00:05
We're doing better as a result of social media presence.
00:09
It doesn't do those three things, then it's on the chopping block.
00:11
It's in return on investment discussion.
00:25
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Daily Dealer Live.
00:28
I'm your host, Sam Dark, and thanks for choosing to be here with us on this June 29th.
00:33
It's the last Monday in the month of June as we head along into the holiday weekend.
00:38
We have got an action pack show for you today.
00:41
We start with Yosi Levi, CEO and the car dealership guy and a major CDG announcement,
00:48
It's a media company, trusted dealer audience, founders, investors.
00:52
It's a big swing and we're going to unpack exactly what it means then.
00:56
We go straight to the future of retail with Alex Lawrence, CEO and co-founder of the EV Group,
01:02
EV Only Store, Social Media's growth engine, couple new locations coming soon as part of
01:07
today's announcement plus a third big announcement that he's teased online.
01:12
It's here and you'll join us as he makes that announcement.
01:16
Then we round out today's show with Sam Hatch from JRR Motor Sales,
01:19
joining from rural Kentucky with one of the sharpest used car playbooks in the country.
01:24
It's AI assisted buying, it's Facebook marketplace sourcing, it's street buys,
01:29
and it's the 800% mindset.
01:32
But first, let's hit today's automotive industry headlines.
01:36
All right, first up today in breaking news this Monday afternoon.
01:40
Cox Automotive is out with new research on who's actually shopping independent dealerships.
01:46
And both of today's guests, two out of three anyway, will be interested in this.
01:50
Using nearly 400 used car buyer responses collected between September 2024 and August
01:56
2025, Cox found that 79% of independent lot shoppers consider their vehicle purchase.
02:05
And the average buyer earns under 75,000 bucks and 43% carry fair or poor credit.
02:12
And about 56% of people pay cash.
02:15
Not because they prefer it, but because financing terms are often out of reach.
02:19
For independent dealers, the practical takeaway from Cox Senior Director,
02:24
Elizabeth Stigall, is straightforward.
02:26
Three-bot, these buyers are doing their homework.
02:29
So the listings, well, they've got a match.
02:32
Stigall recommends 20 photos per vehicle in full descriptions, including service history,
02:37
calling marketplaces a quote, digital mall, you want as much as content as possible.
02:42
It's the new showroom of the future, as is an aside or today.
02:45
Once they're in the door, keep the transaction under 90 minutes
02:49
and introduce FNI products briefly and early to avoid friction.
02:54
On to our next report.
02:56
This one is with JD Powers 2026 initial quality study.
03:00
And the headline, well, it's a significant one.
03:03
Reported problems with new vehicles declined at the largest year-over-year rate since 1997.
03:09
Ford led the mass market segment and Porsche topped luxury,
03:12
both measured by problems per 100 vehicles in the first 90 days of ownership.
03:16
Porsche posted 138 PPU 100, Genesis came in at 151, and Lexus, they came in at 156.
03:25
On the mass market side, Ford's 152 PPU 100 edged out Nissan's 156 and Buick at 162.
03:32
BMW earned the most model level awards with six followed by Hyundai Motor Group with five
03:37
in General Motors with four.
03:39
The one consistent trouble spot is infotainment.
03:43
We talked a lot about that on the show.
03:44
Mass market brands averaged 44.4 problems per 100 infotainment related problems versus
03:50
38.3 for premium brands with Android and Apple CarPlay connectivity accounting for a 1.4
03:58
PPU 100 increase in reported issues year-over-year.
04:01
JD Powers Frank Hainley said,
04:03
when tech becomes too complicated, the likelihood of customers experiencing a problem?
04:09
Well, it rises considerably.
04:11
Something to think about as we infuse more tech and capability into our vehicles.
04:15
In automaker news, Volkswagen is considering the largest overhaul in its history,
04:21
with reports this week that the automaker is weighing the closure of four plants,
04:24
including facilities in Hanover, Zwick, what?
04:28
That's a tough one.
04:29
Zwick, while Emden and Audi's
04:32
net-carcium site potentially eliminating 45,000 jobs combined with roughly 50,000 previously
04:39
announced cuts, total workforce reductions could approach 100,000 positions.
04:44
The supervisory board has been briefed and a July 9 meeting is expected to advance the discussion.
04:50
Volkswagen is also reportedly planning to reduce investments by about 15% to just over
04:57
That's about a buck 50 billion in US over five years and may spin off its core VW brand
05:02
and parts operations into separate entities.
05:06
Volkswagen's sharp sales decline US deliveries fell 13% in 2025.
05:11
For example, appears to be the driver.
05:13
Audi posted a 16% US sales decline in 2026,
05:16
forces the outlier setting a US sales record in 2025 with 76,219 deliveries.
05:24
As always, CDG will continue tracking as the July 9 meeting approaches.
05:29
And finally up today, two mid-market reads dropped this week.
05:33
But together, they paint a consistent picture.
05:36
The new vehicle market is holding, but the conditions underneath it, well, they're straining.
05:41
First up from CarGurus, their mid-year report.
05:43
We see new vehicle sales running a 1.4% behind 2025 through June.
05:48
Some of that could be impacted by the EV credit.
05:50
A modest gap though.
05:52
Last year's comparable period was inflated by tariff driven pull ahead buying.
05:56
That's the EV reference.
05:58
Meanwhile, average new vehicle prices have climbed to 50,900.
06:02
That's up 3.3% since December.
06:04
And monthly payments, well, they're averaging above 750 bucks and fuel prices topped
06:10
four and a half bucks a gallon amid the Middle East conflict before pulling back.
06:14
CarGurus director of insights Kevin Roberts called a continuation of longer term trends.
06:21
Affordability pressure compounded by oil prices and elevated rates stretching the market further.
06:25
On the U side, the data reflects where buyers are migrating.
06:28
The average price gap between new and used vehicles sits at 21 grand.
06:33
And units seven years and older now represent more than 40% of used demand.
06:37
Here's something interesting.
06:38
Sales of vehicles with 60,000 plus miles.
06:41
Well, they're up 16% since 2020.
06:44
And new vehicles aren't keeping pace with population growth either.
06:48
The current rate of about 45 vehicles per thousand people compares to more than 60 in 2000.
06:55
Which Roberts noted has direct downstream effect on used car volume as we all learned during COVID.
07:01
EV interest on CarGurus peaked when gas price is top four and a half bucks.
07:04
And has since pulled back with new EV share dipping from 4.9% in May to 4.7 at mid June.
07:11
Hybrids continued outperform.
07:12
New hybrid sales are up 18.8% year over year.
07:17
Used hybrids are up 34.3.
07:19
And as Roberts put it, quote, hybrids are definitely seeing the growth that we expected EVs to have.
07:26
And that, folks, is a wrap on today's auto industry headlines.
07:31
Interesting news, particularly as it relates to independent used vehicle experience.
07:37
As a reminder, we're streaming across all CDG social media platforms.
07:41
Post your comments into the chat.
07:43
We appreciate Ken C. saying, hey, looking forward to the pods always.
07:46
Great stuff coming today.
07:49
Paul Solzman comes in.
07:50
Happy Monday, month-end exciting times.
07:53
Our own Hannah Farmer.
07:54
Happy Monday, CDG fam.
07:58
Our entire CDG Daily Deal Live listening audience is in the chat.
08:05
Can't wait to hear the Yosi interview.
08:07
Well, let's dive straight into it.
08:08
Up first today, the car dealership guy and CEO of car dealership guy, Yosi Levi.
08:13
Welcome to the show.
08:18
Can you hear me, Yosi?
08:24
Yosi, you've got a pretty cool announcement that you've recently made around CDG Ventures.
08:31
Tell us what that's all about.
08:32
I mean, first of all, it's great to be back.
08:33
I haven't been on the show in quite some time.
08:36
The good part is that it's for a good reason, right?
08:40
So we've been building a lot of things and creating as everyone can see.
08:45
Our work is pretty public in that sense.
08:48
We actually have a very big announcement coming in about a month.
08:51
So stay tuned for that.
08:52
I wish I could tease more, but I can't wait for the impact that this will make in the industry.
08:57
Separately, why am I here right now?
09:00
It's been a big couple of days for us.
09:03
We launched CDG Ventures, which I would say this has been a decent amount of time in the works.
09:09
CDG Ventures is our version of an investment platform that we're bringing to the market
09:16
to accredited investors where we're essentially finding the deals where we're participating,
09:22
like automotive tech deals, software deals in the market.
09:26
And we are to use the trite term that you always hear in Silicon Valley democratizing.
09:33
But in simpler terms, we're just simply bringing it to a broader market of accredited investors,
09:38
dealers in that sense primarily, to help them get access to these deals that we see on a
09:45
weekly, monthly basis and many don't.
09:47
And I'm happy to take a step back and give you more context.
09:52
But in a nutshell, that's what we've announced over the last couple of days.
09:56
So what does that mean to our listening audience?
09:59
To a dealership, to a dealer group, to an accredited investor as you talk?
10:03
I would assume most dealer principles, most auto groups would qualify as an accredited investor.
10:10
What opportunities does that give our audience to participate in?
10:13
You have to think that when I launched CarDealershipGuy, it over time morphed into a media company.
10:21
And along the way, we came across many challenges that dealers face.
10:28
Most of them came to us, hey, can you help us solve this?
10:30
Can you help us solve that?
10:31
Most of them we said we cannot or we know we can't deviate focus.
10:35
Some of them we said, yeah, we can't help you do that because we have,
10:37
there's some assets that we have at CarDealershipGuy which make it just very,
10:42
very effective for us to solve certain problems.
10:44
For example, we have a large audience.
10:46
We have a very wide network.
10:47
We have media and distribution.
10:49
All these different things that we have by being a media company enable us to just solve
10:56
Actually, the first service we launched at CDG was recruiting because we literally have
11:01
a huge audience and we also have people that are looking for opportunities.
11:04
We had a lot of dealers.
11:05
Since then, we've launched many more things which we've been pretty vocal about.
11:11
But over time, the vision for CarDealershipGuy really expanded
11:15
and we morphed into what we call today the home base for modern CarDealers.
11:20
We are aware CarDealers come in the morning to check the news, get their insights,
11:25
meet their peer groups and many, many more things beyond that.
11:29
We've become this one-stop shop for the dealer where we can offer you all these different
11:35
ways to get an edge at your dealership.
11:37
That is the fundamental premise of CDG.
11:40
It's creating different services, different solutions where a dealer can come to us and
11:47
they can leave with an edge one way or another.
11:49
It's no surprise that the most progressive modern dealers that are looking to offer the
11:55
best experience and really innovate their dealership are huge followers of CDG.
12:01
Long story short, this wasn't just a next step in our evolution.
12:04
We've seen all the value that dealers have helped create in these multi-billion-dollar
12:10
auto tech startups that have just proliferated in the last decade in automotive.
12:15
We've also seen that us, me being in my position really, I've had access over the last couple of
12:20
years to some amazing deals and some not-so-good deals, but all in all, I get a lot of deal flow.
12:27
Instead of, it used to be, hey, calling up a couple of people.
12:30
I'm participating in this deal.
12:32
Hey, are you interested?
12:34
And it just dawned on me.
12:36
I said, why are we not opening up this up broader?
12:39
Our network is a lot bigger than the 10 dealers that I speak to on a regular basis,
12:45
And so we said, if we can do this and open it up to accredited investors and actually
12:50
bring them deals, the way we're structured CDG ventures is there's no commitment.
12:55
Yeah, no commitment, no obligation.
12:59
And why do it that way instead of raising a traditional fund, Yossi?
13:03
Because I think that in a traditional fund, it can create some adverse incentives.
13:09
First of all, we are at our core, our media company.
13:11
And there's many other services that have their own GMs or operators that run them.
13:16
But me and my core, my day-to-day is being in a media company and observing what's next
13:21
for the organization.
13:22
The beautiful thing about launching a syndicate like this, where today there's no active
13:26
deal at this very moment.
13:28
There's no obligation.
13:29
You literally put your email at cdg.company slash ventures.
13:33
You just put your email there and you get deals offered to you.
13:36
You can say yes, you can say no.
13:38
If you're an accredited investor, of course.
13:39
But the beautiful thing about that is that you have no pressure, right?
13:43
You can literally be picky.
13:44
You can be selective.
13:45
And you can say, hey, if I really believe in this deal, a certain deal, I want to bring
13:50
it to the market, I have that ability.
13:53
I don't have this pressure.
13:54
Oh, we have a fund.
13:55
We got to deploy a fund.
13:56
That's not the goal, right?
13:57
That was never the goal to go launch a fund.
13:59
Rather, it's we have the ability that when we find a deal that we think would be incredible
14:04
or has really big potential and dealers would get excited about it, we can simply have them
14:09
send over the opportunity and they can assess it for themselves and decide, hey, I want to
14:14
participate in this or not.
14:15
Because guess what?
14:16
Dealers are the ones creating the value in most of these companies.
14:19
And so why not offer the opportunity that you can also participate in that value creation?
14:24
It sounds like almost like a shark tank with the ability because you're watching it.
14:28
You're looking at it.
14:29
You're making a decision about what the value is.
14:32
And then you can make a decision to jump in.
14:34
So I heard on social and you and I have talked, you're getting a lot of interest from founders.
14:40
What kind of companies you see are reaching out?
14:42
What does that tell you about how that startup world sees CDG?
14:46
What activity are you seeing so far?
14:48
So like I said, right now, there is no active deal.
14:51
This is us being prudent and saying, hey, you've got outreach though, right?
14:56
People are reaching out.
14:57
So we said, hey, let's start seeing, let's assess the demand.
15:01
We knew that we had demand through our network, but we said, let's just broaden that out.
15:06
And it's been amazing.
15:07
I mean, we've been very pleased with the outreach from both potential LPs and founders.
15:13
I would tell you founders reaching out, it's early.
15:16
We've had all across the spectrum, mostly auto tech software.
15:21
Which is not surprising.
15:22
That's typically who requires funding and capital.
15:26
And we've always had great deal flow.
15:29
Just given the reach of the platform and the network I built, there's always been good deal flow.
15:34
This has put an accelerant to it.
15:37
I don't suspect that the outreach that we've received over the last couple of days will
15:42
continue for weeks and months.
15:44
These things ebb and flow.
15:46
But I think the bottom line is that in the spirit of car dealership guy and CDG,
15:50
we are here to empower the dealer.
15:52
We want to help dealers, as we say, be able to thrive in a changing market.
15:57
That is essentially the vision of everything we're doing here.
15:59
It doesn't matter if it's circles, which is a peer group,
16:02
or if it's media, or it's this show that we're on right now.
16:05
It's all about to help empower the dealer so that they can navigate this crazy market
16:10
that we've just experienced over the last five years and we'll experience into the future.
16:15
This is just another part of that umbrella where we say you can participate in a specific deal.
16:23
When we bring a deal to market, you'll know that this is something that
16:27
I'm putting our vote of confidence behind, and we really believe in it.
16:31
Yossi, you've built this brand, as you say, as a news organization.
16:35
CDG's audience is based on trust.
16:38
It's based on reliability, fully transparency.
16:40
The editorial credibility you've built as part of this company.
16:44
How, Yossi, do you protect that trust when you're bringing deals that, as you pointed out,
16:50
may or may not succeed, but you're giving them an opportunity to thrive,
16:54
and you're giving dealers the opportunity to participate, accredited investors.
16:57
How do you protect trust when money's involved, Yossi?
17:00
It's a great question.
17:01
I think the first thing is that the way I structured CDG,
17:05
and notice I'm saying CDG, not car dealership guy, because it's two separate things.
17:08
It's two separate things.
17:09
People don't know, and it's not surprising.
17:12
CDG is the parent company.
17:13
Car dealership guy is one of the brands, and car dealership guy has its own head of editorial,
17:18
Ash, and has his own team, and the whole purpose there is, as they say,
17:23
separation between church and state.
17:25
So the beautiful part here is that CDG, the umbrella,
17:28
there's multiple entities underneath, and multiple business units underneath that.
17:33
CDG ventures being one of them, and car dealership guy being another one.
17:36
So to answer your first part of your question, two separate things.
17:40
Editorial has nothing to do with one and the other.
17:42
We keep them completely separate, and there's also separate operators.
17:45
So that's already a nice forcing function where people have to work together,
17:49
and it keeps me sort of insulated at the top.
17:53
The second thing that we do is that this is, again, venture investing is,
17:59
it's an asset class, and certain investors want exposure to that asset class,
18:03
and certain investors don't.
18:04
What I'm doing here is simply saying, hey, to the people out there in the sphere,
18:12
in my sphere, in my network, in the car dealership guy sphere,
18:15
that do want exposure to that asset class, that are accredited investors,
18:19
and that in many cases are car dealers, you have the opportunity,
18:23
you can assess on a deal-by-deal basis.
18:25
Of course, all these deals come with disclosures.
18:28
I've personally invested in dozens of these deals,
18:31
and they're just like in a venture investment,
18:36
there's a very high likelihood that you lose all your money.
18:39
But of course, on the flip side, there's also the likelihood of a power law hitting,
18:43
where one or two of ten, or who knows how many, does well,
18:48
and it makes up for all the ones that lost.
18:50
So I think that the bottom line is, if someone has the appetite for the venture asset class,
18:55
then this is an opportunity where they can simply,
18:58
with no commitment whatsoever, just get access to seeing what's out there,
19:03
assuming they're accredited, they can sign up,
19:05
they can just drop their name and email,
19:07
and they'll get access to these deals and make the decision on a case-by-case basis.
19:12
So, Yossi, as you make this available, I want to look a little down the road, right?
19:16
So, CDG started, and you started Car Dealship Guy as a podcast,
19:19
a newsletter, you become the media company.
19:22
Now, you've got this, well, CDG circles, the experiences this summer,
19:27
we're going to a retreat in Colorado, which will be exciting with select dealers who will be there.
19:32
You have really cultivated, created an entity and an organization that connects to dealers.
19:38
What is this organization?
19:40
CDG, even see Car Dealship Guy,
19:42
what does it look like five years down the road, Yossi, with this ad?
19:46
You know, Sam, we believe that it's all about,
19:50
the dealer of the future is going to have three sources of truth,
19:54
and everything is going to permeate from there, right?
19:57
It's going to be the DMS, it's going to be the CRM, it's going to be CDG, right?
20:01
We are the eyes and ears for the dealer into the outside world.
20:05
If the DMS is your COO, we're your CEO.
20:08
We get your news, we get you insights, content.
20:10
We get you ways to improve your playbook, access to talent, access to back,
20:17
the companies that you are helping create their value.
20:20
And so we are this intelligence apparatus that is just out and wide into the market,
20:27
and we bring that to the dealer.
20:29
That is exactly what we do.
20:30
And I'll tell you a secret, Sam.
20:33
From the outside, it's like, you know, we have these different things.
20:35
You know, someone, it's funny because someone told me,
20:37
hey, you're building like a miniature version of an alternative Cox Automotive.
20:42
But I think that the point they were trying to make was that we are,
20:46
we're sort of building this enterprise that has different legs to it, right?
20:50
There's media, there's services, there's SaaS software,
20:52
and there's live activations like events.
20:55
Now there's venture, right?
20:56
So there's all these different legs to the stool.
20:59
The most important thing for me, Sam, is before doing anything.
21:04
It doesn't matter what it is.
21:05
It doesn't matter how amazing I think we can be at it.
21:07
It's do we have the right person, right?
21:10
I have, I'm one person.
21:12
I only have so much time in a day.
21:13
You gotta have the right people.
21:15
Yeah, of course, right?
21:16
It's, I start and end my day with media.
21:18
And that's also what I enjoy.
21:20
Like, I think I'm great at it and that's what I really like.
21:23
Other things I'm not great at and there's other people who are way better than me.
21:26
And so the most important thing is always before getting into anything,
21:30
you could offer me, you know, a castle in an article.
21:34
Like, I don't even know what you're going to see like,
21:36
you offer me anything.
21:37
By the way, that doesn't sound, you know, too, too exciting.
21:39
But the point I'm trying to make is that it's all about,
21:42
you have the right person first, right?
21:44
I am person first, opportunity second.
21:46
And so that's how I believe.
21:48
And similar to this, right?
21:50
We have a small team here behind the scenes that's helping me with,
21:54
specifically with the venture, with the venture opportunity.
21:58
And that's what led to the timing and the announcement.
22:00
If it wasn't having to write people,
22:02
then we wouldn't have even, you know, considered it.
22:04
And so it's just having to write support mechanisms
22:06
so that we can keep doing what we're doing,
22:08
keep scaling CDG and keep finding ways for dealers to thrive in this industry
22:12
that's changing so, so quickly.
22:14
All right, you'll see the producers are going crazy
22:17
because I'm way over time.
22:19
Cole Short is saying, you got a rapper, you're going to come.
22:21
Or eating our own dog food.
22:22
Is this amazing, right?
22:23
But listen, that's right.
22:23
We're on the show announcing, I love it.
22:26
There's one really good question that you've,
22:28
you got to give me an answer to five, 10 seconds or so.
22:30
Paul Salisman comes into the chat says,
22:32
what if a deal competes directly with one of Cardioship Guys major sponsors
22:37
or causes an issue on either side?
22:39
So that's an interesting question to throw out and be transparent about.
22:43
Quick answer on that.
22:44
No, it's a great question.
22:45
Look, I think a lot of these opportunities are early stage.
22:49
And, you know, it's not, could it happen?
22:53
And I think this is a testament to, to separate, like, you know,
22:57
like I said, completely separating different business units that we have.
23:01
I think we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
23:03
We haven't faced that situation where we've actually made that type of investment
23:07
today through CDG Ventures because we had, we've literally just launched this.
23:12
And so I think, I think it comes down to a case by case basis.
23:15
But I think, you know, when you look at major, you know, whether it be the,
23:19
the Bloomberg's of the world or like major media companies,
23:21
it's very, very standard for major media companies to have venture arms.
23:26
You know, I think New York Times, I want to say has like a major venture arm.
23:29
And so this isn't like, we're not reinventing the wheel in this sense.
23:33
We're just doing what others have done, but doing it specifically for the dealer community.
23:37
And by the way, you'll see our, the principle of fair competition is alive and well and
23:42
automotive. We all do better as better ideas, get growth and compete and,
23:46
and the best ideas went out.
23:48
And so what a cool way to bring this and make this available to potentially auto dealers,
23:52
credit investors and everyone else.
23:55
You'll see Levi CEO of Cardiola ship guy and the Cardiola ship guy himself.
23:59
Thank you so much for being on the show today.
24:01
Share your perspectives on CDG Ventures.
24:04
Thanks for being here.
24:08
We're going to get on with the ad read because we're going to go short.
24:10
Today's episode, it's brought to you by podium.
24:13
Podium is the AI platform trusted by 25% of dealerships.
24:17
And they just launched something dealers have been asking for AI studio, AI studio.
24:22
It's where you go to actually train your AI on your dealership,
24:26
give it feedback, set playbooks, teach you how,
24:28
teach you how your team talks to customers.
24:30
Most AI is a black box.
24:32
Podium is yours to control and increases conversion
24:39
So check that out at podium.com.
24:41
Thanks props to podium for supporting today's content,
24:44
including that elite conversation with the Cardiola ship guy himself.
24:48
Appreciate him coming on the show and sharing all that is going on in CDG world.
24:54
Cardiola ship guy, particularly with CDG Ventures.
24:57
And let's keep going to another founder with another huge announcement today.
25:02
Let's turn quickly to Alex Lawrence, CEO and co-founder of the EV group.
25:07
Alex, welcome to the show.
25:09
Hey, Sam, my friend.
25:12
Welcome back on here again.
25:14
It's always good to have you on the show.
25:16
What do you think about CDG Ventures?
25:18
Alex, before we go into your own big announcement,
25:20
Yossi made a big announcement today.
25:22
I mean, it makes total sense.
25:23
You guys get this proprietary deal flow, people coming to you to invest.
25:29
It makes a lot of sense.
25:30
Dealers generally are easy accredited investors.
25:33
They'll understand the product and be able to help make it better and makes total sense.
25:37
I anticipate that I will participate in some of those.
25:41
So I think it's great.
25:42
I think it's a smart idea.
25:43
When you've participated in all things CDG, including CDG circles,
25:47
you're a big member of the circles and you contribute and give feedback on it all the time.
25:51
But enough about CDG.
25:53
Let's talk your big announcements.
25:55
You've teased across social media.
25:57
You've got an entire audience here watching this very show today.
25:59
You've teased three big announcements.
26:03
What are the announcements, Alex?
26:05
I mean, the first one, I think matters to the industry as much as us.
26:07
The other two are more about what we're doing, but still hopefully interesting.
26:11
The first one is, I believe, at least we were, I think we still are the first used only,
26:17
so non-franchise, dealer to launch on Amazon Autos.
26:22
So if you want to buy a Tesla on Amazon Autos, you'll buy it from Evietto.
26:28
Among other Rivians and other EVs as well.
26:31
But yeah, that's live.
26:33
We've been working with them for, gosh, a while, 69 months,
26:37
getting this ready to be one of, if not the first used only.
26:41
And there's some reasons that make sense for that.
26:43
But we're live and we're now, you buy a car from us on Amazon.
26:47
When did it, before you give us the other two announcements,
26:49
when did you go live on Amazon?
26:52
Like over the weekend, quietly.
26:54
And we're still, we've got a few little kinks,
26:57
but you can go on there right now and you can go through the whole process and buy it.
27:01
We'll get a notification.
27:02
We'll arrange delivery or shipment all on the Amazon experience.
27:07
So what was the market condition?
27:09
What pulled you into Amazon?
27:12
That's something a lot of dealers have looked at.
27:14
Many have taken the leap.
27:16
Hyundai and some other OEMs started early in the new car side.
27:19
They've recently pushed the used out.
27:21
Why Evietto with Amazon?
27:23
Yeah, I mean, so I think, you know, those were the manufacturer, the OEM decided, right?
27:29
And then the franchise is joined.
27:30
So like I had the luxury at times, sometimes it'd be great to be a franchise of making
27:36
those decisions on my own.
27:38
The moment I heard about Amazon autos, I, we're going to be there.
27:42
You know, my previous life was in technology.
27:45
You know, I can see a world where there's a lot of customers
27:48
that that's going to be a great option for them.
27:51
I mean, everybody knows Amazon's the best buying e-commerce buying experience on the planet.
27:56
And we all buy so many things there already.
27:59
It's so easy and the customer service and all those things.
28:02
So for me, it was instant.
28:03
We're going to be there.
28:04
And I started reaching out and saying, Hey, can we be there?
28:08
And to their credit, they started working together an internal case for why us.
28:12
And there's a few reasons.
28:13
I mean, in no particular order, you know, I'll say that I think that it's probably a cold day
28:19
in hell before Elon puts his cars on Amazon.
28:23
You know, I mean, the direct consumer.
28:24
Why wouldn't he do that?
28:26
Like he's got no dealer franchise network.
28:29
Amazon auto for anyone.
28:30
It seems like Elon Musk would be a good, a good match for that.
28:33
I mean, first of all, let's talk about the Bezos, Amazon friend, fair, fair, fair, fair.
28:39
Friend in the relationship, right?
28:40
I actually don't think they're like anti, but also, I mean, look,
28:43
Tesla is a direct consumer car buying experience.
28:45
You can already do on Tesla and do on Amazon.
28:47
So, I mean, maybe they will.
28:49
I have no inside information whatsoever.
28:51
So, Alex, a few questions from the chat before we go to your second and third announcement.
28:55
We want you to get all your announcements in.
28:57
Paul Salisman says, hey, Alex, is Amazon charging dealers for this service yet?
29:02
I know introductory, there was no charge.
29:04
Is there a charge today?
29:06
Yeah, they will be.
29:06
They'll be charging, I believe, a per store fee, as I believe their plan in the near future here.
29:13
And, you know, I can't remember exactly what they're launching with, but it's very reasonable.
29:18
And again, for me, I want to be wherever my customers are.
29:23
And Amazon believes that we'll provide the same experience they do, the customer service.
29:28
And so, we're grateful that they have confidence in us that we can represent them well.
29:33
Because the customer kind of, it's like Amazon, they're going to go back to Amazon.
29:37
Probably they have a problem.
29:39
And with a franchise operation, there's more strings that can kind of be tugged on there
29:42
with the use only operation.
29:44
There's less, I don't want to say leverage, but they've got to be thoughtful about who they partner with.
29:49
So, a couple of comments that are coming in that folks have asked about the Amazon deal.
29:53
You probably have the fresh newest perspective.
29:56
Finance, you're limited in terms of the finance providers and products to one or two companies.
30:00
Is that still the case?
30:01
And then used cars, you've got first rider refusal, but ultimately, if you don't want it,
30:05
they end up taking it as delivering on their promise to the consumer.
30:09
Did that cause you any pause as you went down the road on this, Alex?
30:12
So, their finance partners are actually really good ones.
30:14
I mean, it's like Wells Fargo, Capital One, Ally.
30:19
You know, I mean, they're great finance partners that we work really closely with anyway,
30:22
which again, pretty fortunate because a lot of use dealers don't get to work with those groups.
30:27
And we already had relationships with them, so it made it easy for them to turn us on.
30:32
So, that wasn't an issue at all.
30:34
At back end products, we'd like to eventually be able to install chargers and do some of the
30:39
things that are unique to us.
30:40
And I believe Amazon will let us do that down the road.
30:42
No promises, but I think that'll work itself out.
30:46
As far as, I mean, if a customer wants to buy a car for me, I'm not going to opt out of it.
30:50
It's theirs. They can have it.
30:51
Great. I'd love it.
30:52
I'm not going to be, we're not going to begrudge a customer regardless of where they bought the car.
30:58
So, no, zero concern for me that, oh man, that car sold on Amazon.
31:01
We could have made more back end on it if it's sold here in person.
31:05
You'll never hear us say that.
31:06
Yeah. You want the frictionless, easiest process.
31:08
And Amazon has the largest audience of anyone out there.
31:12
South Texas Crypto comes into the chat.
31:14
Alex says, trying it now, out now, but it doesn't let me search outside of 75 miles.
31:19
Is there any way to change that?
31:20
If I want to buy a car from you at 300 miles away, how do I do that, Alex?
31:25
Yeah. Again, I don't want to speak.
31:27
I think that will change.
31:28
I mean, we ship nationwide and so it's easy for us to sell a car.
31:31
But, you know, they're still working things out, right?
31:34
So, right now, they're working with.
31:36
And I think the other thing, in my opinion, that's more to protect franchise dealers.
31:40
Because, you know, if you're a Ford dealership in Chicago,
31:43
where you are versus California, they want you to go to the one that you're 75 miles closest to.
31:49
But for me, I don't have that potential limitation.
31:52
And so, yeah, I'm saying, hey, guys, let's open mine up because I can ship anywhere really easily
31:57
and affordably. And so, but right now, it does have a mileage limitation.
32:02
We will continue to follow this because we want to see your successes.
32:05
You go down the road on this, particularly from the independent auto side.
32:09
As a tee up to your next announcement, Stephen St. Peter Jr. comes into the chat says,
32:14
New England needs some EV auto locations, hopefully 27 or 2028, Alex.
32:20
What do you say to that? And then let's make your other announcements.
32:23
Well, Stephen is all he's constantly hitting me up with that.
32:25
I love the guy. I know him.
32:27
So, we are opening more stores.
32:29
I mean, our audacious day one goal from almost six years ago is to be the largest seller.
32:34
And servicer of used EVs in the world.
32:38
Yeah, that's been the plan from day one.
32:40
We're going for it.
32:40
So, we've got two locations in Utah, one in Nashville.
32:43
We purchased a location in Las Vegas that's a new build.
32:48
That'll be a flagship, you know, a dozen service bays and over 100 cars and a new cafe concept
32:55
that we're kicking around the drink concept with super chargers and everything else,
33:00
which we can talk about in a second.
33:01
And then we have a second location in Las Vegas that we're hopeful to announce soon.
33:06
That's actually a lease of an existing location that will open sooner.
33:10
So, that'll be two.
33:11
And then we've gone under contract.
33:13
We have a location in Dallas that we're hoping to get open for the end of the year.
33:18
There'll also be another flagship, 12 service bays, the concept, 100 cars, highly visible,
33:26
So, we hope to be at five operating locations, Q4, Q1.
33:31
And then, you know, from there, we want to open three to four a year, you know,
33:37
Maryland isn't one of them right now.
33:39
But if we succeed on our goal, you know, within the next decade,
33:43
we'll have stores in pretty much every state in America.
33:47
So, we're on our way.
33:49
One store at a time.
33:49
Strong, strong, strong.
33:51
Well, we'd be excited to hear exactly where those locations in Vegas are.
33:55
And in Dallas, as you ramp that up, what does that say?
33:58
A lot of pundits in the industry said, hey, look, EVs, they're going to die once credits are gone.
34:05
And now gases are outrageously expensive due to the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz.
34:10
And you've got to laugh a little bit.
34:12
Every penny the gas prices go up, you are proving the EV concept, even independent EV outlets.
34:19
Yeah, I mean, look, I want the war to end.
34:22
And I'm not chairing for that to be said with a straight face.
34:27
But I mean, look, there's never a dull moment in EVs.
34:30
And so I've also never been somebody that believes everybody should drive one.
34:34
I've never supported government mandates.
34:38
I've never thought growth was going to be a straight up line.
34:41
I've always thought it's going to be a steady growth line.
34:44
And none of that changes with credits, with gas prices.
34:47
They're a great option for people.
34:49
I'm in the used business, not the new.
34:51
I think they're two different answers if it's used versus new.
34:55
And so yeah, they're great cars.
34:57
I mean, almost anybody you talk to that's had one for the most part.
35:00
The vast majority love them.
35:02
They say they'll always have one.
35:05
And it doesn't mean that's the only car they'll have.
35:08
We don't hate gas cars.
35:09
We're not anti-gas cars.
35:11
But yeah, I mean, we believe that our business, especially the way we do business,
35:15
the way we don't have any fees or add-ons that we don't punish for cash,
35:19
that we don't require trades, that we give out the door prices over the phone
35:24
or via text within 30 seconds so we don't have any fees,
35:26
that we don't pressure you, that you don't go to an FNI office.
35:31
All these things, the way our people are compensated,
35:33
incentivizes them to do its best for the customer.
35:35
When you put all that together in a fun, unique environment,
35:39
no sport coats with name tags, nobody waiting for you at the door.
35:42
Hey, what's wrong with the sport coats?
35:44
No, no, no, no offense.
35:46
If it's a Porsche and your ship, I get it, right?
35:49
You know, they'll go through on test drives.
35:51
There's all these things that can be different.
35:54
But, you know, I think that when you couple that with good value,
35:58
used EVs are good value.
36:00
I mean, look, Tesla came out with an announcement today.
36:03
They are up, they're hardware three and hardware four.
36:05
They're the latest self-driving and the previous version of self-driving.
36:08
Well, they just launched today a rollout that their hardware three cars
36:12
are getting a software update to make them much more full self-driving
36:16
advanced like they're for not quite as good.
36:18
That's completely free to all of these cars that have a hard hardware three for years.
36:23
They connect to their life and they get this massive upgrade
36:26
to their full self-driving.
36:28
I'd argue it's the biggest upgrade to any car for free in make ever, you know,
36:33
and that just happened.
36:34
And so there's a lot of benefits to the vehicles that I think
36:38
going to make them continually in demand at a nationwide level,
36:42
especially when you get more charging, which is announcement three.
36:46
Segway into it, right?
36:49
I think that's smart to do is an upgrade and to not charge for it.
36:51
And I think that'll set a good precedent.
36:53
In fact, speaking of charging, you have another announcement
36:56
as it relates to EV charging.
37:00
So the EV group owns EV Auto, but we want to try and own all the different ways
37:04
that somebody interacts with a used electric vehicle.
37:06
One of them is super charging.
37:08
So Tesla came to us last year to join a beta program
37:12
as one of their first partners to own and operate Tesla super chargers with them.
37:17
And so we've been working feverishly to acquire new locations.
37:22
And our first one will open probably the end of this week.
37:26
We're just waiting for it to get turned on at our Brentwood
37:29
at our Nashville, Tennessee EV Auto.
37:32
My understanding is the first
37:34
car dealership in America that has Tesla super chargers on site.
37:38
And so you'll see them at all of our new locations on site.
37:41
With a drink concept, a snack concept,
37:45
something fun to eat and drink while you're waiting.
37:48
But EV super charging, if you go to superchargepartners.com,
37:53
superchargepartners.com is an EV Auto or an EV Group company.
37:57
We've got about 20 locations that are under various stages
38:00
of construction development right now.
38:02
We've got four in Florida.
38:03
We've got the one in Nashville.
38:05
We've got one in Arkansas.
38:06
We've got a couple in Texas.
38:07
We've got a whole bunch in Utah.
38:09
We've got one in California.
38:11
We'll do one in Vegas.
38:13
And so we're building Tesla super chargers.
38:16
They're branded powered by EV Auto, but they're exactly the same.
38:20
They're on the Tesla network.
38:21
When you put in your navigation, it takes you there.
38:23
They work for all the brands.
38:25
So if you've got a Riviera or a Ford or whatever,
38:28
it's the best supercharging experience.
38:30
It's the most seamless.
38:31
And so our goal is to have a couple hundred of these locations
38:34
all around the country at our dealerships,
38:36
but also in lots of other locations.
38:38
And our first one opens this week.
38:41
And the other 20 or so, they'll all open Q3,
38:45
maybe early Q4 this year.
38:48
So we're going to have a whole bunch of them that pop up.
38:50
What led to that deal?
38:51
How did you put together a deal on Tesla superchargers
38:55
as an independent EV dealer, a deal with Elon Musk's Tesla
38:59
to distribute those chargers, Alex?
39:01
Later or not, they came to us initially.
39:03
They watch our social media and Amazon does too.
39:06
And they think we run a good business.
39:09
And we sell as many used Teslas as probably any independent,
39:13
not Carbona or some of these big groups,
39:15
but we sell thousands a year of them.
39:17
And as soon as I had signed NDA initially,
39:21
as soon as they told me what it was, I said, I am in.
39:23
And yeah, you can't pull enough of us as fast as you can.
39:26
Yeah, I've done the other chargers.
39:28
Supercharging is the only way to go if you've ever done it.
39:30
It's the only way to charge your car.
39:32
So any economics you want to share with us?
39:35
How quickly do those superchargers become profitable?
39:39
And what's your ultimate goal in terms of number nationwide?
39:42
And what not, Alex?
39:43
Yeah, I mean, they're expensive.
39:45
You know, I mean, it's a million dollar investment
39:48
in the dealership in Brentwood for the latest technology.
39:53
These are V4, the fastest superchargers out there.
39:56
They've got the dock that works with any different kind of vehicle
40:00
And so it is a big investment.
40:03
You know, they're profitable immediately
40:05
in terms of like monthly cash flow as soon as you turn them on.
40:09
You know, really the function there is how much are they used?
40:14
And so Tesla has been a great partner with us
40:16
in helping us predict how much they'll be used,
40:20
One of the greatest data companies on earth.
40:22
And so we feel like we've got good projections
40:25
and we're going to open as many as we can,
40:27
as fast as we can in as many A locations.
40:29
And so superchargepartners.com is a website
40:32
where people can actually go and submit their sites to us.
40:35
Hey, I've got a location.
40:37
I've got a restaurant.
40:38
I've got a party around.
40:41
Yeah, a cardio ship, whatever.
40:42
And they want a partner.
40:44
We put up all the capital.
40:45
We pay all the costs to install.
40:49
And then we'll either pay you rent for your parking stalls
40:51
or we'll let you profit share with us.
40:54
And so it's a no capital up.
40:57
And yeah, so that's a separate company from EV Auto
41:00
with its own team and so forth.
41:02
And we have a warranty company and a charging company
41:05
and a service company.
41:07
And so these are all meant to help the EV owner
41:10
in all the different ways.
41:11
Sounds like a CDG venture type venture,
41:14
but just an EV Auto venture of CDG.
41:17
We should have brought Yossi back on.
41:19
We could have had a little wrap on that deal.
41:21
Hey, maybe we put a supercharger site or two in there.
41:24
But I hadn't thought about that.
41:25
That's interesting, Sam.
41:26
That's interesting.
41:27
You could bring them CDG across the country.
41:30
So now we're going to put Yossi's big old cartoon face on it.
41:34
Right off the charts.
41:35
Now the chat is lighting up here.
41:38
So a couple of questions as we wrap up here.
41:40
SWAT team comes into the chat says,
41:42
is the drink concept a dirty soda bar?
41:46
And Dale in progress says the drink concept
41:47
will include dirty sodas.
41:49
There's like four or five different asks on that one.
41:53
Dirty sodas, fun snacks.
41:55
We're talking to different groups.
41:57
But yeah, it'll be, we'll have a really fun
42:00
Evie Auto style place to come in, get a drink,
42:02
charge your car, hang out.
42:04
You know, it's going to be a really fun,
42:06
use the bathroom, which is a huge thing.
42:10
So it's a totally new different thing that we're doing
42:14
that we think will add to the customer experience
42:18
So as we wrap up, let's go to current events.
42:20
Last week, CDG, we reported here
42:21
that Polestar had been banned from the U.S.
42:25
beginning 2027, presumably on national security concerns.
42:30
There's a distribution network of dealers across the country.
42:33
They're selling vehicles.
42:35
They can no longer do that in 2027.
42:38
What are your thoughts on that?
42:39
And then you're building these supercharger points.
42:42
China has incredible charging technology.
42:46
What's your take on China in the U.S.?
42:48
And should the U.S. have banned this EV
42:53
that already is in the U.S., Alex?
42:55
That was a shock, wasn't it, Sam?
42:57
I mean, I didn't start coming.
42:59
My understanding, and it's a bit limited,
43:02
is the rules kind of are what they are.
43:04
And there's some threshold there for Chinese involvement
43:07
in the production of the vehicles.
43:10
And it went over that level.
43:13
So I mean, I don't know.
43:16
I've heard through the grapevine
43:17
that there might be some ways to retrofit these cars
43:19
or do something so that they're,
43:21
but I think they're scrambling.
43:26
I think the safety concerns over China trying to snoop
43:31
on what we're doing in a variety of ways,
43:33
whether it be TikTok or whether it be AI stuff
43:36
with Fable 5 and Anthropic or things like this,
43:40
I think they're valid.
43:41
They're not our buddies.
43:42
And so, but I admittedly don't totally understand
43:47
the depth and breadth of that decision.
43:49
I just know, hey, if that's the rule and you broke it,
43:52
then I don't know if they have a choice, right?
43:54
So, but beyond that, I mean, Tesla Supercharging
43:58
is one of the most dominant monopolies
43:59
I've ever seen in my business career.
44:01
It's why all the manufacturers said,
44:03
you know what, Tesla, you win.
44:05
We're not going to do our own charging networks anymore.
44:08
We're changing our port to be native to your port.
44:11
And it was actually a really smart decision
44:13
because Tesla had such a...
44:15
They had a trillion dollar lead in charge.
44:17
They've got the best...
44:18
I mean, yes, China makes faster...
44:20
But the B4 is fast.
44:23
You just drive up, you plug in, you unplug, you drive away.
44:26
You don't have to pull a card.
44:27
It tells you how long to be there.
44:29
It predicts everything.
44:30
It's the easiest experience.
44:32
And so, you know, they're going to win Supercharging.
44:35
They've already won Supercharging.
44:37
Globally, or in the US?
44:40
In the US, I can't speak internationally.
44:43
I don't know enough about that.
44:44
But in the US, the Tesla Supercharger network is
44:47
and will continue to be the absolute dominant player
44:50
in charging, fast charging, especially as you travel.
44:54
Their network is just...
44:55
It's just exploding.
44:57
And part of it's people like us that are...
44:58
There's other people like us that are doing this, for sure,
45:01
in addition to Tesla's own efforts.
45:03
And so, I'll give you a quick example.
45:05
In Utah, we will have eight new Supercharging locations
45:09
along the Wasatch Front open before the end of the year.
45:12
So, think about what that does for my customers here.
45:15
I mean, that's eight new options within 150 miles,
45:20
200 miles from top to bottom.
45:22
Not even that, 150.
45:24
I mean, that just solved basically everybody's
45:27
charging concern in the whole market.
45:29
Now, do you give your customers some sort of a deal
45:31
on the charging cost at your charger, or is it market rate?
45:35
Because that's the only good idea.
45:36
No deal, but we're going to do some cool things
45:39
We're going to have like a mobile detailer there,
45:41
an EV Auto mobile detailer.
45:43
So, you want to go in and get some food for 99 bucks,
45:45
we'll wipe your car down, we'll do the inside, whatever.
45:47
We're going to try that.
45:48
You know, like I said, we're going to do the drink stuff.
45:50
We're going to have a...
45:51
Since our chargers, you can scan and schedule
45:54
a service appointment while you're sitting there.
45:57
So, we're going to offer some special things,
46:00
and then we're going to give away...
46:01
We're going to have free waters.
46:02
We're going to give them.
46:03
And so, we're going to try and make our chargers
46:05
the best ones and the best experience
46:07
and the best locations.
46:08
Just like everything else we do at EV Auto,
46:11
it's customer first.
46:12
And so, yeah, I mean, we're going to try
46:13
and make it the best charging experience we can,
46:15
but the price will be in line with what all the others are.
46:18
Well, Alex Lawrence, CEO and co-founder of EV Auto.
46:21
Thank you so much for coming on Cardiola Ship Guide,
46:24
Daily Deal Live today to break this news
46:26
about all the great things that are coming on.
46:28
We'd love to have you back at the very end
46:29
for our roundtable as well.
46:30
So, Alex, thanks for being here sharing your perspectives.
46:35
We've got a ton of comments coming into the chat.
46:37
I can't bring them all up, but go check them out
46:39
if you're watching live today.
46:41
We're going to keep going.
46:42
Next up today, Sam Hatch,
46:44
General Manager at JRR Motor Sales.
46:47
Sam, welcome to the show.
46:51
I'm happy to be here.
46:52
Great to see you again.
46:53
It's great to have you here.
46:55
Great to have you back.
46:56
You were on the podcast several months ago.
47:00
You and I were on together and we got to get to know you.
47:05
tell our Daily Deal Live listening audience
47:07
who you are, what you do,
47:08
and what's happened since your last on, Sam.
47:11
We are a small niche used car dealer
47:15
in the middle of nowhere, Kentucky.
47:18
And our main niche is wholesale.
47:21
And a couple of years ago,
47:22
the owners of our operation
47:24
who were thriving during the epidemic
47:26
and are doing really good in wholesale.
47:28
So, they got the wholesale to a little under
47:30
a thousand a month through those times.
47:32
And then it kind of dwindled down
47:33
where we average about 800 used cars wholesale a month.
47:36
And they wanted to step into the retail space.
47:38
So, I was able to kind of hit the ground running
47:41
because I already had my acquisition process
47:43
kind of taking care of.
47:45
And I was able to go into the retail space.
47:48
Our first year, we probably averaged,
47:50
I don't know, 50-ish retail units a month,
47:52
not including we have a buy here, pay here also.
47:55
And then now we're probably somewhere
47:57
between 72-ish units for the year right now average.
48:00
So, that's just on our retail side.
48:03
Our wholesale is crushing at about 800 cars.
48:05
And then we have a logistics company of 35 plus
48:09
nine car haulers as well.
48:12
When you were on in May,
48:14
you talked about trying to get ahead of trends
48:16
instead of being monopolized by them.
48:17
You're independent, rural Kentucky, no OEM badge.
48:20
What's the advantage of operating from that position
48:23
as an independent right now?
48:24
You're the second independent on.
48:25
Evie Alex is the first.
48:27
We'll have you both in the round table.
48:28
What's your leverage or your advantage
48:30
you have as an independent use dealer in June of 26, Sam?
48:35
It's way harder to reason with a line
48:38
when your head's in its mouth.
48:39
So, I wanted to do my diligence
48:41
to get my best foot in front of me
48:43
for the technology curve that comes
48:45
to where I'm at geographically.
48:47
Like we're last to anything, you know?
48:48
So, even when it comes to the market
48:50
in terms of relativity for EVs,
48:52
there's no, there's a reason why there isn't
48:54
a bunch of EV autos here in Central Kentucky, you know?
48:57
So, how do I get, put my best foot forward?
49:00
First thing, I have to remember that
49:02
some of the largest titans that I go against
49:03
aren't new car manufacturers.
49:05
They're used car dealers, Carvana, CarMax.
49:09
They made a stab at acquisitioning privately
49:11
in an uncontrolled market long before
49:13
I ever thought of going on Facebook to buy a car.
49:16
So, just kind of, like I said,
49:18
putting my best foot forward,
49:20
so I'm not completely monopolized
49:22
by these people in the industry.
49:23
Carvana reported they sold 187,000 vehicles in Q1.
49:27
That means that they had to buy,
49:31
and not including their Odessa,
49:32
not including their wholesale operation,
49:34
but they had to buy that many cars off the street.
49:36
And I just thought to myself,
49:37
wow, how many of those were missed opportunities
49:40
by me and my dealership?
49:41
So, I don't have excuses when I'm looking at these other,
49:44
you know, I wish I had a franchise.
49:45
I used to have the poor me mentality,
49:47
but really it's like, how can I,
49:49
how can I be the dealer that the Tesla robot
49:53
is walking into inspect the car for somebody
49:55
who's getting it delivered in another state?
49:58
It's like, those are the types of curves
49:59
that I'm trying to get ahead of.
50:01
Right now, keeping an active pulse on the market
50:03
and staying ahead with AI,
50:04
taking advantage of these things while we still can.
50:07
We're not a podium store.
50:09
I'm still stuck to my roots with that
50:11
with responses here in Kentucky.
50:12
We have not had the best experience
50:14
with people responding to AI.
50:17
So, we've been slowly combating that,
50:19
and I'm really excited to see our acquisitioning,
50:22
our entire process for acquisitioning,
50:24
and then also the stuff that we're doing for marketing.
50:27
There's a huge, like RussFlipsFlips, for instance,
50:29
you know, just a huge person who came into the industry
50:32
and showed, hey, this is a completely different way
50:34
that you dealerships are missing business.
50:36
And I was like, well, I can't be missing business.
50:39
I'm up late at night, and I'm like,
50:40
if I post a wacky video or something informational,
50:42
people are gonna inquire at my dealership.
50:45
Five years ago, I could have sat in a room
50:46
full of like the top 1% dealer owners,
50:48
like you sound crazy.
50:49
And now you see all of them signing up
50:52
for the same service.
50:53
And, you know, you'll even catch me
50:54
on our social media pages doing the most outlandish things.
50:57
What's the same service?
50:58
What's the same service you're talking about?
51:02
You said they're signing up for the same service now.
51:04
They called you crazy.
51:05
What are you talking about?
51:07
So, Russ will come to your store and sell you on training.
51:11
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
51:12
Getting out social media.
51:15
It's like, well, what, five years?
51:17
Maybe let's call it 10 years ago.
51:18
Oh, hey, let's go to Nata.
51:20
Hey, these guys are going to allocate a ROI based off
51:22
of your exposure on their SEO page.
51:25
And your VDP has to look like this.
51:27
And it's like, well, I'm putting myself in the Cox box.
51:30
You know what I'm saying?
51:31
Where it's like, I'm only limited by what it is
51:33
that I can pay for.
51:34
And then organic marketing wasn't a thing
51:37
that was as talked about where you see somebody
51:39
who is literally taking average Joe's
51:42
in the middle of nowhere, use car stores, new car stores.
51:45
It's basically just who wants to work.
51:47
And he's taking these people and they're creating
51:49
without any money spent an insane ROI just by selling cars
51:53
of people that would never venture to your store.
51:56
So a lot of comments coming into the chat.
51:58
DanC9440 says, does Sam have a floor plan provider?
52:02
Do you pay for all their vehicles, vehicle acquisitions
52:05
Because that's an awful lot of transactions
52:07
on a monthly basis.
52:08
Who funds that, Sam?
52:10
That's a great question.
52:12
We've been in business for so long.
52:15
There's a couple, both.
52:16
We use private equity and our own capital.
52:18
So an agreement that was made a long time ago,
52:21
my owner has a outstanding relationship with.
52:25
Floor plans aren't...
52:27
Floor plans are a way for you to build a rope
52:30
and you can use that rope to find salvation
52:31
or you can use that rope to potentially hang yourself.
52:35
I used to be 5000000 total
52:38
and we had, this is my previous job,
52:41
you know, Westlake, Next Gear, AFC.
52:43
The whole lot of them.
52:45
And it felt like every day I was doing an audit of some kind,
52:47
they will treat me like a literal criminal.
52:49
So I was like, wow, there has to be something better than this.
52:52
So we're in a small town where we were able to kind of find
52:56
a niche deal that allows our operation to thrive.
52:59
And I can't express to you guys enough,
53:01
we're not married to any vehicles.
53:03
That's why we push the volume that we do.
53:04
If we're making a dollar or maybe even losing in some situations,
53:07
we're going to sell the car 100 times out of 100,
53:10
800% of the time, volume solves every issue any dealership is facing,
53:15
So back when you were on in May,
53:18
you talked about how you make money when you buy cars,
53:22
And that's a common theme in the used car acquisition process.
53:25
Your cost sits at about 84% of market.
53:29
And then you list at 95%.
53:30
How disciplined does your team stay at those thresholds
53:34
when inventory gets tight, Sam?
53:36
And how do you do that?
53:37
How are you disciplined?
53:39
What's your discipline process for that?
53:41
Stack them deep and sell them cheap.
53:44
First off, let me just a quick one answer.
53:46
No, how do we stay disciplined?
53:48
Well, obviously I sort through thousands of cars.
53:50
I'm picking pieces of hay at a needle stack.
53:52
It's not a needle out of a hay stack.
53:54
Like I'm going through all this excruciating process
53:57
to maybe farm a yield that is none of them.
54:00
I'm trying to buy cars that our buyers are actively out
54:02
buying to then run at the auction.
54:04
And we try to get them before versus me getting a no sale report
54:07
and picking cars that nobody else wanted.
54:09
So kind of staying at that equilibrium
54:11
and keeping the lot replenished without suffocating myself.
54:14
That's why we have the cost inventory.
54:17
It's really funny, Sam.
54:19
Someone asked me the other day, they were like,
54:20
yeah, in the car business, you guys just
54:22
must have a set amount that you mark up a vehicle.
54:25
And I said, no, we don't have a set amount.
54:27
I'm just selling every car for what it's worth.
54:28
Rather, I'm making money or losing money.
54:30
Sometimes I make a lot of money.
54:31
Sometimes we don't make any money at all.
54:33
But that's how we stay very true to that profit strategy.
54:36
So as we finish, because we're going
54:38
to go into this roundtable with Alex,
54:39
we've only got about a couple of minutes left.
54:41
When you were on last, you walked us
54:43
through building an AI-assisted script
54:45
to automate your viado shockwave workflow,
54:47
instead of clicking through filters like everyone else does.
54:50
For a GM who's never touched anything like that, Sam,
54:53
what does that look like in practice?
54:54
If you can give it just about 30, 45 seconds
54:56
before you go into the roundtable.
54:57
And what problem did it solve that automated script?
55:00
Stay tuned, because we'll present it to the world here
55:04
shortly, because it has been so successful.
55:06
That is something that we're working on currently.
55:08
The whole scope is this.
55:10
Instead of sorting through every car on a stockwave,
55:14
ACV, whatever, compile that information,
55:17
correlate it to your profit strategy with a tool like viado,
55:20
plug it in, and then have a report that designates,
55:23
hey, what cars are closest to my profit strategy?
55:26
Put them to the top for me.
55:27
And being able to talk to an AI tool
55:29
to be able to cipher to that information is, you know.
55:34
All right, Sam Hatch.
55:35
Jill Mandra at JRR MotorCells.
55:36
We're excited to hear that announcement when that comes.
55:39
Hopefully, you'll, like Alex Lawrence did,
55:40
break that news here on CDG Daily Deal Live.
55:43
We'll have you back just a moment for the roundtable.
55:46
And we're just keeping things going.
55:48
Roundtable right up, Alex Lawrence.
55:50
Welcome back to the show, Sam Hatch.
55:52
Thank you both for being here.
55:53
So, Alex, let's dive into it.
55:54
What's one thing most dealers are still underestimating
55:57
in June of 2026 about social media?
56:01
Oh, yeah, I mean, guys,
56:04
I'm talking like heavy eight figure,
56:07
attributable contribution to my business last year.
56:10
It is the number one lead source without a close second.
56:14
We're talking, you know, 10 million plus organic views a month.
56:19
Literally sales every single day in all of our locations.
56:25
It's overwhelming with the customer volume online
56:32
I did it for years without-
56:34
The hardest part about it, Alex, what makes it hard?
56:37
Because a lot of people would see your post.
56:38
They'd be like, hey, he just puts a camera
56:40
at any time something interesting happens.
56:42
You know, he gets his Delta 360 and he'll message about it.
56:46
That's not that hard.
56:47
What's hard about it, Alex?
56:49
Yeah, I mean, I'm going to be brutally honest.
56:51
The reason our channel does well
56:52
is because we show the good, the bad, and the ugly.
56:54
And a lot of car dealers don't want to show
56:56
the behind the scenes of how their dealership runs
56:58
because it's not all great news.
57:00
I'm just going to be brutally honest.
57:02
And also, there's a fair amount of private stuff
57:05
So you have to have a good filter there.
57:09
Also, I think you have to have a certain comfort level
57:11
that I do have a full-time camera guy
57:14
and we don't script things.
57:15
And everything's real and falls me around,
57:17
but that's what people want.
57:20
Has it gotten you in trouble, Alex?
57:21
Have you ever gotten in trouble for something you've posted?
57:23
And I don't know what trouble means, but backlash?
57:27
And some of it's deserved.
57:29
And you just have to take that and go, yeah,
57:32
And I make decisions that I would make differently.
57:35
And I say things I wouldn't have said that way again and so forth.
57:39
But at the end of the day, it's real.
57:41
They know they can trust us.
57:42
They know that we take care of people.
57:44
And so look, Sam brought up rust.
57:48
There's the funny stuff.
57:49
There's the educational.
57:51
And so you've got to be authentic.
57:53
And that's hard to do.
57:55
And you also have to do it consistently
57:57
for a long period of time, which is cringy and painful
58:04
And also, it's a big moat for us.
58:06
Because it's also not something you can buy.
58:08
It doesn't matter how big of a dealer group you are.
58:11
You just can't get the dealer principle
58:12
and just start following around with camera
58:14
and just overnight get 10 million views.
58:17
I mean, it just doesn't work like that.
58:19
And so it's not the right fit.
58:22
Everybody shouldn't be doing it.
58:23
But if you're a salesperson, if you're an independent salesperson,
58:27
I think you're crazy if you don't figure out how to do it.
58:31
So the producer pushing me on our time deadline here.
58:34
I want to ask a question as we wrap up today.
58:37
Finish this sentence.
58:39
The dealer who wins the next 24 months will be the dealer who.
58:43
Sam Hatch, you go first.
58:45
Who implements media into their dealership
58:49
and integrates a acquisitioning tool
58:52
that isn't going to the auction every week
58:54
and successfully joins 800% elite auto group to fortify
58:59
your decisions to be made?
59:02
A prop to Glenn Lundy there.
59:05
I think that's really truly understanding and leveraging AI.
59:10
Sam, I'd love to talk to you.
59:11
That's not just like drinking the Kool-Aid
59:15
and saying the buzzwords, but like really has figured out
59:17
how to use it in their dealership.
59:19
I also think the ones that really embrace and lead out
59:22
and support and own the FTC rules,
59:25
like we are going to do this across the board without question.
59:29
This is how we're going to operate period forevermore.
59:33
And then I do think the ones that figure out authentic,
59:37
I'm going to call it media.
59:38
It doesn't have to be just be, well, I mean it's mostly social,
59:40
but authentic media because customers are just yearning for real
59:45
and authentic and transparent.
59:48
They're sick of TV commercials.
59:50
They're sick of ads.
59:51
They're sick of Cardiores.
59:55
And so those three things.
59:56
And not everybody actually responded to the FTC,
59:59
a letter being in the marketplace as they should.
00:01
There are people that ran towards it.
00:04
There are many that have ignored it, hoping it'll go away.
00:07
And that is definitely not a good best practice.
00:09
Sam Hatch, General Manager, JR Motor Sales,
00:12
and Alex Lawrence with big announcements
00:14
today on Cardioreship Guy, Daily Deal Live CEO
00:16
and co-founder of EVO Auto.
00:18
Thank you both for being on the show today.
00:20
Appreciate you both being here.
00:24
You know, it kills me because I always want more time
00:26
in the round table.
00:27
And unfortunately, the show ends every day,
00:31
but we just keep going.
00:32
DNC, the producers keeping Sam in check.
00:34
They have the hardest job of all, correct.
00:37
And lots of love for both Sam Hatch and EV Alex Lawrence
00:41
And to you, our Daily Deal Live listening audience,
00:44
thanks for watching Daily Deal Live.
00:46
We break down the biggest moves in the car business
00:50
Don't forget, we're here live.
00:51
Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, by the way,
00:53
this Friday we have a special July 4th episode.
00:57
We've got Grant Cardone.
00:59
We've got Aaron Sibler.
01:00
We've got Senator Bernie Moreno and a bunch of others
01:03
coming on to talk about the next 50 years in auto sales.
01:08
So don't forget to join us this Wednesday
01:10
and Friday, 1 p.m. Eastern.
01:11
So if this is your world, hit like, hit subscribe,
01:14
turn on those notifications so you never ever miss beat.
01:17
And we'll see you next episode.
01:19
Thanks for being here, everybody.