“It'll Eat You Alive!” Turning Tragedy Into a Billion-Dollar Dealership Group (And the Lessons Learned Along the Way) | Corina Straub Diehl, CEO and President at Diehl Automotive Group
Car Dealership Guy Podcast
Car Dealership Guy PodcastMay 19, 2026
“It'll Eat You Alive!” Turning Tragedy Into a Billion-Dollar Dealership Group (And the Lessons Learned Along the Way) | Corina Straub Diehl, CEO and President at Diehl Automotive Group
A broker is a middleman who helps match people who want to buy and sell businesses. Here, brokers reach out to the dealership group with deals to consider.
A franchise is an authorized dealership relationship where a brand grants a dealer the right to sell and service its vehicles under brand rules. In this segment, the speaker calls Toyota “a fabulous franchise,” meaning it’s a particularly attractive authorized dealership opportunity.
“Blue sky” means the extra value of a business beyond just the building and equipment—like its reputation and how much money it can make. They’re saying they consider that when negotiating a dealership purchase.
An underperforming store is a dealership that isn’t doing as well as it should. They’re saying they’ll adjust what they pay depending on whether they think they can turn it around.
Concept
machine store
A “machine store” is a dealership that’s already doing great and producing results consistently. They’re contrasting that with a store that needs improvement.
ROI means “how much you get back” compared to what you put in. Here, she’s saying she wants the dealership to become worth the investment within about five years.
“Has to pencil” means the deal’s math has to make sense. If the costs and expected profits don’t add up, it’s not a good deal.
Concept
notes
“Notes” here means the loan payments/debt they owe. They’re saying they don’t take money out of the business until they’ve paid down most of that debt.
An integration plan is how a company brings newly purchased stores into the same way of doing business. It can mean keeping them mostly independent, or making them follow the parent company’s rules and systems.
Centralized means the company runs things in a consistent way across all locations. Instead of each store doing its own thing, the group sets the rules and processes.
In this context, “operating system” means the dealership’s main software and workflow setup. It’s basically how the store runs behind the scenes, not just the computer’s basic system.
CDK is a company that makes software dealerships use to run day-to-day tasks. The host is saying that CDK’s system and rules made things more demanding during their changeover.
Company
Techie on
“Techie on” sounds like a software company dealerships use. The guest is saying they’ve had a good experience with it and it’s helped their dealership group.
“Account structure” is how the software company sets up your dealership’s user access and data organization. The guest is saying CDK’s setup was outdated and made things harder for them.
Here, “cloud” means the dealership software lives online instead of on a local computer system. The guest is saying that can make it easier to manage and keep control of their data.
A parts manager is the person who oversees the dealership’s parts department—like ordering and managing parts used for repairs and maintenance. The guest is saying they had a long-standing relationship with that role.
It means the whole process a dealership runs for a used car, from when they get it to when they sell it. The idea is to use tools to make each step smoother and more profitable.
A comp set is a shortlist of similar cars used for comparison. Dealerships use it to help decide what price to ask based on what comparable cars are doing.
Merchandising is how the dealership markets a car to get it sold—things like how it’s listed and how it’s priced. “Seamless” here means the process is connected from start to finish.
Reconditioning is what a dealership does to a used car to make it ready to sell—like repairs and cleanup. Doing it efficiently helps them sell the car faster and spend less.
Concept
objective data
Objective data means facts you can measure or verify. The point is to figure out what really happened using records and evidence, not just guesses.
Topic
service and fixed stops
They’re talking about how good service should work when your car is at the shop—especially not leaving people waiting too long.
A collision center is a shop that fixes cars after accidents. If a dealership group owns these shops, it can often get customers’ cars repaired faster and keep the process in-house.
Company
Diehl Automotive Group
Diehl Automotive Group is the dealership company being discussed. They’re explaining how the business grew by adding collision repair locations.
A “totaled” car is one where the damage is so bad that it’s not worth fixing. The insurance usually pays out instead, and the speaker is saying that situation can still bring in new customers.
Cross-sell means offering extra things to someone who already came in. In this case, collision customers are routed to a nearby store so the dealership can try to sell them other services or vehicles.
Direct repair is when the insurance company sends you to a particular body shop. In this case, the dealership group says almost all their collision work comes that way.
Lead gen means getting new potential customers. Even if the repair doesn’t make much money, it can bring in people who might buy or service a car later.
A body shop is where the car’s damaged body parts get repaired. It’s the collision area that focuses on fixing dents, panels, and crash damage before the car is finished.
Lean Six Sigma is a way to improve how a business runs by cutting waste and preventing mistakes. The goal is to make the work faster, more consistent, and higher quality.
“Margins” are the profit left after expenses. If margins get smaller—like when fewer people come in to buy cars—it becomes harder for the dealership to make money.
Lexus is Toyota’s luxury car brand. The host is saying Lexus cars are great, but they can be expensive to buy into, so the dealership has to be careful about whether the deal makes financial sense.
“Pencil in” means doing the money calculations on paper. They’re saying that if you pay too much for a dealership, the long-term profits may not work out.
Concept
buying a bond
They’re comparing the deal to buying a bond. The idea is that some investments feel more steady and predictable, while others are riskier and take longer to pay off.
Concept
paying 15 times, 20 times
They’re talking about paying a high price relative to the dealership’s earnings. The higher the price, the harder it is for the dealership to “earn it back” over time.
Chevrolet is a mainstream brand. The host is saying they’d rather buy multiple Chevrolet stores because the business math is more predictable than luxury.
The Toyota Grand Highlander is a bigger SUV with three rows of seats, meant for families or groups. It’s designed to feel more spacious and comfortable than a smaller version of the same model. People talk about it when they want extra room and a nicer setup for daily driving.
Hyundai is another brand the dealership group sells. The host is saying Hyundai has been harder for them because they aren’t getting the cars they need.
Concept
CDJ stores
“CDJ stores” sounds like the name of a set of dealerships the speaker manages. She’s saying some of them struggled under past leadership, but things are improving.
Here, “inventory” means the cars the dealership has available to sell. If the dealership can’t get the right cars, it can’t match customer demand or hit the right price points.
“Price point” just means the price range the dealership is aiming for. The host is saying the cars they’re getting fit the prices their customers want.
She’s saying that while video calls can help, being physically there still works better for running a dealership team. It’s about managing people, not just handling tasks remotely.
Concept
20 group
A “20 group” here seems to be a group of people in the dealership world who meet and learn from each other. She’s saying her son joined it and benefits from it.
“CDG circles” sounds like a network or group in the dealership community. She wants her son to be part of it so he can learn and grow with other leaders.
LIVE
Right after Matt died, Bob Preston, who had been our partner that we had bought out,
came over and said, listen, do you want to keep it? I'll help you. If you want to sell it, I'll
help you. And then I sat back and went, okay, this was what he wanted. This was his legacy.
This is what he dreamed of. And it was kind of, it was natural for me to just go take it over.
My brain went, okay, this has given us a good life. This has fed us for this long, right? So
I'm coming on in. Today, I'm joined by Karina Straub Deal, CEO and President at Deal Automotive
Group. In an era of soaring multiples and shrinking margins, Karina breaks down how she built a
billion-dollar empire by taking over a business she was told would eat her alive. She reveals the
exact math behind her 24-store expansion, her unique 11-center collision strategy, and how
she navigates the high stakes transition of leadership to the next generation. A big thank
you to our sponsors for making this episode possible. Open Lane, Reynolds and Reynolds,
and CDG Circles. And now let's get into the show.
Karina Straub Deal on the CDG podcast. Karina, welcome.
Thank you. Thanks for having me. Good to have you in town and I'm excited to chat.
I'm me too. This is going to be fun.
Congrats. I know you just closed on two deals, which I thought that brought you to 22. That
brings you to 24 dealerships. So are these, what franchises?
Toyota and Volkswagen in Worcester, Ohio. So that's about an hour and a half north of our
existing masculine campus. And we have Subaru, Honda, Mitsubishi, I'm sorry to say, which is true.
Subaru, Honda, Kia, Hyundai on that campus.
Why do you say that? Why do you say I'm sorry to say?
Horrible. We've just, we do not do well with them. I think it's a great product for someone
that comes into the world and wants to start to be a car dealer. I think it's probably better for
a used car dealer that's strictly used. I mean, maybe it's our ugly stepchild, right?
Where, again, when you have Honda and Kia and Toyota and all these great stores,
you, it's a different clientele. We're probably accustomed to dealing with. So maybe we aren't
good at it. Have you considered divesting any stores or are the stores an example?
We would love to sell that. Nobody wants to buy it.
Hmm. That's a problem. That's a problem, right? Yeah. I mean, I'm sure I could put the Honda
store, the Subaru store or Toyota. We have three Toyota stores. People run, jump and scream for
it, which we're not interested in. I'm sure we're not. Yeah, no, no, no, no. How did you get these,
the last two stores? Like how, how many years was that deal in the making?
That deal happened over three months. It was all my son. He met the gentleman. He, actually,
we had a broker contact us. We get that a lot, which is great because we, anybody that'll bring
us something that's great, we'll, we'll look at the gentleman that was selling it had a larger
group. He had sold off some for us. Toyota is a fabulous franchise for anybody, not just us.
Wish I could get a hundred raves a month and I'd sell them and CNS and a rate. And then he had a
VW store on that campus as well. And we have AVW store. So Matt worked the entire deal. Matt'll
come to me. We talk about everything. If it makes sense. Who's Matt? My son. I apologize. My son,
my VP, my right and left hand. He's incredible, wonderful. Has allowed me to step back because
for years I did this grind alone while he was in school. His sister was in school.
Matt brought it to fruition. Matt handles all the paperwork with the state and,
and then Matt handles set up and off we go. It's his time to shine. It is his time to shine.
Okay. So you got to Yota and VW. How are those negotiations? I mean, I'm going to get as close
as I can besides telling you what blue sky did you pay? Yeah. Well, that's not going to happen.
I know. You know what? The negotiations were really fair and really reasonable as far as we
were concerned. I think whenever we start negotiating on a store, I mean, hell, you're
dealing with car people, right? Everything's a negotiation. We look at, obviously, what blue
sky is and where we feel we're going to be. And if it's an underperforming store, obviously,
we're willing to pay a little more versus we bought a machine store that is just running
so smoothly and we paid all the money. So it's not underperforming? This particular store,
these, this group was underperforming. We feel we have a lot of room to increase sales and service.
So we're excited. Again, though, where I sit today, Matt brings me the deal. We talk about it.
He reviews financials. I review financials. We see how it fits into the organization.
If it makes sense, he negotiates the deal. I'll cap where I feel we should be.
And if we get it, it's great. And if we don't, there's never sleep lost on deals
that have not come to fruition. A couple questions there. So first, are he negotiates
solely? Are you involved? Are you facing the? I'm talking with him. He's bringing me the numbers,
right? Because it doesn't, it's not like it doesn't happen in a day.
Got it. Does the opposing party, do they feel like you're like a sea lawyer in the deal? Or do
they, you know, or do they, I mean, if you, if he's bringing it to you, like you directly involved
at any point in a negotiation or? No, he's doing it all now. I mean, again, I'm in the back.
We're dictating him and I together. So you're aligning and then he's driving?
All day long. Okay. And then you mentioned we assess the deal. Like what are you assessing for?
Obviously, cool price. Besides that. It has to pencil. I mean, I'm looking for a five year
ROI on these stores. I mean, that's where my head's at. That's where I want to be.
Why five? That's just the magic number I've always. That's just the number you like.
That's the number I like. When we get into a store, we pull zero dollars out of the store
until it's really profitable and we've paid a good portion of the notes down.
What do you typically reinvest in? Or are you just paying down the notes? Is that when you
paying down the debt? Yeah, I mean, you know, it depends. It depends on the franchise where
we're at. But in my world and the way we've gotten to where we are is, and again, when I started
this, my husband had died, I took over, we had bought the store originally together.
We had a part in the original first store in Butler PA. And that was in what year?
Oh my gosh. 1995? Yeah. Okay, good. So I have my notes correct here. Give us a quick spark
notes of that. In 1995, you launched the business. Well, in 1995, my husband had worked for Pontiac
Motors. You remember Pontiac? Of course. He was on the manufacturing side.
We sold a lot of those. But I was still young. But you remember it. You've heard of it.
More than heard of it. Well, you're kind of young. The Grand Prix and all that.
The Aztec, there's actually a picture of me on our website. So if you go to in the URL right
now, if anyone's interested, if you go to cdg.company in the URL cdg.company and you press
about, you'll see a picture of me shirtless. That's hysterical. Buffing a Pontiac vibe.
I think I was like, I don't know, like 15 or something. I was going to say, how old were
you? That's pretty epic. I love that. I'll show you that picture when we finish. I want to see it.
But no, so Bob Preston, who his family was from Newcastle, he had the opportunity to buy a store.
He worked with Matt at Pontiac. So Bob and a family go to Newcastle and we had lived in Tampa
together when they were both with, well, it was Pontiac and they went retail with a guy by the
name of Jeff Woolley. We lived in Tampa. Bob went to Newcastle, had an opportunity to buy a store.
Then Bob wanted to buy another store called Matt said, hey, come work for me for a while. We'll
buy a store together. Hence, we end up in Newcastle, PA. Butler becomes available, Matt and Bob buy
the first store we had in Butler, PA. We buy Bob out. At the time, it was Toyota and Chrysler,
Dodge. I don't even think we had Jeep when we started. Let's say, right, you went through,
there was a lot of change in the early days. We spoke about this. But I'm curious to know,
like what happened in 2002? That was when we bought Bob out. Okay. So that was the buyout.
That was the buyout. So then we owned the Butler campus. So in 2002, you and your husband, you're
riding solo. Yeah, riding solo. I'm doing the mom thing with our kids. Matt's running the dealership.
I'm coming in and doing... How many kids? 22 kids. Son and daughter. So walk me to 2007.
Right. So 2007 is the tip point. April. Okay. Matt broke his leg, broke his ankle, got a plate,
six screws. Four weeks later, he was brain dead and paralyzed in the hospital. Our son was a freshman
in college. Our daughter was 12 years old. If I may ask, was the... You mentioned that breaking
the ankle and the brain. Was there a connection between the two? Yeah, he had what they called a
starburst stroke. It's a starburst effect stroke. So I can describe it to you. If an elderly person
has a stroke and you look at an MRI, you'll see some clouding and some of the veins in their brain,
right? But they're still functioning. When you looked at Matt's, everything was gone. So everything
was wiped out. So they had him on life support. Three days, got our son up from college, got my
parents up to help with our... She was 12. He was 18. Took him off of life support, which is... I don't
wish that on anyone ever. It was horrific. Horrible. Horrible. His family came in. I mean,
everybody's praying, but at that point, it was... There was no saving Matt. God. And the conversation
at that point even went to... His family's super religious. Do we want to put him in a home? And
that was everything we didn't want. I mean, we made sure to have our wills locked solid. And I think
that's something that people really need to look at there. All of their... Stay planning. It's huge
in that it takes the questions out of it because here I am. I'm his wife. His family feels a certain
way, but in reality, he never wanted to be living off of machines, right? Like, who does? No one.
No one, but don't have it documented. You put yourself and your family in a really tough position.
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And I'm trying to think of the name of the document you have now that do not resuscitate. You don't
that whole slew of things. I mean, you just don't, again, if that's what you want. I mean,
I don't ever want to be hooked up to any machines. When it's my time, let me go,
send me out with a party, right? If I'm not coming back and there's nothing left,
who wants that for their family? So we remove Matt off of life support. I think he died within
five or six hours. Horrible. It terrible, right? It's almost 20 years ago. It was 19 years on
April 17. Can you believe it? I mean, is it? It's truly, I go through this really strange time
every year. Our kids don't, I don't really talk about it with them. It's kind of this
daughter brought it up, sent me a text that Meringue said, can't believe it's been 19 years.
I mean, she spent more of her life without her father than she else. She was 12 when he died,
right? It's just part of that weird journey. And then when Father's Day comes, it sucks.
People don't, you know, just like when Mother's Day comes and people don't have moms. But yeah,
I cannot believe it's been 19 years. You turn around and go, oh my gosh. And he told me four
weeks before he died, which is the strangest thing. I'll never forget it. I was sitting
across from his desk and you said, if something ever happens to me, sell the business, it will eat
you alive. Think about that. That that stuck with me. I still, obviously, it's still.
Well, let's talk about that. So you clearly did not do that. Not only have you not do that,
you went a complete other direction. You've grown the business tremendously.
Like we said, 24 stores, 13 franchises, 11 collision centers, 1000 plus employees.
Mm hmm. Why? Well, you know, first of all, I'm not really good at listening to people.
Okay. That's a good start. I mean, add that to the beginning. And at the time,
Bob Preston thought it's just like, you tell me one thing and I tend to want to do the other.
Are you a rebel by nature? Yes. Yeah. Do I look like a rebel? Act Yeah, I definitely
I don't know. You've been pretty easy going with me. Oh, well, I like you. Trust me. Cross
that line. And no, you know, it so again, right after Matt died, Bob Preston, who had been our
partner that we had bought out came over and said, listen, if you want to keep it, I'll help you.
If you want to sell it, I'll help you. And then I sat back and went, okay, this was what he wanted.
This was his legacy. This is what he dreamed of. And it was kind of it was natural for me to just
go take it over. My brain went, okay, this has given us a good life. This has fed us for this
long, right? So I'm coming on in. So you grow the business. Let's come back to present day.
You have taken, I don't want to say step back. If anything step up, where now you have, of course,
your son who's driving a lot more of the day to day, you get to be a lot more supportive with
strategy. So when it comes to acquisitions, first of all, yeah, we spoke about what are you assessing
for? How do you go about an integration? Right? You just bought these two stores. What is your
integration plan? Do you do you let them kind of run on their own island? Are you heavily
centralized? What does that look like for your group? So interesting, we have one store that
somewhat runs on its own island, because when we bought it, it was such a well,
I want to say well run machine. It's a little antiquated. And yet they sell that
out of cars and probably the best sales force I've ever seen. So they're holding
grows. What's customer experience like? That's what it is. They are so involved with their
customers where I wish I could duplicate them. And it's an older generation that's there,
but they're all leading the store that that sales team, older sales team, and they are so
customer focused. Are your other stores not like that? I am not going to say they're not
customer focused. I'm going to tell you that these guys are writing thank you notes and birthday cards.
So they're really delighting the customer like they're next beyond above and beyond who's driving
that. Is that all from the GM or that was whatever was embedded in them to the DNA of the store?
It is. And that store had been around 100 years. And honestly, we have essentially
left that we changed the operating system, right? What does that mean? What operating system? I want
to tell you they had CDK. Oh, you changed the DMS. I thought you meant like you changed the way to
restore runs. Got it. So you love techie on. We are so about being on the cloud and techie on.
We are really Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, let's face it. First of all, CDK held us to the
fire. Right? Really? It was and they took our heads off. And then it was nothing was cloud based.
And techie on has been a wonderful. How long have you been with them?
We've probably been with techie on about five years. Well, yeah, we've watched them grow, but
they've been wonderful for us. But my honest take on that just real quick is that I can find I can
find multiple podcasts on this platform where a deal principle feels that way one way or another
about every single DMS player. I've come to the conclusion, literally, you can go my platform,
you know, someone loves techie on someone loves rental someone loves CDK or vice versa. I feel
like I've come to the conclusion that it's really depends on the relationship on the store. It just
varies from my experience and all the conversations I've had, not to digress too much into operating
systems. But it's I'm always interested to hear like when people speak so highly about a company,
in this case, tech and I was wanting to know why. Well, I would tell you for the amount of stores
we have, it's centralized everything when we looked at CDK. Again, a lot of what they offered
was old and antiquated in in in their account structure and in a lot of things. So,
you know, sun's younger, sun's progressive, sun loves being on the cloud, sun loves that we own
our son, he loves that we own our information. I mean, with CDK, it was like pulling teeth
to get our information back. So I yeah, we love techie on but let me also go backwards on your
question. Yeah, we've grown a lot. It's it's been 19 years. It takes really good people. I you know,
I get all the credit in the world for what we've done. And I look around. If you come to my Butler
campus, I probably have had the same people there for 19 years. Think about that weather.
Okay, rare. It's really rare. Okay, the parts, the parts manager had to go who I loved broke my
heart. But you know, sometimes people won't of course, either. Are you involved? I mean,
the parts manager at one store 24 group. So it seems like you are in certain things very involved
when it comes to the people when it's about it. Well, I'm the one that has had the relationship.
The relationship. And I still go to work. I still go to my office. I still work every day.
I'm just not going in the weeds. I have to keep my stress level. I mean, everybody,
all of our directors, my son has told them do not stress mom out. Yeah, he's always asking me when
I'm retiring, but I'm not ready to retire either. I don't know what I do. But I would tell you in
order to grow the way we we have, it's all about people. As you know, you've talked to enough
dealers and we've been lucky enough to have this incredible group of people that I've recruited
over the years that mats recruited. So I give a lot of credit to everyone, even though I tend to
get a lot more credit than I probably deserve. I will say that it also helps to have the financial
means to grow. And I was never, I've had friends and God bless them that they go buy planes and they
boats and they live this crazy life. Dealers? Dealers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And rightfully so,
right? Whatever makes you happy. I've never been that person. I still shop at Target.
All right. But like, I can't like, I do, I love to see my t-shirt like I didn't call it,
I call this toothpaste syndrome, where I won't forget my dad like showing me to like squeeze the
toothpaste out of the tube till the last drop. And so call it that's that's the name I just
invented for it like the toothpaste tube syndrome where you squeeze the toothpaste out of the tube
till the very very you folded. Oh, yeah. I grew up that way. I mean, listen,
we didn't grow up with a lot. We had a lot of love. So what do you spend your money on?
I have a few cold cars. I take my family on great vacations. To where? Anywhere. I love Africa.
I love Europe. I you name it and I want to go and if they'll go, I'll take them. I'm our entire
family is going to Germany in two weeks. My mom's turning 88. They're immigrants. And she wants to
go back. Was she born in Germany? She was. Wow. She wants to go back and see that the elementary
school she went to is still standing. She's right outside of Stuttgart. Okay. So my wife has family
in Frankfurt. I love that. Yeah, we're going, we're going to go up towards Frankfurt because my
cousins are there. So we plan this trip and my grandkids are coming and my kids are coming and
my brother's coming and we're taking my 88 year old mother to Europe. Wow. Right. It's amazing.
It's awesome because she said after this, I don't want to go back. But no, I love China. I love Japan.
I just in Thailand, I have the greatest friends and we travel. We plan at least one trip a year.
We're about 14 of us. Wow. That's a big group. But it's incredible because and we span an age a
little bit. Is it like couples or like just some couples, a couple of my my male friends are single.
We're working on Japan to go ski in February right now. Wow. And one of our dear friends in the group
is getting married in Greece in September. Wow. So you have reasons to go places. I do. It's good.
They do. And I live to travel. So that's probably where I spend my money.
I have a little place down here near mom when COVID happened.
When COVID happened, I hadn't seen mom for five months. I flew down to see her after she's like
just come down. You know, COVID was hard. So I called a realtor and said, find me a home close
to mom. So I live a mile from mom. Wow. Yeah. And I spent a lot of time down here.
I try to spend two weeks a month with mom. Wow. And it's good for you. It's lunch.
It's swimming at the pool. It's dinner. And you know, your son's holding the four down.
I do. But I'm still working here. Of course. And I talk to him every day. You know, if there's,
I'm still getting my 300 emails a day. I'm still dealing with issues.
How do you handle the 300 emails per day? I read the first two sentences and if it feels like it's
okay, I think that's a lesson also like, you know, always like, I always, you know, we're
media company at our core. And I would say like, pack more punch, be crisper,
right? Get to the, get to the bottom line. One of our, one of our team members out there was
laughing at me because I sent an email to someone and the subject line was just help.
And they were laughing because it was like very like clear. I'm sure it's just like help.
You got your attention. I was like, that's, yeah, that's all you need. Like I don't need much more
help. And then one, you know, three words, like, let's get it done. Well, it gets cut to the chase.
I mean, if you're, if you're trying to, first of all, a lot of them are internal on numbers.
But if I'm getting a solicitation, you're getting the first two sentences out of me. And if you,
if it's intriguing, and I like what you're proposing is get sent off to two people in my
organization, one of which will contact you, get all of the details, and then they'll get back to
me. And if I like it, then it goes to Matt. And here's what I said. What's intriguing to you
nowadays? Like, like thematically, what's intriguing to you? I love AI. So AI is something
you're implementing or just looking into. I'm looking into Matt is starting to use it in two
areas. I mean, AI, and you probably know way more than I do. What it's going to do for our industry
is incredible. I know. I believe it. I, I, I can't. And I've said it to our CFO.
Yes, we're going to end up getting cutting staff, right? But at what point does it make us that
much better? Does it take our current people supercharged them? Yeah. You know, I just,
we spoke about as we're right now, you're doing our car dealership. I retreat. Our entire team is
down here. Yeah, which is awesome. Yeah. So we're, we had this morning, Paul Antony, who was the
former executive chairman of auto Canada and a serial entrepreneur, incredible human, just talk
with us about a bunch of things. But one of the things we spoke about with AI is it's, we as a
team have to just be beyond proficient at it internally, because you know what, it's if you
take a road that has three lanes, and you add another five lanes, you know what actually happens,
you end up inducing more demand, and then you fill up those five lanes, and then you're back to
traffic. The point I'm trying to make there is that's like an incomplete theory. But the point
I'm trying to make is that the market is moving there. Like there is no choice. Absolutely. You
are not going to be ahead eventually by just using internal AI tools, which we use a ton to make us
more efficient. You're actually going to be at parity. That's going to be the new baseline. I
agree. Right. So you have to embrace this stuff. I ask you fall behind. Yeah. And I agree. And yet,
you know, when you're bringing it in on trials in different areas, whether it's service or customer
service, or in our office, we've got to be careful to, right? Implementing and making sure it's
working for us. Have you implemented anything already? Matt has. He's working on a product
through service that he's trying at one of our stores. This episode is brought to you by Auto
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Anything else intriguing to you nowadays or is that the main thing or? Intriguing to people.
Like how am I getting your attention if I'm emailing you today? AI is one.
Potential acquisition is probably another. In another. A trip to Africa is a third. Oh,
always. I love that. You've got to take the kids when they're old. Tanzania. South Africa.
All of it. A trip to Africa. Yeah. And then what's the fourth? If a customer,
and you're talking about intriguing, I'm talking about emails where I'll go through,
if a customer is having issues at my store, let me tell you, if they went to the extent to reach
out to me, we have a problem because there have been a lot of things that have failed along the
way and a lot of people that have failed. Think about it, right? 100% customer.
ASM didn't make it happen. My service manager didn't have it make it happen. The GM didn't fix it.
My service director didn't fix it. We have a problem. What are you doing at that point?
Well, I'm forwarding the email to our director of sales, service, my son.
That's where we start. And the GM of that particular store. And then it is, please,
give me a rundown of what happened, right? Because that should start at the GM level.
And then it starts a serious ball rolling because processes weren't used. Let's get real.
Something broke along the way. Something broke, but it really broke. The wheels fell off.
So that always intrigues me because, again, I care. How do you find the truth?
I think if it's a service issue, we pull the arrows to start. So you start with the objective
data? Well, where else are you going to start? Because it's like a divorce. It's his side,
her side, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle. There's always three sides to every story.
There's three sides to every story. That's where we start is asking that to be sent to all of us.
And then as somebody's head is usually, it's problematic. It shouldn't get to me.
It shouldn't happen to our customers. And again, we mess up. We're not perfect. I'll own it
all day long. I'll fix it. But again, it should never feel that desperate for some. Imagine
you're not a car dealer. I am. My car breaks. I'm going to call six people. They're going to come
get me. It's going to be in the shop. I'm going to get another car. Imagine you're a single mom,
which I've been. You have issues with your car. It's in my shop for three weeks. No one's looked
at it. Somebody didn't want to touch the truck or whatever the case is. It's not okay. Let's talk
about service and fixed stops a little bit while you're on that. So one of the things that stood
out to me a lot about your business is that you have 11 collision centers. Yeah, crazy. I know
some dealers that don't have one on many. And I'm curious, how did you get to that point? Did
you build them? Did you acquire them? Like give us the background first of all on that. So deal
automotive, which are our headquarters is in Butler PA that had a collision center that was
functioning. Okay. I took over. I can't even tell you if it was profitable or not other than the
gentleman that was running it found it profitable enough because he was stealing from me, which I
found out it's amazing when I was thrown into that position the stories I could tell you.
Yeah. Well, didn't know enough had people watching my back. But again, people can be people.
That store came with that bought that my first I called my big girl store, which was my Robinson
location. That was my CDJ store that I bought that everybody told me not to buy counts don't buy it.
It's losing proposition. I was hell bent on buying it bought the store that had a collision center.
It was losing when I bought it $28,000 a month and it kept losing money. And what is it doing today?
It's making money. We actually have grown to the point that I built a massive collision center
spent four and a half million dollars building it and I'm going back probably eight or nine years
and it's thriving. Why why why why collision though? Why usually I usually hear people and you know
I'm growing I'm adding more bays growing my shop, you know renewing my facility and my sales store
like why collision? So a multitude of reasons, right? Let's talk about my 13 franchises and
a parts. So I'm supplying parts to all of my collision centers, right? And they aren't really
discounted. Okay, let's start there. I'm servicing my customers and you have the demand. We have the
demand. I'm servicing my customers there. Everybody has car issues, right? Everybody scrapes their car,
has a bumper problem, has major accidents. So my customers aren't leaving my hands. Okay, so you're
how many cars get totaled? Let's say on an average we might get 10 throughout our collision centers
a month. 10 per month so roughly on average one per collision center. Yeah. Now take those customers
and our managers are directed immediately and we give them loaners to introduce them to the closest
GM for the closest store, right? So if the cars at the Robinson Collision Center,
we're going to have the GM from there reach out to see if we can help them. And we will cross
sell of course, right? So these collision centers I assume also do your used car reconditioning for
your... Absolutely. Interesting. So you run that type of model, okay? Yeah. Why did you mention
the total number specifically? Are there simply the most profitable deals? Well, I mean if you
think about now we make no money in collision if the car is totaled. Yeah, so that's what I'm trying
to understand. It's getting so and we'll get we'll also get outside customers because we're 99%
direct repair. So even if you didn't buy your Chrysler from me or your Toyota from me, your
insurance is directing them to me, right? So now I've got these people coming in, our teams are
doing a great job, let's go your cars totaled, we've got you... In which case you don't make money?
We don't make money, but we've gotten a new customer that we can potentially make a new
customer. Okay. If it's a customer that... So it's a lead gen, it's a customer acquisition.
It's definitely right, but let's also take it to the point that you've screwed up a side panel.
We've never had you as a customer, we do great work, we wow you. But it's not a lost leader,
it is profitable. Yes, yes. So I you know... So your collision center is profitable on a standalone
basis? Yes, very much so. And but I would also tell you we have the right people running the
stores and my collision director started with me as my at my first store in Butler as a man,
he was, he did earlier like grunt work, left, came back, became a manager and he's been very
instrumental in in managing these stores. He's fabulous. I mean, he's a big park parker.
The collision business. Yeah, he understands the business. So are you building more collision
centers? Well, by as many as we can get. I won't build anymore new, I won't build anymore. If they,
it's very expensive to build in today's world. The one I built in... I put up a reconditioning
center just a couple years ago. Yeah. And that was a whole... Brand new. Well, not brand new,
I repurposed a facility. It was like 100 something thousand square feet or so or... Wow.
In interior space, but it was, you know, the whole, the whole process, I mean, it was just...
Nightmare. Yeah. Nightmare to build. You know, the body shop, all the machines and this and that and
just it was a whole thing. How's it doing for you now? Well, I'm not in anymore, so that gives you
your answer. But everything, everything is worked out really, really well. Good. Life takes you
in the right directions. It's funny how that works. It does. Life has a funny way of directing you,
even at your worst moments. But I learned a lot. Of course you do. When you get
your ass handed to you a few times, right? Yeah. It's like, I'm pretty confident that I could put
one up now, given I just went through all the details and lean six sig mind, and you just learn
how to make it efficient. And man, if I tell you how many people I just consulted with, because I
really wanted to understand how do you take, recondition vehicles as efficiently as possible?
I mean, there's fricking science to this world. And it's fascinating. Of course there is. But it,
you know, I think starting at any business is difficult. I don't care what it is. Of course.
Whether it's the coffee shop down the street, right? Because you invest your life, you invest a
lot of money, and you invest your heart and head in the product. And then when it doesn't work,
you're really screwed. Yeah. Yeah. So who's the marketing brains behind your group? Marketing in
terms of branding in terms of two things in terms of branding. And you know, you mentioned you're
also involved in some commercials and some stuff. But also, I also consider marketing what you just
mentioned, which is keeping customers in the ecosystem, bringing them back to sales. That's
also a form of marketing. Yeah. Who's the brains behind all that? So I would tell you that we've
gotten really good at marketing internally. We have a marketing manager. We have, I go back to my
son Matt, which is crazy that I'm always going back to him. He's taken over a lot of the, and I
don't want to say social media side. I want to, okay, what's the word I'm going to look for now?
The Google ads, the Facebook ads, the streaming, the, he's all over that to me. It's not my cup of
tea. And then we have an ad agency that I started out with years ago. They handle our cable, our
network, what Matthew calls old antiquated advertising. But I debate that with him because
I believe there is a market out there that's still watching television isn't just streaming, right?
Watching. Is it declining market? And I would agree with you, but it's still a market. Yeah.
If you told me TV or billboards, I would say 100% billboards. We still do billboards. We do. We do
billboards. We don't do a lot of radio anymore, which I feel we should be doing. But you know,
a lot of people stream their music. A lot of people are not listening to it. That's how we feel.
How do you think about the growth of your group? Are you going to continue acquiring or do you
believe in the future of this industry? I do. I think the industry is going to change. It's going
to change. It continues to change, right? How's that? Margin's continue to shrink. Where is,
where is AI going to come in from the onset? Our customers, yes. I remember when they converted
to internet sales. Are they going to come in, hit a kiosk? Is that all going to be done prior
versus internet sales where the salesperson isn't even involved? Is the government going to come
in and cap our profits as they screw with us the new FCC rules and FTC? Yeah.
You know, how much further does it go? Everybody wants to cut our profits. They cap our dog fees.
And at some point, is it going to be worth the aggravation? I believe it will be, but I believe
it's just going to continue to change. Today, is it worth it? Do you so? It is. Today, I will tell you
that there are days I wonder if it's worth it. Really? You know, when we went, well, in January,
February, you lose a lot of money, right? Hope march is going to be good. And then you're not
getting inventory from the manufacturers you need it from. And then the weather in Western
PA goes fricking sideways. So people aren't coming out buying cars. And then you hope April's going
to be a great month. And it usually is. And then may come. So, you know, we're living on smaller
times, smaller margins. And I see a lot of change in the future. At that point, I hope to be out of
if you ask my son, he'd probably want to buy another 55 stores. I think our growth, again,
how many do we buy this year? We bought those two. We added North Hill Chevrolet. That's three.
I think we did three in four months. We added three stores in four months over under 15 times
multiple under because I heard of some overs recently. Yeah, I would imagine
they're crazy. I mean, listen, we looked at a high line, but we're talking like Lexus territory.
So that's a little different. Listen, and here's my problem with those, right? The product's amazing.
I can't pay that multiple. I can't make it pencil in my lifetime, right? If my son, we had an
opportunity. It's like buying a bond. It is. You know what I mean? It is a very different type of
investment. It's a very different type of investment. And you really have to worry about where you're
going to be, right? If you're paying 15 times, 20 times, 20 times. We looked at a store in exotic
and I went, son, if you want to do this, you'll enjoy it if you're lucky in 25 years. I would not
take the risk, right? I mean, there's a certain point that I can't make it work in my brain. I've
rather buy three Kia stores, three Chevy stores where I know I'm going to be okay. Yeah, I have to
sell more. I'm not going to make 50 grand a copy, right? But I'm okay with that. I don't want to sell
two cars a month out of a store. I understand. Lexus, again, beautiful. The egg that lays the
golden goose was never lucky enough to get them when they, when you could get them. And now they're
crazy. Were Lexus and Toyota household? Yeah, of course. Of course, beautiful. Run forever,
great product. Also, it's a combination of great luxurious ride, but it's like not flashy.
There's a difference if you see a Lexus, you know, like I have a TX. Yeah.
Beautiful car, but it's not a Bentley. Exactly. It's not, it doesn't, it's like a Grand Highlander,
you know, it's like, just a little bit nicer. It's like, you don't want the attention on the road,
you know, you want to be comfortable and have something nice and safety. Oh my gosh, I can't
speak only enough and, and great. That's why Toyota buyers buy Toyotas. That's why Lexus
buyers that want a little more than the Toyota go to Lexus. What about your other brands? You
mentioned Kia, Chevy, anything particularly interesting to you now this? Love Chevy. Do really
well with both. Can't get Chevy inventory right now. Kia's been great. Hyundai is a little bit
more difficult for us right now. Not getting the product we need, right? It's not just you.
I've heard some things about Hyundai recently. It is. And, and you know, I think they all have
been flow. And, and I think, you know, we have four CDJ stores that have sucked for years through
their leadership and management. And we're starting to see an uptick again. We're getting inventory
that makes sense. That's the price point's great. So, you know, yeah, I would much rather do that
than invest a fortune in a, in a high line that makes no sense for our group. Do I see us continuing
to grow? I don't want any more stores this year. I think there's a max for our directors as to what
could be handled. It's, it's a lot. You know, I look at what my son oversees and I look at what
our team oversees and what our directors do and where they have to go. And yeah, you can do Zoom
meetings, but, but being on ground once in a while is really effective. It's a people business. We're
in the car business. So I don't see any more growth this year. I would imagine, and I say that every
year and then he'll turn around and go, Hey, ma, I got one. Look at that. Look at what we
can do. Are you in a 20 group or is your son in a 20? He's in the 20 group. Got it. When, when Matt died,
I had the opportunity to go into a 20 group, of course, but I had a 12 year old who didn't
understand why her dad died. The dog died. A 20 group was not in my realm. Survival was in my
realm because you had 07 and then you had the financial market crash in 09. And so it never
fell in my wheelhouse being a single mom, right? Got it. So your son is in the 20 group. Were you
ever in a 20 group throughout that period? And so, so your son, when did your son join it?
He's been doing that for about six years and loves it, loves his group, loves those people,
learns a lot. We need him in CDG circles. I want him to get in there. I do. He'll thrive in there.
He will thrive in there. Yeah. There's a lot of great people on similar stages of life as him.
And ideas are flying based on what you've told me and, and solving problems which we all have.
And I think that's fabulous. Yes. Yeah. This episode is brought to you by CDG circles. Running
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been waiting for. Visit cdgcircles.com. That's cdgcircles.com or click the link in the show
notes below. See you inside. So what's next for you? What's next for me? You know, you've,
accomplished a lot. You're, I mean, a billion dollars in revenue still opening stores.
Do you think about the, you know, the future of your group? The future of my group in terms of
succession in terms of where I'm going to be in the group. I would tell you Matt would be happy
if I wasn't like, well, I think he wants you out. Well, yeah, I think that he worries about my
stress level. Okay, fair. Let's be legitimate. Very legitimate. He's concerned truly about that
because he has a very calm, even demeanor. Oh, really? Everything about Matt is calm.
Wow. He's just that person. As you might imagine, I am not that person, right? I get in. I go after
it. I want to solve things in about five minutes. I hold people. Sounds like me, right? I hold people
very accountable, but to a degree, we had an issue a few days ago and I called him because I've also
tried to respect his leadership and not overstepping that because I'm the big bad mama. Listen, if I
call you and you work for me with me and I haven't talked to you in a while, we usually have an
issue. So I called Matt and said there was performance for a few of our stores. And again,
I'm looking at the numbers. I'm not happy. I'm not happy with this particular gentleman. And I said,
Matt, do you want me to call him? It's like, how about it, mom? Well, again, I don't want to feel
like I'm stepping on his toes, right? So you have a really good relationship like that?
Yeah, it's great. So rip this very graciously. What do people not know about you? And you've
already said a lot of really interesting things here, but what's just something that people don't
know about you? You know what? I try to be really private. Really? Well, now I'm in Pittsburgh,
I do commercials. People are very interested. We're a decent-sized group in Pittsburgh. Think
about it. Of course. I mean, you see our license plate everywhere, our billboards, our signage.
So people are very interested in my personal life, which is so strange. I get stalkers.
Really? Oh my gosh, yeah. I get people. You have your house on like LOC's and stuff?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But I get people, I get more pics, unsolicited pics. Get out of here.
Think about that. Unsolicited. Yeah. First of all, how do they get your number? Just like
find out mine. Social media, you can do that. Oh, wow. So you- I never thought I had this
conversation on the Cardiff Show app podcast, but it's a very novel one. Yeah. It's insane.
It's insane because like you can do that through Facebook and Instagram. Now, think about what are
these men thinking? They're going to get a date with me? Like, oh, yeah, semi or- It's really
a scary part of having girls. Well, I have two young girls. Think about that, though. Think about
what's wrong with someone that is willing to do that, right? So they used to go to my attorney,
so he would have, listen, just safety if something were to happen to me. Sounds crazy to you, right?
So I mean, imagine if somebody's crazy enough to do that, are they crazy enough to figure out where
my parking spot is at a store and wait for me to leave? Do you have security? No, but I carry.
You carry. I carry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, to get back to that,
what don't people know about me? I try to be really private. I have the greatest family and
friends in the world. I'm loved. And you may know this now because you have team members.
Everybody puts your ass on a pedestal. Everybody thinks you're amazing. Everybody wants to touch
you in a like, wow, look what she did, right? My friends put me in my place. Don't put up with
my if I get a little attitude, right? Because I'm a listen, I'm a little spoiled. Somebody cleans
my car. Somebody puts gas in my car. So you know, I ask, I receive, I pay a lot of people,
not my friends. But that's why I love them, right? We're just real. It's real. We're all just people.
So I have the greatest friends, my family, my kids, I have grandkids, I have five grandkids that
are the love of my life, all of my little monsters. And they all love me differently. And they're all
just incredibly wonderful. I'm not the typical grandma, right? Because I work and I, I travel
and I live and but when I'm around, I love them to death present. I'm present, right? Again,
I'm not the the grandma that's going to watch them for a day or a night because I have a life too.
Being a single person, right? It's a little different. I've been dating a fabulous man for
it'll be two years in July that I met on a whim through a friend that happened to know when we
walked into the bar. He was very totally ignored me, which is spectacular. Like think about it,
right? Like not intended to be nature. Yeah, it was. And he's so level headed and calm and makes
me laugh and former Marine and National Sales Director for medical stuff. But a great guy.
So I have a great man in my life. I'm very athletic. I love the outdoors. Did you ever
consider bringing him to deal? Oh, hell no, he would never come. No, I mean, he's a National Sales
Director. Yeah, yeah. He's he loves his career. He's happy. Not saying you should. I have to ask.
It's entrepreneurship. Like naturally, everyone around you somehow comes, you know, he gravitates
into the to the orbit of business, you know, they do. But it would just convoluted way too many
things. I get it. Right? Like, and my son would have him melt down. I did. Who needs that in their
world? And I think that's the beauty of us because I'm not really sure he knew who I was or what I
did. It's the best. It was so nice, right? Because again, as a single woman, if you got my name and
googled me there, I think there's three or four pages of my life on there, right? So someone asked
my wife the other day, they're like, Oh, like, how when did you meet Yosie? And she's like,
you're talking to me. Yeah, I met him, you know, when he was working out of a trailer.
But see, isn't that wonderful, right? It's amazing. But it was just funny, like we laugh,
we laugh about all the time. You're growing it together. And she met you without
understanding. I think it's spectacular, right? Yeah. Yeah. And dating in this world is just
super hard anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. What a conversation. Is there anything I did not ask
you that I should have asked you? Oh my gosh. There's a hundred things you could ask me.
What's the number one thing that I didn't ask you that I should have asked you? Do I love what I do?
If you would have asked me that 18 years ago, 19 years ago, the answer was no, I despised it. I
despised how I was treated. You know, I'm a woman in a male dominated industry. And I could tell you
the stories of the rude men I've met along the way, whether they were in the factory or whether
they worked with me till I got rid of their a**, right? Well, listen, I learned that, first of all,
I grew up in South Jersey and you grow up differently as an East Coast person. Where in
South Jersey? Sentiments and right outside of Cherry Hill, right? Yeah, I spent a lot of time in
Cherry Hill. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you learn not to put up bitter. You don't survive. Yeah.
Right? Like you just don't survive if you don't have a backbone. And I didn't like what I did.
I did it out of necessity for Matt's legacy to support my family, to support the people that
were still there. Do do I like what I do now? I'll tell you most days. But I still find that
there's so much that we miss. And again, I have all these directors always, it never ends. It never
ends. You see, it never even comes close to ending. And I do, I have a task list of random things
I'll have sent to me, I'll request. And I'll start digging into things. And then it's like,
what the hell are people doing? Right? And you pay and again, any dealer can relate to this.
You're paying a lot of your people really good money to do their jobs. And you turn around and
okay, we're back to basics. This is car sales 101. Right? Why aren't we following up on leads that
are coming through the internet that we can see? You know, you just, or you get the people with
gas credit cards that decide to put gas in their wife's car. And, and because nobody is looking,
and, and you know, you just, I go down these weird rabbit holes that probably aren't healthy,
but they need to be addressed. And I think the beauty that I found, and again, I'm going off
topic is I ask once and I find things amazing. It doesn't happen anymore. Putting people on
notice, right? And again, you'd have to hire so many people were down the road. I was going to do
those for us. They're going to analyze every fuel charge. They're going to analyze every RO.
They're going to check that all of our documentation as current in FNI and, you know,
we're not breaking any laws or rules or, you know, we recently fired somebody because they
were attempting to do a straw deal. I didn't know people still did that. Come on. Well,
you know, I didn't know. Let me also tell you, I take a lot of pride in honesty, morality, and
accountability. And I think that's what's grown my company. I mean, I will joke. I will have fun.
I'm the first person, I hate to say this, to dance on a bar if people don't know me. Like,
it's living, right? But I also expect people to live with decency and treat our people with respect.
I will tell you, I sleep well at night, right? I can look in the mirror and go, yeah, I'm pretty
proud of myself, not for what I've accomplished for how I did it. I give back more than I get.
I'm really big about donating to charities. Again, I didn't grow up with a lot, right?
Imagine the difference people like us can make by throwing extra money at the Salvation Army
that's going to buy kids gifts at the holidays. Or, you know, I can name a thousand things we do
that give me internal pride and amazing peace, right? Where I think a lot of people are busy
not worrying about the rest of the world. But that's going to be my legacy,
what I did, what I gave, I hope. Amazingly well said. And I'm glad we made this happen.
Thank you. Thank you for coming down and joining us in person and joining me. This was really good.
Well, thank you. I'm excited.
Corinna Strobbe Deal, CDG podcast, Deal Automotive Group. Corinna, thank you so much for joining
us. Thank you for having me. It was awesome. All right. Hope you enjoyed that episode.
Please give the podcast a rating. Consider subscribing to the show and check the show
notes for links to what we talked about. Thanks for tuning in. I'll see you guys next time.
About this episode
Karina Straub Diehl recounts taking over a dealership group after a partner’s death—he warned that selling would “eat you alive”—and turning that tragedy into a billion-dollar expansion. The conversation moves through franchise choices and acquisition math: “blue sky” valuation, five-year ROI, and paying down notes before pulling cash. She also explains how they integrate stores, standardize DMS systems, and scale collision centers as lead generation. The episode closes with practical leadership, compliance, and how AI is shifting dealership operations.
Today I'm joined by Corina Straub Diehl, CEO and President at Diehl Automotive Group.
After the sudden loss of her husband in 2007, Corina ignored advice to sell the business and instead scaled it into a 24-store powerhouse generating over a billion dollars in revenue.
This conversation breaks down her "rebel" leadership style, her aggressive 5-year ROI acquisition strategy, and why she views collision centers as the ultimate customer retention tool.
This episode is brought to you by:
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Topics:
01:35 The Hermetically Sealed US Auto Market.
02:00 The Franchise Corinna Calls Her Ugly Stepchild.
06:15 The 5-Year ROI Rule That Built An Empire.
13:45 The Husband's Final Warning She Ignored.
21:00 Why She Still Shops At Target.
23:40 The 300-Email Hack Every Executive Needs.
28:30 The Customer Email That Terrifies Her Team.
31:45 The GM Who Stole From A Widow.
39:45 The 20x Multiple She Refuses To Pay.
55:15 The Old-School Fraud She Still Catches.
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