Sen. Moreno on Chinese Cars, Stanton on FTC Letters, Jusupovic on Logistics | Daily Dealer Live

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Daily Dealer

Live. I'm your host Sam Darkin. Thanks for choosing to be here with us on Daily

Dealer Live this Wednesday, April 15th, 2026. It's tax day. If you're a dealer GM

or automotive vendor partner, you don't want to miss today's show. Why? Well, we've

got a US senator, Senator Bernie Moreno, who's saying last month's letter from the

FTC to 97 dealer groups is the FTC coming to clean up the last 5% of bad actors,

cleanup on aisle nine, as he puts it. The question is, who decides who that 5% is?

Bernie Moreno joins today. Then a new study claims dealers are slapping $5,000 of

what's called middleman tax on to every cardio. Joining today is the president of

NADA, Mike Stanton, with his opinions on that article. And if you think your biggest

problem is pricing, you're already losing because right now your inventory is aging.

It's stalling and quietly bleeding profit margin before it ever hits the lot. Today's

about policy. It's about profit and pressure, all colliding in real time. And we invite

you to join the conversation, post your comments into CDG social media platforms

everywhere we're broadcasting live today. And we'll bring those comments into the

show. Paul Salisman is quick to come in saying happy tax day. We also have Igor

Kay saying Nissan finally dumping CVT transmissions in some models for 2027 model

a year. Igor Kay always giving us the industry auction report every day. Thanks

Igor for that. All right, let's get into today's auto industry headlines.

All right, first up today, Nissan laid out its long term strategic vision this week

centered on a leaner lineup and smarter vehicle technology. The headline move is

cutting models from 56 to 45, organized around four categories, heartbeat, core

growth and partner to sharpen product positioning and simplify dealer inventory

management. On the tech side, Nissan plans to roll out its AI drive system across

90% of its global lineup over time with the first application coming to the new

Elgarand this summer. For the US specifically, the focus is on large

vehicles, hybrid e-power models, the returning XTERRA and continued V6 options

in mid and full size SUVs with a goal of reaching one million combined US and

Canada units by the end of fiscal year 2030. Up next, two connected data points

were flagging together this week. The first from cars.com is reporting a

roughly 25% increase in combined new and used EV searches from late February to

late March driven by rising gas prices tied to the Iran conflict and the

troubles in the Strait of Hormuz. Top new EV searches include the VW ID, Buzz,

Chevy Equinox EV and Silverado EV. While Tesla models dominate the use side,

hybrid searches are also up, though more modestly. At the same time, Navy

Federal Credit Union's cost of car ownership index hit a record high in

March. It's up 4.7% for the month and 47.6% since January 2020. That's with a

21% month over month jump in gas prices as the primary lever. The two data points

tell the same story. Gas prices, they're pushing more shoppers to research EVs

and hybrids, but the broader affordability squeeze means not all of that

interest converts. But the dealers with the right inventory mix and payment

options, they're the best positioned to capture what does. More on that as we

follow, continue to follow the affordability study and project within

automotive over the next episodes. Finally up today, we turn to the CDG

Bicell Tracker. Q, our little jingle here. There we go. Love it. Mori's auto group

of Minnetonka, Minnesota closed on three family owned Nebraska dealerships.

Beardmore Subaru, Beardmore Hyundai and Beardmore Chevrolet. And they're all in

Bellevue from fourth generation owners, Kerry and Brian Hamilton. The stores have

been renamed Bellevue Subaru, Mori's Bellevue Hyundai and Mori's Bellevue

Chevrolet. Some background on the deal. Kerry Hamilton became a Chevrolet

dealer at 29 and built a reputation in the community that extended well beyond

the lot. It's another succession driven deal in a consolidation wave that

shows no signs of slowing. For more on this M&A activity and others, follow all

the activity on our full tracker at cdgbicell.com. And that's a wrap on

today's industry headlines. And back into the comments, see your case as

you're welcome, Sam. By the way, I was at auction today and values are still

going up and we're definitely seeing that as supply chains become constrained

and continue to become constrained. Joshy D says, can you touch on buy center

acquisition teams? What can be done differently to purchase more inventory?

We'd love to talk that. And then eager K gives us a little bit of an update on

Model 3 and why is being bought out fast at auctions. Dealers who normally don't

buy used EVs and PH EVs are now buying them for their inventory. And I think

that is an obvious result of the gas prices going up. And I've often

wondered, we all remember in 08, gas prices hit five bucks a gallon. Everybody

started dumping everything that wasn't fuel economic. That $5 is now a much

higher number, but there is a number. It'll be interesting to see what that

number is in the marketplace that ends up pushing from gas to more EVs. So

quick note before we dive into our next segment today, we've got a sitting U.S.

Senator joining us. And to make schedules work, we agreed to record this

conversation with Senator Bernie Moreno earlier this week on Monday, to be

exact. This interview is a big one. Senator Bernie Moreno dives into the

FTC letters to dealers, what he calls a cleanup on aisle nine advertising

compliance and the future of the franchise model. So in a CDG first, this

interview with Senator Moreno are second on the live show. Let's turn to that

interview now, Bernie Moreno. Senator Bernie Moreno, you're a former

Cardiola turned U.S. Senator, you spent years on the retail side before winning

Ohio's Senate seat in 24. You're one of the few people in Washington who knows

what a doc fee is. And right now you're the one of the loudest voices in

Congress on the issue sitting dealers artist, FTC enforcement, Chinese

vehicles, affordability. We want to hit a few of those. So when when the FTC

letter dropped last month to 97 dealer groups, what was your reaction to that

letter, Senator?

Well, first of all, let me just full disclosure to the Andrew Ferguson as a

friend. Obviously, I voted to confirm him. I'm going to see him tomorrow. We've

had many conversations about this. My point of view on this is simple. We

want to clean up the last 5% of the car dealership business. If you go back to

the 80s, when I first was in college, think, you know, thinking about going

into the car business, we all know the bait and switch and all that nonsense.

And I'd say it was probably like 90 bad 10 good. And now it's 95% good and 5

bad. So let's just get rid of the last 5 bad. We know, we know what needs to be

done. I think when it comes to advertising and how we treat clients,

these dealership entities are no longer a little mom and pop shop. So there's

still a few of those left there, but these are sophisticated, really well run

businesses that are, by the way, worth a lot of money. So let's treat them as

such. And so I think what the FTC is doing is, I call it the last of the

cleanup on all nine. And I think that's good. I think all of us should celebrate

that. Look, there's dealers listening to this that know exactly what I'm talking

about. You sold the car to a friend. They had a great experience. They get home.

All of a sudden see an ad from a competitor that is complete nonsense. The

price is absolutely not attainable at that, at that payment or price. That

customer who was happy 5 minutes ago is now absolutely incensed. And you have

to do a lot of explaining. Nobody wants that. Let's put end of the nonsense.

Yeah. And actually we're all in favor of that. We want everyone working off

the same rules and working towards creating a great customer experience

for customers. But it's interesting, Senator, because not all is ordered on

aisle nine. Not everyone understands exactly what is and isn't required.

Doc fee is an example. We've had some attorneys say they're excluded because

they're state regulated. Others say they have to be in the advertised price all

the way down to the bottom. We had a couple lawyers on this show several

weeks ago and asked independently. They gave varying answers. Roll up your

doc fee freight into the advertised price. Where is the line on doc fee? Because

it's not clear. Some of those items aren't clear.

First of all, if you have to listen to an attorney as a card, you know, you

know, the answer, you know, the question already. They're all attorneys.

Yeah, let's just look forget the attorneys. Just do the right thing. If I

don't look, I don't control the FTC. But again, Andrew's a good guy. He he's

certainly not somebody who's a lunatic like like who was there before, you

know, the well named in Gingis Khan is what I call there. Yeah. So what I

would say is this, if I were in the car business today, so this is not

disclaimer. This is not legal advice to car dealers. I would advertise the

car without the doc fee and then just below it, like not way down at the

bottom, but right next to it was slightly smaller font. I would put

including mandatory documentation fee and then add that into the price of the

car at $29,995. The doc fee is $500. I would still advertise $29,995 because

that is the price of the car, but I would put including mandatory

documentation fee, $30,495 and font that's just a slightly smaller and

certainly not at the bottom way at the bottom of the page and, you know, one

point font.

So, but there's been vigorous debate on this show and elsewhere over the past

month since those letters came out. There's a thought process that says that

bottom line price needs to be the one that's pushed to the digital lead

providers. So we all have great partners in CarGurus, dealer.com,

cars.com, true cars and others. Does the price that shows on those leads, which

competes for the least expensive price, or the most expensive, depending on how

they serve it up, should that be inclusive of the doc fee? Or as you

say, it is the $29,995 plus doc in the fine print once you click into it.

It's not clear, Senator.

So not fine print. No, that's what I'm saying. So the $29,995, that's the

price of the car would still be the main viato price, the populated

price, et cetera. But that disclosure, when you're looking at it, not without

scrolling, you would still see right below it, including mandatory

documentation fee, $30,495. So you'd still push out the $29,995. I still

believe that again, this is personal, my personal opinion. I don't know that

the FTC has weighed in one way or the other. What they are saying, what you

cannot do is have $29,995 be the price that's advertised. A one point

font disclaimer, seven scrolls down. They have the doc fee, that's $2,500.

And really, and have that $29,995 be contingent on financing, buying an

extended warranty, trading in a car, having a military discount, a fleet

discount, an employee discount, right? A mother's with three children

discount, that only applies if you were birthed in Northern North

Dakota. I mean, those are the kinds of things that cracking down on it. We

know that's bad.

But you can say that and it's satire, right? We say it tongue in cheek

because obviously that behavior so far in the wrong, it's tough to

stomach and you're right. Those are the bad acts of the automotive decades

ago that should not exist in 2026. But there are dealer groups who

received, we've interviewed one car dealership guy has who spends a

million dollars a month on compliance that is really striving to do all

the right things, be fully transparent. And they say they're

concerned they received a letter. Was the letter sent as a wide swath or

was it a targeted message to dealers that they saw were doing things they

shouldn't be doing?

My understanding is the letters went out to the largest generators of

complaints of the federal government. But look, for example, there's a lot

of there's look, I got a lot of calls. Here's the calls went for me, by

the way. Hey, I didn't get a letter, but a friend of mine did a good

friend of mine, who I won't say who it is.

Right.

What is the thing nobody wants to talk about?

Right, exactly. So but I actually did research that particular dealer that

called me. And they have a lot of cars on their websites that say call for

price or see dealer for price, or in the fine print, must have a trade in

must finance must have, you know, X, Y, Z things. So they, so I think there's a

lot of still work to be done. I think, like I said at the beginning, we know

what the right thing to do is. And again, we don't need to check with a

lawyer. I use the mom test, show them, show your mom the ad. And if your mom

says this is a good ad, that it makes sense. And I think those are the

things we got to clean up. But I think there's a lot of noise paid right

now to dog fees. I think on tier three ads, I think this the what I just

laid out to you would most likely pass muster. It's crystal clear.

$2,995 with mandatory dog fee $30,495. Obviously, you know where the

problems are. Is it where it's state regulated, like in Ohio, $398 for

every dealer in Ohio, and you either charge it to everybody or nobody. So

that's easy. The problem is states like Florida, where it's become the

wild, wild west where dealers advertise cars for two grand losers. So two

grand behind net net net, but then have a $2,500 dog fee. That's nonsense.

So in a Republican administration under Trump, would you advocate for a

national standard as it relates to automotive advertising? Should there

be differences between states in the ways that prices are advertised or

dog fees are disclosed or even dog fees are charged? We're in a world of

Carvana and CarMax and large automotive groups that sell all across the

country. Should there be one standard senator?

Well, I think the dog fee issue is going to be a state by state issue that I

don't know that the federal government has a constitutional role to play

there. We obviously regulate interstate commerce, not intrastate

commerce. So I think that that part of it is not our role, but I will say

this. We can certainly have advertising standards because these ads do cross

state boundaries. And when it comes to ads that cross state boundaries, we

should have good ads that people can actually buy the car for the price

that's advertised. They don't get any surprises when they come to the

dealership. And by the way, sometimes we haven't even talked about this. The

car is not even available. Like there's no car that exists that's at that

price. So what about that? Without going to the attorney, we live in a

Titan supply chain. Dealers can't get enough of Toyota. Even GM has supply

constraints right now. Dealers want to be able to advertise that inbound Toyota

Highlander that's high demand hybrid while it's enroute to the dealership. Is

it fair play to advertise that prior to its arrival on the lot and indicate it

in transit somehow? Or should it actually be physically on the lot?

No, I think, okay, again, this is my personal opinion. If I were running a

dealership, I would be just crystal clear, just disclose it all up front. And

again, not in one point font down at the bottom, just put in transit arriving

soon, those types of things or in stock now, subject to availability. Because

that's also true. You may see an ad for a car that's legitimately available,

but then five hours after you place the ad, that's our wish, by the way, the car

sold. We don't want to keep them. The goal is to have them just so we can

advertise them. We actually want to sell them, but be quick about taking them

offline. But I think as long as you're using common sense, like I said, if you're

having to go to a lawyer, we're probably both in bad shape, the government and the

dealer. We want to have a cleanup on L9. Let's make sure that we have

common standards that are transparent, that are easy to understand.

So with FTC being the governing board for this standard and the cleanup and

process in certain areas of L9, should there be a mechanism, formal or informal,

for dealers to submit pricing processes, pricing, sample advertising,

sample web displays to the FTC for review before they get investigated so they get

proactive clearance? Or could there be some sort of a feedback loop with the FTC to get

feedback on it? Yeah, I don't want to get ahead of things that I'm working on,

because again, they're all, they only exist here right now. But I will be talking to

Andrew tomorrow. I have a meeting with him. I'm going to meet with the staff.

Just a sense, look, what is it that we want to accomplish? For me, it's straightforward.

I think what the president would say is straightforward. He wants to make certain

that consumers are given the right information, that it's transparent, that it's logical,

that there's no surprises, that some of the nonsense that we had in the car business from

30 or 40 years ago is completely gone. So there's lots of ways to get there.

Really having this conversation with Ferguson, while at the same time letting NADA do its thing,

because obviously the association is extremely important. You have great leadership there with

Mike Stanton. So I don't want to interfere with what they're doing. But let's just say that I'm

NADA adjacent right now, being patient. Because for me, look, we don't have a lot of time.

What I don't want is we don't do anything at all. We keep this era of confusion for the next three

years. And then we have President Ilhan Omar and Vice President AOC. And now you have a total

collective punishment of car dealers that sets us back dramatically.

We're better codifying the standard today under the current administration than the future. So

maybe you're previewing something potentially you're working on. So speaking of NADA and being

NADA adjacent, Mike Stanton's great. He's done great work to further our understanding of this.

But the webinar they did on April 6th was a complete flop. And he would admit that.

The FTC refused to take questions and ended the call with more questions than answers.

They're doing another webinar this Friday. What does the NADA need to walk out of that room with

Chris Mufaraj on the call for dealers to actually have clarity and feel like they've got the tools

to march forward with confidence doing the right thing? Well, let me just say none of that blame

falls on NADA. NADA is doing its absolute best. They don't control what the FTC is saying. I think

Chris is a good ally. Obviously, he works directly for Andrew. I think they're working on developing

these things. And again, the lawyers get in the way because what happens is when you start giving

advice, is that legal advice that somebody would say, oh, look, here's a clip from a seminar and

later that's used to defend in action. So everybody gets paranoid when lawyers are involved.

I obviously, as you can see, do not worry about that. Thank you. I think we I think if we use

common sense, common sense, and you can defend it in public among your peers, your mom, I think

you'll be fine. And again, that's what I that's the purpose of my meeting tomorrow. The Andrews

is just to sit down and say, look, what is it that the administration wants to accomplish?

And that could be on the same page. The goal we can agree with. We want to have clean ads.

We want to have transparent pricing. We don't want to surprise our clients. And we want to

protect the integrity of the dealer model. There's a lot of people taking shots at the dealer model

and they use this as the excuse. And it's all BS, by the way, because we haven't even talked about

tier one ads. Tier one ads are where the bigger problem is because they advertise a national ad.

And that national ad certainly doesn't talk about documentation fees. No.

Well, the FTC pursue that with a single standard. I mean, that's what needs to happen. I said,

I like the idea of clarity during the current administration, get everybody working on one

set of rules and and everybody goes to market to serve the customer where they live the best

way they possibly can, right? Amen. Amen. And we just got to get there. And it's going to be

there's going to be some ugly messes in the kitchen while we make the sausage.

And I think you saw that with the webinar last week. And we're just trying to land the plane

to get to a place where everybody can leave there. And we don't have surprises. Look,

I feel for the dealers that got that letter because for the most part,

the dealer principals want to do a good job. I mean, like I said, they have hundreds of millions

of dollars in a lot of cases invested in these very sophisticated organizations. They don't want

to see that thrown to the curb. And by the way, the reputation destroyed. And of course,

by the way, writing that big check also sucked. So I think we got to get there. We'll get there.

We're just at the beginning of this process. I'm hoping we get this solved by the end of summer.

It would be great just as a side note as you meet with him. It would be great to have some sort of

a feedback loop with the FTC. So if dealers had questions, they wanted to get feedback again to

your point, wanting to do the right thing, but just needing clarity on finer points. There are

dealers today that are working to put that dock fee above the bottom line and then having that

bottom line sent to the lead providers, they're disadvantaged by that dock fee sitting there.

If the FTC's direction is that dock fee could be below that line, that changes the calculus. And

look, it's a small thing, but a small thing plus a small thing plus a small thing creates a big

thing. And I think there's some dealers out there, Senator, that saw the FTC webinar with the NADA

as good faith as the NADA was and trying to put on the best program they possibly could.

And they were at once terrified, but then also shocked at kind of the inability to get questions

answered. I mean, too many lawyers in the room, Farrah. So, yeah. Hey, before we have to let you

go, Chinese vehicles, we've talked a lot about it on this show. You were on the show six months

or so ago and you said, Chinese vehicles will never come into the US. Trump famously talked

about Chinese vehicles in Detroit and said he's kind of open to it. What's your take and where

should US policy lean as it relates to Chinese automobiles in the US? Look, my point of view

hasn't changed at all. We will absolutely hermetically seal the US market from Chinese automobiles.

And that's not just the final product. That's hardware, that's software, that's joint ventures,

that's partnerships. We'll see about how licensing deals can fit in there, but absolutely not.

Look, we got to get this done. I think we will get this done. I urge everybody watching to lobby

your member of Congress, my fellow senators and congressmen to support my bill. We're going to

introduce it this week. It's gone through a lot of hands. I think there's a lot of support behind

this bill. Then I think what happens is like I talked about New York, the other Western countries

are going to look at this and go, we have to echo that. Look, the Chinese auto industry was not

created to compete with Ford or GM or Toyota or Honda. They were built to destroy those companies

and Honda Toyota General Motors Ford can compete with any individual car company in China. That's

not the problem, but they can't compete with the country. Nobody can. Nobody can compete with a

country that subsidizes its labor, has no environmental standards whatsoever, subsidizes the

capital that goes in there. And by the way, builds 95 plus brands to absolutely destroy each other.

And in that process of destruction, destroy the Western auto industry, their massive exporters

of automobiles doesn't make any sense. Look, it's happening in Europe. It's happening in Latin America.

We're not going to let it happen to the US. I come from a philosophy of problem avoidance,

not problem identification. And the way we're going to avoid this problem is this bill that

I'm introducing this week. I hope to get you guys supporting it. I hope to get everybody

on the ecosystem supporting this bill. And that's what will help it get across the finish line.

What do you say to the dealer that feels a little uncomfortable about not having to compete against

those Chinese vehicles and feeling and hearing the footsteps coming from the six saying, hey,

eventually it'll come. You'll be forced to sign a dealer agreement with a Chinese OEM.

Would we be better competing against that, learning from it and becoming better? Or is

the fight just crazy because of the reasons you stated it's a state sponsored company or companies

and, you know, US automotive versus state sponsored, state sponsored will win.

Well, look, we got to beat Godzilla down and get that to a normal place. And I think that will

happen, by the way. I think the Chinese will actually retreat back and say, look, let's make

cars for domestic production. Let's calm things down a little bit. And by the way, there's plenty

of competition in the car business. I mean, you talk to Ford and see if they don't think GM is a

competitor. Ask GM or they don't think Toyota is a competitor. Aspercities of BMW is not a

competitor. Right. So there's lots of healthy competition in the Western auto industry already.

It's not like they're going to be complacent and we're going to turn every Western auto company

into Lada. Okay. There's lots of competition. It'll be fine. But the Chinese have one aim in mind,

which is to destroy the Western auto industry is 10% of our GDP. I'm not going to let that happen.

And I know some dealers out there in the dark parts of their mind say, well, but if I get the

whole franchise for BYD in Florida, aren't I going to be like the Jim Rann of BYD? And the

answer is no, you will not be. Look what happened in Europe. Look what happened in Europe. The

dealers were just as destroyed too. And by the way, they'll want to go direct or reference that.

Australia as well. Australia as well. Yeah. Yeah. Direct to consumer. Last question that we're

going to go direct to consumer. Scout made an effort to go around Volkswagen dealers. Honda

as well. They recently called that plan off. What's your take on the dealer franchise system

and defending that against OEMs trying to go direct to consumer? I absolutely thank Honda

for making a decision that they did. I think it was the right one, not just for the industry,

but specifically the Honda dealers that stuck with them for 60 years. So thank you to Honda

for making that decision. And to Scott Keough and Oliver Bloom, just follow, follow suit.

Look, your dealers are struggling. Your Volkswagen dealers are not where they should be.

They certainly don't feel like Toyota dealers. I'll tell you that. And why have that fight?

Like what's the point? What are you trying to accomplish? They're starving for good product.

They've gone through scandal after scandal with Audi, scandal after scandal with Volkswagen,

and yet persevered, built you great facilities. They take a lot off your plate. The dealer model

works. It's a great, great system. Honor it and respect it. Look, the most successful car

company on earth is Toyota. Nobody disputes that. Accio starts every Toyota dealer meeting

by bowing and saying thank you. And that's what Scott Keough should do. That's what Oliver

Bloom should do. And I think you'll find his dealers will be very quick to forgive.

Car dealers at the end of the day have very short memories about things like that,

but don't go into this fight. Makes no sense. You need a lot more capital and juice here in

Washington, DC, given the tariff situation, what you're going through in China. Don't fight that

fight. It's totally ridiculous. And again, let me just say one last time, thank you to Honda

for making the right decision. Yeah, props to them. US Senator Bernie Moreno,

thank you so much for being on Daily Deal Alive and sharing your perspectives again

on this show. Look forward to having you back soon. You got it. Thank you.

Well, what'd you think? Our comments are a light on social media everywhere. There's not enough time

to bring them all in. And as they came up during the interview, they were coaching at certain points

throughout the interview, but some really good comments. I'll bring up just a couple. Sergio

says, like Bernie says, if you look at your ad and you wouldn't let your family buy a car like that,

most likely your ad shouldn't be out there. A big discussion online and surrounding the

dock fee, the amount, what should be okay, what shouldn't be. And then I thought a quote from

Eager, a longtime poster, sort of reflects what I think. He says, if we don't compete referencing

the Chinese vehicles, at some point we'll get left behind. DNC comes in says, Sam, looking forward

to Friday's NADA webinar with the FTC. Hopefully the second session goes way better than the first

and that take questions so everyone walks away with better clarity on the subject matter. Huge

props to NADA for their leadership in putting this together, executing on it and advocating for

dealers as we go through the process. So special thanks to Senator Moreno for being on the show.

We look forward to another visit from him very soon. And it's always great to get his perspective,

which is unique as a former dealer and now a sitting senator advocating for dealers in so many

different ways. Paul Salisman says the senator couldn't have said it any better

regarding direct sales. Let's go straight into our next segment. Now President and CEO of National

Automobile Dealers Association, Mike Stanton. Mike, welcome to the show. Hey, Sam, thanks for

having me. You know, as a segue from Senator Moreno, he mentioned the webinar that's coming up

on this Friday. Will you just tell our audience a little bit, what is the webinar? How can I

sign up for it? And given the participant in that, I think this is going to be

a very, very good productive webinar for dealers to watch, Mike. Yeah, this one will be the real

webinar. The last was a duress rehearsal that we had miserably. And by we, I mean the FTC,

very frustrating. We had over 4,000 people on that webinar, probably more listening in

complete waste of everybody's time. We had submitted questions to the FTC and they told us

they would answer them on the webinar and it just didn't happen. And we were notified just 10 minutes

ahead of the actual event. So our apologies. We've got a different team from the FTC that's

going to be with us three o'clock Eastern. Just coming Friday, go to nada.org to enroll for that

webinar. And we were told that we would get our questions answered and that anything that they

can't get to, they will follow up with the FAQ. Mike, is there a way dealers can submit questions

to you if they have things that they'd like to get answered or clarification on? Yeah, of course

they can, but it's too late. We already have an exhaustive laundry list of questions. I would be

shocked if we don't come out of this webinar with say 80-90% of that done with a little bit of cleanup

work to do. You know, my colleagues in the state are submitting questions. They're hearing from

dealers. We're hearing from dealers. The FTC's got quite a list. And I would share, well, a couple

things. First, Bernie's the best. He has been an absolute champion for dealers, a partner with

the NADA. We're all in it for what's best for dealers. And what we're doing, our role right now,

is we're seeking clarification. At the meeting that we had with the FTC, it was very clear that

people have asked us, well, what about the Trump administration? And this seems, they said they

weren't going to be in the rulemaking business and get out of the regulatory arena. And that is

what they're doing. They are not talking about new rules. This is not the FTC cars rule. That's

the rule we defeated last year. That was a laundry list of things that the bureaucrats in D.C. wanted

dealers to do to radically change the way we sell cars. This is about just a small piece. This is

that sees a price on the internet or wherever should be able to go into that store and get the

vehicle for that price. So that's their point of view. And they're going to enforce what they see

as a law that's currently on the books. This is section five of the FTC Act. And it all sounds so

simple. But as you were talking with the senator about before it, as we know, it's not that simple.

We need clarification. And the NADA will continue to push for clarification. You mentioned the feedback

loop. That's part of our role here is to get clarification. For example, just a couple of

examples. We have states, I think three, maybe four that require a doc fee to be

positioned separately from the actual out the door price. So this is what the FTC is asking

is in direct conflict with state law. We need to get that sorted. We need to get the third party

situation sorted. And you mentioned as well, our car companies, we've got to get those situations

addressed. So there's a lot of cleanup work to do, but I'm confident that we'll get there.

And when we get there, I do think a year from now, we'll look back and we'll say this is something

that helped our industry improve our customer experience, something that the NADA is always

working on. And I sense in my interview with the senator, too, he's sort of pointing to we're

better off clarifying a lot of this during the Trump administration than during another

administration. In fact, just as an aside, I thought it was interesting. He said, hey,

it's better to do it now than when we have President Ilhan Omar and VP AOC. I hope that's

not a preview of what he anticipates the next administration to look like. But worst case scenario,

we could be in a more aggressive, challenging administration. We're better clarifying it today,

some of these items, right, Mike? Yeah, absolutely. And we have a great relationship,

you know, with the with the FTC. Okay, we're not I say great relationship. It's not like we're

going to dinner and no, you know, it's a good faith. It's a good faith. And we can actually have a

dialogue with them with the Trump appointees in Andrew Ferguson and Chris Muffard. We've had

good dialogue. We did not have any dialogue with Lena Khan and the previous group at FTC. So we'll

work through it. We just got to continue to press for information. And then we as NADA will get that

information out to our states, out to the dealers, and it will keep going and we'll have that feedback

loop. You did mention the 97 letters, those were told, those were sent to people that were in violation

and in kind of in a big way. So we look to have those dealers hopefully jump on this right away

and with the rest of the country, we will get clarification and we can start to run the process

of getting us to where we need to be on this. Mike, as you talk to the FTC, is it there? Did

you get the sense that those letters sent were precursors to something to further action that

was impending that was going to happen? Or do you think there's a shot over the bow to give

dealers a chance to come in line? Well, I think it's a shot over the bow for dealers to come in

line. But I had, I mean, I don't want to be overly dramatic. But at our Washington conference,

we had the FTC commissioner, Andrew Ferguson, present and he was very firm. And when I went up

to him afterwards just to thank him for being there, he kind of put his finger in my chest and

he said, Mike, you guys, you got to get this cleaned up. The Trump administration, their directive

has been to clean up pricing, you know, deceptive pricing and not just our industry. You look at

healthcare, you look at ticket sales, you look at the hotel industry. And now their view, their

view, some of the, as Bernie said, 5% bad actors out there, we need to get that cleaned up. And

through enforcement, I think that'll happen. But we do need to know the rules. And again,

we're pushing for clarification. And we'll have it, we'll have more on Friday.

If you had to guess the doc fee thing, because I think that is a super curious element of it,

does doc fee end up being required? And then is it part of the total or can it be a disclaimer

disclosure in the print below the total? Do you have any guests on that?

So I don't like, I don't like to guess. Yeah, I will tell you what I heard. Okay. What I heard

was the price is the price. And that the doc fee, the FTC has no issues with the doc fee. But the

doc fee should be included in the advertised price. That's what the FTC told us. Everything should

be in that price with the exception of governmental fees. And then there's some details that we need

to sort. So lots more to come. But I don't want to speculate or guess, there's just too much on

the line here. We are a conduit. We are not the FTC don't shoot the messenger, but we are a conduit

to make sure that that dealer concerns our concerns that they're addressed. And we know exactly what

we do. Well, not to be dramatic, Mike, but I think the full faith and hopes of the auto industry

sits on you and on this webinar Friday. I hope everybody tunes in and watches. Thanks for not

having a conflict with daily deal alive. So I'll be able to do both on Friday as we do it live. But

I think three strikes you're out, right? So we get our second shot at it. We've got 3000 people

that have already have enrolled. So we are, you know, we're, I think we're getting the benefit

of the doubt here. And it will not be a waste of time. I'm convinced. A clear win for the entire

industry would be very clear answers to many of these questions. So that the entire industry

moves forward on the same page, same set of rules and then goes, runs towards the consumer. The

thing that came across my mind as you talked about ticket sales, all of us have been on an online

app trying to buy a concert ticket. And we put in for $200 and then it ends up being 350. And

you're like, how could that be? We don't want auto customers to have that experience. We don't

want it. And ticket sales auto is higher stakes because of the price. So I agree with you. This

industry, which is a key leading economic indicator of health in the US deserves the very best from

everyone. And we get that with success in your webinar on Friday. One last selling point and we

don't charge for these webinars. But Chris Mufaraj is a Trump appointee. He's the number two, the

director at the FTC. We had a legal staffer that was set up for the next one. So we've got commitments

and we've got horsepower. And our own Paul Mitre, our head of public policy, will be on the webinar

as well. I love it. We'll all be there. You'll be there looking forward to it. All right, let's

transition to an article that I saw you sent. It's astonishing to me. There's this nonprofit

think tank that published an article. And it says that the franchise dealer model adds up to five

grand to every new car purchase, the drive. And it calls it a middleman tax. From an NADA standpoint,

we hear a lot of attacks. The senator mentioned it on the franchise model. What do you think of

this allegation that there's this middleman tax in automotive, Mike? Well, I don't know,

Sam, if you read the whole thing, it's flawed in so many ways. It is. If you think about just two

of the biggest points, and then we can go as much time as you want to dig into some of these details,

the two main points are this study conflates two things. It talks about state franchise laws and

dealers, but all of the costs that they cite are production related in terms of complexity and

quantity and inventory holding and advertising incentives. All those things, our car company

go to market strategies. They have nothing to do with which channel one would decide to go to

market. So you've got a total conflation. The car company decides what to make. They decide

how many to make. If they make too many, they need to incentivize those cars so that they can

sell on dealer lots, and so they can send more to dealers. And so production in that manner,

we've always been in a push market with very, very few exceptions. It's going to require

incentives. It's going to require advertising, and it's going to require discounting, and

all those things are good for the consumer. So point number one is a huge conflation,

and we could talk point by point if you want, but number two is Oliver Wyman has done a study

that contradicts all this. It talks about the conflation. There's no doubt there is a cost

associated with distribution of automobiles. There's no doubt. It's who bears that cost.

And the other thing that this study doesn't even approach is just the capital investment requirement

to build the facilities, to buy the land, to buy the equipment, the furniture, and that's all

before you even get the doors open. That'd be $25 to $45 billion for a mass market OEM.

I was at a brand new Honda store yesterday. Beautiful. Took this dealer two years to build,

tens of millions of dollars, bought 10 acres, and yes, designed to build.

Honda. So this dealer built this great facility at Honda's design because he wants a couple things.

He wants to grow his business. He wants to take care of his customers. I mean, the facility,

everything in it is new. It's beautiful, but he would never do it if he didn't think he wouldn't

be able to get a return on his investment over time. And that's where state franchise

laws comes in. That's where the model comes in. That's what's lost in this study. The consumer

gets to experience a first-class operation at the dealer's dime, not the manufacturer's dime,

but that dealer needs to know that the manufacturer is not going to compete with him directly or put

a store right down the street. So bottom line is you've got entrepreneurs out there that are

willing to take on all the risks and build a business that supports the sale of new cars.

You know, they've got a youth car operation for the trade ends. They've got F&I to get the customer

financed. Service, parts, some have a body shop. It's a very, very valuable date, very cheap date,

but very valuable date for the manufacturer and the vast majority of them agree with us. I mean,

look, we sold 96.2% of the new cars in this country last year. Franchise dealers did.

It's interesting because articles like this are in many ways clickbait. They trend with the populist

because it's a message that feels good. And it sort of aligns with some of the public perception

about automotive, which I think to Senator Moreno's point, cleaning up the last 5% will help strengthen

the model in and of itself. But Paul Salisman comes into the comments and says, without the

franchise model, consumers suffer, especially after sale. The perception of the public is

otherwise. The industry needs better PR. And Paul asks Mike, he says, would NADA lead a PR campaign

to improve the perception? And I agree with Paul. I think he makes a great point. We as franchise

dealers need to do a better job of selling the benefit of competition in this model and how it

better serves up to the customer rather than be kind of the brunt end of the joke.

Yeah, no doubt. And we've got to do a better job. But the focus right now is we as an industry,

customer experience need to do a better job as well. I mean, we have two primary functions at NADA.

Our overall arching mission is to strengthen the franchise system. We do that two ways.

We help dealers get better through our educational programs. And we also advocate

on their behalf. And part of that advocacy is telling the dealer's story. And we all know what

those talking points are. I mean, the consumer wins when dealers compete. Without intra brand

competition, it would be much, much different situation, much different situation for consumers.

So the competition is a good thing. We need to get better as dealers. And we also need to get

better messaging out there. And we need to win in the marketplace. And look, 96.2%.

It's better than it was last year. We're up a percentage point, but we want to be at 100%.

And that we won't, you know, we'll never rest. But that's where that's where our ultimate goal is.

Yeah, Igor K comes into the comments as a lot of OEMs require their dealer partner to update their

rooftops to new standards to every dealership store. So that every dealership store looks alike.

And that is absolutely the case. As Mike mentioned, dealers make significant investments. The study,

just to break it down, I want to give this article too much credence, because to your point,

it's crazy in a lot of different ways, but it is out there and people believe it.

It's got to be disputed. It cites $1,100 in inventory carrying costs. That's flooring expense.

The manufacturer would have that regardless. 1900 and overhead, which that's fixed expense

in sales and other things. Whether you're buying a Tesla or you're buying a car from a Ziggler

auto group store in the Chicago land, you have those carrying costs in inventory. You have that

overhead expense. But I would argue that there is an interesting competition between OEM and dealer

that allows us to advocate better for the consumer when we're at our best. And that is the franchise

model in the United States of America, Mike. And we just need to message that to the best

forability publicly, Mike. Yeah, I agree. And I think the group that wrote the study was challenged

to justify a bill to order model, which has never worked. And it's not what consumers want. I mean,

maybe it'd be what consumers want if everybody had a perfect credit score, if everybody had equity

in their trade, if financing was just an option to consider. If everybody could wait a couple,

you know, three, four months for a car, they knew exactly what they wanted. If people didn't

need to test drive vehicles ahead of time, we know 88% of people want to test drive before

they buy. People want to buy today. So they want selection, and dealers provide an incredible

buffer. And they buy all this inventory, and then it's available for consumers to experience.

And then oftentimes when there's too many consumers benefit from that intra-brand

I keep saying it wrong, intra-brand competition. And dealers fighting to earn a customer's

business. It's a very, very hyper competitive situation. And, you know, customers don't always

understand that, but dealers, it's certainly the most competitive model out there. And going to

build the order would do nothing but drive selection down and drive costs up. And as

Reino mentioned in his piece, the Honda pulling back from the scout model was a big win. Many

states advocating for that, that Honda distribute only through the franchise model. The VW

debate continues, and it'll be interesting to see over the coming months how that goes, because

truly these OEMs, the franchise model is set up and delivers well in the U.S., Mike.

We hope in common sense we'll come to Volkswagen AG and to Scott Keough. But I do want your

listeners to know, we have been in the fight since day one. We went to Japan to meet with Mr.

Mibe at Honda to express our concerns. We have talked to everybody at VW that'll talk to us.

We have been declined meetings with Dr. Bloom in Germany. But we are in the fight, we're in the

fight legally with the CNCDA regarding a FILA, that's the California Dealers, and ADA was in that

fight financially. We're in the fight with the CNCDA's challenge with Scout, and we're also

in the challenge in Florida. So we have written letters, we've had meetings, and now it's time

to fight, and Honda made the right decision and hopefully Scout will as well. The VW Dealers,

the Audi Dealers, they deserve it, they need it. We've got to put this behind us and get back to

focusing on great products and a great customer experience and winning in the marketplace.

Mike Stanton, President and CEO, National Automobile Dealers Association, thanks so much

for being on the show today. As a final wrap-up to Friday's webinar, would you just remind everybody

how to register for that coming up this Friday? NADA sits down with the FTC to get clarity on the

letters sent out this past month. I wish I had the precise link, I do not. NADA.org, yeah.

NADA.org, you go out there and it's somewhere out there. I haven't registered yet.

Webinars. All right, I've registered. I'll be there. Mike Stanton, thanks so much for being on

the show. Appreciate it. All right, Sam, thanks for having me. All right, we are going to talk

very briefly. We'll go to some of the comments, but before we do that, we'll go to Stream Companies.

Today's episode is brought to you by Stream Companies. How much revenue is slipping through

the cracks at your dealership? Stream Companies Missed Opportunities Report analyzes your strategy

and highlights where you can drive more sales faster. Request your free report today

at streamcompanies.com slash ddmor against streamcompanies.com slash ddmor. We appreciate

Stream Companies supporting today's comment, including the fantastic interview with Senator

Moreno and then the insights with Mike Stanton, president of NADA. Thank you so much for that.

I love the comment here from Sergio. We as dealers have done things in a way that we

push consumers to question if there's a better way to buy. Again, to Bernie's point,

we need to clean up the slack and do things better. I like the mom test. That's a fun test

from him and Mike leaned into that as well, but looking forward to Friday. All right, next up,

Samira, founder of Forever Momentum. Samira, welcome to the show.

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.

Thank you. So, hey, before we dive in, tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do,

and how's business April of 2026? Yeah, so a little bit about me. So,

Forever Momentum was founded about eight months ago, but prior to launch, I did work for another

large broker in the industry for about nearly a decade. So, that's where a lot of my knowledge

and extensive expertise in the matter comes from. And just working right now to help dealers really

gain full visibility and understand where they're losing margin and really help them see why they

need full visibility into their logistics. I would say right now, it's definitely a very

cautious environment. There are a lot of different key factors. You mentioned earlier,

you made a great point, margins are a lot tighter, right? And dealers are focusing on

efficiencies that quickly impact how quickly they're able to get inventory to a frontline.

What I'm really hearing consistently, what I have been, I have a very strong operational

background, but I've been more customer focused and sales driven these last eight months.

And what I've been hearing a lot of is that obviously speed, communication, and reliability,

they matter more than ever really. All right. So, when you talk logistics,

you're talking transportation, right? So, you are, you, your company, you broker,

and you move vehicles from auction to dealer lots, from dealer lots, maybe even consumer

drop offs, dealer lot, intra lot, you handle all of that. And you broker that. We've had these

discussions a couple times on the show and they're definitely cogent. You talk a lot about vehicle

life cycle time. Give us a real number. How many days are dealers typically losing between

acquisition and frontline? So, we buy that vehicle at the auction and the time it takes to get to

the lot. Where's the waste there in this increasingly competitive market?

Yeah. So, just for a little more explanation, we do service a lot of the POV deliveries as well,

residentials. We work with enterprise locations and as well as like banks. So, we're, we're very

broad when it comes to the business types that we do service. And I would say it's not uncommon to

see your, we're looking about four to five days from purchase to frontline. And it's not one big

issue, right? That shows up in a many different ways such as how quickly you're able to communicate

how long buyers are actually taking to put in an order, right? Having those kind of efficiencies

in place to make sure you didn't buy the car. The car wasn't bought on Thursday and it's Tuesday

and it's just now being input into the system, right? Pick up and delivery delays. You see it

show up in driver cancellation, driver delays. So, there are a lot of different factors and a lot

of different parts of the life cycles where you can experience those delays. Okay. And so, there's

honestly a rule of thumb, but there can be delays in a lot of different areas.

Yeah. And that's where we focus on bringing visibility to a lot of different parts, right?

Like how long did it take for the buyer until we got the order ready, right? And it doesn't always

go straight from purchase. Oh, it's ready. The car's ready to be picked up, right? Like we see

things where missing gate passes, missing releases. The person who has some cars isn't there, right?

I'm on it. I'm on it. Yeah. So, I'm going to tell you something.

On the location specifics and identifying where these areas are.

So, let's talk about this a little bit. So, I'm COO of an auto group and we've got 41 stores Midwest.

Yeah. We sell 4,000 units a month. And I'll tell you, one of the issues that continually pops up

in front of me is the issue of not only transport, but also buying a used vehicle at auction, ensuring

that is what we say it is. In the condition we say it is, and then by the time it gets to the lot,

can we get it there fast enough to beat the ARB? And can we get it there in a condition where it's

in the same condition as when it left? And how do we help make sure that vehicle doesn't get stolen

while it's en route, either before it leaves the auction or until the moment it hits our lot? So,

what are some tips and strategies you could give us in April of 2026 to help avoid

theft and damage in transportation April of 2026, Samir? Yeah. I definitely want to hit on the fraud

part. I think we have some questions coming up towards the end. So, I'll definitely go into how

that's happening on the ground today and what we're doing differently in the perspective that we're

looking at it from to be able to prevent that. As far as the damage piece goes, that's actually a

great topic and it really hits on the core message of our model, right? And what I'm trying to

portray here, it all comes down to having that full visibility on the damage part. You need to

understand where it's happening, right? You need to, was it before it ever picked up? Did the driver

pick it up and damage it maybe and picked up? And we do provide full visibility as well,

making sure that you do have photos that pick up and delivery. So, you're able to go back and track

exactly the movement of this car, what conditions it left in, what condition it was there.

And also just that quality of carriers, right? You want to make sure that you're using quality

carriers that will actually follow like Mannheim has rules. And I know that's different Mannheims.

They do have different rules, but it's usually you want to notate the damage on the gate pass,

right? You want to make sure that you're using the same carrier, sending the same guys back

that do know these protocols out there. They're able to cover you and these risk factors as well.

So, play this game with me. So, let's say you buy a vehicle. It doesn't show any damage at the time

of purchase. The transport company picks the vehicle up from auction, sees that there's

damage. They take pictures of it and they take the vehicle and you try to appeal it later,

but you're outside the arb time because transport took so long. Who should pay for that damage?

At the time of inspection at the auction, it's not there. It shows up between time of

inspection and the moment it leaves. You know it happened before it left because there's a photo

from the transport company. Who should be paying for that in April of 26, in your opinion?

I would say who's liable for that. So, when the driver touches the vehicle,

the driver becomes responsible for that, right? So, the driver should be completing his inspection

before he ever does anything. He probably shouldn't even move the vehicle, right? So,

if he is given those keys to move the unit, that is when his liability starts. That is exactly

where, again, and that's when we got to go back and we're able to track that, right? Like, you

know when he took pictures of the keys and you're really able to track those metrics and photos

and be able to tell the timeline. So, we're showing a picture up here on the screen. I think the next

picture will show photos of the vehicle at time of pickup. And so, that's a great tool to be able

to track, hey, is the vehicle in the condition that it was said it was at the time of the condition

report. Igor Kaye comes into the comments and makes a great comment. He says,

Mannheim PA in New England, they have great transportation options and for the most part,

I've never had any issues for decades. And I agree, they've got, they do a good job of ensuring that

during the transport piece, the condition remains the same. But it, it's just, it hits me. We're in

such a competitive marketplace on used cars today in April of 26. The margin can be in damage either

at auction or in transport. You could spend that margin away on the used vehicle in recon that

doesn't end up getting, you know, allocated for. And we're going to have to get better as an industry

at figuring out how do we do a correct condition report at the time of sale at the auction,

ensure that the vehicle is transported without damage back to the dealership. And the dealerships

say we're going to validate that it is what it is. And I would predict that if there are systems

and processes in place that help ensure that use dealers and new dealers are going to be able to

pay more for inventory, get more aggressive, and they're going to need to be able to buy

more inventory. So I would love to see auctions do an even better way and transport companies like

yourself do a better way of documenting condition as it goes through the life cycle than not. So

props to you and your company for having this tool where you've got these photos that dealers

can go back to and say, Hey, at pickup, this is what it looks like at drop off. This is what it

looks like. That's an important part of chain of custody as a broker and finding transportation

in 2026. Is it not Samira? Yeah, absolutely. One selling point that we were able to one of

our first dealers that we brought on, we visited their website and they had coming soon photos a

lot right, but they were already marketing the vehicle. And one thing that we were able to help

them with because they actually who were buying in high volumes, they were growing, I want to say

like a 19 rooftop dealership or auto group. And one thing we were able to do for them is provide

those pictures up front like, Okay, this is what your customer is buying, right? Like here, you can

use these photos to advertise and actually identify any damage or recon work or anything

that's needed up front. So it's definitely critical. And yeah, you want to preserve as much margin as

you can, right? You want to be able to identify these things that are happening and hopefully drive

profitability and speed to sale. Alright, so to that point, you've said something in the past,

you've said, Hey, spending more on transport can actually make you more money. Talk to me about

how that's the case. Obviously, avoiding transportation damage, having a transport company

that'll stand behind that damage, that's part of it. But what does that look like?

Yeah, again, we absorb the risk and accountability, right? That's the number one factor is just

protecting your assets. But if spending another $100 up front gets the vehicle delivered even

three to four days sooner, you have already preserved way more than you've lost.

And when the vehicle is delayed, you mentioned earlier, you do face appreciation and

misarbitration windows. And then that essentially just, you know, accrues more cost in the end.

So another key factor of that is cheap attracts low quality carriers, right? One

thing that we were just talking about, if you pay a cheap rate to a carrier just because you

can, they might not follow the right processes, they might not take photos, they might deliver

outside of the business hours where things aren't documented properly. So essentially, you do get

what you pay for. The other part of that that I really want to hit on is from studies that we've

done and just things that we've analyzed, I've been in the industry for a very long time with

different brokerage firms. And now my own one thing that I really been trying to see how much

we can hone in on this fraud thing, because it has grown about 60%. I want to say overall

across cargo, which is a big percentage. So one thing that we've been able to identify is that

these fraudsters, they usually go for the cheap freight, right? They don't care about $400. They

so that's really essentially where all that lies in. So if you pay it a little bit sooner,

you get a little bit sooner, you're able to front line it, you're able to sell it sooner and

essentially that makes you more margin and profitability.

All right. So the fraud is coming up more and more on how vehicles are moved and information

is handled. Where are you right now seeing the most fraud? It sounds like part of it is,

if you pay less, it takes longer, there are more weaknesses in that supply chain and bad actors

are able to jump in and grab vehicles. I think to your point, you mentioned Mannheim having some

very high standards. I think they've done a nice job on gate passes. They're testing right now.

I did a thing on this NADA, like it's a facial recognition where there's a facial picture being

taken of dealer or the transport companies, they come in and out of the lot. So it just helps support

that chain of custody and prevents theft. What else are you seeing that fraud that

dealers need to think about preventing as it relates to transportation? Is these high value,

increasingly high value vehicles are being transported across the country?

Yeah. So if we take a step back and we actually look at how fraud is happening today,

it's very sophisticated, right? It's not fake information anymore where they're able to fake

an MC number or a DOT number. It's much more sophisticated. It's real information that is

being exposed and carriers are being hacked. So these nefarious actors, they have real information,

real MC numbers, real DOT numbers that they're stealing, right? Essentially,

they're getting into emails, they're getting into load boards. There's a lot of information that

they're able to access and that's with real information. Companies today, they only focus

on onboarding, right? And it's trust the process after. There are a lot of new companies I have

recently came out and they are very heavily honed in on the monitoring, the driver activity,

or verifying the insurance and tracking behaviors and compliance, right? But they're all focused

on the onboarding part. So once a carrier is onboarded with the system, it's free visibility

to all, right? So what we're not doing in the industry, we're not focusing on actually

focusing on the vetting of the carrier even after the fact, you know, driver activity.

So it's continual vetting, continual vetting. Exactly, right.

So you certify them once, just because you can certify them once doesn't mean you're going to be

able to maintain that certification. So are you able to do that? Do you have a strategy to

continue that verification process throughout the lifespan of your relationship with those

different carriers? Yeah, so that's something that we're heavily focused on, right? We recently

did partner with a third party company that focus on vetting even after that initial onboarding

process. They're focused on the driver and carrier vetting. So they make sure that the carrier you

actually do send and they do track activity and the driver activity, they focus on and make sure

that they're really protecting your information and your assets, right? So more to come on that,

but we have partnered with a third and we just wanted to share this perspective of thinking,

right? We're very on top of confirming insurance, driver activity, tracking them. We do have an

API with FMCSA, right? So as far as that part, that's always necessary, but it's that driver

activity after the fact to really make sure that who says they're coming to pick up the car actually

picks up the car. Alright, so as we wrap up, if a dealer wants to get serious about this tomorrow,

not just buy anything, just fix how they're thinking about it, where do they start in April of 26th?

Yeah, I think a common misconception is that transport is just the cost to minimize. And I

think that dealers should start by shifting their mindset instead of treating it as logistics or

costs just to minimize. They should start using it as a lever to first speed and profitability.

Look at your level of visibility. Do you know how long it's taking to pick up a car? Do you know

how long it's taking to deliver a car, right? Like these inconsistencies, do you know your

carriers SLA percentage? What percentage are they performing at? Are they performing at your

standard? Just making sure that you have the proper visibility. And if you're not able to tell

the different days and are not able to really tell that story, how we talk about tracking

damage and where it happened, if you're not, if you don't have a centralized system to be able to

track really for all your stores, all your inventory, being able to track it at a corporate

level and a dealer level, I would say that's a great place to start just seeing what analytics

you're missing and where these opportunities are. Samira Jusapovic, founder of Forever Momentum.

Did I get your last name right, by the way? You did. Cool. Yes. Even the first name. I love it.

Founder of Forever Momentum, thank you so much for coming on Daily Deal Live to discuss all

things logistics. And I agree with you. Like in 2026, success in used car sales and automotive

period is speed, transparency, and security of all things transportation. And this could be an

entire episode, not just a segment. So thank you. Communication. Thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, thanks for being here. Igor Kay says, I was actually thinking about investing in my own

semi-trucks so I can transfer my own inventory from auctions. Saves a bunch if you're buying in

large bulk weekly, which I think that's true, Igor, but the problem is, is you're just transferring

a lot of that nightmare to yourself, right? So the security piece is a big problem in 2026.

How about hitting three big topics all in one day? FTC, franchise model, direct to consumer

and transportation fraud, you get it only here on Daily Deal Live. So you are a listening audience.

Thanks for watching Daily Deal Live where we break down the biggest moves in the car business

as they happen. Don't forget we're here live every Monday, Wednesday, Friday,

1 p.m. Eastern, which means we'll be back this Friday at 1 p.m. Eastern. So if this is your world,

hit like, hit subscribe, turn on those notifications so you never ever miss a beat.

And we'll see you next episode. Thanks for being here, everybody.

Sen. Moreno on Chinese Cars, Stanton on FTC Letters, Jusupovic on Logistics | Daily Dealer Live

About this episode

CVT transmissions

Nissan XTerra

cars.com

Volkswagen Id Buzz

Chevrolet Equinox

Navy Federal Credit Union

Mori's auto group

FTC

bait and switch

doc fee

documentation fee

dog fees

mandatory dog fee

CarMax

Carvana

General Motors

Ford

Toyota

direct to consumer

OEMs

capital investment requirement

F&I

Service, parts

Stream Companies

missing gate passes

stolen

theft and damage in transportation

photos up front

facial recognition

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