Car Dealership Guy Podcast Dec 3, 2025

Miller on Alleged Breach, O'Hara on Chicago Market, Davila on Buying Used Cars | Daily Dealer Live

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Term

average new car price

The average new car price is what most people pay when buying a new car. Right now, it's about $50,000, which shows that cars are getting more expensive.

Term

Loan terms are the details of a loan, like how long you have to pay it back and how much interest you will pay. For cars, longer loan terms can mean smaller monthly payments but more total cost in the end.

Concept

affordability

Affordability means how easy or hard it is for people to buy cars based on their income and the prices of cars. When cars are more expensive, people have to think harder about how they can afford them.

Term

discounts

Discounts are price cuts that car dealers offer to make cars cheaper for buyers. They can help people afford cars when prices are high or when fewer people are buying.

Brand

BMW

BMW is a car brand from Germany that makes luxury cars. They are known for their stylish designs and good performance.

Car

Jeep Recon

The Jeep Recon is a new electric vehicle made for off-roading, which means it can handle rough trails and tough conditions. It's part of Jeep's effort to create environmentally friendly cars while still being fun to drive in nature.

Brand

GMC

GMC is a car brand that makes trucks and SUVs. They are part of General Motors, which is a big company that owns several car brands.

Term

Apple CarPlay

Apple CarPlay lets you use your iPhone in the car. You can see your apps and maps on the car screen, making it easier to use your phone while driving.

Term

Android Auto

Android Auto lets you connect your Android phone to your car. You can see your apps and maps on the car screen, making it safer to use your phone while driving.

Car

Ford Mustang

The Ford Mustang is a popular sports car that has been around for a long time. It's known for being fast and stylish, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts and a symbol of American automotive culture.

LIVE

We're doing better as a result of social media presence.

It doesn't do those three things, then it's on the chopping block.

It's in return on investment discussion.

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

I'm your host, Sam Dark, and welcome to this space where all automotive comes together to learn,

to share, to execute.

Thanks for choosing to be here this third day of December, and today we're breaking news

about the 700-credit hack.

What does it mean to automotive?

Well, we're in it.

But first, let's dive into today's industry headlines.

First up today with average new car price transactions hovering around $50,000,

Americans are changing how they buy vehicles.

Downsizing, shifting to use, stretching loan terms, or holding out for deals as affordability

tightens.

And dealers are responding by stacking more discounts on the hood, even as lower-income

buyers fall behind on loans at record rates, and shoppers spend less per purchase than

they did a year ago.

Quote, people are asking, how do I afford this?

People are asking, how do I afford this?

Shocking, there are people who are in debt and living paycheck to paycheck.

Texas dealer Robert Peltier told the Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, some retails are holding their ground by leaning into buyers who can still spend,

especially in full-size pickups, which posted 3.7% growth year over year in Q3,

and by relying more on fixed ops, now up to 13.2% of dealership income.

But the bigger picture is clear, new vehicle volume is hitting a pressure point.

More shoppers are recalculating budgets, lenders are tightening around the edges,

and dealers are increasingly forced to find ways to bridge that affordability gap.

Next up today, CDK's Global Ease of Purchase scorecard cratered in November,

dropping from 85% to 66% month over month.

That's the lowest reading since CDK started tracking customer sentiment more than three

years ago.

But the biggest shift was in inventory access, although that slipped too.

Fewer shoppers found the exact car they wanted.

Pricing talks were significantly tougher as well.

However, the real breakdown was trade-ins.

The ease of negotiating trade value hit a record low 45%.

That's a massive drop from 66% in October.

Still, almost all buyers, 98%, to be sure,

prefer buying from a dealership, 98% from a dealership, brick and mortar.

And the dealers who eliminate wasted time while building real pricing trusts can

stop these pain points from snowballing.

Next up today, according to a new CarGuru survey of 3,000 recent car buyers and sellers,

digital tools, particularly AI, are taking over the early stages of the purchasing journey.

More specifically, 80% of shoppers are now open to using AI to help them buy a vehicle.

And the top uses for AI and car shopping include comparing vehicles, that's 44%.

Finding listings, that's 40% and summarizing car reviews at 39%.

But even with that shift, dealerships once again remain the preferred place

to close that deal, with 61% of shoppers saying they'll visit two or more stores in 2025.

What's the bottom line here?

Well, AI adds another layer to the shopping experience.

But at the end of the day, consumers are just walking in more informed,

more prepared, and they're expecting that smoother experience.

And last up today, as teased at the very top of the show, a data breach at 700 credit,

one of the auto industry's largest credit reporting and identity verification providers,

is leaving millions of customers exposed.

On or around October 25th, the company was, quote,

alerted to suspicious activity coming from the company's proprietary web-based application,

according to internal company documents shared with CDG news.

Turns out threat actors had copied vital customer data, including social security numbers,

and in the process compromised more than 5 million customer records.

What's next?

700 credit is sending out notifications and offering 12 to 24 months of free credit

monitoring.

But the company is also advising dealers to consult legal counsel about their own reporting

obligations.

Fascinating conversation, particularly in lieu of last year's CDK outage.

So for context on this, let's jump straight to the company and the team that broke this news,

in part, CEO of Comply Auto, Brad Miller, welcome to the show.

And Yuli, let's talk the CDK credit outage.

Brad, welcome to the show.

Thank you.

Thanks for having me, and yeah, even you got the mix up, right?

I mean, so we have a CDK PTSD here, I know, but it's got some echoes of what happened last year,

both in terms of scale and scope.

But there are important differences.

We put out some guidance to our customers and to the industry at large,

sort of letting folks know that this had happened.

And frankly, to date, we're pretty pleased with 700 credits response.

I mean, look, this can happen to any company.

Let's just be realistic.

It's all about the communication.

It's about the response.

It's about the taking the steps that you need to do to protect your dealer customers.

And they seem to be doing that so far.

So Brad, let's back up a little bit.

First of all, tell us who you are and what your role is at Comply Auto.

So we get some context.

You're an authority figure, and you're someone who has quite a bit of knowledge on privacy

and data laws in the United States.

You've helped craft a lot of it.

Yeah.

So I'm the CEO of Comply Auto.

Comply Auto is a dealer specific compliance company.

So we work with over 10,000 dealers in the country on a variety of compliance issues

from privacy and data security to FNI, Advertising Compliance, EHS and Safety,

and more HR workforce and other things.

So we work with dealers all over the country.

I came to Comply Auto about a year and a half ago.

I had spent 16 years at NADA.

So most recently, as Chief Regulatory Counsel there, I was a lawyer at NADA for a year.

So I worked on privacy issues for dealers writ large.

I worked with the OEMs on data sharing agreements.

I worked with the FTC specifically on the safeguards rule

and on other things like the cars rule that was turned over last year.

So yeah, a lot of background with this space, state data breach laws,

state privacy laws, or something I've been working on for 20-plus years.

So I'm glad to be doing it now at Comply Auto.

So whenever you hear of a breach, like we've been notified about with

regard to the 700 credit breach, you start to think of Tier Point CDK or Equifax

or any one of these other breaches.

Tell us what you're understanding about what happened at 700 credit is.

What happened?

Well, it's one of the problems.

And let's be frank, it's always a bit of a haze at first, right?

I'm sure that there have been in the throws, as you've noted,

it was reported that this occurred as it was discovered in October.

And there are indications that it was occurring as long as a few months before that, right?

So it takes a while to discover it.

Once you've discovered it, the first thing is to stop it.

And then you have to do an investigation to see if you can determine what happened.

And there have been some bits and pieces.

There were some reports that perhaps it was related to a breach suffered

by one of 700 credit subcontractors, one of their vendors.

And then they got in through an API access on the back end.

So again, the early reports tend to be a little tough to confirm.

But the key for dealers is to understand, yes, now we've confirmed this has happened.

So now the duties as a dealer get triggered.

And that's what dealers need to know.

So they're a vendor to many auto groups and auto dealerships.

Given that vendor has had a breach, what is a dealer's responsibility in light of this breach?

Yeah, look, it is one of the sort of lesser understood, but frankly, realities of our world,

dealers are the regulated entities with respect to this information.

It's just the way it is.

Whether it's under GLB, whether it's under state data breach laws,

there's a whole variety of these reasons.

Dealers as the, whether it's the custodians, the controllers, the owners,

the licensors of this data, they ultimately are the ones that have

responsibility for notifying customers in the event of a breach.

So let me step back.

The basic paradigm is if there's a breach, there's duties under both federal and state law.

The federal law is a relatively new obligation.

And it's under the FTC safeguards rule.

And it basically says that you have to notify the FTC of the fact you've had the breach.

Now, interestingly enough, the FTC put this rule out specifically, they stated this,

it's not implied, specifically to allow them to enforce the safeguards rule against the people

reporting the breach, right?

So it's kind of crazy if you report on yourself so they can enforce the law against you.

But that's the federal FTC obligation.

And then every state in the union has their own data breach law.

And that's the part that gets complicated because they're very, they're different,

they have different thresholds, different definitions.

But broadly speaking, they say, look, if there's been a breach,

you have to tell the customers affected, hey, we've got a problem so that they can go out and

put a freeze on their credit, put a front alert on their credit,

something to protect themselves so their identity is not so on.

So the dealer has to make sure this happens.

So what if the vendor says, hey, we own this, we understand we made the mistake

or we're the victim of the hack, we're going to meet those obligations.

We're going to inform the FTC and we're going to make that report back to the customers.

Does that absolve the dealer from responsibility to make notification?

It could.

And importantly here, I will tell you, for those who don't know, NADA just announced yesterday

that they work with 700 credit and the FTC directly and the FTC has agreed

that 700 credit will notify the FTC on behalf of all their customers.

And the FTC has said we accept that, right?

That's good.

So your question's a good one, but it depends.

In this case, NADA's good efforts, 700 credit's good efforts,

they work together with the FTC.

And frankly, the FTC doesn't want 18,000 reports, right?

They want one report.

Now remember, the report's going to list all the dealers affected.

And it's going to go on a public-facing website.

So there's going to be a record out there of the dealers.

That's an obligation.

That was part of the announcement.

But NADA has made it clear that the FTC reporting requirement,

they've been able to handle.

Now the state is a little bit of a different question.

Is that what you mean?

Sorry.

Is that what you mean that this is going to vary state by state?

Your local dealer should look into the local laws to see if they need to also

inform the customer base.

Yes and no.

The nuances really are what's the threshold for notifying them.

For example, some states it's 500 more customers.

Some it's one or more, right?

Some states you have to tell the customer,

but you also have to notify the state attorney general, right?

Some states you have to also tell the credit reporting agency.

So like for example, California has a specific form you have to use to get the notice, right?

So my caution to dealers is, Seminole Credit has said,

I've seen communications from them

that where they're promising to make these notifications under the state law,

I would urge dealers just to say, hey look,

that's good that you're doing that and you should,

but please confirm for me that you've met the requirements under my specific state law

because they do vary.

Does an email and a communication,

does that meet that requirement of saying, hey, we've got it?

I mean that gives you some sort of plausible deniability anyway,

if there's an issue I would suppose later, no?

It's a good question.

And some states say yes, some states say no,

some say it's okay if they gave you the information electronically,

you can send it electronically.

So it's a great example of something that varies state by state

and that's why it's a little tough to have blanket statements,

but I won't say the blanket statement I understand the 700 Credit has said,

they are going to at least make the effort to comply with these state laws.

Now again, it's complicated to do, but I hope they do it.

So great question online from Yoga Cars.

Yoga Cars says wondering if 700 Credit hack has something to do with the prior CDK hack

since they were or are CDK owned, I believe.

I'm not sure that they are owned.

I don't know that that's true.

I know that CDK and 700 had a relationship at some point.

Thoughts on that?

Yeah, I have no indications of that that I'm aware of.

We can go off as public reports, right?

CDK was sort of a threat actor that affected their network directly.

There was a ransomware effort that ultimately was paid in that situation.

We'd seen some early press reports in this situation

that there was also a ransomware effort that was not resolved.

And so some information got posted in the dark web.

And that's kind of where we first heard of this.

Then we heard about the class actions that always follow here against 700 Credit

and then of course the confirmation from 700 Credit itself.

So 700 Credit has said, they've given an explanation.

It's a little like I said, it's sort of the fall of the war

when you're sort of figuring this stuff out.

But they said they believe it came in this instance

through a third party vendor they had used and through the API they were using.

So stepping back a little bit, thinking about vendor relationships

that dealers have with vendors.

So dealers collect a ton of data and that data has to be secured.

And in the old world, many dealers might say, hey, you know what?

It's up to that vendor.

It's on them.

If there's a breach, it's on them.

If there's a leak, how should dealers be thinking

about third party risks right now given, I mean,

is it still okay to offload that liability to vendors

or is it something we need to think about differently now?

Look, there's a regulatory answer and a sort of a lawyer answer.

The lawyer in me says, look, get indemnified regardless.

Because if it's their fault, you should have some sort of protection

and that's a contractual issue.

The legal answer is dealers are the ones who are responsible.

In fact, it's very, very clear under both state data breach laws

and federal laws like the safeguard rule is the clearest example

where they say, look, you as the regulator,

that's why I started by saying dealers are the regulated entity.

They're the ones with the illegal obligation.

You can use the states and the federal government

said you can use the service provider to help you, right?

But if you do, you've got to make sure you're vetting them

to make sure that you've done your due diligence on the front end,

that you've got contract clauses with them

that protect you and protect consumers and that you're following up.

So and that brings an important issue.

For dealers, we mentioned the notice issue, right,

to the FTC and to the consumers and the AGs.

There's also a safeguards rule issue here.

If you have not already, I would encourage you to make sure

that you've got an updated risk assessment from 700 credit.

And that's your safeguards obligations

as their service provider of yours.

You know, we obviously help our customers do that,

but if you're not a complied out customer for some reason,

go make sure you've got an updated risk assessment

with an updated data processing agreement.

You need special addendums under state privacy law.

So there's all sorts of contractual things

that you need to be doing this specifically to say,

hey, this service provider and every other,

you're going to make sure that you protect them.

If there's a problem you cooperate with me,

you know, you do the things you need to do.

And so the agreements that you're referencing there,

because that was going to be my next question,

from a dealer perspective and a GM perspective,

coming out of this news,

what are three things that I should do

as a dealer or a GM

to make sure that my relationships

with my vendors are locked down?

So one is that privacy agreement, right?

And then the other is the data share agreement.

Yeah, it's just to be clear, it's there.

And I don't want to get too far in the weeds.

This is a different story.

It's a safeguard rule.

But basically you need an agreement that says,

you are my service provider,

you're going to protect the data

the same way I do another safeguard rule, right?

Then you also have to go to them and say,

I need to give me some basic information

about the way you protect data

so that I can show that I've met my obligations

under the safeguard rule to vet you, right?

This is not today's problem,

but the other issue under the safeguard rule

that's important not to forget is

when this is over in the next few months,

you also need to make sure that you've gone

into your own safeguards program and said,

hey, look, we had this issue with one of our vendors.

What have we done to make sure that we've followed up,

that let's say they had a glaring issue,

that they fixed it,

or that this is not going to happen again,

or that we've been assured that the risks are

at a level that we can accept

for our own safeguarding of the customer data.

So it's, you know, unfortunately,

it's not just a notice issue.

You've got to go do a little work after the fact, too.

Yeah, so document it in one shape, form, or another.

And, you know, you mentioned the comply auto.

Comply auto is a widely accepted program out in automotive.

And there's a part on your website

where you can go, you can log it,

you can log the notice,

and then you can indicate what you've done to prevent it.

And I would assume that there are other similar programs

to comply auto that do very similar things.

Nothing, nothing compares to our, you know,

I, you know, look, in all seriousness,

we do have some proprietary tools.

I'll tell you, we actually have a wizard in our software

where you can go and detect under your state law

how you met the threshold for notice.

It will help you prevent the notice.

I mean, that's a very difficult thing to do.

When I was in private practice many years ago,

I worked on these things for private customers.

It's a big lift to go on there

and understand these 50 state laws, right?

We've done that kind of thing for you.

But specifically, to your point, it's a great question.

Go in and check and see, hey,

do I have an updated risk assessment from this vendor?

We've got flags and things.

And you can send requests because you need that, right?

To be protected as the dealer, like I said,

remember the paradigm, you're the ones responsible.

They understand you can use service providers

and service provider can have the problem.

You got to make sure you've done something

to prove that you did your due diligence

and followed up on this with your service provider

as the responsible party.

Yeah. A lot of this work that you're talking about,

it's almost a full-time job

because you're talking about stepping back again

from the 700 issue.

You're talking about analyzing every relationship

you have in the dealership

where you're providing an interchange

of data and information,

which it's a ton of different companies

that we do business with in automotive.

It seems like this dedicated compliance

or cybersecurity officer, it is truly a full-time job.

What would you say to the dealer today

in light of what's happened who may say,

hey, you know what, I don't think it really

is a full-time job.

I'm going to give it to my controller

or my office manager to do kind of as a part-time function.

Well, I will tell you, when I was at NAD,

I spent several years going around the country

talking to dealer groups

about the safeguards role when I was coming.

And I would tell them about the complicated issues

and I would hand by saying, look,

get started on the vendor management

because that's going to be the biggest pain

part of this process

because the average dealer, it varies,

but we did a study at NAD.

It was something like 45 different third parties

that you're engaged with, the average dealer is.

So to manage that process,

to get them to amend contracts,

to understand what their assessment profile is,

huge, right?

One of the reasons I'm here

is because complied with does that for dealers, right?

That is one of the major functions

that we serve for dealers in our software.

But you're right, it is a very complicated issue

to get with.

And again, I will say the other nice thing

about the fact that we have the scope and scale

that we do, from a vendor perspective is,

think about a vendor

who's getting 18,000 of these requests, right?

They can come to Comply Auto, do it once

and do it for all 10,000 or customers,

which makes their life a little easier too.

And it's 700 credit that it didn't partner with that.

And that's what I was going to ask,

has 700 credit done that?

Have they gone through that process with Comply Auto?

They have.

And then again, I don't want to

either disparage or compare them,

but they've been very, you know,

they've done what they needed to do.

Now, again, don't just take what Brad Miller said,

still go in your system

and make sure you've got an updated form in there.

Because literally all the dealer has to do

is sort of counter sign the agreement.

We've made it simple for you,

but you still want to take that check,

double check it.

Whether this is going to be an issue for dealer,

I think is potentially a reach,

but you want to be protected, right?

You don't want to be affected

unless it wasn't your fault.

So let's step back for just one moment

before we wrap up this conversation,

because I think the other thing,

maybe dealers are thinking about,

a credit company, that's kind of a given.

You're going to share information with them

so they can pull credit bureaus

and provide monitoring and do all the things.

So a company like 700 getting access

to customer data is a no-brainer.

And it's something that, you know,

whether you're with them

or someone else, that's going to happen.

What's terrifying right now

in automotive is AI

and all the AI companies

that are popping up all over the place.

How should a dealer today

be thinking about all these new AI technologies

with companies that aren't specialized in automotive

but are popping up with solutions?

And where should you share

and where should you not share

customer data and information

in this world of AI?

Really, Cal, yeah, that's a big question.

So yeah, this has been a perennial problem.

20 years ago, it was the DMS

and what was being sucked out of the DMS.

And we moved on to the CRM.

And frankly, today, I will tell you,

websites are the next frontier

of where this information is being shared.

And I encourage dealers to look into that.

But in terms of AI, look,

there are some controls that you can have.

Now, whether you need,

I mean, you should ask the same question

with companies that provide AI services

you do with anyone else.

Do they really need this information

to provide the service?

Right? That's the threshold question.

And what information do they need?

Provide them that and no more

and get them to sign a contract

saying that's all they're going to take

and all they're going to use it for.

Right? That's what they're responsible.

Third party of any kind will do,

AI or not.

There's some additional considerations with AI

in the sense that you have to be careful

that the data you provide

or they have access to

is not used to train models.

Right? And that actually is a

something that should be controlled

and controllable

and a question you should ask.

Right? In other words,

I'm sharing this information

to make my services as a dealer

I give to my customers better.

That doesn't mean you take that

and then let this large language model

or some other proprietary model you have

take my data and train off of it.

Right? Because then you've lost control

of it very quickly

and you and you frankly have given

value way that you don't need to do.

So the good news is that's it's more

and more of a of a top of mind

issue and it should be something

that's not new.

But if you're a dealer,

that's one of the questions I'd ask.

I say, look, we don't want our data

used to be used to train the model

and it shouldn't be.

So that's what that's one

that's one additional issue.

I go ahead.

It's interesting because AI,

it's it can be a little fuzzy

to dealers how much data it gets

access to or not.

Right?

By its very nature,

it's combing through things,

trying to figure out things

and try to anticipate things.

But you're saying you can you

can engage with those vendors

and tell what it can

and can't access.

Yeah, I mean, look, we offer

one of our most recent products

for deal check AI is a very powerful tool.

We engage with a lot of the companies

out there and we have taken steps

to ensure that they don't use

any of the data that runs

through their systems to train

their models.

Right? That's that's that's the key.

Right?

They're very hungry for this

information.

You know, it's not a lot more

about how it works.

Yeah.

It's controllable.

That's good.

Yeah.

OK.

Well, Brad Miller, CEO of Compliato.

It's it's been incredible

having you on.

You guys have really broken the

story in so many ways

and leading the front on

how to address it.

And really, this is a great

opportunity for dealers to just

think about how they're

protecting data

and what their policies

and procedures are

and just kind of button up

things.

You know, even if this isn't a

super significant breach,

one way or another, it's a great

opportunity to clean things up.

As we leave, I want to ask you

one question we've asked many

guests.

Chat GPT, you're a general

manager.

How much can you just put in

there for an easy quick answer

to a problem?

Is it OK to upload stuff?

Hey, look, I'll tell you,

if you're not using AI in

your job, you know,

you're not trying.

I mean, let's just be reality.

But let me, in all seriousness,

my lawyer, the lawyer in me,

in the dealer world,

there's two ways,

two places you have to be careful.

Are you using it to make decisions?

Are you using it in sort of

financing decisions?

If you are, you're venturing

into a world

and that may happen more

than you realize, you know,

whether it's who do I offer

this rebate to,

you know, how am I determining

who I offer it to, whatever it

might be.

There's lots of use cases.

The regulators, the plaintiffs

are getting very excited

about that kind of thing

because there can be

implications that you don't

realize from the perspective.

So, yeah, look, use it.

Don't fool people into

thinking they're talking to a

person when it's an AI.

Because they don't like that either.

But if it's rebates, financing,

or employment,

use extra caution.

That's my lawyer answer.

Yeah.

All right.

So, as you go,

just a couple comments from you,

yoga cars,

dealers generally sending

coded data to AI when it comes.

That from yoga cars.

Lauren Klein,

would you recommend dealers

build their own AI

rather than use outsourced

to keep their data safe?

That's a great question.

Yeah.

I mean, build your own AI.

I mean, look, it's,

yes.

Remember, AI gets to be

a little bit of a fuzzy term, right?

We're talking about using the

large language model tools

that are available, right?

You know, get with someone

who understands that.

You know, if you're using it,

certainly if you're using a

vendor, you need someone

that not only understands that,

but is actually controlling it,

right? I mean,

hallucinations are real.

It is not foolproof.

Just literally just throwing it

into the LLM is not going

to give you anything

that really is ready.

Useful.

But someone who knows

what they're doing

with expertise

and sort of guide the power

of the AI.

Think of AI as a really

powerful tool.

It's got to be guided

and used with someone

who knows what they're doing

in terms of guidelines, right?

That's the sense you're talking about.

So if you want to build

your own, that's fine.

But you've got to be careful.

You know, it's not a small

lift to make sure that

you're doing the right

is going to give you

something that really is.

Yeah.

Well, Brad Miller,

thanks for being on the show.

And we look forward to

having you back in the future.

Hopefully not for this

same topic.

Right.

We'd like to have you

back again.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, thanks for having me.

Take care, Yolm.

Thanks, Brad.

See you.

Yuli, interesting.

Yeah, what's your take?

Scary, man.

It's scary.

But it always comes back

to the same thing, right?

Dealers are responsible.

So it's walking

that razor's edge.

Just an incredible business.

And that's why shows

like this are so important.

They're walking that

knife's edge

between profitability

and doomsday.

Well, and I don't think

you have to walk an edge.

I think it's a great

opportunity.

It serves as a great

reminder to just button

it all up.

Make sure you've got

those agreements in place.

Make sure you know

who you're doing

business with,

how they're utilizing the data.

Make sure you've got

restrictions in place

so that they're not using it

in ways that would expose

you beyond what you're

comfortable with.

And then make sure

that you certify them

every single year

that, hey, they're handling

it in the correct way.

And so far, it seems

like 700 credit

as a company has done

a great job.

We'd love to have them

on the show, by the way,

to give response

in a little bit of context.

And, you know,

as much pain

is certainly

they're going through

in the moment

trying to deal

with all this.

There will be

some great takeaways

for automotive

much like CDK did.

I think CDK provided

a lot of context

and background.

Paul Solzman,

another fantastic guest

to comply,

is a great organization.

And speaking

of great organizations,

Julie,

let's talk about

cars.com, shall we?

So today's episode,

including this context

on the outage,

is brought to you by

cars.com,

the number one

most recognized

marketplace brand,

helping your dealership

show up and stand out

to the most valuable

car shopping audience.

Props to cars.com.

You can scan

the QR code there

to learn

more information on them

or you can

click the link

in the show notes

if you're watching

the podcast

after our live broadcast.

But thanks cars.com

for sponsoring the content

including

the commentary just now

from comply auto

and props to comply auto too

for coming on

sharing things as well.

So we got a lot of

good perspectives.

Let's go straight into

our next guest

someone I know

who's near and dear

to my own auto group

general manager

at Ziggler auto group.

He's got multiple

rooftops

including BMW,

Nissan

and infinity

in Orland park.

He's a VP

and general manager

at Ziggler auto group

Will O'Hara

Will, welcome to the show.

What's up guys?

Thanks for having me

happy to be on.

Welcome.

Thanks for being here.

Will, what's your take

on on data security

in this world?

I mean, it's interesting

you we go from

CDK into 700 credit

and some of the other things.

It's just a good reminder

to button things up.

Yeah, Will.

Yeah, you're exactly

writing in

Brad put it perfectly.

Like you need to

check everything

that you're doing.

You got to check

every box

because if you don't

there's a lot of stuff

you can get exposed

right now

and you got to go out there

and button it up

because if you don't

you don't know

you're walking

the knife's edge

to some degree.

So go in and inspect

before you get hit

and make sure you got

the right process

and procedures in place.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Well, so Will

for those who don't know

you tell us a little bit

about how biz is

that's our first

question we always ask

and then tell a little bit

about yourself

and what you do.

Yeah.

So I've been with

the Ziggler Auto Group

12 years now.

General Manager,

BMW Infinity Nissan

here in Olin Park

and then a couple more stores

up in Lincoln Wood

Cadillac, Buick GMC

and yeah.

It's been

November was a

interesting one.

I think the hard part

for the finish

was Black Friday

was snowed out

in the Midwest.

Anybody that's out

in the Midwest

that got

over a foot of snow

here in Chicago

made it a little bit

of tough sledding

out here

to have a big close.

But it's definitely

we're in an environment

that is

I would say

you're in this

K shaped economy

where

it's very brand specific.

You got hot brands.

You got brands

that are on the weaker side.

And it really comes down

to having the right

team in place,

having the right

processes and procedures

and those who

stand out

do the right things

will end up being

successful in any

marketplace.

So let's ask that question

to your point.

Many entities

including cars.com

and Cox Automotive

have reported that

retail traffic

has softened recently

in the last week or so.

Will, when

the retail market

tightens unexpectedly

from your perspective,

what's the first lever

a GM can pull

today right now

in December of 2025

to generate

friend and momentum

without throwing

the gross out the window?

Yeah. So we're

there's a couple things.

I mean, the first is

you got to make sure

you know,

depending on your brand

you have the right

inventory

and that you manage it well.

If you have the right

cars and you have the right

inventory management process

the grosses are going to be

better.

If you're sticking around

with older age inventory

that's obviously

going to hurt you

in times of softening demand.

So making sure that

you're properly managing

your inventory

and then your processes

make sure dialed in

on every single lead

that's coming in

and make sure that

you're capturing

every customer

that comes on the door.

Those are things

you can do

providing a good experience

and making sure

the customer

like you just said

some of these

satisfaction ratings

that we have

for customers.

You got to provide

a good experience

and make sure the customer

is getting taken care of

and the customers

will find out

and they'll find you

and that's when

you saw them in the car.

All right.

So talk to us

about used vehicles

and used acquisitions.

So that's something

you know

and you do pretty well.

We had Cox's

interim chief economist

on the show

a couple of shows ago

and he actually said

look Q1 2026

is going to be

strong with used cars.

It's okay to

and I'm paraphrasing

he'd kill me

if I paraphrase this way.

It's okay to relax

some of the turn

discipline

in order to

you know

in order to

stock up used cars.

What's your thought

on that

and what's the

discipline you exercise

on used car

inventory today?

So here's the thing

you need to have

a first and foremost

a good inventory

management process

on used cars.

You need to run

a tight process

and try to

turn your lot

as fast as you can.

Now used car prices

have been stable

relatively all year.

And the one thing

that I see

to maybe

counter that argument

would be

I just looked

you know

if you look at some of the data

new car day supply

is running close to 90.

So as that happens

in a

manufacturers are going to

continue to put

special interest rates

out there.

They're going to add

incentive spending

and typically that does

feed into the

used car market.

So you got to be

a little bit cautious

on what you're buying.

Be specific

be tactful

make sure you're

filling voids

in your inventory

that you need cars.

Don't just buy

cars to buy cars

but on the other side of that

the best place to go buy

cars right now

is in your service department.

If you're not in your service

department looking for

inventory

that you can capitalize on

there's

great cars coming

through the door

every single day.

What's your process

to acquire

used cars

in service?

So our service process

mean one thing we do

we use obviously

automotive mastermind

that we've used

for quite a while

and we look at that process

and you know

every night

we get a

a list of

of cars that have

high rankings for

stuff we're looking for

or they're in a position

that they could maybe get

out of the car

based on maybe the

lease mileage

or they're out of warranty

etc.

So we try to target

those customers

and make sure that we give them

you know a quote

an offer

and those are the cars

that you want to buy.

You want to buy

cars at the curb

you do not want to go

to the auction

to buy cars necessarily

because

those are the ones

that have been picked over

and you have fees

and etc.

So if you want to be

successful and you use

car business

go find

cars on the street

and get everything

you can at the curb.

Do you

do you

we've had this conversation

with many on the show

do you have some sort of

a number in mind

where

acquiring from service

versus at the auction

like are you able to

quantify the impact

to that difference

and are you willing to

pay a little more

for those in service

as a result of them

being higher quality.

I would say that

if you're not paying up

for your service cars

or the cars

you're buying at the curb

you're making a mistake

because typically

if they've service

the car with you

and you've done a good job

at maintaining that customer

hopefully it's a nice car

a quality car

maybe without an accident

etc.

And that's the car

that you want to get

you should be willing

to pay more for

if you're paying more

for a car at an auction

versus a car

in your own service drive

I think that's a mistake

so if you're going to

step up on

on any vehicle

you should be stepping up

for a loyal customer

and somebody that's

in your service drive.

So will your stores

consistently outperforming

the marketplaces

do most similar stores

especially in midwest

winter conditions

when many dealers

see a slowdown

you mentioned Black Friday

you mentioned

there was actually a

one-day record

snowfall in the

chicagoland forever

in November

ever

all history

which is crazy

what operational discipline

or GM behavior

separates you

on a day like that

from other stores

that others could

learn from Will

Yeah I mean as

my team will tell you

I'm probably one of the

most aggressive guys

in the room

and putting deals together

I don't want anybody

getting out the door

I want to make sure that we

make every single deal

that makes sense

and you just got to be

aggressive in the marketplace

and if it's snowing

like I'm telling people

hey it's a snow sale

come on in

and we'll make the best deal

if you can get here safely

you know

we're going to make sure

that we make the best deal

for you

you know

and give you a great

experience

that's really what it's about

so you guys

times

go ahead

No I was going to ask

if you guys have

me six by sixes

for those snow days

but I have a curiosity

you know we talk about

you have to have

use car discipline

right

everyone that's listening

to the show

understands that

any top operator

wants that

can you drill into

specifically

what are you looking for

in your use car department

what's your

what's your inventory mix

what's your turn time

you know like

where are you holding

yourself accountable

if I'm listening to this show

and I want to increase

my use car department

my profitability

where am I

Yeah

I would say the biggest

things that people

don't look at

probably in use cars

is they don't look

at market day supply enough

on what inventory

they're stocking

and then how they're pricing

that car day one

so if you

I guess if you unpack it

first thing is most important

is you need to get the car

time to line

and in online

as fast as possible

and recon as fast as possible

because that clock is ticking

especially if you're in

any environment

where use car prices

could fluctuate

or even go down

you want to turn that car

faster

so my philosophy is

if I'm in a stable market

prices obviously

will be more consistent

if I'm in a declining market

I'm more of aggressive

of a buyer

because every day that I can buy a car

the next day

the following day

if prices are declining

I'm getting them cheaper

than the guy that has

the car that's 90 days old

so when I look at our process

if you can turn your lot

12 times a year

you're doing a great job

you're going to feed your service department

you're going to keep your

age inventory low

but you know

I would say

you know we try to run

I don't like anything over 90 days

you know some groups are at 60 days

we try to be

as aggressive as possible

but you really need to look at

how you price the car day one

how you market that car day one

and make sure that it's on point

because if you're not

and you're priced way out of the market

that car is going to sit for 30-45 days

and then you're going to drop the price

and you're not going to turn it

and miss the trade

and everything else

so that cycle slows way down

So Will, Lauren Klein asks online

are there any cars you stay away from

on the used car

in the used car market

is there anything you're staying away from right now Will?

You know I would say that

probably right now is the EV

market is fluctuated a lot

you know I don't know

listen there's no specific inventory

that I would stay away from

unless it's a problem brand

or something that I know is going to have issues

maybe one brand that I've seen

just in our survey from my experience

that I've had issues with used cars

in reliability is Maserati

so I try to stay away from those cars

on the retail side

because they've been kind of a nightmare for me

but you know outside of that

if you're getting a quality car

you know my kind of rules are this

if it's cosmetically looking good

if it's relatively good service shape

and it doesn't have an accident

and it wasn't a smoker car

those are cars I want to retail

you know I don't like to retail smoker cars

you know if they got multiple accidents

or something severe

I typically try to wholesale them

or we get out of those cars

those aren't a retail product

for the Ziggler Group anyways

and we try to move on

you know if it's something that

is quality that we can

we know is service

and looks good and we can make a car

those are the cars that we want to retail

so what are you doing on day 90

you had mentioned 90s you're cut off

yeah so typically

you know we

the way our pricing strategy is for

for my stores

we're aggressive enough

that we typically don't get that

that we don't get to that point

and if we do you know

of course you're going to have

one or two or three of those that get to 90

and typically what we do in our group

is you know I try to refresh those cars

at one of our other Ziggler stores

and try to look at maybe it's a product

that needs to be at one of our other stores

because it's you know a different brand

you know should I have a GMC here

stocked in at BMW where

I could put that car at our GMC store

that's probably going to do

do better and turn faster

or vice versa the other way around

so we try to move the inventory around

you know inside a 90 days

and try to refresh it

at one of our different Ziggler stores

and give it a new look

because as the thing goes

you know a salesperson

at one store they might say

hey that car's 90 days

but you put one of those cars

at a different store

and that car's fresh to them

they don't know that it was aged

so that's just a process

that I have inside my stores

that we stick to it

yoga car says online at 90

it becomes the GM's demo

Igor Igor says my aging policy

is also in 90 days

and it's going to auction

I love the GM demo comment

so it's interesting

you mentioned the increasing supply

on new cars right now

which the industry is seeing

across the country

and as a result of that increasing supply

to your point

OEMs are definitely turning up the heat

on incentive stair steps

to finish the year

as a GM as a VP

how are you coaching your team

to balance that chasing stair step

versus maintaining strong retail fundamentals

that protect gross and morale

yeah I think it's two fold

one is you need to have

you need to have the volume right

and you need to hit those numbers

because it's probably important

to the dealer profitability

the second thing is one area

we can't focus on

which is obviously close to you Sam

is really hone in on your FNI process

and make sure that that process is dialed in

and if you can do that

you can still be able to move the volume

and hit your goal

and hit your number

and still be able to

make good profit

and keep the store profitable

so the other thing is too

just to follow up on that

is we're in a

like I said

we're in a K shaped type economy

where the high end

you look at luxury

you look at

the higher end brands

that are continuing to do

pretty well I would say

and then you look at some of the other brands

that have struggled

and I think the big thing is

the consumer on the lower end

is struggled a little bit

you look at

some of the data points

you know on the negative side

which you would say

subprime auto loan delinquencies

are up at 30 year highs

okay

so that's kind of a red flag to me

right

credit card delinquencies

at 14 year highs

you got

mortgage foreclosures

you over here in October

were up 20%

so you kind of got

some cracks in the economy

and you got to say

where am I going to focus on

focus on the good pieces of retail

that you can

make sure you're providing

the best service to the customer

and make sure you're putting

your customers in the right cars

I've seen it

over my career

so many times

customer comes in

they're probably on too much car

you know help your customer

make the right financial decision

for them

put them in a good payment

where they can come back

in two or three or four years

and get another car from you

where they're not

$30,000 upside down

or something like that

you want to put the customer

in a good financial position

so another couple great comments

online

from a guy named

Bill O'Hara

this guy is really smart

I wonder who that

possibly could be

no relation

not a lot of

not a lot of people will

may realize

your second generation

your dad had a Chrysler store

began

yeah

came to the Ziggler Auto Group

he now leads the team

the JLR

in Schomburg

and you're there at BMW

you guys compete

you know

I'm gonna give you a little bit

of a softball

as we get towards the end

of wrapping here

because

we're always looking for

the very best

at Team Ziggler

and I think people in automotive

want to be part of a winning team

and

being decisive

being certain

kind of having an opinion

about what's coming

which you have

all of that

is important to winning

in the marketplace

what do you look for

in new team members

you started the call

or you started the show today

talking about the right people

in the right role

what do you look for

in new team members

and what are you trying to add

to your teams now

in terms of talent

in the Chicagoland

yeah

I mean

the big thing for us Sam

I'm a big guy

about attitude

and if I have the right attitude

I can train

you know

everybody to do

to have the skill set

but I want to hire the people

that are

you know

that are positive

that see it

and you know

you know

that have that

that mindset

that they want to run

and be aggressive

and

and sell

and

and do

you know

do well for our customers

those are the people

you want our team

you want the people

that got the firepower

and you want the people

on your team

that

that believe in

in the same things

that you do

and if we

you know

the business can be

very simple

you take care of your customer

on the sales

and you take care

of your customer

and service

and everything else

just falls into place

you hire the right team

with the right attitude

and make sure that

you know

they fit our

fundamentals

and

principles

and mission statement

the Ziggler Auto Group

and you know

the rest of it

the works itself out

and

that's why we have a great team

Lauren Klein agrees

execution

of the basics

yeah Lauren Klein

agrees with you

online

attitude is

everything

one last question

that I promise we're done

but I got to ask this one

we had the

the chief economist on

as I mentioned

with Cox

and he mentioned

tax season this year

is going to be a double

benefit

due to the change

with the big beautiful bill

change in

tax brackets

not a lot of people

have altered their deductions

they're going to get a bigger

tax refund than they thought

how should GM's

think about preparing

for tax season

right now

as we go into December

of 2025

well

you got a couple things

the tax

the tax piece is

a portion that could provide

a lift obviously

in the spring

depending on what those

those refunds look like

I believe

the data shows that the

average consumer will receive

somewhere around $750

dollars additional

over and above last year

towards

towards their tax refund

the other part of it's going to be

really important as we go forward

is what happens with interest rates

on the long end of the

interest rate curve

and the Fed

likely will cut

next week

when they have the meeting

the one thing we did get today

was the ADP

employment report

for November

and we did have a loss of

32,000 jobs

and that was in the small

business sector

or the bulk of it

I should say was

so that probably solidifies

a rate cut next week

and then if you look forward

at the Fed fund futures

and you say where interest rate

is going to be in a year

it's likely we see Fed funds

probably a hundred basis points

lower from here

going into December of 26

is kind of where

the market is paced for right now

the big thing is

there's rate cuts coming

the one thing that concerns me is

I did look at

you know some of the

the delinquency data

and then you start looking at

you know some of the

student loan data

the delinquencies are rising

what is that credit profile

I think this is really important

what is the credit profile

of the customer look like

over the next 6 to 12 months

how is their credit score

affected because of these items

and even if

interest rates come down

how does that change

affordability

because

if rates come down

on the Fed fund side

but credit profiles to

to your rate

it may be a net

zero

you know what I'm saying

yeah

so what's your prediction

how do you connect

those dots will

so I think

I think for

being in the spring

would I be

I think you need to be nimble

you need to be

tactful on your inventory

and your processes

you know am I out

and I'm going to say

I'm going to go guns

ablaze and unused cars

probably that's not the camp

for me

I'm going to be a little bit

more tactful

on what I'm buying

and how I'm buying

and I'm going to watch how

interest rates move

and I'm going to watch

the credit markets

and see

what that looks like

because if there is a

deterioration

regardless of the tax refunds

just because your customer

is getting the refund

doesn't mean they'll

have the credit profile

support purchasing an auto

anyways

with with

debt up

and in delinquencies

on the rise

I kind of keep an eye on that

and I try to

put a macro picture

behind it

but the good side is

you know just to

follow up is

gas prices are

four or five year lows

right now

at three dollars

and eleven cents

we haven't had that

since May of 21

so there are some

definite tailwinds

to the economy

as we go forward

into 26

well O'Hara VP

Chicago land

Ziggler Auto Group

thanks for being

on the show and sharing

your perspectives

and

it's great to have you

absolutely

thanks for having me guys

I appreciate being on

thanks

I don't know

I'm getting excited

about next year

you put all these

little pieces together

you know

you can take the

negative approach

you can take the

positive approach

but it just feels

like although

there are some headwinds

to Will's point

there's a lot of

good things that are

culminating

and I do think

the difference

between winning

towards the end of

this year

and first part of next

is all about

discipline

as an operator

it's

being in full control

it's always

this story

your news

but yeah

it's all the same stuff

right Julie

and how do you

communicate that

right

because I kept wanting

to say

we'll come

January first

there's gonna be a lot of

but we're still in December

and we still gotta make

a month out of

this month

and make it a great

well you

so it's like

and a big month

especially if you

were impacted

by the weather

the last week

or so of

of November

all right

January will be

January

variable operations

director

at the steel auto group

welcome to the show

hey guys

thanks for having me

Roy welcome

thanks for being

and it's

it's been awesome

just to sit back

and and

listen to the

conversation

that have been

been happening

a lot of interesting stuff

I'm excited to jump

into it with you guys

we're

we're getting a little

long-winded here

late in the show

but you know

we gotta ask

your Roy

first thanks for

coming on

we gotta ask

our signature question

how's biz

and while you let us

know about business

tell us

you know who you are

and what do you do

man businesses

is good

it's

I love this market

I'm born and raised

I'm a Texan by heart

I spent the last year

year and a half

in the east coast

and in

Pennsylvania

Maryland

and

West Virginia

so to take some

takeaways and stuff

I learned

I don't have to deal

with all the snow

out here

but

most though

yeah

I stepped on

as variable operations

director here

at steel auto

we've got eight stores

in Texas

I've been

with the group

for a couple of months

now I made the

transition back here

I've got about 17 years

in automotive retail

but a good near

and near friend of mine

Patrick Brown jumped on

as vice president

of us operations

for us

and he presented me

with this opportunity

and before jumping on

we kind of look

at the landscape

of the stores

eight stores

all the way

across Texas

we've got a big footprint

in central

central Texas

a lot of rule markets

a lot of

I don't want to say

underperforming stores

but stores that

had a lot of

room for improvement

and

based on the conversation

you guys have been having

today

we're dealing

with a lot of that

one of the things

that kept popping up

to my mind though

was

something I try to teach

these guys

my leaders

my general managers

and managers

in the auto group

control your

controllables man

the markets going to change

things are happening

at a rapid rate

especially

right now

all you can do

is control your

controllables

and what does that mean

for our operators

one of the biggest

things

that we can control

is the experience

that we're given

our guests

right

you talk about

used cars

talk about interest rates

you talk about

I mean these things

can become

overwhelming

if you just

open the fire hose

and let your operators

drink from it

what we try to do

is break down

to the simplest form

and say okay

at the end of the day

our job

is to help

solve these

customers problems

right

and I try to do it

a couple of ways

can we give them

the feeling of transparency

can we make them

feel like

we're not taking advantage of

we're very up front

we're very open

we give them

honest

we deal with integrity

we give them real numbers

real values

and then secondly

can I make it easy

right

can I make it

is it a convening experience

right

and then the last part

right there

is that word experience

can I make it something

that's fun

we just did a

one of my biggest things

is sending out challenges

kind of bring that attitude

up right

to foster

that culture

that we want

so we sent on a challenge

here recently

that said okay

we're gonna do test drive

karaoke with ourselves people

whoever can send

the most videos

you know

jammed out

their favorite song

with a customer

on the test drive

is gonna win $100

we give them a

actually I'll come up

with the winner

what's the video tech

you're using for that Roy

say that again

what's the video technology

you're using

video

go video

okay

that's cool

who won

we'll find out Friday

how many videos

are being created

as a result of that

initiative

that's pretty cool

it's

you've seen a significant spike

in videos because of it

now we also have

I'll be transparent

we have a steal advantage

addendum on our vehicles

okay

just like every other

dealership that does so

you find a little bit

of resistance at first

so my my fix for that

was before we did

this test drive

karaoke video challenge

we did a steal addendum

challenge

I want a video of you

presenting the addendum

and as a corporate office

we voted on

the winner

one of our guys

at our Hyundai store

at our Kyle store

in our Hyundai store

and Kyle won that challenge

because of the way he presented

we're trying

I love the idea

of competing on that

and by the way

at Ziggler Auto Group

we love to compete

that way on that sort of thing

so you need to give me

the rules for it

maybe we do like

steal auto group

versus Ziggler Auto Group

we can get Will

and his team

we'll all compete on that

I think that the idea is

well I like it

I like it

bro you gotta send us

that video too

when you do get the winner

you should email us

that video

maybe we can throw it up on the show

definitely

I got a question

obviously we're talking a lot

high level

we're we're drilling to

as much detail as we can

but

from your point

you know

what are your

non-negotiable metrics

you expect your managers

to inspect daily

and not just

you know

reporting to you

for reporting sake

no no

so everything

the word of the year

has been intentional

right

everything we do

since the

the moment we start our day

to the moment

we and has to be intentional

I manage my day

in quarters

and one of the things

that we make

our managers do

is get super involved

in the activities

and the KPIs

and the attitudes

and everything that we're

asking for from

ourselves people

I think it's a clarity thing

you don't know

this job is very easy for us

to get

lost in the day to day

it's very easy for us

especially for time management

skills aren't there

so from a management standpoint

I asked them to

break the days down

into quarters

and four times a day

we're going in

it's very quick

we're doing a quick

check in to see

where are we

out on our KPIs

calls, text, emails

social media posts

videos

appointments

and then we're asking

our managers to match

those activities

one of the metrics

that we go off of

and I'd love to take credit

for it

but I got to give this one

up to our VP Patrick

200% videos

to appointments

set

we want to see a 200

and from our management staff

we want to see

200% video sent

based on how many appointments

are set for that day

so what's that look like

from your managers then

you're asking

your managers to back up

the salesperson

with a video

for an appointment

yes so

salesperson sets an appointment

manager has

and we want it

within the first 30 minutes

you set the appointment

a manager's going to send

a confirmation video

thanking them

introducing themselves

and then of course

after the appointment

we're either going to do

a thanks for your visit

or a why did we miss you

so what's the impact of that

what's been the

proactive impact

you're seeing the

the stores that are doing it

like consistently

you're seeing a significant increase

and not only set

but the shown ratios

that's cool

that's huge

can I just

bring a few of these comments here

eager case says

I love that

getting customers on board

and having fun with them

while you're softening

the customer up to the selling experience

I had

great idea

it's always fun to compete

and then

Colby Joyner

Roy's quarter times

are a game changer

really

I can ask

I guess with the

the car karaoke

or the test drive karaoke

maybe I missed that

when you said it

who's singing

is it the salesperson

or is it the customer

or is it both

both

we want to engage them

in a way where

one you have

so much tech

in your cars

these days

to me

if it's

again

we talk about the experience

when I demo a vehicle

I want myself's person

to have that sense of ownership

with the customer experience

so let's set your car

up with the car play

the apple car play

or the android auto

whatever it is

let's set it up

let's get your music going

and then

we're gonna engage them with those

those

even a

a phone call

right to the management staff

saying hey

we're on a test drive

so I

as we wrap up here

I have a proposal

for our daily dealer live audience

I don't know who will be a

taker on this

but

I think like

where this is going

karaoke

competition between auto groups

we have every auto group

that wants to compete

submit their best video

and we get Yossi

the car dealership guy back on

for a special round table episode

and we have the top

four sales people

from the top auto groups

we do a round table

Roy would you be on for that

and you can be one of the judges

we'll bring it back

I'll get your cell phone number

after this

you and I can communicate

on the rules and all that

but we'll get that out there

through our

our newsletter deal

but

I think

you know we talk a lot

at our auto group

especially during cold weather days

and days where

it's tougher to communicate

with customers

the importance of video

and I'll tell you

there's something intuitively

tough

unless we show it as GM's

and we show this VP's

how to do it

there's something intuitively

tough about just

doing that simple thing

and yet we know in sales

and in service Roy

it makes all the difference

so you're in right

you have to

you have to lead with that

servant's heart right

I traveled with a media bag

full of lovelier mics

stable I

I mean you name it

because I'm gonna be in the

front lines as

you know a platform guy

I'm in there with them

shooting video making

content

looking silly

you show them

you ease them

you're bringing

get comfortable

get uncomfortable

I mean at the end of the day

this is car sales

I gotta

are you

having the

the guests

share it to social media

because that's also kind of

like a game changer

that's the plan

organic content

for the stores themselves

so that we can put it out there

and then also of course

getting the

the guests themselves to share it

it's the five

degrees of Kevin Bacon right

like we want to influence

it's like two degrees

in the car business

yeah there you go

we want to influence

their circle of influence

and show them

hey it's fun

it doesn't have to be mundane

buying a car

you can have a little fun with it

all right well I think

we're in for this special episode

anybody that wants to get in

come into the comments

eager case

says any dealer

principle or gm

or gsm

take a lesson here

this guy's on the ball

with the follow-ups

and focusing on those simple

things to kind of

gamify this business

make it fun

and create a

competitive data set

so Roy

one question

maybe we'll extend

a little bit of time here

what's one thing you're

thinking about

in December

and even Q1 2026

that concerns you

that you're looking to solve for

in business

over the next few months

so actually this has been a

top of

top of conversation

for for our leadership group

and and what my next agenda

is trying to influence

our leaders

into understanding that

and and it's a

it's a trick word control

right

some people look at control

and think it's a

it's a bad thing

or we're trying to

overdo it from the the quarter

times that can be

a sense of control

when you're trying to control

yourselves people

when you're trying to

micro manage them

in reality

I'm trying to just give them

a recipe for success

now going into the end of the

year and into Q1

I think control is going to

have to be valid and even

more and and and

and our our control efforts

are going to have to go to

the selection process

of a car deal

right with all these

variables and intangibles

happening

we have really good

qualified managers and leaders

at these stores

that need to influence

the control part

because

we don't know

to wills

uh a point

we don't know what the credit

profiles are going to look like

we don't know what the

use care market's going to

look like

we don't know

what I saw the statistics

you put up at the beginning

trade values

harder for us to come

an agreement on

these things are at play

so I think that slowing the

process down

getting leadership involved

and influencing the

selection part

let's look at

what the customers

wants and needs are

let's look at what their

problems are

and let's how can we as a

dealer solve them

how do you slow it down though

when so much of the data is

showing the customer

desire to speed it up

how do you do that

and still respect the

customer journey

you have to slow down to

speed up in my opinion

I I I look at a visit time

of 90 minutes

that's ideally what I'd love

to have right

a 90 minute visit time

that means that we

leverage the tools

so when when a lead comes

in we're going to

leverage our digital retail

tool we're going to

leverage video we're going

to leverage all these things

to work as much of the process

as we can

we're not afraid to give

numbers we're not afraid to

work with cardio

when you look at it

even your people that start

and in a digital retail tool

like 75 to 80 percent of them

still finish traditionally

in the brick and mortar

they just want you have to

leverage Colby's going to

laugh at this one

but we call it their

click and mortar and our

brick and mortar

we treat them the same way

right but we're going to

start with that click

and mortar experience

now if it's a fresh up

and they walk through the

door I'm going to go a

little bit old school

but I'm going to sit down

get a needs analysis

a really good assessment

and I'm going to figure out

how do I especially with

stores like us

if you have multiple stores

within a 30 or 45 minute

radius you have a ton of

vehicles to choose from

right you should leverage

that so you're not

confined to what's on

your campus

then I need to really

pay attention to this

needs analysis

I need to figure out

how can I solve this

customer's problem

and if I slow down there

it'll speed up the

rest of the process

so is there a preferred

dr tool digital

retailing tool

that you're using

and then how do you

how do you message

that disconnect

between the digital

retailing tool

and a manual needs

analysis tool on the

showroom floor

in today's world

so my favorite

digital retail tool

is by now

I'm a huge car now

fan tim cox

and bob lanham

and them

are near and dear

friends of mine

I've used their tools

forever

but everything that

we do from our

website every cta

everything is pushed into

conversation

so it either goes to the chat

to car now

or it goes to our

buy now tool

so that we can have it

hire engaged customer

hire engaged lead

so real time

real responses

is what we push there

now when

I push my managers

to be engaged

in the buy now

screens

and tool itself

because I want them

to leave these conversations

if somebody's in my

buy now tool

we're going to engage

with it

we're going to attempt

to take that

conversation

into a video chat

if we can

or a phone call conversation

so that we can then

take the information

that we got from

the buy now

deal

and then influence

like I said

the selection piece

if we need to

now one of the things

that I think

that carvana

did really well

and what I'm trying to take

from that

if you've ever gone

through the carvana

experience

they are really good

at giving you options

especially if you don't

qualify for the car

yeah

you might have

inquired on this

you might have started

your deal on it

but by the time it got

to credit

and decision

it gave you a really good

array of options

hey you cannot buy this

Mustang

but here are four vehicles

you can purchase

and so

where we have the limitations

with the software

I want to make sure

that our managers

jump in

and bridge that

that gap

Lauren Klein

asking online

what DR tool

are you using

to hit that 90-minute

goal

you shared with us

it's the car now tool

is it a realistic goal

using that tool

to hit that 90-minute

goal

I mean you mentioned

slowing down to speed up

does it

does slowing down

that way

allow you to

meet that 90-minute metric

it can

and you're talking about

an average

you're talking about

an average

now we're not there

with steel yet

I've done it in the past

with some of my other stores

we've done actually

a 90-minute

high to FNI challenge

right

and the high to FNI was

from the time

that you walk into the store

to the time I present paperwork

final documents and paperwork

the way we did that though

is we really leaned into

getting as much of it

done through our DR tool

as we could

before the visit even started

yeah

it's fun how

you're gamifying

so many elements of this

when you say the

90-minute high to FNI

you're setting a stopwatch

you're setting a clock

and you're really

you talk about

slowing down

which I believe about

right Yuli

that's intentional

right

but it's also

you're speeding it up

by being intentional

right

and by doing all the steps

right and making sure everyone's

trained well

on the different steps

it's preparation

it's getting the team

up to snuff on it

and making sure that you

the thing that I like about it too

is it's going to expose some of

the gaps in your processes

and you can't be afraid

you have to

you have to foster a culture

where people aren't afraid to fail

we want to know

so you get better

yeah

eager cape

pays you some props

I love this guy's positivity

and his approach to every deal

I'd hire this guy

without any issues

hired

so it looks like you got

but we're not going to let that

happen

because we need our karaoke

competition to happen

there you go

maybe we can get co-video

or a car now

or somebody to sponsor it

but

that's the part

I'm excited about

as we walk away

from today's conversation

Roy DeVila

Variable Operations Director

at Steel Auto Group

heck of a lot of fun

talking to you today

about things you're doing

to increase productivity

and the bottom line

at the Steel Auto Group

so thanks for being on the

show

and thanks for having me

I appreciate it

I'll walk you back for the

round table

it's on

I'm doing it

let's go

I'll record do it

all right

so Yuli

are you in for this

this karaoke

hell yeah

come on

I'm the cheerleader

with those videos

you and I

you got to bring the

stash back

you got to bring the beer

back

I can sing

like the best of them

right

and I think he's

onto something there

right

like videos do connect

we've learned that

not only on the variable

side

but in fixed ops with text

I mean you could almost

bring

technicians into that

competition

and I think we could have

just a heck of a lot of fun

with that type of a

that type of competition

great

great conversation today

and

interesting to

start with something crazy

like the 700 outage

although it is

or not outage

a breach

data breach

but it is interesting

how in everything

that happens in automotive

there is opportunity

right

and always

that is a great opportunity

to just tighten up

your processes

right

he said it right

this is

we should be thankful

for these problems

because they do create

opportunities

that we can solve

and

will make us more successful

yeah

all right

so anybody out there

who's in for the competition

we'll have some information

out there about how to join

but

I'm dead serious we're on

I think Ziggler Auto Group

we're gonna take this one

we are gonna take this one

all right Yuli

thanks for being here today

man

what a fun show

thank you

yeah great show

yeah

and to our loyal listening

audience

thanks for joining

daily dealer live

where we break down the biggest

moves

in the car business

as they happen

don't forget

we're live here

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Wednesday

and we'll be back again

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so if this is your world

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and we'll see you next

episode everybody

thanks for being here

thanks guys

you

About this episode

A deep dive into the current automotive landscape reveals significant shifts in consumer behavior and dealership strategies. With average new car prices soaring, many buyers are turning to used vehicles and seeking longer loan terms. Experts discuss the implications of a recent data breach at 700 Credit, emphasizing the importance of data security for dealerships. Guests Brad Miller from Comply Auto and Will O'Hara from Ziggler Auto Group share insights on managing inventory, leveraging AI in car sales, and enhancing customer experiences through innovative practices like video engagement and gamification. The episode highlights the need for dealerships to adapt to changing market conditions while maintaining strong operational fundamentals.

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Original notes

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