“Stop The Bleed!” How Dealers Can End Lot Theft Forever (and Save on Insurance Premiums)
Car Dealership Guy Podcast
“Stop The Bleed!” How Dealers Can End Lot Theft Forever (and Save on Insurance Premiums)
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Concept
auto theft
This episode is about stopping cars from being stolen. The focus is on preventing theft at the dealership, not just dealing with it after the car is already gone.
Concept
General Sales Manager (GSM)
GSM means General Sales Manager. It’s a leadership job that runs the dealership’s sales side, so the person can talk about how changes affect day-to-day operations.
Company
Titan Secure
Titan Secure is the company sponsoring/supporting this episode. Since the show is about stopping theft at dealerships, it’s probably connected to security tools or services.
Company
Credit Union Auto Sales
Credit Union Auto Sales is the name of the dealership being interviewed. It’s important because the episode is about how this specific dealer approached theft prevention.
Concept
credit unions
A credit union is like a bank, but it’s owned by its members. Dealers sometimes partner with credit unions so customers can get car loans more easily.
Concept
theft of opportunity
This means the thief steals because the chance is there—like a car is easy to access. If the car lot isn’t secure, it becomes an easy target.
Concept
boxed them in
“Boxed them in” means police surrounded the suspect’s car so they couldn’t drive away. It’s a common way to stop someone without a long chase.
Concept
car theft
Car theft is when someone steals a vehicle. For a dealership, it’s expensive because the car is gone and the insurance company may charge more afterward.
Term
insurance premiums
Insurance premiums are what you pay to keep insurance coverage. If more cars get stolen, the insurance company charges more, so the dealership’s costs go up.
Company
Lowjack
LoJack is a tracking system that can help find a stolen car. The idea is that if a car gets taken, you can locate it faster.
Concept
parts are interchangeable
The speaker says the parts from one car can be used on another similar car. That makes it easier for thieves to profit because they can sell or reuse the components.
Concept
integration process
They’re talking about how the security system is connected and set up to work with the car. Good integration is what makes the protection actually work when someone tries to steal a car.
Concept
OEM
OEM just means the car maker itself. They’re involved in how the car’s connected features are set up, and that can affect dealer security systems.
Concept
connected solution
This means the car is connected to a service that can send alerts and data. The idea is to use that connection to improve security, not replace everything the car maker already does.
Term
GPS
GPS helps the system know where the car is. If the car gets stolen, GPS tracking can help find it.
Term
speed alerts
Speed alerts are warnings when a car goes faster than a set limit. Fleet managers use them to monitor driving.
Term
trip history
Trip history is a log of when the car was driven and where it went. It can be useful if something goes wrong.
Brand
VW
“VW” means Volkswagen, and they’re saying the system is approved for that brand too. That’s meant to make it seem safer and more reliable across different cars.
Concept
standard equipment on dealer lots
They’re asking why car makers don’t put the anti-theft feature on the cars from the factory. If theft is a big problem, it would make sense to have it right away at the dealership.
Concept
automatically lock / unlocked schedule
Instead of someone manually locking cars every night, the system does it on a set schedule. That way the cars are secured automatically and consistently.
Term
sign off
“Sign off” means someone officially approves that everything is set up correctly. It helps make sure the system is reliable and accountable.
Concept
high value inventory
“High value inventory” means the expensive cars on the lot. Those are often targeted first, so dealers may protect them first.
Concept
use car pricing
Use car pricing is what dealers charge for used cars. If the market is competitive, dealers may have to price more aggressively to sell quickly.
Concept
use car acquisition
Use car acquisition is how a dealer sources pre-owned inventory—through buying trades, purchasing wholesale cars, or other channels. Acquisition strategy affects pricing, selection, and ultimately profitability.
Concept
trade ins
Trade-ins are vehicles customers give to the dealer when purchasing another car. Dealers rely on trade-ins as a major source of used inventory, and the quality/volume of trade-ins can strongly affect used-car pricing.
Term
claim
A claim is a request for payment under an insurance or coverage agreement after a covered loss occurs. The speaker references covering “half of the first claim,” which is a way to allocate responsibility for early losses.
Company
Zurich
Zurich is an insurance company. The speaker is saying they have long experience with how insurance and reinsurance work.
Concept
vendor
A vendor is a company that sells goods or services to dealerships (like software, insurance-related services, or security/tracking solutions). The speaker’s point is about vendors coming in with solutions tailored to the dealer’s actual problems rather than generic pitches.
Concept
NADA
NADA is a pricing guide dealers use to estimate what a car is worth. The point here is that using it blindly doesn’t automatically make a dealership profitable.
Concept
CRO
CRO is a job title—usually “Chief Revenue Officer.” It’s the person focused on making sure the business brings in money, and they’re saying they’re not measuring success by one simple number.
Term
motion alerts
Motion alerts are warnings that something moved near the car. If the motion sensor doesn’t trigger, the dealer can still check the cameras to be sure.
LIVE
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the car dealership
guy industry spotlight. I'm your host Sam dark and coming up
this episode, learn how one dealer frustrated with ramp and
auto theft implemented a South African solution in New Mexico,
not just to deter theft, but prevent it. Learn why he says
dealers today might be focused on the wrong theft solution.
Don't track that stolen vehicles that leave the lot prevent
it from ever crossing the curve, plus how that dealership is
helping local law enforcement catch bad actors in the process.
Joining the show today, Damien Aras, General Sales Manager,
Credit Union Auto Sales and Barton Harris, Chief Revenue Officer,
Titan Secure. Props to Titan Secure for supporting today's content.
Let's get into it. Damien, welcome to the show. Tell us who you
are and what you do. Hi, my name is Damien Aras. I'm the GSM
here at CU auto sales. So I do a little bit of everything at
the store. I love the name. So you're an independent auto
dealership and you're in New Mexico and the dealership is
called Credit Union Auto Sales for us auto dealers that get beat
up by credit unions every now and again. Tell us, how did you
come up with the name Credit Union Auto Sales? I love it.
So back in the 90s when we first started back in 1994. So we've
been around for 31 years now.
Long time. The credit unions got together. They wanted a place
that they could send their members where everybody gets a
good deal where the buying process is, you know, relatively
easy from start to finish for most customers. It's about an
hour or so once they decide, yes, this is the vehicle I want.
And as far as as the name goes, you know, we got together with
the previous owner, you know, he got together the credit unions
and the marketing team. They made CU auto sales, which stands
for the Credit Union Auto Sales. And then also at the time
they partnered with a new car side called Credit Union Auto
Services. And they would be the only broker in New Mexico. So
we broke our deals for years. Unfortunately, since COVID
that's that portion of it. I don't want to wait.
Yeah, unfortunately, just inventory issues and the market
has changed.
Yeah, what a creative naming strategy for a used car dealership
and I'm sure you guys capitalized well on that for a long time.
And you continue to have success. You and I talked backstage.
We both share a common challenge and I'm excited for this episode
for that reason. In New Mexico in the area you are theft is a
significant issue and you've been hit by it just as hard as
we have it. Ziggler Auto Group. Tell us a little bit about
the problem of theft people stealing your vehicles.
So of course with, you know, new technology that comes with
the thieves coming out with the latest and greatest stuff to be
able to steal vehicles. So that's the biggest thing here in
Albuquerque. The thieves of opportunity here are the biggest
problem. So we don't have issues with people that are looking
for certain vehicles and they're taking them out and they're
trying to ship them out somewhere. Our biggest thing
here is you have a thief of opportunity who's typically on
drugs. They'll break into a car, they'll steal a vehicle,
they'll do drugs in it and then they ditch them.
Wow. They typically do get found as far as that goes. So the
GPS isn't too major of an issue here.
Especially because the drug is, you know, the drugs in the
vehicle once they smoke meth in it, you know, smoke back
whatever it is. It's so it is a total loss at the end of the
day. So our big thing is to prevent it in the first place
from happening because, you know, getting a notification at
2am that, you know, one of my cars is driving off a lot.
Doesn't do much. Yeah, doesn't do much.
So it's interesting. The other area where we share a common
challenge is it sounds like your area is one of the top in the
nation for theft. The Chicago land has also been that particularly
through COVID and you mentioned to me backstage that the cops
don't really get that aggressive at going after these
vehicle thefts. What's the problem with that? Why can't you
get the cops to go after the cars once they're stolen?
So the big thing, you know, I know that the cops would love
to be able to arrest these guys, you know, and book them and
put them through due process where, you know, they do get
booked. They, you know, get thrown in jail for however amount
of time it is, especially because the amount of reoffenders
that we have is pretty insane. So that's the big thing is, you
know, we had a vehicle that was stolen and it was a 2024
Chrysler 300. It had 2000 miles on it. It was a very, very nice
vehicle. And unfortunately, it was stolen off a lot came in
that morning and saw that it was gone. So I went ahead and
called the police put in the stolen report. A few days
later, I get a call from, from, I think it was BCSO actually
that they have the person. They went ahead and they boxed them
in, you know, they try to escape, they, you know, hit the
cars on both sides. So the car was, you know, damaged
significantly. There was drugs, you know, drug residue in the
vehicle as well. By the time, you know, we looked at it. And
my big eye opener with our judicial system and how it is
very criminal friendly is, you know, I was on the zoo meeting
with, with the court system. And, you know, the judge is
talking to the person that stole the car. And this was her
third stolen vehicle. You know, so it's not, it's, it's not
something that was, you know, new for her. It wasn't her first
time she just happened to, you know, steal a car. So this is
her third time. And the judge is talking to her like she's a
child. You know, and this is a real woman and she's telling
her, Oh, well, good job on being on time. And, you know,
you're going off to your pre court stuff. So that's great.
And I'm thinking this is just insane. Like this is her third
time stealing a car and you're praising her for being able to
log in on her computer. So it's just, it just was baffling to
me. You know, afterwards, I know the officer that was on the
line, you know, he said, it's just so frustrating that we,
you know, do the work to get these guys to catch them. And
unfortunately, you know, they get let out the same day. And
that's the biggest issue we have.
And we saw that a lot in the Chicago land as well. The
issues of repeat offenders, even a little bit of organized
crime. We had one instance during COVID where they, they
took a safe out of the dealership. They broke into it,
stole a bunch of keys. We actually surrounded the lot with
vans to prevent them from coming back and getting anything
else. And with police on the lot, bad guy comes back, tries
to drive out with another vehicle was prevented because we
had blockers. Bad guy in front of cops gets out of the vehicle
and runs to another stolen vehicle in the road and makes a
getaway. And you know, nobody, no chase ensued. And it's
frustrating, Damon, because I think most people don't
understand the true cost of this type of theft to the average
business owner. It's significant, especially a small
business owner, even a large business owner, your insurance
rates, I would assume are impacted by what are some of
the costs to the business and the product that you offer to
your consumer of theft, repeated theft over a period of
time. So as far as cost goes for repeated, repeated theft
here, our biggest thing is, you know, the insurance of course
the premiums skyrocket, you know, not only for ourselves,
if a customer gets a car stolen, the same thing goes with
them. You know, but especially for dealership insurance
and in Albuquerque, we already pay very high insurance
rates, because we are very high for car theft, very
concourse. So that was the big thing is that, you know, the
insurance premiums kept skyrocketing to a point where,
you know, the last vehicle that we had stolen, we just, you
know, ate the loss. Just because it was one of the things
that we couldn't afford for the insurance to keep going up
and keep having claims and potentially get dropped for the
amount that we have.
Your inventory could be uninsurable and then you're out
of business. And I think every large business owner in the
automotive world has faced that reality that you've got to do
something to address this significant and severe theft. And
so you went out searching for a solution and you found an
unusual solution. Tell us, tell us what you did to try to
resolve this issue of repeated theft. You had five vehicles
stolen in a short period of time and you said enough is
enough.
Exactly. So what we used to do is we used to sell etch. So we
would etch all the vehicles in the event that the vehicle was
stolen. They would go ahead and, you know, wait 30 days.
And like I said, in New Mexico, typically the recoveries, you
know, are going to be pretty quick because they're thieves of
opportunity, just looking for a ride across town so they can
do drugs in a car, do some crime and then ditch it. So the
payout was never something that was a value, you know, to the
customers. In my opinion, the reinsurer program for that,
which is what we did, paid out in five years. So, you know,
the reinsurance was one of the things that, you know, took a
while for us to, you know, to get it paid out on as well. So
what we went out looking is I went ahead and, you know, looked
online and I saw Lowjack. I saw Apex, CarRX. I saw all these
different, you know, manufacturers. I looked into it
and my biggest thing is is preventing the car from leaving
my lot in the first place, especially because the police
don't respond typically to any kind of crimes that aren't serious.
So somebody's not getting, you know, robbed by a gun at gunpoint,
you know, something major, the police just aren't going to
respond. They don't respond to car accidents anymore just
because they're so busy with the high crime in Albuquerque in
general that they just don't have time to do that. So in my
opinion, it's a savior for me because I live, you know, five
minutes away from the store and if I get a GPS notification
that the vehicle is getting stolen, you know, I'd probably
It's too late.
Exactly and try to do a little bit.
What are you going to do?
I'm unfortunately, that's not the smart thing to do. So we
needed a solution that actually prevented anything from leaving
the law in general. We looked into different kill switches.
You know, we looked into alarm systems, fiber alarms, different
kind of stuff and Titan, the way that they work is just so
unique that I do have access to my fleet. So as far as test
drive goes as if my texts are taken out cars, you know, on
test drives, I can actually see how they're driving the
vehicles. It gives me a diagnostic report as well of, you
know, their driving capabilities. So, you know, as far as
it goes, the package was much better for us.
So Damien enter Barton Harris, Chief Revenue Officer Titan
secure Barton Damien calls you up and says, look, we're in one
of the highest crime areas in the country. Vehicles are being
stolen and they're the bad people are engaging in criminal
acts in the vehicles. We don't care about getting notification
once the vehicle is stolen. We want to solve this problem
before it ever leaves the lot and you said we can help with
that. What made you think different about theft prevention
not just GPS, but preventing it before it ever starts and how
do you how did you achieve that Barton? It's interesting Sam.
I've worked for three of the largest GPS providers and they
really do provide a great service. So this this is this is
not set up to to speak poorly about competitors in our
industry. But I have to be honest in in my history at GPS.
I was morally conflicted morally conflicted because we didn't
address the root cause of the issue. Our parent company is
is the VA group out of South Africa. Titan was not born in
a think tank. So not a bunch of people sit around going, hey,
what can we do to go sell another product to car dealers
who get up hit up 5 to 10 times a week minimum for the next
latest and greatest, right? Yeah, we were victims in South
Africa of carjackings and auto theft. And just to be clear,
Damien might think that Albuquerque and Pueblo, Colorado
and Chicago land hold the trophy for auto theft. You're not
even not so not so South Africa is the number one most
volatile environment for auto theft in the world hands down
and a lot of it has to do with corruption. They're using
military grade jamming equipment to steal cars in Toyota's
wisdom because the taxi system are all Sienas. They love to go
to go get a Hilux, which is the equivalent of a of a Tacoma
and they can strip the car down to the frame in three hours
and all the parts are interchangeable, right? So as a
company, we were victims of theft and we own and operate 22
verticals and unrelated industries. And so what they
said is they said we're not going to do this for this this
recovery stuff anymore. And in fact, in South Africa, you
have to have two GPS is on your car qualify for financing
insurance before you take delivery. Wow. Okay, so we talk
about preloads in the states. Everybody's going to preload
a GPS and they got to be two different ones in two different
locations. So we developed it internally and it solved our
issues. And then all of a sudden the word got out and people
are like, Well, wait a minute, if I don't have to worry about
recovery, I can just park my car. I'm interested in this and
we're proud to say in four years of business, we've never had
a vehicle stolen. We've never had a vehicle moved. That is a
very powerful that value proposition to anybody and it's
that's a huge value prop. All this is is a paradigm shift. I
remember when I started when I left Berkshire Hathaway and
went to work for a GPS company, everybody was still talking
about alarms. This is eight, nine, 10 years ago, right? Now
we transition to where everybody talks about GPS, but
there's going to be a likely transition to a prevention
model model. So for Damian, it was a very simple and easy
thing. What's the issue? I just need to lock my car down. Okay,
great. I've got that covered. I need a highly tangible unique
product to sell to my customers. I'm like, Okay, well, I got
that. And then the last thing is I said Damian operationally
speaking, how would you like for us to handle this? And he's
like, Well, what do you mean? I said, Well, we hire our own our
own W2 fitment engineers. They're going to come out and put
the systems in on the off chance. Somebody doesn't buy it.
We're going to remove it so you don't have a dead cost drive
off, right? If you have an identity theft situation, we're
going to we're going to assume liability for that and we're
going to assume liability for any stolen vehicle on your lot.
Right? Alright, so so so walk me through this. Damian has his
lot. He's got vehicles parked out there and your claim is the
bad actors can come on the lot can try to steal the vehicle
and break into the store. They can get the keys. They can have
a key sitting in hand and they're going to get in the car
and in our world, the car driving off the lot triggers an
alarm and then we go into action right had a security like
we have a whole process. We don't talk about it publicly,
but we have a process. You're saying the better thing is to
make sure that vehicle never rolls off the lot. How do you
make sure that a bad actor with a key in hand and an intent
to remove that vehicle from your lot can't get it off the
lot? It's all it's all about the integration process, right?
So what we know to be true in the franchise world where even
with independence or use cars is there's a lot of replication,
right? And so there can be some friction between a franchise
store and an OEM about making sure that a customer is
registering with with the connected solution. We're not
selling a duplication. We sit on top of everything that the
OEM is doing. We use factory pins, relays, etc. And we pin
this in directly to the car. We've even sourced all of the
tape that's used by the different manufacturers so that
when we place the system in the car, there's there's nothing
that identifies that it's even there. And when they get in,
there's no ignition and in the event that there was a car
jack a car jacking situation. We can remotely cut the fuel
to the vehicle. We throw a GPS in there because we want we want
that customer, especially on the use side to have those
telematics features, but everything you see from my
competitors, geofences, speed alerts, trip history, all
these things, we offer all that. That's already there. But
what we're saying is is just park your car lock it up and
just come back to it. We would much rather see someone have
to replace a window than to go through the brain damage of
working with their insurance carrier. And as far as we can
say about insurance, I live in people say, well, I got in
great insurance. Insurance never makes you whole. They love
your premiums. They hate your payouts. So again, it was a
paradigm shift built in a very volatile environment somewhere
else in proven in the worst environment in the world to then
bring that solution here. There there is an issue with that
where we're just trying to do things differently. Sam, you
should never have to recover a car. You should never have to
recover a car. It doesn't matter if you get the car back. I
don't know what it costs you and I don't know what it cost
your auto group for the recovery process. The labor time,
the brain damage, the headaches. Why is this car here? That
that we need to show up to a dealership to sell cars. That's
our number one deal. We need to sell parts, service and cars.
So so the bad actor comes on the lot to do anything as a key
in hand and attempts to initiate ignition and it just won't
start. No, I'm sorry. We take him six hours to rewire the
vehicle. Wow. And I'm I can't and I'm not going to and I mean
you wouldn't go to a Michelin star restaurant and ask for the
recipe for the turtle suit. But I can tell you our fitment
engineers go through a very rigorous training process. We
have documentation library on how to put these systems in on
over 300 cars. It doesn't matter. We put them in Rolls Royces.
We put them in Ferraris and we we put them in just regular
domestics. The other great thing about this is and the OEMs
won't admit to this, but we're approved by Teacote and which
is the Toyota Council of Technology Excellence in South
Africa and we're completely approved of VW. So you got the
OEM saying, you know, this is great and shame on the OEMs
for not having this. But that's, you know, that's another
Yeah, so I have a question Barton. If it works that well and
to be able to shut a vehicle down so it won't move. Why don't
the OEMs just include a standard equipment on on dealer
lots? If theft is becoming such a significant issue, that
would be a great tool for OEMs to include. Yeah, I guess I
guess Kean and I need to ask that question that $9 million
settlement. Yeah, here's here's the thing. I think anything
that rolls off and is off of an assembly line. I think I
think we don't give thieves enough credit for their
innovation. I think if thieves spent more time working on
whatever craft interests them besides crime, they'd be highly
Yeah, yeah. Right. No question. Yeah. So the bottom line is
this. I don't think the OEMs are what will do this. I think
the OEMs work work in a passive reactionary sense. We're going
to be in a proactive sense and I also believe that manufacturers
are fine if their cars get stolen. They make a lot of money
selling parts and if car doesn't isn't recovered, they're happy
to sell another vehicle. So it's nothing against them. I just
think on a scale of what they sell, we sell 15 million new
cars and 30 or 35 million used cars in the United States. I
mean, it may never get there. You know, the difference is
is we've figured out we've figured out a way to protect
customers and the bottom line is there may not be 100%
adoption, but I can assure you when I talk to people that have
our system, it's the peace of mind. It's not the I need a speed
alert. It's a I just want to park my car and not worry about
it. Yeah. So without giving away the secret sauce because I do
get that bad actors listen to the show. You don't want to have
them tell what how it all works, but I assume there's some
so is there a dashboard or something on your end Damien
where you can designate the times that you're closed or what
what indicates to the vehicle into the system that you're
closed and ready to go in business or you're you're
ready. You're closed and you're you're the vehicle needs to go
secure mode or its daytime and customers could be test driving
and sales people could be moving the vehicle.
Yep. So they do have a dashboard and it is one of the most
intricate dashboards. It shows me location of the vehicles on
the lot very location of the vehicles that are off the lot.
And then we have a geofence around the property. So at
well, we just changed it because of summer hours, but from
8 o'clock at night to 7 o'clock in the morning, the vehicles
automatically lock. So they lock. We don't have to worry about
it. I don't have to lock them every night myself. It's automated
and in the mornings, it's unlocked. So by the time my
techs get here, they can go ahead and start cars with no
issues whatsoever.
Huh. Is is I want to ask this only because I've seen this
come up in other products. You're you're installing a device
into the vehicle. Are there any OEM implications where an OEM
could come back and say, Hey, this is going to avoid the
manufacturer warranty or hey, somebody's been playing with the
vehicle and so we're not going to cover it the same way we
normally would.
What are the implications of that Barton? Well, so we know we
know for certain that OBDs are or that GPS devices are installed
through the OBD. It might be thrown on the post on a on a
battery or you know, if they're if they're if they're getting
crazy, they could cut into the factory wiring harness or use a
t-tap system. Yeah, we use pins and relays through the brain
of the car and then our system sits on that and interacts with
that to disengage the starter and the fuel pump when the
vehicle is locked. Okay. Okay. So there's nothing egregious
that's that's that's done to the vehicle that would raise any
any issues at all. You're not cutting a wiring harness. Absolutely
not plugging into the OBD port. The idea that the dealer would
be responsible for for the fitment of this is completely
eliminated here because I know for my time in GPS, the one car
that we absolutely needed to connect to we had connection
issues and we love our technicians, but they everybody
has a tendency to short short the install over time. We have
to go back and do corrections. So that's right. Our fitment
engineers stay at Damien's dealership from from bell
to bell six days a week. They manage all of the batteries
because it doesn't matter what reports or data we provide to
the dealer. They get enough reports and data from everybody.
So we handle all of that. We're starting the cars. If they're
not busy, Damien has effectively picked up a W2'd employee
from Titan Secure at no cost to him. And if we can be very
clear on this, we do this on consignment. So this is a Pego
model. So use all of our items. So any of the inventory lot
management features that you see from any of our competitors
in the GPS world. We're going to do all the exact same thing.
The big deal for us is you can either open our app as a manager
at the end of the night and hit one button and everything
shut down in case we catch a late deal. And then as you come
in, it auto unlocks and with the with the sales guy doesn't
have to do is he doesn't have to interact with the system to
disrupt the sale. And the other part of that is the sales
guy never has to worry about a dead battery when it goes to
car. So and I think what we find with dealers is they've
never had visibility. Then they blame the GPS for the low
batteries. No, you just never had visibility in your cars.
So we just we just manage all that from from from the start
in and every day. How long from a timing perspective does it
take the installer to install the unit on the vehicle?
Yeah, 45 minutes to an hour. Okay. Okay. It's that it's that
intricate. And when I'm when I mean intricate, we we have
protocols and things in place that have to be met before we
sign off on this. The system has to perform perfectly in order
for it to work and protect the dealer and the dealer's most
important folks, his customers. He's the he's the one on the
front lines talking to the customers. I'm not right. Yeah,
so we have to have something that performs as advertised or
we have no credibility. So Damien, do you put this on all
units? Do you put it on high value inventory? How do you
decide which vehicles get this? So all of my vehicles get it.
So everything that we're going to be keeping that we're going
to be retelling, it gets put on. The great thing is that it's
on consignment. So at the end of the day, it doesn't cost me
anything out of pocket up from. However, we have, you know,
I mean, right now, we're at about 95% close rate on it.
Customers really see the value in it. And what it really
does for them and the peace of mind alone is huge because,
you know, when I'm one of those guys out in the middle of the
night, I'll wake up and I'll be like, Oh, did I lock my truck
and then I'll go and I'll make sure, you know, that it's locked
and just because in New Mexico, it's notorious thing car theft
and it doesn't matter where you're at. You know, the nicer
parts of town, of course, that's these are going to get the
nicer vehicles. So that's what they're going to, you know, try
to go for.
Yeah, that is it. So so I'm just thinking this through use car
pricing is so competitive right now. You're an independent.
So, you know, a franchise dealer would say, Hey, you're a
little bit of a disadvantage in use car acquisition. On our
other show daily dealer, we'd ask you all about your acquisition
model and where you get your best trade ins and whatnot, but
we know it's a competitive marketplace. So I'm not going
to ask on this show pricing because Barton will get those
questions outside of this. But I'm going to make the assumption
that if you're putting on every single vehicle, you've got to
be able to charge enough for the upsell in the finance office
and at that penetration where it's got to be a decent F and I
revenue generator. What does the close rate look like? What is
the pitch in the finance office look like that gets customers
to see the value in the product?
Oh, yeah, definitely. So as far as the reserve goes, we're at
about a $340 reserve on the unit. It is a portfolio program
or a reinsured program as well. We use portfolio for warranties,
for example, how about in a year? You know, so it's much better
as far as the, you know, any program out there in my opinion.
Yeah, one of the best and as far as the value goes, you know,
we close 95% of them. So what we explain to customers is
everybody knows, you know, everybody knows somebody in
Africa that has had a vehicle stolen or they've had one
themselves. I can't tell you the amount of customers I have
that come in after getting vehicle stolen and the biggest
thing they found them, but, you know, they've been, you know,
destroyed essentially inside. It's done. Yeah. Yeah, you're done
at that point. So yeah, Damian, I think one thing we wanted to
touch on, if that's so. So we said, Sam, we set up a reinsurance
program on this. Okay. Okay. The the actuarial data that we
receive for the state of New Mexico is a 0.4% loss ratio
with car that has GPS on it. So we partnered with Synergy
Warranty Services to set this the reinsurance program up.
Why this was interesting to Damian is that one of the things
that I asked him about reinsurance, I go, well, tell me
about your Edge program. He was reserving $125 with a five
year earn out. I said, Damian, we're going to, we're going to
put a $25,000 that benefit. Now I can go all the way to 50,
but 25,000 is good. By the way, if we ever lose a car, I'm
going to cover half of the first claim. So I'm on the hook
for 12 five. Yeah. I'm not afraid of my price. It's fine.
My, my device hits the car at 399 installed. Okay. That's it.
It's 399 bucks. But what we have to remember is Damian doesn't
pay for the system. If it's not sold, we're going to take it
off the car. That's what we're going to do. We're going to
take it off the car. If it's a dealer trade, we're going to
remove it off the car and you eat the expense of the install
on the and the removal. Yeah. And so what Damian Damian does
what they do at this point is is they take $340 and they send
that to their reinsurance account. Now I know that you work
for Zurich for a long period. I did. Yeah. 17 year history.
So Edge is familiar to me. So, so, so here's the difference
between the two and this is why it works. This is why it works
for Damian. Okay. It is difficult to maintain a good
position with reinsurance on service contracts when you
don't have a blend of new cars. Okay. That's that's fair to
say that Damian Damian hit and his owner reserved $340 on a
hard add non-cancellable product that terms in 12 months.
So that means moving from the A to the B account in 12 months
and not waiting for 60 months to do this. So effectively what
we've tried to do is this save the money to save money on
insurance premiums by assuming theft and identity theft losses
directly here at Titan provided tangible product hits a car
399 Damian sells it for 799 899 customers are happy to pay
that. I know that there are GPS dealers that sell GPS is on
their addendums for 12 1314 1500 bucks and what they've done
is they've taken they've taken a portion of their pack that
they don't need for operational cash flow and they've shifted
it to a tax-free environment and and and an Albuquerque it
saves in 22% or 22.5 cents on every dollar instead of
recognizing it as regular income. Right. So that's what we're
trying to do is we're trying to say listen let's let's get you
out of your reinserts position as quickly as possible. Let's do
it with a hard add because we don't have cancellations. Let's
take care of your inventory and save you some money on your on
your insurance and let's have a product that really does what
it says for for your customers in the gas. So on the upgrade
the extended contract in the finance office when you sell
through to the client you said it's a 12 month earn out on
the on the reserves. So is it a one year contract or is it a
longer term protection. It's a one it's a one year to the
consumer. They upgrade then they upgrade directly with you
after they could upgrade the well so they can upgrade through
the dealer through the dealer for another couple of years.
Right. If they want to that's fine but for all intents and
purposes what the dealer needs to understand is your obligation
to this is 12 months. So if you're reinsuring with a GPS
provider and you're selling 3, 5, 6 year terms that that is
that is your earn out period to know more than a dozen dealers.
I told my I was a consultant Sammy and tell them what I did
for a living and I just asked them what they want. And my
question to dealers is when was the last time a vendor just
came in and said hey what you want because that's what I did
with Damien. Hey Damien I'm glad to be here. What do you want
to see what do you want to see in a dashboard what to what
changes do we need to make what's important to you so that
this becomes an operational efficiency tool so that you
can manage your floor plan manager inventory and make sure
that we're selling the right cars at the right time and what
other areas can we can we shore up for you financially that
makes it advantageous to do business with you because it
seems like every vendor just walks in and says you know if you
buy myself I'm going to I'm going to make you another 15%
and I you know you go to NADA and the big laugh for me is if
you buy everything in NADA your business is going to be up
5 million percent you're going to be broke in 90 days. So
everything yeah that's right. So for us for Damien the only
thing that mattered was what problems do you have. Let's
fix those and let's let's have a good partnership instead of
a vendor dealer relationship and I think that that's I think
that's important for for anybody that's that's that's how
operating a store. So Damien's at a 90% pen on the upside
I already know his number he just doesn't want to brag. Okay
so 90 plus percent if he got to 50% on the sell through you
would have to rethink it right because economically it wouldn't
make sense for you to install uninstall all those units I
would imagine. Yeah you're 100% right. We would be at a
whopping $100 to remove it and he would charge it to the car.
Yeah okay so you've got a structure if the if the
penetration falls below but theft is such a big issue in
your market. It's an easy it's an easy claim. How many vehicles
nationwide. Do you have any stats that show how many vehicles
nationwide you're protecting Barton right now with this
technology or similar technology or how many units may be
even in internationally. Yeah I think globally we're somewhere
between 30 and 35,000. So Sam the thing is is we we have
intentionally moved at a very slow pace right as a CRO I can
tell you and that's a cool title but as the guy that's as a
guy that's running sales right now Sam I am not going to
measure and we are not going to measure our success as a
business based on rooftop count that is very contrary to every
other businesses out there how many how many rooftops you
got. I don't care we don't care if we have 500 or a thousand
rooftops the level of success for us is how successful is the
dealer how successful is the dealer financially are we being
impactful for them operationally are we are we doing
things that help the dealer. Okay once we've solved that
dealers issue then we're going then we can move to the next
dealer and I think a great metric is vehicles protected so
3040,000 that's a significant number globally and you know
maybe the other metric is the the the provable that I always
go to our team and say hey how many thefts have we prevented
using technology and I'm always told well you can't prove the
negative right because we don't know the the deals that have
been prevented because they've been prevented so Damien this
is the interesting question since you implemented this how
many vehicles have you had driven off the lot or stolen.
Zero absolutely zero and you know that's the big thing is
that I actually came in one morning and you know looking
around at the law and one of the cars we left the the hatch
open and like I said we're we're an Albuquerque so it's one
of those things that I'm like well you know something that
was missed but at the end of the day I know that that car is
not going to go anywhere. That's the biggest thing and if
somebody starts messing with it you know I get notifications
on on the vehicles you know that something's being you know
tampered with I could check the cameras if my motion alerts
didn't go off for some reason too. That's the other thing is
you know the thieves technology now is just huge the last
vehicle that we had stolen off the lot they actually must
have had some kind of jammer for our camera system because
there was a period of 2 minutes where the cameras just went
back and that's the time that they were pulling into the lot
once they crashed through one of the gates and then they were
you know out of the out of the lot already by the time you
know we looked I mean you couldn't even tell what they did
and in 2 minutes they were gone.
So it's vehicles become more and more expensive and they
certainly are as technology in the vehicles becomes more
attractive to thieves and bad actors Barton don't what is
the future of auto theft look like it's only going to get
worse a lot of people thought hey during code that was kind
of the peak and we'll go back to some sort of a norm but we
haven't seen that yet not only physical theft but also
identity theft and and fraud income fraud and other things
that just contribute to the stuff Barton what is the future
of theft look like as we wrap up today.
I think the future of theft is that the thieves are going to
become increasingly more efficient. I think the thieves
will go and rent high-end cars that they target to try and
take them apart to figure out how to bypass the system.
I think that thieves and less there's some sort of a pivot
as to where GPS is installed are going to be able to easily
identify that I think dealers that are installing GPS thank
goodness you're doing something but I think there's inside
jobs especially when there's big exposure. Yeah big big stores
I think the idea of taking that out of the dealer's hand so
that nobody knows what's going on is is is big and I feel
like whether it's whether it's the FTC or or it's our government
or manufacturers trying to circumvent our franchise laws.
I think that the dealers are really under attack right now
and I do believe that theft is the most disruptive portion
in a dealership along with unlines and identity theft issues
and so all 3 of those can be short up simple simple and easy
on the side. I don't see it going away and when the economy
turns and things get rougher people get more desperate.
The one thing that I can say it tightness we have never had
a vehicle stolen. We have never had a big claim. Yeah, it's
a big claim. It's a big claim that it is exactly it is exactly
what has happened. So yeah that's that to us is the most and
people say the same thing Sam it's so funny. So at 2 o'clock
in the morning when somebody gets in my car and starts it
I'm like hey listen man. It's pretty simple cereal is like
something out of a box and some milk right you just eat it here
here's the here's a secret sauce when you leave the car and
you are in the Titan system. There's nothing that's going to
happen unless you're going to give them 6 to 8 hours to wrench
on your car and just so we're clear we're monitoring every
car on our side in dealer imagery 24 7 and that's my guys
over in South Africa. They're a plus 9 I'm in Arizona. So
that's a plus 9 so when when they men's asleep. It's the
middle of the day in South Africa. Yeah, so that's that's
how the system set up for us. It really kind of makes it less
that deterrent which a lot of systems have been and complete
that prevention you mentioned manufacturer systems. You know
I do think the bad actors are doing that they're studying
that the manufacturer systems whether it's in BMW headline
or wherever that exists and that's usually the first thing
they pull out. That's why we've heard advice you've got to
have at least 2 different systems right and and and and
that's cool South Africa born and delivered here into the
U.S. by installers so you know it's interesting and I've
noticed this in my own world Damian you probably have to
it's easy to bag on the cops because they're the ones that
are like hey why aren't they going after the bad guys it's
not so much them it's a political issue it relates back
to the court system and politics and I'll tell you what we
found is a great strategy it's to align with them our own head
of security used to be one police chief and give them
additional tools to go after these bad actors Barton is there
anything you're doing in your world there at Titan secure to
help police go after and pursue these bad actors.
So yes as we we came into the Albuquerque market we were
introduced to Sheriff John Allen and his auto theft task force
for Burnley O County it's interesting the burning Burley
O County sheriffs are very revered and unfortunately the
APD folks are not so it's it's just it is what it is we we
designed a method a method here to help the police so I went
to Damian asked him to find me a car about a 2016 Hyundai
Sonata we donated it to the to the Sheriff's Department prior
to that I went on an eight hour ride along with the Burnley
O County Sheriff's Department that was great we had nine
arrests to recovered cars and 150 fentanyl pills and seven
and a half hours. Yeah let me get through that again nine
arrests to recovered cars 150 fentanyl pills in seven hours
and 30 minutes on the street so we buy the car we put the Titan
system in we built an app for law enforcement so what does
that look like they put the bait car out we allow the car to
be started when the vehicle starts the task force and they
put it out the same two days for the same amount of time
every every week okay they simply get behind the the vehicle
they press a button there's no high speed chases here
there's no no high speed chases there's no danger to law
enforcement there's no danger to the community we've we've had
over 4546 arrests including a homicide offender and we now
work directly with the United States martial service because
they require anti theft not recovery and we feel very proud
about that because we feel like we're making a difference in
a community what we're making a profit. Yeah you know it's
an interesting point you know at the point of vehicle can be
driven it turns into a potential weapon high speed chase
ramming bad acts all sorts of things by preventing that in
the first place it basically just exposes the bad actors
and props to you guys for engaging with law enforcement
giving them the additional tools to help them to do that
and and that's incredible leadership and automotive
I'd say the last thing I would say is a takeaway when meeting
with John Allen and his deputies and sergeants and lead
tendencies the saddest thing about auto theft is it's the
funding mechanism for all of the other ancillary crimes that
affect all of us directly what I mean by that is not the
person whose car got stolen sex trafficking drug trafficking
extortion gun gun running human trafficking it all fun the
funding mechanism is the auto theft. So if we if we don't get
out ahead of it and get in and try to eradicate it and we
never will eradicate all of it maybe but we're still going
to continue to face the same issues yeah like yeah large
cities and it's just it's just really sad and the other part
of it is a lot of these younger kids get baited into stealing
a car and they go into juvenile as children and they come out
as criminals and they never recover and they never get out
of the system. And so thanks for the leadership in engaging
with law enforcement to help give them the tools to help kind
of limit or restrict or even stop that cycle to begin with
Barton Harris chief revenue officer Titan secure Damien
Harris general sales manager see you auto sales credit union
auto sales. Yep. Thank you so much for being on the show
today Damien and sharing this success that you've had in
helping to not only prevent theft at your dealership high
crime area but also lean into the revenue opportunity that
exists and helping the customers protect themselves as
well. Thank you both for being on today.
About this episode
Credit Union Auto Sales in Albuquerque, New Mexico, battled repeat lot theft—thieves breaking in, stealing keys, using cars for drug activity, and then ditching them—while police and courts struggled with repeat offenders. Instead of relying on GPS recovery or etching, the dealer adopted Titan Secure’s prevention-focused system that locks vehicles during closed hours and can disable ignition/fuel if tampering occurs. The fitment is handled on consignment, with a reinsurance-style reserve structure to help offset insurance costs. The episode also highlights a partnership with law enforcement using bait cars to make arrests without high-speed chases.
Original notes
In this episode of the Industry Spotlight, joining host Sam D’Arc are Damian Arras, General Sales Manager at Credit Union Auto Sales, and Barton Harris, Chief Revenue Officer of Titan Secure, to discuss a South African-inspired prevention model that stops vehicle theft before a car ever crosses the curb.
Damien shares how his New Mexico dealership eliminated losses by shifting from reactive GPS tracking to proactive ignition and fuel-cut technology.
Barton explains how this "prevention-first" approach secures inventory in high-crime areas while creating a significant F&I revenue stream with a 90% plus customer penetration rate.
The conversation also highlights how "bait car" technology is helping local law enforcement catch repeat offenders without the danger of high-speed chases.
Have questions about Titan Secure? Reach out to Barton Harris directly:
Cell: 480.392.6620
Email: [email protected]
This episode of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast is brought to you by Titan Secure.
Titan Secure - Titan Secure is a multi-layered vehicle theft prevention system built specifically for automotive retailers. Dealers protect their inventory, gain real-time inventory intelligence, and implement a reinsurance-friendly profit center that goes far beyond traditional GPS recovery solutions. Learn more @ https://carguymedia.com/3PsN5Ju.
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Topics:
03:25 Why A 2:00 AM GPS Alert Is Completely Useless.
05:00 The Judge Who Praised A Thief For Logging Into Zoom.
07:35 When Your Inventory Becomes Uninsurable.
09:45 Why One Dealer Refuses To Play Vigilante.
13:45 The $0 Fix That Ends Dead Inventory Loss.
16:20 The Insurance Lie Every Dealer Believes.
18:55 Why Car Companies Might Want Theft To Happen.
35:00 The Two-Minute Blackout That Terrified A Dealer.
39:25 The Ride-Along That Exposed Auto Theft's Dark Secret.
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