Car Dealership Guy Podcast Mar 20, 2026

Fixed Ops Friday w/ Carlstedt, Spenst, and Lloyd + Breaking News w/ Andy Wright | Daily Dealer Live

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Company

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

The FTC is a government group that makes sure businesses, like car dealers, are honest about their prices and don't trick customers.

Concept

advertised price transparency

Advertised price transparency means showing the real price of a car, including all extra fees, so customers know exactly what they will pay. The government is making sure dealers do this fairly.

Term

dock fees

Dock fees are extra charges dealers add to the price of a car to cover shipping costs from the factory. These fees can be different depending on where you live and might not always be shown upfront.

Concept

federal vs state regulations

Sometimes the rules from the federal government and the state government don't match. This can make it confusing for car dealers about which rules to follow when showing prices.

Term

OEM rebates

OEM rebates are money discounts from the car company to help you pay less when buying a car. Sometimes these discounts change depending on where you live.

Company

NADA

NADA is a group that helps car dealers by speaking for them and giving them advice. They also work with government agencies to make sure dealers are treated fairly.

Term

Federal Reserve benchmark rate

The Federal Reserve sets a key interest rate that makes borrowing money more or less expensive. When this rate is high, it costs more to get a car loan, which can make buying cars harder.

Term

financing costs

When you borrow money to buy a car, you have to pay extra money called interest. If this interest is high, your monthly payments go up and it can be harder to afford a car.

Term

incentives

Car companies sometimes offer deals or discounts to help people buy cars. These deals make the car cheaper or the payments smaller.

Term

inflation

Inflation means things get more expensive over time. When prices go up, it can cost more to buy cars and other things.

Term

rate hike

A rate hike means the government makes borrowing money more expensive. This can make car loans cost more and slow down buying.

Term

EV consideration

EV consideration means how many people are looking at or thinking about electric cars when they shop for a vehicle.

Term

electrified vehicles

Electrified vehicles are cars that use electricity to help them run. Some run only on electricity, others use a mix of gas and electricity.

Term

battery electric vehicles

Battery electric vehicles run only on electricity from batteries and don’t use gas. You plug them in to charge, and they don’t pollute like regular cars.

Term

hybrids

Hybrids use both gas and electricity to help save fuel. They can run on either or both to go farther and use less gas.

Concept

brand loyalty

Brand loyalty means people keep buying cars from the same company. When it goes down, more people are trying different car brands.

Concept

conquest volume

Conquest volume means how many people buy cars from a new brand instead of their old one. It shows which brands are winning new customers.

Concept

defections

Defections happen when people stop buying from their usual car brand and choose a different one instead.

Company

Cox Automotive

Cox Automotive is a big company that helps car dealers and buyers with things like auctions and car information.

Company

Mannheim Market Report

The Mannheim Market Report shows how much used cars are selling for at big auctions, helping dealers know prices.

Company

Kelly Bluebook

Kelly Bluebook helps people find out how much cars are worth when buying or selling.

Company

VINQ

VINQ is a tool that helps car dealers see prices and market info for cars they want to buy or sell.

Concept

AI-driven predictive market report

This report uses smart computer programs to guess how car prices will change in the future, helping dealers decide when to buy or sell cars.

Concept

vehicle valuation guides

These guides help people figure out how much a used car is worth by looking at past sales and market prices.

Concept

historical data

Historical data is information about what happened before, like old car prices. It helps dealers see patterns but doesn’t always tell what will happen next.

Company

Willis Automotive Group

Willis Automotive Group is a company that owns and runs car dealerships where people buy and service cars.

Concept

fixed operations

Fixed operations means the part of a car dealership that fixes cars and sells parts. They help keep cars running well and make money by doing repairs and maintenance.

Brand

Lexus

Lexus is a brand that makes fancy cars and SUVs. It's part of Toyota and is known for being reliable and comfortable.

Brand

Infiniti

Infiniti is a brand that makes fancy cars with lots of features. It's part of the Nissan company and focuses on luxury vehicles.

Brand

Chevrolet

Chevrolet is a big car company from America that makes many types of vehicles like trucks, SUVs, and regular cars.

Brand

Cadillac

Cadillac is a brand that makes fancy American cars and SUVs, focusing on luxury and comfort.

Brand

Nissan

Nissan is a company that makes many kinds of cars, from regular ones to electric and sporty cars.

LIVE

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Daily Dealer Live.

I'm your host Sam Dark and thanks for choosing to be here on this Friday, March the 20th.

And what a sales environment we're in this March of 2026, week before last the FTC sent

warning letters to 97 dealer groups across the country over concerns that advertised

prices don't reflect what customers are actually paying.

And in so doing, that government agency sent a warning shot out to the entire industry.

The agency laid out six specific practices that considers illegal things like advertising

prices that exclude mandatory fees.

Fees like dock fees that have baited this past week in auto circles has been robust.

For example, in states where dock fees vary widely from $90 to hundreds of dollars.

And there's some states where dock fee disclosures on state rules are supposedly prohibited

altogether.

So which supersedes federal rule, state rule, who's right, who's wrong?

And then what about my zip code based OEM rebates?

There are many questions this week across the retail automotive landscape.

NADA President Mike Stanton is meeting with the FTC next week representing dealer's interests.

NADA is then doing a dealer webinar with a senior FTC attorney on Monday, April 6th to

demystify a little bit of this Monday, April 6th, 1pm Eastern.

Same time, we're live.

So you'll have to do a split screen if you want to attend both.

Go to NADA.org and scroll down the page for the webinar and to register.

We're also inviting right here right now the Trump appointed FTC head Andrew Ferguson to

join us on the show.

Come join DailyDeal Alive.

We'll give you our loyal listening audience updates on that and keep you current, of course,

on this entire topic as it continues to evolve.

We have got a huge show today.

Ryan Carlstead on taking service from a 10 grade to an 11.

Darren Spence on hidden money sitting inside your vendor contracts.

And Wes Lloyd joins the show on scaling service across seven rooftops.

Plus, we've got a super secret dealer guest on today sharing a perspective on a breaking news item.

So first, let's hit today's auto industry headlines.

Up first this week, the Federal Reserve held its benchmark rate steady at 3.5% to 3.75%.

And for dealers, that means, as you know, the environment you've been navigating doesn't

get any time, it doesn't get easier anytime soon.

Financing costs stay elevated, affordability stays tight, and most buyers are affected

with this payment sensitive and lower credit customers who are already stretched.

Moody's analytics summed it up well.

Dealers aren't leaning harder on incentives, rates of venture in longer terms just to keep

payments manageable, especially on new vehicles where prices are still historically high.

Looking ahead, the Fed is projecting one cut in 26, possibly another in 27,

but between the Iran conflict pushing oil prices up and inflation still running warm,

even that timeline is not guaranteed.

And as an aside, looking at the markets right now live,

markets this afternoon seem to be suggesting a rate hike.

The markets seem to be preparing for that.

Next up today, Edmunds is out with another week of data showing EV consideration continuing

to climb alongside gas prices.

Electrified vehicles hit 23.8% of all vehicle research on their platform for the week of

March 9th through the 15th.

That's the highest weekly level of 2026 so far and up from 22.4% the week before.

Most of that gain was driven by battery electric vehicles specifically,

not just hybrids.

The caveat is still the same one we flagged last week.

GMCFO said the automaker hasn't seen a major sales impact yet.

An analyst generally say it takes four to six months of sustained high oil prices

before buying behavior actually shifts.

Sometimes true, but not always.

Many of us remember back 08, how quickly that turned.

In other words, dealers will probably see more cross shopping conversations on EVs

and hybrids in the near term, but not an increase in closed sales.

Sticking with consumer behavior next up today, S&P Global is out with data showing industry

brand loyalty fell to about 51% in 2025 while conquest volume rose for the fourth consecutive

year and defections are approaching 4 million households.

That means nearly half of all owners who came back to market last year switched brands.

For dealers, that means more shoppers are open to being won over than at any point in recent memory.

And that the stores most aligned on their targeting, trading strategy and outreach

are best positioned to turn those defections into conquest wins.

And last up today, breaking news from CDG.

This just in this morning, Cox Automotive is ending its licensing agreements for

Mannheim Market Report and Kelly Bluebook data within the VINQ platform this effective March 31st.

That means native access to both indexes goes away inside the tool,

though dealers can still reach them through the direct links.

VINQ says they're replacing it with an AI-driven predictive market report

launching April 1st focused on forward-looking wholesale projections rather than

historical transaction data.

And remember, right now we're streaming across all social media platforms.

Push your comments in.

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

And since this item is hot off the press, we wanted to bring on a dealer

to get their initial reaction to the news.

So let's get into that right now.

Let's turn to our first guest up today, Andy Wright, Managing Partner at VinArt dealerships.

Andy, welcome back to the show.

Sam, how are you?

Good to be with you.

It's good to have you here.

You've been on the show previously.

We appreciate you coming back to share with us this breaking news.

So tell us, walk through us exactly what's changing for dealers April 1st.

What does day-to-day look like now versus then?

Sure.

So basically what happened was Cox Automotive informed the guys over at VinQ

that they're no longer going to be sharing information

that is fully integrated into the VinQ platform from the Cox Automotive ecosystem.

So it's confirmed that that includes Mannheim Market Report data.

That includes Kelly Blue Book data.

And supposedly, and I'm pretty sure that this is the case,

it's going to include Auto Trader, VDP, and SRP data.

So it's not that dealers won't have access to this information.

They just won't have access to it natively speaking within the VinQ platform.

And really the big story here is just the friction that that introduces, which is unfortunate.

And I think it's emblematic of problems that have existed in retail automotive,

at least in the 25 years that I've been doing this,

whereby we have these large companies that control so much of the ecosystem.

And they're able to make decisions like this today that negatively impact

not only the dealer experience, but the customer experience.

Because with the increased friction being introduced,

it's just going to make the customer experience more challenging

for those of us that are using VinQ.

We'll get through it.

But it's just unfortunate because there's really no plausible explanation,

or I should say there's no express explanation for why.

I think we could all speculate.

But I guess that's for another time, maybe.

So to the point, so VinQ cox owns Viado, which is its competitive product.

Is there precedent across other competitors to Viado,

where cox doesn't allow MMR or KBB to flow into those tools via an integration?

Or have they shut down all of those?

Of the competitors that I'm aware of, yes,

they have had those data sharing license agreements.

Because again, it's my understanding that companies like VinQ or Accutrade

or any of these other companies that are out there that do ingest this information

from the cox ecosystem, that they're paying a licensing fee for it.

And dealers are paying for this information.

We all subscribe to Mannheim to gain access to market report data.

We subscribe to Kelly Blue Book to have access to that data.

And I want to be clear.

We still do have access to it.

But the bottom line here is that this move on the surface does not appear

to be rooted or substantiated by any type of legal threat or by security threat

or anything along those lines.

It appears to be on the surface just a move to enhance cox automotive's

position with their Viado platform over VinQ.

But again, that's speculation.

You'd have to ask the people at cox automotive why they're doing this.

Hopefully they'll come out with an explanation.

But on the surface, it just appears to be for reasons that are not good for dealers

and for consumers.

So that's unfortunate, especially given the fact that this information has already

been in the platform.

So why take it out now?

Yeah.

And cox, we've not approached them to ask for their feedback on this yet.

But has cox provided a response to why they're making this change?

Or has VinQ signaled what triggered it?

Not necessarily, no.

I can't say that they have.

I haven't seen anything directly from cox.

And there was a letter that was sent out by Danny Z and Chris over at VinQ to VinQ users.

The letter was dated yesterday.

It was I received it via email overnight.

And yeah, it's just a really unfortunate situation.

And again, as someone that's been doing this 25 years and has battled the challenges posed

to technology and technology infrastructure that dealers like myself and others use to operate

our stores, it's just unfortunate whether it's third party companies that act as gatekeepers

to these manufacturer certified programs or situations like this where big conglomerates

like cox that control so much of the information that is important to retailers and is used by

retailers, decisions like this that get made are just unfortunate.

And frankly, I think they're unnecessary.

And until such time as they give us a realistic, understandable, substantive explanation,

this is just this just smacks of the company that's concerned about competing effectively.

You know, it's interesting.

We had Brian Benstock on the show a couple of few months ago prior to NADA and he announced

and he showed everyone, our audience, a service drive tool.

And he basically took three companies, asked them to all come together, work together,

share data, share technology and techniques.

And actually, it was a big lift getting those three CEOs of companies to work together.

But what they created on the flip side of that was truly elite and it served Brian's customers

in a unique way. Is that the future of successful collaborations and automotive?

And is this, does this die eventually this?

Because this is the argument in automotive today.

It's the argument over technology and data.

Who owns it?

Who should have access to it?

And should there be a cost to it?

And will that data be allowed to flow into competing systems?

This does not, you know, at face value without, again, a response from Cox,

doesn't appear to be, it seems like it harms the customer experience, not helps it.

Yeah, absolutely. 100%.

I mean, I think at the end of the day, companies like VinQ that are progressive,

that are forward thinking, that are innovative, they're out there in the marketplace.

They're trying to make the solutions that we use to service our customers, to run our stores,

better, more efficient and more productive.

And they have a demonstrated track record of doing that.

That's why they have been so successful

and added dealers at the level that they've been adding them lately,

because they're checking all of those boxes.

And then, you know, if we turn our sites towards this issue of data,

and who owns it and who accesses it, you know, the funny thing about this case is,

it's not like data was being accessed through subversion or through nefarious means.

There were licensing agreements in place.

There was money that was exchanging hands.

The VinQ system was functioning properly and efficiently.

And now this condition has been introduced,

which is going to compromise that to a certain extent.

So it's unfortunate, but VinQ is prepared.

They've responded appropriately, as they always do with innovation,

and that's encouraging.

But again, I think the real takeaway here is that this is just another example

of an unfortunate situation that is emblematic of the challenges

that we face in retail automotive as franchise dealers,

where these companies either have too much control or there are gatekeepers,

and there's constantly friction being introduced into the system

when we need to be working to take friction out of the system, Sam.

And I know we've talked about that previously, and I stand by that.

Yes. So you said this is a move by Cox.

I'm reading into it.

It's a competitive move to restrict VinQ and restrict their product.

Is it possible it was a business decision?

Is it possible it's related to data access or maybe some sort of an agreement?

I mean, we just don't know, I guess, at this point.

It's a little early, but VinQ is not signaling on their end.

What prompted this?

Yeah, that's correct.

I mean, to be clear, I don't have any information one way or the other.

All we're talking about here is peer speculation.

So again, I think it would be prudent to invite the folks from Cox Automotive

on the program and let them explain the decision, and let them explain why this

was necessary and why this was ultimately good for competition and for the marketplace

and for all the reasons that we would like to think and hope they make decisions like this.

But again, I'd have to defer to them.

Everything else is peer speculation.

So, Andy, for that dealer who's with VinQ, who got this information,

who decided, and actually, that'd be, I guess, the next question,

not having easy access to MMR and Blue Book data information sitting or Kelly Blue Book

sitting in the VinQ app, how much natively, how much extra time does it create?

Like, what is the cost to the dealership to not have that accessible natively?

And then for the dealer sitting on the fence, do you stick with VinQ or do you say, hey,

having that ease of access is worth going back to Viato or a different platform that has access?

How long does it take?

And then how should I be thinking about that choice?

Yeah, I mean, from my perspective, I think that as a VinQ client, I look at it.

I'm disappointed, obviously, but I'm also heartened by the way they've responded.

They've responded again, like I said earlier, like they always do with the type of innovation

and support that we've grown accustomed to as VinQ clients.

And I think that if you're someone that's on the outside looking in, meaning you're not a VinQ

client, I think it might be reason to say, oh, my goodness, what are these guys doing

that have cocks so sideways?

It must be something that's pretty special.

If all these dealers are making the move, maybe it's something that I should be looking at.

And I think as the tool grows in prominence and grows in usage across the dealer network out

there in the United States, it's only going to help to fortify their position as a leader

and an innovator.

And that's good.

I mean, that's choice.

That's what we want as retailers.

And I think we need to do everything we can to talk about that and encourage it.

So part of VinQ's response, I saw the letter that was forwarded,

is saying that they're basically saying, hey, our technology is going to actually

beat Cox's technology as it relates to MMR and Kelly Bluebook.

VinQ's saying predictive data beats historical benchmarks like MMR.

Does the industry actually buy that yet or is there still heavy attachment to those old guides?

Well, I think it boils down to a case or a discussion about leading versus lagging indicators.

Sam, I mean, that's really what we're talking about here.

One can certainly draw any kind of inference they want out of looking at historical data,

and the same goes for looking at forward-looking data points.

So I think the most important thing is that dealers have all of the information at their

disposal to make informed decisions to run their businesses.

And I think it's up to our solutions providers and the people that own the information that

dealers, again, are paying for to be able to access that information via the mechanisms

that they choose to access it.

And in this case, for all of us, it was via VinQ,

but Cox has decided to turn off that capability, which is unfortunate.

So VinQ's releasing their new tools free at no additional cost.

What do you make of that?

Is that goodwill by VinQ or is that damage control?

Is they seek to stem an outflow of customers who no longer have easy access in the native app

to these data points?

No, actually, that's consistent with how they operate.

They're constantly improving their product, improving their platform,

making enhancements available to their dealers.

They get it.

I mean, Danny is a dealer.

He understands what retailers go through every day and what we need to manage.

And the ecosystem that he's built is rapidly becoming industry leading.

And I think that's the other story here that needs to be taken away from this whole discussion,

the narrative around what is VinQ doing that would provoke this type of reaction from Cox, right?

What are they doing?

What do you think the answer is?

I think that they're a formidable competitor.

And I think that that's gotten the attention of companies like Cox

that have dominated the space, especially with products like Vioto.

So what would your message be to Cox as we wrap up today?

I do want to ask you a couple market questions.

But what would your message be to Cox about this action

and the future of the way they interact with other vendors?

If what you say is true and it's a competitive decision rather than a business decision.

I would say to them that for dealers like me who subscribe to multiple products

within their ecosystem, like Mannheim Market Report and Kelly Blue Book and Auto Trader,

that we deserve the right to access that information via the mechanisms and channels

and platforms that we have asked for and have historically done so.

Like I said, there's precedent here for what's gone on and absent a reasonable,

plausible explanation for why this decision was made.

They've made the wrong decision and my hope is that they would reverse course

and turn this spicket back on, if you will, Sam.

So this data can flow back into VINQ and we can use it to access it

to make informed decisions about our business.

But if we can't, we'll adapt.

We'll be nimble.

That's what we do as retailers.

You know that, Sam.

You've been doing this a long time too.

And this situation will be no different.

But I don't think in any way, shape, or form, it devalues the VINQ platform.

I think, again, it only helps to raise the stature of VINQ and what they're attempting to do

to assist the industry and to help grow the business of the dealers that subscribe to the platform.

Yeah.

Well, Yossi, our own CDG, Yossi comes into the comments as 100%

our editorial team is reaching out to Cox now.

So we'll have perspective on that very shortly.

Andy Wright, managing partner at Vinart dealerships.

We absolutely appreciate you coming on the show, sharing your perspectives on this breaking news.

So thank you for being with us today.

Absolutely.

Anytime, buddy.

Thank you.

All right.

Almost on cue.

My technology went crazy.

So now I have to do a two-step verification to get back into my run of show here.

Hey, we are excited to bring you a great show today as part of the Cardiola Ship Guide's

Fixed Ops Friday.

Let's dive straight long into our first guest day, Ryan Carlstead, EVP,

Fixed Operations at Willis Automotive Group.

Thanks for being on and joining the show.

Thanks for having me, Sam.

Glad to be back.

Thanks for being here.

I've got to pivot just a little bit.

So hang on, just a sec.

I have to get, if you can believe this, in 2026,

I have to go through a two-step authorization here to get back into my spreadsheet.

I had a field service engineer in my office yesterday from Gerald Meyers,

and we were trying to log in.

We had an hour meeting scheduled,

and the first 15 minutes was just trying to get in the globe.

Yeah, isn't that crazy?

So technology, it's so interesting to Andy's point,

and we will get a Cox response on this breaking news from today.

Technologies are so dependent on each other.

Interdependent.

So you see a gold standard tool like MMR, Kelly Blue Book,

and its ability to exist natively in even competitive tool sets

really sets the stage for success or not.

And it is an interesting thing.

Tools being able to limit each other's access,

it does create a little bit of a challenge, right?

Yeah, there's no doubt, yeah.

All right, give us, tell us a little bit about what you do in the world

for those in our audience that don't know you and aren't familiar with you.

Yeah, so from Des Moines, Iowa, Willis Automotive Group,

we've got nine different franchises that we service,

mostly luxury, but not all.

I'm the executive vice president of fixed operations,

so all the service parts, collision, detail,

our business development center,

all of those departments roll up to me.

We've got about 500 employees and probably a little over 300

of them are on the fixed off side.

How's business this month?

Oh, man, business this year.

This month, it's great.

We came out of the gates strong.

You know, in the Midwest, so much is reliant on weather.

And we've had two big snowstorms this year,

but they both hit on Friday nights.

So they really hurt us on the variable operations side,

but they help us out on the fixed operations side

to not miss any business days,

not miss any opportunity to sell those labor hours.

So service is hot.

Our parts is trailing off just a little bit.

Collisions good.

Everybody's doing really good here.

All right.

So you run five different brands.

You've got Infiniti, Lexus, Nissan, Cadillac, Chevy.

Most fixed ops leaders in your role.

And what?

Nine brands.

Oh, I missed.

Well, who did I miss?

Give me the ones I missed.

Lexus, Infiniti, Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar, Mini,

Chevy and Nissan.

Okay, very good.

So walk us through how you actually maintain consistency

across that lineup in your role.

Well, you know, most seven of our brands

are right here on the campus together.

So consistency is pretty easy.

Two of the stores are there within 10 or 15 minutes.

So, you know, we use the book traction EOS.

I know Bill Demery has been on your show

talking about that before we're three believers there.

Whether it's a weekly meeting with my team,

the fixed ops management team,

whether it's a weekly meeting with the executive team

on down, you know, our managers have weekly meetings

with their teams and, you know, communications,

number one, keeping everybody on the same page

is number one.

And it's pretty easy to do when you've got

a great group of managers like minded, competitive.

Yeah.

You know, continue to drive forward.

So in 2025, you had the theme make work fun again.

Yep.

M-W-F-A. And now in 26, your theme is our guest care goes to 11.

Yeah.

So what's that about?

And what does going from 10 to 11 actually look like

in true practice?

Well, I'll back it up to 2025.

So to make work fun again, you know,

it was just an effort to change our culture.

You know, fixed operations can be stressful at times.

And, you know, whether it's techs, advisors, managers,

people, but heads.

And I said, you know, when I started the business 25 years ago,

we were out there having fun every day.

So let's just do that.

So yeah, it was our focus last year to just, you know,

make the shops fun, whether it's music or contest or whatever.

You know, let's just be pals and all the way around the dealership.

And we were successful.

And, you know, it turned into great CSI too,

because everybody was having a good time.

And 2025 was our best year ever across the board

for our CSI scores.

Yeah.

When I was thinking of what can we make our theme for 2026,

you know, I'm a little older.

And I think let's go spinal tap.

Let's turn it up to an 11.

And we got 10s last year.

Let's turn it up.

Let's turn everything up to 11,

whether it's the fun that we're having in the shops,

on the drives with our guests.

And let's just turn that guest care number up

from a 10 to an 11.

Now, I had this great idea.

I was going to bring all of our advisors together

in this 6.30 a.m. meeting.

It's a regular training meeting we do,

but I'm going to launch this, turn it up to 11.

And I looked around my manager room,

and I saw there were guys in that room

that didn't even know what the heck I was talking about.

And I kind of said, wait, what?

You guys don't know spinal tap?

It goes to 11.

So I showed the clip to them

and everybody had a good time with it.

And I said, OK, well, we bring it out to the advisors.

They're even younger yet.

Let's make sure everybody understands.

So I kind of kicked that meeting off with some training stuff.

And then I said, OK, let's have some fun.

We're going to watch a video.

And they kind of rolled their eyes,

thinking it's going to be one of those videos.

And I hit that scene from Spinal Tap

where they're talking about the guitars and the amplifiers.

Brian, I'm going to get myself into trouble.

I have a really good cultural background.

Like, I don't know the scene.

I wish the producers could bring this up.

I've got to go pull it up.

Yeah, as soon as you come up with the show, Sam,

just go to YouTube and look for it.

I'm doing it.

You're going to be up at just that dry humor.

Yeah.

Amplifiers, they all go to a 10.

10's the loudest.

Well, Spinal Tap, the greatest rock and roll band of all time.

Yeah.

Amplifiers, they especially made to go to 11

because it's a little bit louder.

And so I showed that to our team, though.

And I said, that's what we're going to do for our guest care.

And we had, we turned it up to 10 last year.

We had great CSI scores.

But this year is about taking it that one step further.

You know, whether it's, you know, we dropped the ball.

Maybe we're sending flowers to their work.

You know, when they pick their car up,

maybe we can get them tickets to something, whatever it may be.

Just let's go to that next level of guest care.

So you gave two examples of what it means to turn it up

to 11's Spinal Tap style in 2026.

Are employees empowered to make those decisions?

Do they come back to you for approval on it?

How have you turned that into a system?

And by the way, Paul Salisman comes in and says,

it's a legendary film.

So obviously I need to go watch it.

I mean, I'm questioning your culture here.

That's right. I know.

That's a, yeah.

I mean, we did a little contest to kick it off.

And I gave a little bit of a budget to every department.

And I said, look, as managers, you decide how you want to do it.

Whether you just say, look, when we hit this number, we're done.

Or if you have $500 and have five advisors and say,

it's a hundred bucks each, have fun with it.

And everybody can do it their own way.

So that way we're sure the advisors are bought in.

And, you know, some of them bought things.

Some went and just went to Starbucks and bought a bunch of Starbucks gift cards.

And when the guests came to pick up their car, everything went good.

They said, here you go.

You know, just a little something extra.

It's cold outside.

Stop on the way home.

Get yourself a warm cup of coffee.

I love it.

Everybody just did a little bit different.

Our Lexus drive.

I mean, our Lexus service manager knows a guy and he prints wrapping paper.

And he had special Lexus wrapping paper made

and used some Lexus branded gifts and wrapped him up

and kind of gave gifts to people just like as if it were Christmas time.

So, you know, it's fun to see.

I said the only rule is you got to come back and tell the story to our group.

And, you know, we know that if we come back and tell the story,

you know, that guest on the other end of it,

they're at work with their coworkers and they're telling the story.

And, you know, part of our process here, we call it the proven process.

But step five in our proven process is to build customer advocates.

And, you know, darn well that if we screw up, people are at their job

and they're saying how bad of a job we did.

But what better than two days later we screwed up

and now all of a sudden they receive flowers at their job.

Yeah, that's cool.

Everybody goes up and they say, where did the flowers come from?

And they have to say, oh, that Willis service team sent me flowers and,

you know, they made it right.

So just it's have fun, turn it up and let's make it a great year.

So you call your fixed management team currently your strongest ever.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

Give us in March of 2026 for everybody listening,

what's one thing that you've done to create this strongest than ever fixed management team?

What makes it the strongest ever today?

It's just having the right people in the right seats, having,

you know, the right people in that room.

I mean, we've upgraded a few, you know, addition by subtraction, if you will.

We do a really great job here of promoting from within.

We had a rock star advisor at our infinity store that, you know, he wanted more.

That job came open about a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago.

He wasn't quite ready.

And it came open again, but it was his time and it worked out well.

We promoted him into that role.

And gosh, that department just exploded.

Younger guy, when we have our fixed operations meetings every Thursday,

we've got a couple of managers that are former technicians.

We've got a couple of managers that are younger.

We've got female managers.

There's not anybody in that room that's not represented.

So when we bring our minds together on a Thursday just to bounce ideas off of each other,

I feel like we just do a great job of covering it from every single angle possible.

And when we leave that room, we leave with a lot of great ideas and put them into action.

And you talk about how currently, since you've got your strongest team,

now it's about fine tuning and it's about leaning in.

NADA data shows 6,000 open service-based nationwide with no text to fill them.

You're deep in skills, USA, and the DMACC pipeline.

So for a dealer who's watching right now wants to build a tech pipeline,

where would you start March, 2026 to build that and develop what you're creating?

I mean, yeah, you got to start in the high schools today.

And whether it's high schools or community colleges, you have to start them young.

You got to build your own technicians.

The ATEX, they're comfortable where they are.

They're not jumping ship.

If they are, they're probably just chasing the dollar,

which is that really a guy you want on your team anyway.

So get in close with those community colleges,

auto programs, get in close with the high schools with auto programs.

We've got our summer apprenticeship programs coming up.

We're taking applications for that now.

We bring in apprentices every summer for a 10-week program.

And on the paperwork that I made for that, call it the flyer,

whatever the marketing piece, at the bottom, I said,

if you graduate the 10 weeks and you meet our company core values,

I will guarantee you employment.

Ooh.

And it's been great.

I think this is how many,

how many of you brought on board to the organization?

How many of you hired this?

This will be our fifth year.

We've had four each year.

So just quick mass 16.

We've ran through the program and I'll bet eight are still with us.

And two are going to be there.

Just they still have school to finish.

One of them we had last year.

He was between his junior and senior year of high school.

And I mean, he has it.

He's a technician in his blood.

And to be that young, he's got such a bright future.

He's in a program called Avenue of Scholars.

They just rebranded a talent collective,

but it's a Des Moines public schools program for at-risk kids.

And they bring them up, they help them through school.

If they graduate the program,

they get their community college paid for.

That's strong.

This young man, he's a natural.

He did 10 weeks with us last summer.

We kept him on part-time because he could work part-time in high school.

So he works on our Lubrak on Saturdays.

He'll go to DMAC when he graduates.

He'll get an AAAS degree from DMAC.

He'll continue to work with us through that time.

And we can't wait to have him join our team full-time when he graduates.

And the leg up that he'll have on anybody else at that point, it's immeasurable.

And plus to your team, who strongest ever,

you're creating a great story and culture and meaning around

what it means to be part of that team working there and the reward, ultimately, the payout.

So before we wrap up, I just want to transition to two things.

One is the dealer financial statement.

I'm going to ask you to put your dealer hat on.

But before we do that, the service lane,

we talk a lot on the show, is increasingly the best place to source used inventory.

In fact, Cox Automotive data shows that the trade-in tipping point

is around $3,200 in repair costs.

How are you capitalizing on that opportunity in 2026

with sourcing used inventory in your fixed operations?

Yeah, we've got two outside employees that they use the equity mining tool to look at our appointments

and they reach out to those guests before they even come into our service department

just to kind of prime them to see if they'd want to get an appraisal when their vehicle's in the shop.

Our Nissan store, they actually put the salesperson out there that they don't use the outside to.

They have a salesperson that, you know, he was young and I don't know if I would say

it was performing great.

I'm not entirely sure.

You know, I like to focus on the fix, but he was the right guy to put back there.

And they change his title round, changes job duties around.

And he greets people on our service drive at the Nissan store now.

He helps them get a drink.

But then he also gets them an appraisal of their vehicle when it's there.

And gosh, I think they started it in December.

And they reported back at the end of December on how well it was working.

And this kid's sales are through the roof and he's spending half the time, you know,

where all other salespeople are probably just working the phones.

He's working the drive and he's coming up that leaderboard fast.

So you said he was the right person from your perspective in fixed ops for those in variable

listening. What are the characteristics of the right person that has made him successful

in that role?

Because that is a tough, like you do have to find the right person committed to that

role to make it successful.

Honestly, I'd say really new to the business because I feel like we've tried it and failed

so many times that he got these people that have been in the business for so long and

they've seen it where this is your hour.

You got to go be out there and they just roll their eyes and hate it.

They come in with the wrong attitude.

He was kind of too young to know any better.

And he went in just with the super positive attitude and made it work because he didn't

have the bad habits.

He didn't have the negative connotation.

He went in there and said, this is going to be something to help me become successful.

And it's that attitude.

So, you know, the people who've been selling cars for 20 years, you probably can't

coach their attitude or change their attitudes.

So he had the right attitude.

I think that's probably the number one thing.

All right.

Last question up.

You've been focused on this 11 experience.

You've got a great culture.

You've got a strong leadership team for a dealer who's watching today who says,

hey, I'm going to go walk back through service department.

This is an assignment for everybody.

My fixed ops department in the next half hour.

What's the single most important thing they should look at right now to know

if they've got a well run successful service department or what's one thing they could look

for and say, hey, this needs to change if you walked back.

I'd say you can see processes.

You know, processes are on paper.

But if you're walking through the department, you can see processes in action,

whether it's the service advisors greeting the guest at their car and whether it's the technician

doing the video multipoint, the parts department delivering the parts out.

You can walk back and recognize a well-oiled machine.

And yeah, there might be some dirt on the floor.

We fixed cars back there, but you can visually see the process.

And I think as a dealer walking through, just observe people's movements.

Because as I said before, we sell labor hours.

So to minimize the movements and maximize our efficiency, that's the most important thing.

And if you just stand up, whether it's a tower or a dispatcher desk or wherever,

you can see those movements and you can see the efficiency visually rather than a paper process.

All right, I got another question for you.

Low's customer pay.

You walk into a dealership, low customer pay.

What's the antidote for low customer pay relative to NADA numbers in March, 2026?

What's the fix?

How quality of inspections, video multipoint inspections, working with advisors to overcome

sales objections.

Video MPI do you use?

We use auto point.

Okay.

Yeah, well, Solaris, we auto points the route sheet.

It's what we send it out through.

We use NUMA, we send them out through text, but we shoot them through auto point,

which is a Solaris company.

I couldn't agree with you more.

It's about the experience and what training system do you use for your advisors'

technicians on delivering that experience?

Me?

Yeah, I love it.

I mean, we do some 6.30 AM monthly training sessions.

We work with the management staff.

It's all hands on.

We've sent some to some NCM training.

Most all my managers have been to NCM training.

I've been there, but we teach culture more than anything.

We teach hospitality.

We're a Lexus dealer, so we steal a lot of their stuff.

I mean, Lexus, when it comes to hospitality, is number one.

So we cascade that Lexus message and make it a Willis message.

All right, Ryan Carlstead, EVP Fixed Operations Willis Automotive Group.

We're going to have you back as part of our traditional roundtable.

Appreciate you being on the show, sharing your perspectives, and we'll have you back

here momentarily.

Thanks for joining us.

Thank you.

Pleasure was mine.

Thank you.

All right, let's talk Stream Companies.

Today's episode is brought to you by Stream Companies.

How much revenue is slipping through the cracks at your dealership?

Stream Companies' missed opportunities report analyzes your strategy and highlights

where you can drive more sales faster.

Request your free report today at streamcompanies.com slash D-D-M-O-R.

Again, request that report today at streamcompanies.com slash D-D-M-O-R.

And props to Stream for supporting the content we've had today, including Ryan's

take on how to turn it up to an 11.

It's a spinal tap inference.

I'm going to go watch that after, as well as Andy Wright's perspectives on technology

sharing in 2026 in this automotive space.

And turning to the chat before we go to our next guest, I love it.

Everybody is in there.

John Roper, turn this thing up to 11.

I can't wait to see a SWAT team, but this one goes to 11.

Michelle, why don't you just make 10 louder and make 10 be the top number and make that

a little louder?

And then Dan C. Pipes in Kula Lake is awesome.

I hope I pronounced that correctly.

Diving into our next guest, Darren Spenst, founder and CEO of The Laundry Guy.

Darren, welcome to the show.

Hello, Sam.

It's great to be on the show.

Thank you so much.

Hey, for our audience that doesn't know yet, who are you and what do you do out there?

Yes, I'm one of those laundry guys.

So I started with Sintos many years ago.

I was 27.

So I've been in the industry almost 30 years and we started this company in 2004 and really

just came out of a need where as a sales guy at Sintos, I would sell something and all of a sudden

it would be double a couple of years later.

I'm like, what the heck is going on here?

And so what we do now is we're the number one cost reduction company in uniform and linen.

We kind of pioneered it.

There's a few people out there doing it, but we've solely just stayed in our lane and specialized

it instead of saying, hey, we do 20 categories.

We really have spent our time and our dollars developing software, helping clients.

In fact, Ryan from Willis Auto is one of our clients for many, many, many years.

And so we're privileged to be a part of this group.

We have a lot of different categories that we do business with.

But I will tell you that I'm partial to the auto dealers.

They're fantastic people and we've had great success.

We've had hundreds of dealerships that we've done in the past,

and we hope to do a lot more moving forward.

All right.

And in fact, as we go on today, you've got a word to say about dealers during COVID.

But before we go to that, you've audited over 2,000 locations.

You say over 80% of businesses, dealers you audit, have some sort of billing drift.

For a dealer who's never heard that term, walk me through what billing drift actually looks

like on a monthly invoice.

Sure. We kind of call it invoice creep, right?

So dealers and COs like yourself fix obstacles.

You guys are really good at negotiating.

But I'm going to tell you something today.

It's rigged.

So here's the deal.

You sign an agreement.

I want you to remember this phrase here.

Invoices change, contracts don't.

So at the end of the day, what ends up happening and what's written into these agreements

is that these suppliers can change the price on your invoice,

and you have to notify them.

It could be within 10 days or just a price increase.

So what ends up happening is ticky tack things start to add on.

And so I can be more specific on exactly what type of things.

But what ends up happening is over time, they start increasing things.

It can be inventory.

You know, the shop towels were 20 a guy.

Now they're 25 a guy.

There's five ways that they charge for a shop towel.

So if you don't negotiate all five ways of how are they going to charge you

for that shop towel, they have the advantage.

So as you see that invoice creep, and I've seen it,

how should a dealer respond March 2026 to prevent invoice creep in the uniform business?

Yeah, outside of calling us.

This is what I would do.

Okay, right today is grab your contract, look at your invoice.

What did I agree to?

You know, Sam, we have hundreds and hundreds of clients that we deal with every single month.

We negotiate the deals on behalf of dealers or companies out there.

Inevitably, when we install that new pricing, it is never contract compliant.

Meaning there's a lot of details.

There's human behavior.

There's all this kind of stuff.

But think about this.

We've been doing this since 2004.

Now today, 2026, the accounts are bigger.

They're more complicated.

And so what you have to do at the end of the day is ensure for contract compliance.

And we have to check at 50% of the clients that we audit every single month

after we've negotiated on behalf of the clients is not contract compliant.

It can be a little thing here.

Some of the tricks are on your agreement.

You've got a 3x10 mat that's on the agreement.

But they switched it out with one of these Zippity-Doo mats that are way cooler and way better.

Well, that's not on the contract.

So that 3x10 mat now is an Onyx mat.

So it is not negotiated.

So something that the dealers can do right away is just say, what does my contract say?

What are my invoices say?

What are the items that are not on there that I need to negotiate at the end of the day?

And honestly, that's be fair.

You dealers are busy.

This is not number one cost or third or fifth.

And you guys look at it every three years or so and you negotiate.

You do a great job.

But I'm telling you, as soon as that contract is done, it's about the invoices.

And we've developed software to ensure that on a monthly basis,

every single line item is checked for contract compliance.

And it has to be a net savings at the end of the day.

The only way we can help clients is we actually save them money.

So it's interesting.

I think there's two types of creep in your business.

The area that you're in in that fixed ops department uniforms and supplies and all that.

So you get the price creep over time and you're right.

Like I see that and you've got to push back on that.

The other side you see is quality decrease or quality decline over time.

And I don't know.

There's something about, as you partner with somebody over time longer,

you become comfortable with each other.

You kind of become a little lackadaisical and whatnot.

And the quality can go down, whether the timing delivery, the quality,

the uniforms that are delivered.

Why does the quality decline over time in your experience?

And how should a dealer think about maintaining both those lines?

Avoid the invoice creep, but then also avoid the quality decline on the flip side.

Well, I can tell you something tactical that we've done with clients that have that is,

you have a quarterly meeting.

You write it into the contract, so that you have on a quarterly basis,

you're meeting with the service manager, being with whoever it is.

But you and I know, Sam, it starts with leadership.

It starts right in the top.

And so if you have people, process, product, at the end of the day,

you have systems and trust me, these companies have tons.

But this is an interesting fact that happens is that they're always managing X states.

Okay.

So the expiration.

Yeah.

Well, I have a good relationship with this person or do I not?

And I can tell you, when it's not a good relationship, they kind of stay back, stay back.

And then they're like, okay, we'd like to renew this, but they'll actually let it go past Sam.

Because a lot of clients don't know that, hey, this thing ought to renew.

Like this ought to renew.

And I know state by state, it can be a little bit different.

But, you know, putting it into the agreement and then making sure your staff and your service

manager, because the big boys negotiate it.

And then the other people have to run the program on a day to day.

And with all the details, it gets difficult.

So you shared with us, there's a common contract clause.

A dealer has no ideas in the agreement.

Is it that auto renew feature?

No, that's just one of them.

So we talked about creeps.

Maybe there's other creeps that are around here.

So we've got things in the agreement that say they can raise prices at any time that they want.

Well, wouldn't that be nice for you guys to do that?

Or how about?

That should be redlined in every contract, I think.

A lot of times, people do write it out.

But the other one is it's the invoice.

So they'll put on the invoice that if you do not see it within 10 days, you've agreed to it.

Sam, what industry can you get away with that?

So why has that become acceptable in uniforms?

Why is that acceptable?

Say it again?

Why has that become acceptable in the uniform service market?

I think it's a great question.

You'd have to ask these big boys.

But at the end of the day, these are Fortune 500 companies.

They have to get a return.

And they're incentivized to do that.

So I have three brothers, Darryl, Dave, Darren, Dan, four boys.

And they would be incentivized.

OK, you're going to take these five minutes out today,

and you're going to get them down as free trials,

and they end up staying on the floor forever.

So they're incentivized to grow.

That's part of the business.

And at the end of the day, this just becomes wallpaper on the wall for your folks.

It's like, OK, the guy comes in, he comes out.

I've got an issue.

I've got a shortage.

Is Bob still on the invoice?

Is he not on the invoice?

Right?

So these programs live and breathe, and I will tell you,

if they're not being checked every single month for contract compliance,

when do dealers have time to do that?

Yeah, yeah.

So one news item, and then we'll go to your COVID stories as we wrap up.

So with Sintas acquiring Uniforced and the uniform service market consolidating,

I think dealers be curious.

What does that mean for a dealer who's already mid-contract?

Are they more exposed, or is there a window to renegotiate that?

Quality of uniform?

Sorry, I'm having a little bit of audio here.

No, no, no.

Sintas, with Sintas acquiring Uniforced.

Yes, OK.

So the acquisition of Sintas in Uniforced is an absolutely huge thing.

In the 29 years that I've been in this business,

this is the biggest thing that's happened.

And invest this as well, which is, Sintas is acquiring Uniforced for about $5.5 billion.

So Sintas is going to go from about a million customers to a million and a half.

So if you are someone who is actually utilizing the Uniforced,

and you moved away from Sintas, I guess who's coming back.

And let's go to our next guest, West Lloyd, Service Director at Stuckey Auto.

West, welcome to the show.

Hey, for the world, tell us who you are, what you do, and how's Biz in your store, West?

So I'm a Service Director at Stuckey Auto, but I oversee eight different repair centers,

cover three different counties.

I've been in the business for about 20 years, sort of turning

wrenches whenever I first got into it.

And then just kind of progressively made my way from there to the service desk.

And yeah, now I'm near the top of where I could be and just thrilled to be there, too.

Great company and very proud of what we do here, so.

So in your fixed ops world, you've got a lot of different brands.

You've got Ford, Subaru, you've got GMC, Chrysler, you've got Nissan,

you've got Mitsubishi, Ford and whatnot else.

You have a big job spread out among multiple stores.

Before we get into strategy, talk to us.

What does your week actually look like day to day?

How do you manage all that?

It's chaotic.

I mean, I think that's probably the best way to summarize it.

Funny as you were kind of talking about it, the first part of the show,

the two-step verification, right?

Even to get into GM's platform, Ford's platform, Subaru's platform, Mitsubishi's.

Every one of them have a two-step.

And if you have them in the same browser, they're contradicting one another.

So it's interesting.

And that's a good explanation of basically how all of it works, right?

Constant things you're trying to keep up with.

It's constant.

And yeah, I lost access to my spreadsheet here.

And I got kicked out of the worst possible time.

It was crazy.

And then I had to go through a two-step authentication in the pivot.

So it was all sorts of fun.

So with all those brands, which brand is winning in March,

2026 in the fixed operations department?

Who is helping you the most?

I'll be honest to tell you that I spend the majority of my time here with Subaru.

And so it's always got a little piece of my heart that it's a wonderful functioning brand.

If we always joke about that, if we could have multiple Subaru stores,

we would because once you get the clientele running and everything,

the cars sell themselves, the customers sell their own service work, it just rolls along.

What is Subaru doing right this year that other manufacturers or OEMs could learn from?

I mean, I think it's just something about how their mentality is,

is taking care of the customer first.

You know, they definitely have that mentality.

And honestly, it aligns perfectly with our values at Stuckeys too,

is taking care of the customer.

And when you take care of the customer, it builds the business in return.

It just keeps coming back to you.

Yeah, yeah.

You've built a technician recruiting pipeline as well, similar to Ryan.

Talk to us about what you've built and where you're going with that.

So yeah, across at least the two of our main counties,

we work with the local career technology centers.

We have co-op students in basically every one of the stores.

Some of them have two.

Our body shop, I think it even has more than that.

We work with these kids basically in their senior year,

work to develop them from the beginning of the year of just they kind of watch.

And sort of maybe help a little bit.

And then by the end of the year, we're looking to gauge what their progress has been

and help them develop to like by the end of the school year,

someone who's ready to be hired and someone who can start and kind of have

a good functionality day one, right?

Yeah.

So we talked with Ryan the importance of video MPI and pictures and whatnot

to create that great customer experience.

And I do think there's a connection to customer pay.

There's a connection to CSI, everything else.

You recently deployed that across the group.

What has it done for your approval rates for the bottom line?

What numbers do you have for us?

As far as numbers, I mean, without spending all the time,

I couldn't give you anything specific.

But like to tell you, I mean, it's an honest, very,

very easy thing to see the difference in what someone's willing to spend

when you're very just transparent with them by showing them their car.

You know, you're starting at the back of the car,

showing their license plate so that's very clear to them that,

you know, that we are on their car, right?

And then working your way around to show them what their tires look like,

what their brakes look like, what their filters look like.

You know, it's been an objection we've probably,

you know, we've heard for years, right?

Well, that's not the filter on my car.

You're showing me somebody else's brake pads.

You're taking that out of the equation when you're shooting your video

and sending it to the customer, right?

Yeah.

What was the hardest?

How long, how long ago did you implement video in your world?

I would say it's been somewhere right around probably like five years.

Okay.

So it's been a long time.

Yeah.

What's your take?

You know, there are shops that are slower to implement that.

What's your take on that?

Why is it hard for some stores, some shops,

some organizations to make that part of their culture

when you've been doing it for five years,

presumably back to on a time when, you know, people looked at video

and it was very difficult to actually generate and send.

It's changed, right?

Makes everybody uncomfortable, right?

We're changing something that's a part of our daily process.

But, you know, when we jumped on board with it,

our goal was always to be the best with it, right?

So how can we develop this?

How can we make it play to our advantage?

How can we be ahead of the curve, right?

You know, we're dynamic in what we do at Stuckeys.

So we're looking at how we can be the best

with the process right out of the gate.

And, you know, now, you know,

you see it in a lot of the manufacturer surveys, right?

Where you often have video MPIs wearing your service there.

Well, guess what?

If you've already eliminated that,

you've already made up your mind

that you're going to be fully committed

to making that change and adapting to it,

we're ahead of the curve whenever everybody else is going,

oh, hey, this is something we're going to do.

Yeah, we're already there.

The process is developed.

Yeah.

So one other area I wanted to hit on,

multi-brand warranty management is tough, right?

It's an underappreciated P&L lever in fixed ops.

Between Ford, Stilanus, Nissan, Subaru and GM,

you've got five different warranty cultures

and as many different reimbursement processes.

Where do you win in that?

Where do you lose?

What's the biggest challenge most dealers face

in warranty reimbursement?

Because that's a huge gap for people

that haven't fully solved for it.

And with multiple OEMs, it's a challenge.

It's honestly, it's, you know,

when we have our warranty administrators,

they figure out the finite details

of some of that stuff, right?

Yeah.

You know, trying to wrap my head

around all the different OEMs

and the different things you can do,

honestly, in the middle of a warranty rate analysis

for our Subaru store right now.

And it's the little tweaks and twists

and things that you can do.

And, you know, you learn that

as you've done it a couple of times,

but getting to understand the different processes

that each one of them follow when it comes to,

I mean, they're all the same when it comes to,

obviously, they all have cost correction

and excuse me,

complete cost correction, right?

But how you can build the time

and make sure that you're, you know,

that you're maximizing what you're getting from them

is really where you start to have to think

outside of the box and develop those things, right?

Yeah.

So you said in your intake form,

you talked about how you changed your mind

about something important

and how you run fixed operations.

What was it and what made you change it?

Um, and I'm trying to think of honestly

what that was, pro, to be perfectly honest with you.

No, it's okay.

Or just give us, is there anything, you know,

you run a lot of stores?

Yeah.

Has, have you had a mindset shift

over the past few years

about any part of the operation,

about any process where you're like,

hey, you know what, that used to be true,

but it's not true in 2026.

And as a result of changing,

you're winning more in that world.

I mean, honestly, our entire process,

when it comes to from the check-in process

to the re-delivery process,

you know, just there,

there really doesn't need to be anything

that's different from brand to brand

when it comes to that, right?

You do your proper walk around,

turning the wheel, checking the car in.

Again, this is no different than your video MPI.

You're being transparent with the customer

because you're showing them, you know,

their inspection, obviously in PA.

So you're, hey, your state inspections do.

How about we do that?

Very simply showing them things

and recommending them and letting them

add them onto their service, right?

You're turning the wheel, you're showing them

what their tires look like

before that even gets in the shop.

And then your technician follows through

with proper video, proper

tried-depth inspection of it.

And all that's doing is just reinforcing

what you've already shown them, right?

Yeah.

So that's been, I think,

our biggest game changer is just dialing

in a specific process and making sure we stick with it.

That's great.

So you heard Darren,

and we're going to bring Darren back here

in just a moment, laundry guy.

We had just a little bit of tech issues.

He'll be back.

What's your take on invoice creep

as it relates to some of those items?

I see it in the COO role.

It drives you insane, drives you crazy.

And like I said, it's two levers.

It's invoice creep,

but then it's also quality decline over time.

And at Ziggler, we've been fortunate to have great partners.

So I don't think we've been hurt as much by that as others.

But what's your take on that?

It's funny, obviously, he mentions that.

It's like, we've all seen it, right?

Yeah, you're looking at an invoice for your uniforms

or for your oil disposal or for whatever.

And it's like, man, I feel like the last time I looked at this,

this was $50 less or whatever.

What we try to make sure that we have done to counteract

that is creating purchase orders for every single item

and the manager touches them, the manager's siding them.

So you know right away when you're doing your uniforms, right?

Hey, this doesn't seem right.

It was $100 last week.

I'm making a PO for $150 this week.

Yeah, I mean, it's no news secret to us.

It's just trying to be ahead of, I guess,

watching out for it consistently, right?

Yeah, yeah.

All right, before we go back to Darren,

and we'll put you backstage here for just a minute,

what's one process that you just live and die by in the Auto Group 2025

that's helped you achieve greater profitability,

greater customer retention, greater CSI in the service department

that others might learn from?

I mean, and we already touched on it,

and I hate to kick back to that,

but honestly, it's the only guy without a doubt.

Yeah, five years in a row.

Yeah, yeah.

That builds your service and it reinforces everything

and builds trust, and that's just,

you know, again, I hate to reinforce it again,

but it's the honest truth.

It really is.

So you're so big on culture, both, you know,

both you and Ryan are huge on culture.

And I asked, I guess, this last episode,

what's more important, Billy,

what's more important in successful, profitable,

dealer operations in 2026?

Is it culture or is it process?

I mean, honestly, I think if you have the right culture,

you can teach the process, right?

That's the mentality when we're interviewing,

we're looking to hire.

I'm looking for someone with the right culture,

because the right culture is something that,

I don't know that you can change in someone.

The process is something that you just got to develop.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, West Lloyd Service Director at Stuckey Auto,

hang backstage with us for just a minute.

I think if we have time, we're going to bring you both,

both you and Ryan back on,

but we want to bring Darren in.

So thanks for being on the show today.

Thanks for sharing your perspectives.

All right, we'll have you back in a moment.

So we're going to go to our closing out round table,

Ryan Carlstadt and West Lloyd.

Let's see if we can get both those guys back up.

And then we'll wrap out today's show.

We talked a lot about technician recruitment.

We talked a lot about training and development.

What do you think is the most misunderstood component

of technician and service advisor recruitment

in March, 2026 in automotive?

What's the most underappreciated,

under-realized component of that?

Ryan and West.

Ah, here we go.

Game on.

Let's go.

Ryan, you first.

I think advisors, the most kind of overlooked is,

I think everybody wants a turnkey advisor,

somebody that's going to come in and already know everything.

And I don't think that's necessary.

I think the main thing, we keep talking about culture.

Can this person fit our culture?

Are they going to take care of our customers?

And can I teach them how to sell?

Can I teach them about,

I don't care if an advisor knows everything about a car.

Can I teach him?

Can I teach her?

Absolutely.

It's just that positive attitude come in,

willingness to learn.

I think that's the biggest thing for advisors.

Our employee of the year last year,

the last two years has been a service advisor.

And our employee of the year last year,

2025 employee of the year,

Marion from our Land Rover store.

She's, when I talk about the culture at that store,

she's one of the drivers of it.

She's always happy, just super happy to be at work,

super happy, friendly to every single person

that comes in that door.

I've never seen anything like it before.

And now I see it all over the place,

because it's infectious.

And I think we just,

think we need to find these turnkey,

15 years service advisors.

And honestly, I don't know what I want that.

Yeah, yeah.

Wes, what do you think's the most misunderstood

about recruitment in technician and advisor?

And I think you are right.

They're not the same role, but what would you,

how would you answer that?

You're opening the door for somebody.

If you're a customer, honestly, anybody walking there,

you're just looking for that common value

of like someone who has a general care

for other human beings.

Because if they do,

they're fixing cars for the right reasons.

They're doing things for the right reasons.

But I am going to say, I'm going to advocate

if we grow them both, advisors and technicians.

Technicians are, the years of recruiting them

from other dealers and things, they're just gone.

They're not looking around like they used to be.

Like Brian said, if they are,

all they're doing is chasing dollars.

They're probably not the right person

that you want there anyways.

I want to grow them because honestly,

if they come up through the ranks with you,

they're more loyal to you.

They're more likely to stay.

All right, we're going to go quick rapid fire.

What's the single most utilized,

underutilized profit opportunity in dealerships

right now, 2026.

Let's start with you, Wes.

Biggest, most underutilized profit opportunity.

Honestly, I think it's not checking

and utilizing alike alignments and stuff.

It's something we put a big focus on recently.

It saves the customer a lot of money

if they're not eating up tires.

Right.

Yeah, I'll echo that.

I'd rotate and balance to that list.

I think rotation and balance back

when I was an advisor, where you do a rotation

every 7,500 miles and a balance every 15,000 miles.

And now with extended oil change,

it's like we've just forgotten

that we ever need to balance the wheels on the tires.

And I think put that balance,

put it in with the alignment,

and just make it an annual thing.

You got to master that.

Who's right?

The OEM or the card dealer,

extended oil change or on our interval

to bring them back in for more frequent tire rotations.

Wes?

You know, honestly, we try to adapt to balance

because we're in that mixed climate where we're not

spirited, but we're not regular maintenance either.

We're not driving on the flat plains of Kansas,

but we're not driving in the Rockies.

So we try to adapt a little bit in between

and kind of, you don't have to take an official stance there,

I guess, right?

Yeah, yeah.

You've got to bipartisan, if you will.

Ryan?

Yeah, you've got to go a little political there.

I think there's a meet in the middle.

There are days of 3,000 miles on an oil change.

I think that's too soon.

5,000 is probably a happy middle.

But, you know, I drive a truck.

I drive a GM truck and a Chevy Silverado.

I love my truck.

It's got the maintenance reminder on it.

I cannot let that thing get below 20%,

but that's what General Motors says.

I mean, I've tried one time.

I think I was at 28 and said, add oil.

You know, I'm out on that.

I just 5,000, 7,500.

That's probably as far as 7,500 is absolute maximum.

I would go on my personal.

Yeah.

And so that's what I recommend to our guys.

5,000, 7,500, anything more than that.

You're rolling.

All right, next question up.

What's one dealership metric you wished every GM would pay

attention to?

Fixed stops every day.

Well, they pay attention to every single one.

What are you talking about?

Yeah, I'm looking at a lot of them.

No, we're a scorecard and company.

We look at all the metrics, you know.

What's the most important metric you have for fixed stops?

They all play so well together.

I mean, you could sit here and say ELR.

I think somebody commented on this earlier, ELR.

But, you know, you can change your ELR with your hours

per RO.

They kind of do this little teeter-totter thing.

Yeah, yeah.

You can't look at just one.

One doesn't tell the story.

You have to really call it five right in front of you.

You know, like, yeah.

Your effective labor rate is a percentage of your door rate.

That's obviously important.

But so is hours per RO.

And we can't really just give up a bunch of hours per RO

to get our effective labor rate where we want it to be.

You have to look at those together at the same time.

And, you know, sales and upselling, the video percentage,

how much have we increased since we've gotten good at it?

I trend my customer pay dollars for all my service departments.

And I look at it.

I have it on the screen now.

It goes back to 2016 and it trends every month.

And when you look at-

And what's the trend?

How's it trending?

Up, up, okay.

But, you know, it dipped in there with a little bit with COVID,

you know, and some COVID lasts a little longer than others

with all the different brands.

Everything's a little different.

Some are doing better than others today.

But when I chart customer pay trending along on a report

next to our video penetration, those two correlate as well.

My stores that are the best at videos have the biggest CP increases.

I love that.

You really just-

You can't just look at one.

You really need to pay attention to all.

All right.

So then that leads us to our last question of the roundtable for today.

What's the one strategic move a large dealer group

should make March of 2026 to win in the coming year?

I mean, hopefully they're already doing everything right.

But-

You know what?

How many are doing everything right?

That's not possible.

Otherwise, both of us would be out of a job.

All three of us would not have a job.

Fair?

I mean, it's customer focus.

I mean, I think that's-

I mean, I think that's, you know,

it seems to be what Ryan's-

Ryan refers to a lot as the culture which is taking care of your customer.

Right?

Right.

Yep.

Well, Ryan and Wes, we absolutely appreciate both of you joining us

for this special edition of Fixed Ops Friday.

We got-

Went a little long because of some tech and because of some breaking news.

So we appreciate both of you for being on.

Thanks for joining the roundtable today.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Have a great time.

Yes, thank you.

All right.

And to our loyal daily dealer live audience,

we say thank you for joining this episode on this Friday, March 20th.

Thanks for watching Daily Dealer Live,

where you break down the biggest moves in the car business as they happen.

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

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, everybody.

About this episode

The episode dives into pressing issues in automotive retail including FTC warnings on dealer advertising practices, rising EV interest, and challenges in fixed operations. Guests Andy Wright discusses Cox Automotive's decision to cut data access to VinQ, sparking debate on tech control and dealer impact. Ryan Carlstead shares how Willis Automotive Group is elevating service culture with a 'turn it up to 11' approach, focusing on guest care and tech recruitment. Darren Spenst exposes costly billing drift in dealer vendor contracts, while Wes Lloyd highlights multi-brand service management and video inspections boosting customer trust. The conversation blends industry news, operational insights, and strategies for dealer success in 2026.

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Original notes

Today's show features: - Andy Wright, Managing Partner at Vinart Dealerships - Ryan Carlstedt, EVP Fixed Operations at Willis Automotive Group   - Darren Spenst, Founder and CEO of The Laundry Guy   - Wes Lloyd, Service Director at Stuckey Auto This episode is brought to you by: Stream Companies – How much revenue is slipping through the cracks at your dealership? Stream Companies’ Missed Opportunities Report analyzes your strategy and highlights where you can drive more sales, faster. Request your free report today at https://www.streamcompanies.com/MissedOpportunitiesReport/ The Laundry Guy – A cost-reduction partner for automotive groups, specializing in uniform, linen, and facility service contracts. Our team audits invoices and renegotiates agreements to drive 30–50% savings while improving contract terms. Send us your most recent invoice and we will do a free audit based on our industry data. https://thelaundryguy.com 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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