you his way.
Joe, enjoy the day. Thanks so much for your time.
Absolutely. Thank you all. Appreciate it.
Joe, always good to see you.
Yeah, I love being able to talk to more dealers, like good dealers, you know,
folks that are transparent.
Like, yeah, it really, really makes me makes me happy to see the way that they operate.
So grateful, grateful for Joe's time today.
No, absolutely. He didn't.
You know, it's it's the next the last day of the month.
He didn't have to spend time with us today.
So it was wonderful of Joe to do it.
I'm sorry that that people don't always like the softball questions,
you know, but we're not trying to pick a fight with him
because he's always been open and honest with us.
So yeah, but I don't even equate.
I don't think we ask softball questions.
I think we provided good information and then very granular information.
Yes, no, absolutely.
And I don't think asking hard questions is suggesting you want to fight
just that you want information.
So I don't know. I don't I'll rewatch today's show in like a week
and make sure we held our standards.
But I feel good about, you know, the information that we've provided today,
speaking of which, that yes, got a couple of contributions
that have come through the chat first from rich Diane.
Check out the original Ford Maverick sedan.
They were like horse poop back in the day.
Seriously, they were everywhere.
Oh, wow, this is like the most normal car I think Rich has ever sent us.
Yeah, you know, look at that. It's a normal looking car.
Yeah, yeah, no, that was a popular car.
It was relatively inexpensive.
It was a popular car.
It literally was like horse poop.
It was everywhere.
Love that. Yeah.
All right, we've got here from Baron.
Thanks, Baron.
Walter is no longer job one.
Well, not at Ford.
No, it hasn't been for years.
Seen that for a while over at Horkland.
We've got this question that came from David over on Facebook.
What deals will Ford have on Memorial Day?
We'll have to ask that question.
I'll try and get some info on that.
I imagine that Ford's going to increase their incentive significantly
going into next month of all the leftover inventory they have.
I would think they would.
And typically, typically,
most of the manufacturers do up their incentives
when it comes to May and especially for Memorial Day weekend sales.
So I would think there should be some good deals out there at that time.
Road rage saying, where was the transparency?
I don't get this.
This is what frustrates me about what we do, because again,
if you were to walk into a car dealership right now or call a car dealership
and say, hey, I saw you have could you provide me a list with your aged cars?
OK, ask that question.
See what they see if they send you screenshots to.
Yeah.
We ask car dealers for out the door price quotes all the freaking time.
It's about half the time a dealer will even give you a price.
OK, so you want transparency?
Just find dealers who even give you prices at the time.
This guy is literally telling you, hey, there's some manufacturer rules,
why I can't change my advertised price until they realize how much
they screwed up on price and the damn thing to begin with.
And now I can advertise it aggressively.
The other thing he's telling is I have pricing rules set up,
which is literally what we tell y'all, hey, every 30 days, every 30 days,
every 30 days, lower the price.
Oh, and I'll actually be even more willing to go lower than that price.
And he told you exactly how much.
Come on.
Good.
Some people are never going to be happy.
It's just that simple.
I'm sorry. But how about this?
Leave some comments on today's show with even more in the weeds questions.
You want to see us ask dealers that come on in the future?
I want to be clear.
I'm malleable.
I'd like to get better at what we do.
We've been doing it for six years.
I doubt that we're the best version of ourselves.
We'll be better tomorrow when we do our next show.
So please, please, please, please share with us the questions you want
to see us ask dealers that come on and we'll ask them.
We'll see what we can learn.
Absolutely.
OK, pups.
Is that a show?
Yeah, yeah.
Do this again tomorrow.
It's a noon Eastern.
Let's do it again tomorrow at noon Eastern.
I'm looking forward to it.
Yep.
Thank you, everybody, for being here today.
And we look forward to seeing you all back here tomorrow.
Indeed.
Love you, dad.
Love you too, handsome.
If you like the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe.
It really does help the show to grow.
Thank you for listening.
About this episode
A Ford and Mazda dealer walks through how leftover 2025 inventory is shaping pricing, especially on aged Ford units and oversupplied Mazda models. The conversation gets into floor-plan interest, why cars sitting for months have to be discounted, and how advertised deals can be offset by fees and add-ons. It also covers Mazda stock levels, the new CX-5 rollout, and how dealers think about invoice pricing and incentives.
Today on CarEdge Live, Ray and Zach are joined by Joe Lewis from JC Lewis. Tune in to learn more! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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