“Take On The Big Boys!” — Inside the Mind of a 70+ Rooftop Canadian Auto Giant Taking on the U.S. | Jared Priestner, CEO of Go Auto
Car Dealership Guy Podcast
“Take On The Big Boys!” — Inside the Mind of a 70+ Rooftop Canadian Auto Giant Taking on the U.S. | Jared Priestner, CEO of Go Auto
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Concept
dealership consolidation
Dealership consolidation means big car-selling companies are buying smaller ones so they can sell more cars and save money.
Company
Go Auto
Go Auto is a company that sells cars. They started in Canada and now have stores in the U.S.
Term
used cars
Used cars are cars that someone else has already driven. They’re usually cheaper than new ones.
Concept
car business
The car business is everything that happens around buying, selling, and fixing cars.
Company
Canada One Auto
Canada One Auto is a company that sells cars in Canada. Pat Preciner runs the business and owns many car lots.
Company
Auto Canada
Auto Canada is a big car dealership company that used to sell cars and was the first in Canada to offer shares to investors.
Concept
used car department
A used car department is the part of a car dealership that sells cars you already owned before. They check them over and sometimes offer a warranty.
Concept
driving school
A driving school is a place where people learn how to drive. They teach you the rules of the road and safe driving techniques.
Concept
defensive driving course
A defensive driving course is a class that shows you how to stay safe on the road. If you finish it, your insurance might cost less.
Brand
Ford
Ford is a big car company that makes cars, trucks, and SUVs. It’s one of the oldest and most famous car makers in the world.
Brand
Chrysler
Chrysler makes cars and trucks that you might see on the road. It’s a big company that has made many popular vehicles over the years.
Term
DMS
A DMS is like a computer program that helps car dealers keep track of cars for sale, customers, and repairs all in one system.
Concept
online auto retailing upstarts
These are new businesses that let you buy a car over the internet instead of going to a physical dealership, sometimes delivering it straight to your door.
Concept
EVs
EVs are cars that run on electricity stored in batteries, so they don’t use gasoline or diesel.
Brand
Nissan
Nissan is a car company that makes many different models, like the Altima and Rogue. It’s one of the big car makers in the world.
Car
Lincoln Navigator
The Lincoln Navigator is a big, fancy SUV made by the U.S. brand Lincoln. It’s designed to carry families comfortably and has many luxury options.
LIVE
I think challenge for one. I think it's the big leagues of the car business. It's like the major league store to speak and so I think it was just time for us to kind of test our metal more than anything. Don't need to. I've always been kind of enamored with the US as a country. I think you always have a unique perspective when you're in Canada. Today I'm joined by Jared Preciner, CEO of Go Auto. With consolidation accelerating and margins tightening, dealers are being forced to rethink where growth actually comes from. Jared breaks down why Go Auto, the Canadian dealership giant is pushing into the US.
Jared Preciner across regions and where dealers are leaving real profit on the table, especially in used cars. A big thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible, icon technologies, pay junction, and CDG recruiting. And now let's get into the show. Jared Preciner on the CDG podcast, Jared, welcome. Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate you making the time, man. From Canada to the US, how many stores do you have in the US now?
We have just picked up five, seven total. Seven and where are they located? We got to an LA, two big four stores in LA. We just picked up last week. We've got five in Washington States, three in the Seattle area, two Kia and a Hyundai. We just picked up earlier this month. And then we entered the US in 2023 in Bellingham, Washington, just right across the Canadian border with Toyota Mercedes. Incredible. I mean, dude, you are. As I was doing my research on
you, your group, first of all, you're an interesting human. And I'll tell you why I think that. And you can tell me if you think I'm wrong or right. But I love their first conversation, by the way, right? Our first conversation, just, you know, through through some DMs and you're super candid and very direct into the point to, honestly, to the point where I was like, one second, is this really Jared or is this someone else, but it was cool. I enjoyed it. Yeah, that's my homework, direct into the point. I like, I like when people shoot,
straight, so I always try to do that myself. Yeah. And it wasn't just direct. You were also just, just, just pretty good character. Let's say that you've character.
I appreciate that. If you want to, you want to get on card dealership guy, you can't just, you know, go through the motion. And you've got to put on your best.
My man, yeah, and I am really curious. We'll talk about it shortly, but I am really curious on the thought behind you are, you know, I want to say total group of over 70 rooftops from Canada recently moved into the US a couple of years ago. So I am curious about that rationale.
But let's, before we get into the new year, let's take just take it away back. Like, who are you? Go auto, who's go auto just give us the background on yourself.
Yeah, well, I guess I was a second generation car guy. My dad was a, my dad was a salesman growing up and kind of he got a shot with Chrysler dealer development in 1980.
And that was the same year I was born ironically. And in London, Ontario, it kind of worked his way up from, from a small partner to, to bind that dealership with his brother.
My dad's an identical twin, whose brother is actually a big shot in the car business as well.
So I kind of grew up in a very unique situation where my brother, Pat Preciner, he's the CEO of a company called Canada one auto. And he was the original Canadian car dealer to go public with a company called auto Canada many, many years ago.
So yeah, I grew up, I grew up basically in a used car department, just kind of falling my dad to work kind of thing. And to be honest, I didn't have a huge passion or desire for the business as a, as a youth that was like, pretty dialed into one to be a punk rocker and start a band and figure out how to, you know, travel on the world, you know, spread the gospel according to me.
But I just realized that I guess was later in my teens, I was like, this is just not going to pay like I'm just, I know I'm going to want to have a certain lifestyle and chasing this just didn't feel like the right move. So I kind of, I kind of just gone in the business by, by fluke actually because I was taking business school and my dad was always trying to stay one step ahead of the competition.
And back then, he was a four dealer and at that time they had a president named Jack Nasser and he wanted to basically grow by four dealerships by adding driving schools or, or like anything peripheral to the car business scrap yards, et cetera.
And that's how he was going to dominate the world according to him anyway. So long story short, in Canada, they, yeah, they bought a driving school called young drivers of Canada and then we're going to give every four driver
five hundred dollars off for taking the defensive driving course and my dad was like, oh, this is great. I'm going to have a five hundred dollar price advantage on my competitors.
Jared, hey, you're going to school. Do you want to do this part time? You could learn how to run this driving school and you'll be good for you as you know, whatever I was 18 or 19 back then to kind of learn the ropes of a business.
And I was like, sure. And then, yeah, one thing led to another. I was, I was in there for about a year and a half and just broke everything known to man.
Just made every mistake you possibly could. I was a hell of a salesman with zero operational skills. So I put like an ad back then in the yellow pages with like an ambulance and like a kid, you know, this is not how don't
sheep out on driver training, you know, call the best kind of thing. And that just made the phones ring. Like it was going on style. So I was just closing people left friend center on on doing driving lessons. And then I thought, OK, what's the problem?
I'll build the higher enough driving instructors to fulfill all these lessons that I've I've sold. And then, yeah, it was just like the ultimate trial by far. So that was the start.
Yeah. And then basically it was a complete disaster. And then long story short, that that president went away and Ford got back on focused on just selling cars. They didn't want to be in the driving school business anymore. And I was just out of a job. And I was just at the four dealership.
And I just, what year, what year, what year are we talking? This would have been like around 2000, like something like 98 99 2000 is shimmer. Yeah. And yeah, I just kind of found myself in the dealership with literally nothing to do because the company had been sold back to the original parents. And we were kind of out of it.
And I was I just been working our office was at the same was at the four dealership. So I just kind of made friends with all the people there. And I was just like going to get my self a shot.
It's selling cars because I really was just figuring out what to do. The first day I sold a car. I was just like, this is just a drug. I absolutely loved it. And then you were hooked. Yeah, I was just a comedian to it. I just I liked everything about it. And I also saw.
I also saw like the difference in approach between some of the older guys that worked at the dealership and sort of their.
I don't know, jadedness for a lot of a better word of like they always see them size up the customers and up the guy before they even spoke into him.
Well, that guy's not a buyer. That guy's a stroke. This guy's a rope or whatever. Right. And I was just like, wow, I think we can make some deals with some of these people. And you know, they're kind of the rest of the history.
I learned how to do financing, use cars, new cars. So you had a you had a, you know, interesting start to the business, kind of a non-traditional, I would say, in that sense, from from still from a family group going to this like driving school.
When did before we get into the specific journey, when when did all the growth commence? So you have grown to, like I said, 70, you can give me the exact number, 7 plus rooftop at the time you were one.
Like when did this growth spur really begin and and how did that go? Give us a little time on that. It's kind of a story of slow and steady really for the most part. My dad had a boat at that time had about four or five stores.
And yeah, so the growth has been, it started. I would say probably three years after that. I sort of started getting my arms around kind of a specific way I wanted to do things. My dad hired a guy from, from the Vantile group in the US, which at the time was like by far the biggest baddest, you know, beast of an auto group in probably in the world.
And he brought down kind of like the full Vantile Playboard brought up, I guess, to Canada, the full Vantile Playbook. And I started kind of getting exposed to just like the way they were doing things was just so much more advanced, better, sharper than anything anyone was doing in Canada at the time.
So I started kind of installing some of those processes or Canadian eyes version of them at that time. And the results just started really going up.
I just really wanted to grow the business. My dad was always like game to do whatever, but wasn't I would say actively pushing the expansion or acquisition super hard.
And I heard about a Chrysler store in Vancouver that was for sale, which my dad was like this is insane like Chrysler's a tough mark, tough brand and Vancouver is not a Chrysler market whatsoever.
And I was like, well, let me just go up a meeting with the guy and see you just just see what I can do. And I was probably 23 or 24.
And my dad, I remember to this day said, you have a budget son on this one of zero goodwill. And if you can make a deal with this guy who's on this business for 30 years, and then we'll do it.
And so I sat there in a hilton hotel for probably eight hours. And I was like, I was up against a wall. I had literally no money. And finally I just convinced him over enough amount of time that it was probably the right thing to to move on from him.
He was losing a bit of money at the time. And then that was kind of our first move outside of our home market in Emerson.
And it worked quite well. And then just started looking for kind of turnaround type opportunities find something that was was broken and really you could buy for a bargain and use our kind of management expertise to kind of turn it around.
So I want to ask you, so according to your LinkedIn, you took over a CEO about 10, 11 years ago. I want to understand you can corrupt me from wrong, but I want to understand where did you put the emphasis on since taking over as CEO, you know, you mentioned buying things that were maybe broken and fixing them.
Yeah. Today you're growing on a insanely rapid pace with, you know, just multiple acquisitions. I mean, you just mentioned just right there. I have to imagine that that strategy is likely evolved.
So, right. So just tell us a little bit about since your time as CEO, like, how have you shifted the direction of the company?
Yeah, I think I've been an evolution. I think I started shifting the company well before I was CEO, because we were a family business and to be honest, the titles were kind of, I want to say relevant to my dad was the owner. I was the owner's kid.
So you're I guess by default, the most you have the most power, whatever you want to call it, the PhD. Yeah, Papa has dealership, right? So I really tried to rail against that stereotype or really try to be like the hardest worker in the room kind of thing.
And I didn't want to be cast as like most of the dealer kids I grew up with were really useless. So I was really cognizant, I think it out early on.
But yeah, I always tried to maximize the operations and create, I think my thing I figured out was that early I could train people.
And if they had the right attitude and willingness to learn that I felt like we could take away the parts of the business that were daunting or confusing for smart younger people that weren't as experienced in the business that like the dealer principal stuff.
So I kind of really started removing a lot of the administrative work from everyone in the dealership.
And so I felt like the sales managers were one that I had some experience in the position and then the first time I had authority over them, I thought, OK, let's just remove everything we possibly can from from an administration standpoint to focus on customers and sales and really everything else we can figure out how to do kind of in a back office type way.
So I think that was pretty innovative at the time in Canada was stripping out kind of almost all non customer or non profit generating activities from the managers and not really translated to
the ability to turn around some of these things. I think as we got to probably 10 or 11 stores, I had no formal education. So I was kind of flying by the scene of my pants in the right way to do it. So we added on five or six stores.
And I was really at that point in time early 20s or mid 20s, I was trying to do everything like a McDonald's like I was really trying to the process works, the process works, the post scaling process.
Yeah, and then I kind of realized that as we started adding a couple of there was a there was a local group in town that had some luxury and import stores that we were kind of a domestic first brand, but they just had a different customer different like a portion of customers is very different from a forward customer and trying to use the same processes and the same systems and so forth, that was kind of the epiphany for me was like, I just don't think this is the right way to do things that I'd gone down a pretty extensive path of trying to kind of standardize a lot of processes.
And then I read a book and really kind of changed my perspective on that and I started to have a vision of decentralizing the operations from there.
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So you you centralized the business it seems like or you said you stripped out a lot of the admin stuff took it back office.
Then you started decentralizing did you go back or yeah well what I did was like I built like a full like I built a I had a marketing department I had a CFO I had a all the all the normal sort of head positions
positions you would have and I felt that the more we were putting on them the less we were developing the the up and commerce from being able to have the necessary skills to really run their own deal.
And so I was just trying to find the rate of balance between not giving and again I was coming in a second generation where my dad's guys were all in their 50s and 60s and then I was transitioning things I wanted to work with guys were in their 20s.
So we had a little bit of a massaging of talent and in an approach that I was trying to figure out the best way to balance it.
Tell me more about that that's actually that's a good point I think I'm seeing this with CDG and as there's more and more of like the next generation who's hyper attuned to the content we're putting out to just you know product services whatever not to say that the prior generation isn't.
But I think there's a different level of attention being given to us by the next generation of up and commerce because they want to flatten that learning curve they want to you know get as many as much knowledge accumulate as much knowledge as quickly as possible.
So I am curious how you balance what you just said with you know bringing into like a newer generation to the dealership training them balanced with kind of the older generation who's been in the dealership what's your what's your thought around that nowadays.
Not a problem that we run to as often as or as acutely as as it was back then but I think it's really ages just a number I think it's more about the mentality the people are they willing to change they're willing to do things differently or they kind of stuck in the mud or send their ways.
And so I really had a had a kind of a divergence of of those staff members where the vast majority of the the rest of the team the accounting the fixed objects that are really fell in line with kind of the new style of doing things and and there wasn't as much disruption.
Because I was fully front and focused operator at that time and with the sales guys and the sales managers over there were older they really kind of fell in the two categories there kind of quickly either realize like I want to get on the bus here and this is like one of the best salesman I ever worked with was my dad's best salesman became our best salesman and he just was like 70 years old and he went from selling probably 15 16 cars a month and he realized oh well these managers are going to come out and talk to every customer now and and they're going to help me with appointments.
And so forth he just jumped in you start selling 30 cars a month because of his willingness to get behind the system they had others that were just like look like they they they quarterback every deal and they same old story they just didn't want to evolve with the times and then those people just kind of found other places to go for the most part because they just didn't want to be in a more accountable system and there was many other dealerships that would kind of hire them.
So we just kind of set the standard and then tried to populate the dealerships with energetic and motivated people that just kind of brought the level up for everybody and then it kind of just happen like that.
And then when every time we do a new acquisition you're kind of in the same situation where you take over a mixed group of employees and you just really tried to now I think more than ever just be as totally straight as possible and just tell them how things are going to be and that what's going to be required from a change management standpoint from them.
What's going to stay the same and you really find I think people either typically really go this is the greatest thing that ever happened to me or if they're not the right fit for the culture they probably naturally kind of just gravitate to somewhere where it is more within one.
Tell me about your your pretty energetic guy.
You know you punk rock childhood I mean you're you got you got some energy it's great.
How and I do believe that a like a leaders personality is injected into the culture of any company like how is that reflective.
I mean I see like you have a basketball who behind you I've no idea where you are this is probably your office maybe maybe not.
But I get for those watching they can see it for those not watching you know looks like a pretty bad ass office.
How have you how have you injected your personality and like energy into these stores to create the experience that you've sought to create.
And I'm going to this is going to lead to my next question which is about your in store experience which you specifically noted as one of the things that is like a hallmark for you.
I would say I ask every dealer before they come on the podcast hey like what like what's in your mind.
And I don't typically hear like in store experience it's that's more of like a that's more of like a marketing or kind of just I don't hear that typically.
So how is your energy like reflected in the stores and the experience nowadays.
Yeah I guess my energy I guess it does a lot of it come from I grew up playing a lot of sports and I grew up really enjoying.
I energy music I guess and one of the hallmarks of kind of punk rock culture is like DIY like do it yourself.
And the whole thing was figured out basically the the genesis of music was no one wanted to put this out.
It's too aggressive too loud. You're not going to get a record label or a music company to come aboard.
You got to figure out how to record yourself. You got to figure out how to put it out.
And this is way before it was obviously easier accessible to do it.
So I just kind of took this exact same approach to car business. I was just like anything I didn't know I just tried to figure it out.
And I think people just like that type of enthusiasm that like hey guys no matter what the challenges here we're going to we're going to figure it out.
And I'm not the smartest guy in the room by any means.
And also not discounting other voices like the smartest idea could come from the lot guy.
It might come from the vice president but it very well could come from from anyone else.
So trying to create a system where you're just you're doing what you say you're going to do.
You're moving fast sales are going up profits are going up opportunities are coming.
So when you tell someone hey come on in here learn the ropes.
Put your best energy into this and and there'll be great opportunities for you to come in the future.
And then when you deliver on those opportunities and then that person is energized by the fact that you did what you said you're going to do.
Now they got an opportunity of a lifetime and they really don't want to mess that up because they see tangibly how how big this move could be for them that I just I think that's kind of how it started was just kind of a it's a little infectious.
That when you're just kind of a can do attitude the the people that gravitate toward that type of behavior kind of feel real.
I'm bold and to go to go dry it.
I also think we were a lot younger and we were different and we couldn't try to be exactly like everybody else.
So just the willingness I think in the car business there's a lot of people that are worried about maintaining appearances or or trying to look a certain level of professionalism or trying to impress the OEM or whatever.
And we were just not worried about that we were just worried about let's have fun.
Let's sell cars. Let's make a result of a happy and and then the chips will fall where they may and and I just think that's the that's the secret sauce of energy is so Jared you've been on this acquisition spear which we mentioned earlier like tell us like what are you currently looking for what type of stores are you acquiring.
I was looking for big stores for the most part big like 1500 plus new card deals.
We love the West Coast or anything kind of directly under our footprint in Canada.
Pretty open minded on on brands not we obviously we deal with everyone from the Koreans the Germans the Americans the the Japanese kind of like the majority of brands out there like the whole California Oregon Washington markets.
And also really open anything in the West from sort of Texas to California is sort of our our strike zone and in terms of dealerships.
Yeah big ones big ones that have the ability to to put up big numbers and and attract great people to them.
Jared you've done such a good job growing in Canada. Why expand to the US.
Good good question. Yeah, I think challenge for one. I think it's it's the big leagues of the car business.
It's like the the major league so to speak and so I think it's just time for us to kind of test our metal more than anything.
Not don't need to just always I've always been kind of enamored with the US as a as a country.
I think it was a unique perspective when you're in Canada you're kind of sitting on top of it and observing it and you're kind of sort of part of it but not really part of it.
Very different than me in Europe or somewhere else. So I've always just been fascinated by US culture and how kind of kick ass the people in the US are in general and in very different personality types.
I think in general then in Canada we're a little more polite little more reserve little more story where Americans are a little more like kick the door down and I kind of like that.
So just really challenge was the primary motivation behind it. Also I think we we're kind of running into some concentration issues in Western Canada, which is kind of our primary area.
Eastern Canada is quite different than Western Canada. We we've had a cup of coffee in the east and are the majority of our our movers and chakers in our organization are just.
I would say really Western type of last lots of feed type people so we we just made the strategic decision that made a lot more sense to go.
Self and stay in the same time zones etc and just have where we had more natural extension and then then to go further east and Canada which the distance is about the same either way.
So that was really the motivation behind the.
You guys was really more of a challenge based thing let's go try to you know take on the big boys and see where we stack up in the in the big game.
And how has it been like how you've been operating the US not for three years you multiple rooftops already.
Yep.
What's it been like what's been the biggest learning how do you compare it to Canada.
I think we're really just I would say at the start of the real learning process even though we've been a couple years in the US because Bellingham was a very.
I want to see the least risk you could possibly take going to the US we went with Mercedes and Toyota obviously two of the absolute premier OEMs right across the border from Vancouver like an hour drive type thing where we had a big platform.
We've got 17 stores there we could easily support it and going into LA very different situation where we're almost like babes in the woods out there so to speak so we're just we're just going to learn.
How to how to operate in that market where you know the biggest of the big thrive and we're going to try to do it in a bit of more of a Canadian way even though we're ambitious and energetic aggressive kind of thing where.
I think we're thoughtful and caring and I think that's a big attractor to a lot of US employees certainly ones I've spoken to I think there's a.
It feels like a little more two different camps of like for someone listening and they're like this is just like yoga babble right like what does that really mean like a more thoughtful way like if you could drill that down to the specific.
Is it like I get unlimited PTO or is it like there is the coffee is upgraded and I don't have a cure I have an espresso like what is it action and I'm being facetious but what does that actually mean when you say a more thoughtful way.
I like I like how you called my my first answer yoga babble that's the first time like that I want to be more specific now I guess I guess I'll give you a good example I was looking at some deals I was going to we're going to buy in Texas and the guy we're buying from he said around here he's like you know you just it's all business man you can't you can't confuse business and personal he's like when you got.
The employee you got to take him up behind the bar and shoot him like old yellow where that's just not our style like our style is much more like this is a high performing environment we're going to have a lot of fun and we're going to treat you like a human we're not going to yell at you we're not going to play mind games with you we're not going to put you on ice we're not going to.
Around with your pay or make you not understand what your pay is and and I think it's much more of those type of things the psychological way you operate is much more and the ethos of how you you operate is much more important than the coffee or the unlimited piece is good this is good yeah so I think you know there is a saying that culture is not what you do it's like what you don't do just like a saying at least or one saying so.
But it's like sometimes those things are inevitable or maybe you would disagree right but like I would say after the covid peak many many dealers were in like pay plan changing mode I spoke with countless because suddenly volumes were.
You know cut by half in certain in certain places or grosses or whatever it be and it was certain stores just did not pencil so when you say like you know we don't change pay plans or or you know to your detriment right I like how literal are you by that or are you just being more of just you know generalizing like the ethos that you're trying to operate by yeah well in general I think that's the clarity beats anxiety for employees like and I think a huge person.
Sometimes of the sales people and variable managers in the car business are in a state of anxiety because they're not it's not even that they're changing the pay plan every two months it's like they don't know if the guy's going to pencil their deal they don't know if they're going to it's not really predictable so what I try to do is like yes there's the odd situation where you misread a market or you have a terrible inventory shortage or some factor it requires you to redo the compensation to me that's a last resort like that doesn't happen that's 10% of the time.
Maybe and the rest of it's pretty predictable you know what every like you know how like if you're running a 60 stores two stores like you should know exactly down to the penny how much gross you have how much net you want to make and where you can spend the money in between.
So we have that pretty figured out on a sales person level on a management level on an F and I level etc and it doesn't need to change that much but if you do need to change something you got to be like I would always make sure that hey we'll give you the reason why we'll give you the that the
information or the supports it will give you time to make the transition and if you don't for whatever reason like it no worries we'll treat you fairly on the way out but at least you were dealt with like a human being and not like a lab rat or some replaceable drone that could just be popped in the matrix that I think that the American dealers that are following the two categories I think you either have from what are generalizing for and I've seen and observed from employees you either have these places like in L.A. for instance Ken Grody Ford comes up or David Wilson and David
California where you have these institutions where the people have all been there 10 years 15 years you have this highly revered and extraordinarily loyal basis which I would say is even more extreme than we have in Canada for in that type of way and then you have like 10 other dealers that's like you look at them and you're like you're you're like how do you guys even operate this business like you don't have anyone in the store that has been there for two years and it's just like the talking to the owner about they talk to the about their own staff like they are servants not
like they are on a team together so I think that mentality is just different about you're like hey we're all in this we're all in this boat together and we are trying our best to navigate a very rough and and does does that type of experience also impact the customer I think so yeah again because you like you have to deal with people like humans and I think that again
everywhere you look in every business not just the car business there's a huge range of outcomes of how customers are dealt with and we just try to deal with everybody like honestly just straight up just tell them like whatever if they're upset on their trade you're upset on your trade if you're you're just this this car is way more than you can afford or whatever the case may be we just try to be extraordinarily upfront because I think that you always win with that approach and if people whether their customers are management or sales people don't vibe with that
approach then we're just going to be the right fit for them and simple this episode is brought to you by pay junction if your dealership is paying too much for card processing listen up pay junction smart surcharge is allowing dealers to save over $100,000 per rooftop a year helping you to automate compliance functions exclude debit and protect CSI it also integrates with your DMS so you can cut costs without hurting the customer experience for a limited time pay junction is giving dealers one free month with up to 10
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share that do you think that you can operate this way and for example and I'm totally like being devil's advocate or like be the most profitable dealer is that do you think the two are an odds or you can operate the way you're operating but also
be the most profitable dealer with the best customer experience if you think that is achievable nowadays in the business I do yeah I actually think it's more
achievable and easier to align those interests than it has been historically because customers are smart and customers know what they want and they have
options yeah and they want to be dealt with like people like humans like I just can't stress out enough that I think people will pay a
little extra and I know I think I know people will pay a little extra I know people will will travel will
inconvenience themselves etc to be treated well and they you can just we make mistakes every day and we lose
business to people who treated that particular customer better and we make deals every day where a guy comes and drives by three
dealerships of the same OEM to deal with a salesperson because they were more polite and more enthusiastic and more willing during their business than whoever they
talk to on the phone 30 minutes ago so that's a that's a known that's just a known fact I think that if you can treat people better you're going to have higher
closing ratios if you have higher closing ratios and you've got the delete volume we're going to sell more cars you're going
to take more trades you're going to make more dough I think they all feed each other you mentioned the several stories you bought in the US
different regions one was closer one was further what's your integration style like when you made that purchase did you reorganize the store
did you replace leadership right away did you wait a little bit like what do you what did you do especially being from new to the
country and I'm curious how that impacted all your decisions yeah very different style depending on where it is and how like what you
know about the store right so just using a recent example like we just we just took over a couple of a couple of stories in LA a couple
four stores one happens to have like an outstanding general manager already already been there for 20 years as an incredibly loyal
team super high performance and just a guy that there we've got to do everything we can to make him feel safe make him feel
comfortable make him feel welcome and also let him know that hey we're not going to come in here with the absolute cookie cutter
playbook on how you got to do things from Edmonton Alberta in in Fontana California like that would be idiotic we need your expertise
hopefully you're going to see over time that we've got a lot of strength that bring to the table ideas etc that maybe I'm
exposed to you being in a single or being a smaller operation group wise group size wise and then the other the other store that we
bought at that same exact situation they're same exact owner just a totally different story just no stability been through three or four
gms in the last couple years lots of people on eggshells not sure what's going to happen when that you got to deal with it completely
different you got to be completely upfront honest and and you got to let the people know that hey what how we're doing right now is not good enough
and that we're we we've got to make changes in order to to be competitive in order to be a first choice for customers and that might
include bringing in some new people promoting some people like we don't know exactly how this is going to look but in the first 30 days
we're going to really evaluate everybody get everyone a fair shake whatever you were dealing with with your old owner maybe you thought you were
passed over or they perceived you were you were too young too old to too loud too quiet or whatever you're coming in here with the totally blank slate
let's see what happens and in that case we would we'll just deal with them again based on the situation totally different cuts
originally for every single one we don't come in at all with any preconceived notions or or a plan going into it
I think you you look financially at the gaps where you think okay well this this is these guys are five or six hundred a copy lower than we think
we can be in use car front and gross average so how are we going to attack that well the first thing is bringing it up and saying guys here's
what we think it can be here's the data that supports it here's what the regions doing in this area here's what competitive dealers are doing or whatever the case
maybe we happen to be a bit short of that it's not the end of the world however we can't just stare at this and go well that's because we're in this
neighborhood or in this brand or this market because we're not going to accept that we've got a huge investment here
that's based on earning a return that means we need to improve things so you guys having all that knowledge let's go put it to work
and then we'll try to fill in the missing pieces whether that might be that might be the leader the general manager that might be that
might be supporting the general manager maybe they've had their hands totally time behind their back and they they have no money to to make
hiring the moves they have no money to advertise or or the owner does all this stuff in this did up for years or whatever the case
I also noted that you pointed out very confidently which I liked which is you said you know we go auto is the hands down best company to sell your store to I've had people on the
podcast rave about selling to Lithia and how is so easy and smooth and whatnot and so I'm curious I'm curious one what you do during that purchasing process from a dealer
and like why do you believe that you know you're the best to sell your store to write like what is what's leading you to actually think that other than the fact that it's yourself
I think the structure of our company is the first and foremost advantage that we have is that we don't have a we don't have an outside board of directors we don't have we're not a public company we don't have a
like outside capital source or yeah I was I was actually going to ask you how you're capitalized if it's like reinvesting retained earnings or like P.E.
Backed or whatever yeah we can we can I go happy to share all that with you but basically we have no outside money whatsoever and it has been completely
retained earnings and senior bank that is the only the only mechanism we used to to grow so we really have to do it the old fashion way like we don't
put up the numbers or the banks don't get us money kind of thing right so in in in in general though I think the reason that we're the best is because of that structure like I can make a decision
like a guy could phone me in an hour and I could say hey semi-year statements and I can literally let him know like hey man I'll be on a and I'm not exaggerating I say this like I'll be on a plane and at your place tomorrow
if you're serious about selling this and something I want to buy I've got zero barriers to doing that other than my own desire to do it
and you know I usually a quick round to a couple people you know on our senior leadership team like I don't buy things with that our team doesn't want to operate
or I'm it's a team decision to go okay we want to do want to go in this particular market but in terms of the green light
we can move incredibly quickly and then due diligence is a huge part of the purchasing process where I think it spooks a lot of sellers
and I don't need we don't do a lot of due diligence or need to do a lot of due diligence on the vast majority of deals
we try not to buy from people that we don't like or we don't think run a reasonably upstanding business as a I don't know I just company decision
we bought a few of those stores in our history and just found over time that it's just better to deal with someone that's just a better caliber human
if you're looking for a better way to put it from from usually the way the owner operates it cascades a whole bunch of different behaviors
yeah you may or may not want to pick up so basically we tell you very fast if we like it or not
if we do like it we've got the bank financing an ascendicate where we've got hundreds of millions of dollars available at any given time to go make a move on a deal without having to ask for financing permission
or or any other type of permission we don't have that extra board step and we're not fussed about details on due diligence that
we bought a lot of card dealerships and we kind of know the skeletons and closet the what could be what like I we don't need to go through two months of anxiety inducing
stress with the owner will basically just be like here are the four things that come up on every single card deal that will just get up up front
we talk about the goodwill we'll agree on that up front we'll just let them know we don't re trade that and that's why I think so many of our acquisitions are multiple
we bought two stores three stores four stores from the same the same people and we've done that probably a dozen times now or we've we've made multiple deals with the same the same owner
and that's the approach is that I think it's the combo of speed ability to execute quickly ability to get approval from any OEM
and then the and then the skinniest due diligence that would be that anyone in the industry could do we will do because we just don't I've been through due diligence so many times
that I can't remember one time where I was like oh this due diligence item came up and it's going to turn our decision of as to whether we're going to
yeah you're saying majority of the items you're looking for are there's a you know several like key core items that impact the long term decision of whether it's a yes or no
and a lot of the smaller things are you know we just don't we don't we don't grade a guy about his you know it's parts inventory or is like the use cards like we're just like we're easy
going like hey we'll we'll we'll make a far knew up for buying the use cards or you can keep them all like whatever you prefer we try to make it as simple as
humanly possible for for that individual to do and 99% of the time we buy everything from the operator and it's smooth and easy but I think the big
advantage is that if you're looking to sell the store and you want to deal with someone that will tell you straight up we'll give you a
number that you can count on we'll maintain that number throughout the process and we'll get the deal done from A to Z
as quick as anyone possibly could do it where your guy so Jared what are you really optimizing for are you looking for volume growth
are you just looking for scale and you're willing to pay blue chip prices like what's your north star
changed over the years a little bit I would say now we're looking for to me the ideal store would be great market great brand
and some under performance in the business in some way shape or form with some other performance typically comes in for us
because we're trying to get a great brand if you're trying to buy a great brand or a great market you're going to have to pay big
money for it then we're perfectly willing to do that it's for us it's great if they have at one area of the business which typically
high performing new car stores typically use cars but they just don't they're making enough money where it's never been a focus or the family is more conservative
about how they operate that or they like to keep it tighter inventory or whatever the case may be so typically we see opportunity the biggest
opportunity for us is always used where where we find a deal that's doing you know two or three to one new cars that you car use cars
as it just wasn't a focal point for the store it's still got a great reputation still it's got the capacity to handle it
and we can go through our system and through our our process we can add to the inventory and the give the throughput and use cars
you know double the tripled over over time that's really where the majority of the juice comes for us
and then some of the sometimes you have redundant expenses especially with the single family operation that a lot of
times they'll have a CFO and they'll have a marketing director and they'll have higher level positions that we don't require in the actual
dealerships so sometimes you have some cost energies just from being a bigger operation but the majority of it is operational
lift in in use cars and and then sometimes obviously there's every deals different sometimes it's an F&I or service or
whatever there's a there's a philosophy difference or there's a maybe they've had the same F&I manager for 30 years that's friends
with the owner that runs you know a thousand dollars a copy less than the the market or whatever obviously we'll look at
those opportunities and and crystallize them but that's typically where we we find the upside is use cars use cars use cars
yeah which which which makes sense especially nowadays that's a that's a really big line item I am curious
where you're putting your focus on nowadays from just an up ops and integrations and I'll be more specific
right there is I would say dealers are spending on all time high on sass I want to say automotive ventures put out a
number I think it was them I could be wrong here but that average rooftop is spending 29,000 on sass tools including their
DMS which is you know a record high so you know technology has completely infiltrated the dealership and every
shape and form and you know just business has changed and continues to change yes we went kind of too far EV's it's
swung back you have all you know the online auto retailing upstarts and not not so upstarts anymore but things
are changing it's no doubt about it and I'm curious from an in-store process operations even integration
with new stores what is what is the top of mind for you nowadays whether it be marketing certain
technologies that you're kind of looking in deeper into what's what's interesting to you nowadays.
Yeah I'm going to give you a boring answer here what I'm interested in mostly is is old fashioned customer
service and and pairing that with the greatest technology that you can you can buy to help
give your staff the tools to do that as efficiently as possible but I feel like the miss in the
business right now is that everyone's trying to get so efficient that they're missing out on the
connection with the customer and I think in general in the world that is the biggest
opportunity for us so that like if I go into the store the very first thing I did like I was in L.A. last
last last week and the first thing I did was to have the Internet director and I was like hey let's
look at the last just like curiosity the last 100 deals like 100 leads show me where they came
in from and how you applied to these and so on and so forth and and just I see if I did that 50
times I'd see all bunch of Internet director saying okay well yeah my average lead response time was
two and a half minutes and the my average guy on my team makes 100 text emails or phone calls
a day and that's on but no one is like okay all you got on this lead is an address and a person's name
and the car they're looking at how do we how do we to me elite salesmanship is like okay you live in Riverside
California did I do I know someone to grow up in Riverside California no okay is there a famous
athlete to group or or a musician or something that at least in the first email I can say hey great to
meet you you'll see you're from Riverside if my best friend didn't grow up there then man there was my
one of my favorite bands of all time no doubt or something came came out of you know two miles
away from your doorstep by the way you're looking at a Nissan center you know my name's Jared I take
a time you're saying find find real connection I think that is the missing thing I think there's so
many leads and so many opportunities that people have that they just do not they treat people like numbers
too much and not enough like that is a person I'm interested so no it's definitely it's definitely
non-consensus just to like emphasize that nowadays but it's I also struggled to reconcile it
because you know I some of the smartest most progressive dealers I speak with nowadays are like
all in on voice AI in their service departments yeah I could make the argument that's not as
personal but it works and it I would have to imagine clearly offers a better customer
experience because me as the consumer I'm getting what I want faster which is you know to book a service
appointment so how do you think about that right in that case it's a bit more impersonal but at the end of the
day maybe you're solving a problem for the customer in a faster more efficient way what do you think about that I
think sales and service are two very different things because one is like a more like a very predictable
experience where I'm kind of checking it off a list almost like a grocery list which is which a service
so it's a very emotional process where I'm making a very big purchase decision I'm going to be paying
for this thing for five six seven years so I think those two are you have to think about those
two processes from the customer standpoint very very differently I'm not anti-AI by any means
and we're way down the AI path and I would say from technology standpoints we built our own CRM
from the ground up 15 years ago I actually really I used to have I used to have dreams of being
in the software as a service business owner company in Canada called the Strathcom which was like
a internet or sort of website provider to I think we had or peak we had 300 dealers or something I found
I found personally that business I called on a lot of myself this is probably 15 years ago I found
dealing with card dealerships as a business to business was very difficult and and it just I immediately not
immediately after a year of of you go somewhere you give him a great pitch you get them on your
program and then the just the the lack of follow through or detail orientation on they just paid
for this but they don't use it it was so frustrating for both us and the team that I think that's
a real common problem in the software business that AI is the is the perfect solution for
if it can do what we all wanted to do I think what we're doing right now in AI is we're
sitting down with our best smartest sales guys and trying to look at the last the most common
20 types of leads and we're saying okay if I could be available to personally take these leads or
you feel or whoever we're talking to the best sales guys in our company how would you respond to
this how would you respond to this how would you respond to this and if we can get AI to a
point where it can recognize that oh I have no other information on this the only report building
opportunity to have his address how do I go what's the checklist on address of how to build rapport
on that and it can do it the same way I can do it then AI should be doing the doing that job I
just don't think AI is quite there yet to be able to do more than a basic task like booking
a service deployment soon as any emotions or bigger questions especially on the vehicle
purchasing side come up I think a human is better today sitting here recording this broadcast on
the 18th of December you'll be a January 18th some revolutionary Gemini 4.0 comes out
and makes that possibility capable but I think it's more about the I think the technology will be
there sooner than the I don't recall it like the smarts that goes into the technology I don't
know that a lot of car guys have the discipline patients or follow through to sit down
and train those agents to the way that they should be trained and I think that the vendors
for the most part in the car business are a step removed don't they think they understand
the business but they don't really understand the business so the solutions they bring are
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I do think there's something there about service the customer just wants to get back to par
like you know the car the quality maintenance has degraded they need to kind of get back to zero
sales is like a you know you're upgrading your lifestyle your car or you're something
it's kind of a you're not just getting back to zero where I know the product what it's going to be like
it's more predictable you're entering new territory so there's definitely something to be said
their service just feels a bit more linear you mentioned vendors most most vendors
don't understand is there any vendor out there this is totally like a you know
a freebie here like is there someone out there or like some company where like these guys
really do understand what I'm doing and I've just had an exceptional experience with them
I would say this is going to be the most like people are going to be like non-bullying maintenance
I would say CDK I think that they are a really good partner if you're big and your check is important to them
like we do an acquisition they'll have all hands on the ground and they will roll out the red carpet
and make it as smoothly as possible and I see a level of commitment to their best clients there
maybe more so since the cyber attack but I think they're they're getting together in a good way
and then I should say that as someone is spending 75 times whatever they're I'm an important client to them
but I think they are they're walking the talk these days
yeah and I'm not going to speak for them any means here but I think that if they were to hear this right now
and they will I'm sure but they would say we treat all of our clients that way
I wouldn't I wouldn't want to hear that and then it says your obviously a big client does so I get it
and listen every business is going to clearly have a little bit more for their top top top clients
like you'd be stupid not to so but that aside okay so fair enough so you got a good relationship with them
I noted on your point about you know understanding the customer and the dealer in this case and what could be done best
so I get that man we've covered acquisitions we've covered in store experience
what's like what's next for your group are we you know is the vision is to continue stacking up stores
are we looking to sell at some point go public like what's the what's the long term vision for go auto
yeah I think I'm pretty I'm pretty down into just continuing to grow the business
it's so fun I think we're at a time of great change in the business which always present lots of opportunities
I think a lot of change we've been saying this for probably five years all of us in the industry
that like or really feels like this is the year that like the title wave of of sellers is going to come
but I really found that that kind of happened in 2025 I've never had so many so many really well run excellent stores come to market
or come across our desk as I have in 2025 and I think the culmination of AI entering the business
the old the 1100 pound grill of facilities combined with dealers finally like the guy who was 65 is now 70
and his buddy just you know how to attack or never like it it really seems like the the the time in the next two or three years for
up for making growth is is is going to be there the opportunity is going to be there so I'm really excited about that
no one just whatsoever and selling not doing this for the money or doing a more for the enjoyment and the
I guess the impact to get to have on on society in general so no interest in selling I don't like public
I think it's safe to say your your group is way post economic at this point
so like the money's already been made and obviously it's tell by like you are at this point
you're you're stacking wins here I mean this is this is a growth play
yeah I just think that the yeah the public thing I mean maybe you could get bigger or something but to me being better is
better than being bigger and I think that the constraints of being in a public company for my own personality type
it was just not I was on a public board for like one year and I just the the amount of like talking
about the same thing over and over again and the regurgitating of like unnecessary safety or like you know we
gotta be we just gotta be worried about worried about worried about and I just the whole mentality of it just wasn't
was not for me and also yeah yeah gracefully excited that position and realize that being a public company
just wouldn't be for me and if at any point in the future whatever you never know will you have a health
problem or something you want to sell I would definitely look to sell to someone else before I would
look to go public myself interesting that's interesting yeah yeah I got for bin of course but you know I do
wonder like could the markets even absorb another public retailer like I just you know you have quite a
few at this point they're pretty well diversified look let's be real I'm sure they could there's so much
capital out there but you know you do wonder like what's the appetite in the public market for another
public auto retailer you have more ideas that's I'm like I have no idea that somebody don't really follow it
on you would know probably way better than I know I know more what the level of opportunity is for if
another well-run retailer came out I think it would probably be like any company if it's a good company it'll
probably be a market for it if it's a yeah well if it's a bubble gum induct tape kind of scenario it's probably
you know I'm probably I'm going to be well in bubble gum inducted awesome one drives you people drive me I
love the car business for the simple reason that I'm not a car guy at all like in terms of like I don't
have a single like I have a Lincoln navigator because I drive my kids to hockey and but I don't have a single like
sports car I never have I'm not a I'm not a collector of cars or yeah I don't either I don't either I'm also like the worst
gear head that has ever existed like I can't change a light bulb so I'm totally useless on any type of repair
or that's everything but the one thing I always juiced me up from the minute I got on the car business was just like
how cool and diverse the people were like from every nationality every walk of life every so I always like thought about
I don't want to start getting bigger you get 500 employees 1000 employees 1500 employees and by the end of my
career if I can employ 10,000 people and give them good jobs with good benefits wow yeah career opportunities
that was like the north star for me so I've been chasing that ever since and obviously I have to do it in a
discipline fashion you can't just try to get to the employee numbers I just it's got to be in the right way
or you go to business but I think we're out of just about 6,000 now so you know got 40% of the way to go and then
hang it up and start smoking cigars and you know just a golfing or something
I don't know yeah people drive me people are motivating to me
Jared would you any chance you're going to make it down to NADA in February?
Probably will I I haven't gone to any NADA too many times but I feel like this year is a little bit different
and trying to make some some connections in the US and no better place to do it than that so I think I'm amazing
well I would love to have you at our at our party the Cardio Super Guy party so it'll be on Thursday evening
at Bourbon Stake we rented the whole spot some great great people are going to be there it's going to be great time
so I'll send you more details afterwards I appreciate that because yeah I imagine you will have one of the least
boring parties in in NADA that's to go right now as here is great and we had obviously lower attendance
in NADA overall because of the there's like weather issues we still had a packed we had a packed room
which was incredible so yeah it'll be it'll be good this year
Jared Preciner go auto Jared incredible story and excited to see your just growth
and your perspective on the business it's a it's a great perspective that's refreshing and needed nowadays
especially in this era all the competition you can imagine consolidation
so yeah it's you're you're definitely you're definitely on the on the right track
and dude doing some great things incredible stuff and appreciate you coming on
YouTube and why you are a real gentleman in a scholar and the whole team was wonderful to walk through a podcast
rookie this is my very first time ever doing a podcast so thank you so much for having me on
and we can't wait to talk to you in the future
Thanks Father
Okay see ya
Alright hope you enjoyed that episode
please give the podcast a rating consider subscribing to the show
and check the show notes for links to what we talked about
Thanks for tuning in I'll see you guys next time
About this episode
Jared Preciner, CEO of Go Auto, shares insights on the challenges and strategies of expanding a Canadian dealership into the competitive U.S. market. With over 70 rooftops in Canada, Go Auto's push into the U.S. is driven by a desire to test their mettle and seize growth opportunities, particularly in used cars. Jared discusses the importance of customer service, the integration of technology, and the unique culture of his dealerships. He emphasizes a people-first approach, valuing relationships over mere transactions, and outlines his vision for sustainable growth without the pressures of going public.
Original notes
Today I’m joined by Jared Priestner, CEO of Go Auto.
Jared breaks down why Go Auto is expanding aggressively into the U.S., how concentration risk in Western Canada shaped that move, and what it takes to scale culture across borders.
We talk financial discipline, acquisition integration, and why used cars remain one of the biggest profit unlocks for dealers willing to operate differently.
This episode is brought to you by:
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Topics:
00:07 Strategy for US market expansion?
01:51 How did Jared's early career shape him?
06:33 Key to strategic evolution and growth?
13:18 What defines the company's culture?
26:51 How do team dynamics impact customers?
27:54 How to balance profit and experience?
29:21 Best integration strategy for new acquisitions?
32:29 Why sell your store to this company?
37:07 Future vision and growth strategy?
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