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The Dealers Who Win: FTC Pressure, EV Reality, and Why Execution Still Matters
The Dealers Who Win: FTC Pressure, EV Reality, and Why Execution Still Matters
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About this episode
The conversation covered various topics related to the automotive industry, including the FTC crackdown on dealers, dealership addendums and pricing, competition and market dynamics, data and technology in the automotive industry, and the future of EVs in the automotive industry. Key takeaways include the importance of healthy competition, transparency with customers, adapting to the internet, and focusing on the basics for success in the industry.
Takeaways
- Competition in the automotive industry is healthy and drives innovation
- Transparency with customers is crucial for success in the industry
- Adapting to the internet and being honest with customers leads to increased sales and service opportunities
- Stick to the basics and focus on blocking and tackling to be successful in the business
- The team with the least amount of mistakes wins the game
- Start by doing what's necessary, then do what's possible, and suddenly you're doing the impossible
Chapters
- 00:00 FTC Crackdown on Dealers
- 08:11 Competition and Market Dynamics
- 27:08 EVs and Future of Automotive Industry
Filter:
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Ford Edge
"...itted into their lifestyle, but kind of the other edge here is, are cars even lasting that long? Chris: ..."
Car
Honda Civic
"...total themselves really easily. The cheaper Honda Civics with bare bones and nothing on them, they're almo..."
Car
Tesla Cybertruck
"... like what you have, which is what I consider the Cybertruck is more enthusiast because of how they're built. ..."
Car
Tesla Model Y
"...saw something on X just recently. And he said the model Y is like the best selling car worldwide ever right..."
FTC Crackdown on Dealers
Competition and Market Dynamics
EVs and Future of Automotive Industry
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Zach Fritz: Welcome back to the automotive informants. My name is Zach and I'm here with my co-host Chris Martinez. Chris, we've got some pretty interesting things to cover today. One of them being the FTC coming down on these dealerships. What your thoughts?
Chris: Yeah, the FTC was kind of an interesting, actually, think what you said was maybe it was brought up by some other individuals most more recent posts. And that that's ⁓ that that is possible. ⁓ But
Chris: You know, I'm going to just read what the headline, right? was, sent 97 letters to dealer groups. And what the real thing that like stuck out at me is they didn't need like a cars rule. They didn't need the CFPB FTC.
Like all they had to do was use the existing rules to call out dealers and say, look, you need to make sure if you have an addendum. You need to display it visibly on your website. So if you've got a $4,000 addendum that has, know, window tint and, you know, you know, a bunch of other products, then you need to display that on your website and not, you know, put it in the fine print saying, Hey, dealer ads extra.
Like you've got to say what they are and how much ⁓ they, so that when they go in the store, the price is the same thing. You know, but my only pushback on that is if they're going to do it for dealers, need to do it for everybody.
Uh, I'll tell you, my wife, know, she does a great job shopping for us and for my kids and she'll literally find prices online and then go into the store and the in store. It's, it's actually more expensive.
And I'm talking target Walmart, you know, you know, a bunch of kids place, every store you could think of that, you know, she goes to shop.
Chris: It's just there everywhere. So, you know, at the end of the day, if they're going to hold dealers to a certain standard, they need to hold everybody because you know, it's, it's weird that you'll see these prices cheaper online even best buy it.
Like you'll tell them, Hey, look, I found this one online and generally they'll price match unless it's, know, an OEM product is from, ⁓ you know, my, my, one of my more, more recent, experiences when I went to go buy a laptop, the price was cheaper online at the actual OEM, the district distributor distribution for best buy was actually more expensive.
And so when I said, Hey, is there any way you can price match this one? said, well, we don't price match the like OEM type products. We, know, it now if it's a competitor, like Walmart or someone like that, they would, but because it was the actual person who made the product, said they couldn't.
So I thought that was interesting, but we are. What do you think about the addendum, ⁓
Zach Fritz: makes it. I I've been in that boat where you get to the dealership and then there's a markup or there's 3M on the car or some sort of ceramic coat or wheel lock package. And it's just, it's really because I don't want that stuff.
I don't care about it. But they're going to put it on the car and tack it on there and there's no option to get it without. And so I think it makes it really frustrating because you're at the dealer, you're locked in, you've already driven there and wasted your time.
And then at a certain point, you've got to run this time equation of how much is my time worth? How many hours have I already been here? what's the difference in what I'm going to save at the next place?
Chris: Well, you know, coming from the other side of it, you know, where I, you know, I've put addendums on cars and window tents super necessary. I don't know, especially in Texas, you know, I don't know too many people who want to drive a car without window tent.
⁓ so those there's things like that, but, know, I do see some of those, you know, products that I don't feel like there's any value when they put some, you know, weird type of warranty on them or, know, different things that I just feel like just don't really have any
Chris: value. I can understand ⁓ of those, but, then of course, ⁓ know, when they start, you know, putting these five, six, $7,000 packages on them. Now I used to do those on trucks they merited that, but you know, when they do those types of big addendums on cars that just I mean, you look at them and you're like, why would you put that on that car?
You know what saying? Like there's, there's certain things that I do believe that are just, you know, Ways to just take advantage of the situation. like when you'll see, you know, addendums where they put an iPad on the, on the window sticker and then you, and it's, I'm, I'm giving you an example.
It's not specifically an iPad, but it's some kind of video player and it's 499 or 999. And then you're like, well, I don't want that. And they're like, well, it comes with a car and then they buy it. And then you just hand them the video player.
And it's, you're looking at that. Like, I don't know if that was a real value add and wasn't even part of the car. Why would I want to buy it? So. I could see things like that.
Zach Fritz: It's tough. It's tough. then it comes back to price matching too. is the standard for price match? Is it another dealer? Is it an ⁓ that sponsors dealers? So, at CarMax and Toyota versus a Toyota dealer. You're going to see some fluctuation in price there, and especially regionality too. And that's difficult. ⁓
Chris: Yeah, see that too. I think the for the consumer though is that You know, guess they're the ones trying to determine, but I've even seen customers say, don't, I don't want automatic. want manual transmission.
You know saying? And you're like, well, it comes with the automatic transmission. can't just switch it out. You know what I'm saying? So it's there there's going to be consumers that even the manufacturers, how the car was built, they're going to push back and say, well, I don't want that.
Chris: You know, at the end of the day, you know, as a consumer, yes, understand as consumer myself. However, there are certain that I think definitely need you need to disclose. And more importantly, if ⁓ you know, I'm a store, I'd rather have products that people actually ⁓ want that I that they're going to want anyway.
Like I'll give you an example. nitrogen in tires. That's like a big one. I think some dealers, you you know, mark that, that price up like even more than it should. But I do see a benefit, especially when it gets cold.
Um, and all of a sudden you need, you have a flat tire and now you got to go back to the dealership and get your tire filled. That nitrogen. Yeah. If you have that nitrogen in your tires, it, it doesn't, it doesn't do that as often.
Chris: Uh, I don't know. I, I really missed the nitrogen when I actually had a car that didn't have it. And, um, and the store I was at, was like, as soon as he got cold, all of a sudden I had a flat tire and I'm like, man, well, if I had the, never had this one, I had nitrogen in my tire. So now all of a sudden it gets cold and I have a flat tire or a low tire. So there are those things.
Zach Fritz: Very true. I solve that by making sure I always live within a couple mile radius of the discount tire. So I can just go get the free air check and they top them off every winter and I'm good to go. I mean, but I see your point, right? It's value add and then you see these gadgets on cars that are supposed to be, know, time saving or whatnot. And I think that applies differently to different customers too, you know, where you've got customers.
Chris: Hahaha Well, I even think, I think like from a competitive standpoint, if you've got a dealer, XY dealer down the street that has, you know, a price for, you know, 20 99, but they don't have any ads.
And then you have the same car, but you do have ads and you're 33 998. You know, you're losing a customer like from a competitive standpoint. You know, if you're only, you know, you're of the, your customers are online 90 % of the time they found you online and that's how they may determine how to, that they're going to come and buy from you.
Well, you just pushed yourself out of the market because now you're priced too high. you're, not even coming up in the search. So And similar to like real estate, like if you, um, had your house priced at, you know, eight 99 or seven 99 and the difference between like seven 19 and six 99 is big.
Cause some people they, when they do their searches, they're not going to go over 700. All right. Like they're only going to look at different category, different buyer. So
Chris: Same thing on You've got to be priced. If you're trying to move your inventory quickly, you're focused on a turn, you've got to make sure that you're priced competitively so that you can move that inventory and you're not just sitting there. ⁓
Zach Fritz: big thing is, if we refuse to price match what we find online, we cannot cry about it later as dealers say, well, online sales are killing our business. You're killing your business by not adapting. And that's the real deal. mean, it's true.
Chris: Yep. Well, look, let's, let's roll into what, you know, we were kind of, talking about being competitive and, and having a competitive nature. What do you think about this recent, another recent report from, that car dealership guy, VinQ responded to terminated data agreement.
And what you think about that? So apparently, so this is the, the, the whole, like what happened, right? So they had KBB ⁓ and. Manheim, think, or KBB. And I forget what they had as far as VinQ had these capabilities that Cox was pushing to them make a competitor to their product via auto.
so somehow Cox is basically saying there was some kind of data breach or there was some kind of, you know, some breach on the, on the, agreement and. Well, there's two sides of the story and then there's the truth, right?
So you've got VinQ saying, no, like we've never breached our agreement. We've been, we've been, you know, playing in the rules that you've given us. And now they're just basically, you know, saying, Hey, it kind of appears like they're kind of saying, Hey, look, you're getting a little too close to what our product is.
And we want to go ahead and, know, stop that competition but don't know what are your thoughts on that whole deal?
Zach Fritz: mean, you're essentially the black rock of the automotive industry, can push the little guy around a little bit easier and say, yeah, we don't want you as competition and goodbye. at the same time, competition, I I think that breeds a lot more health into the automotive industry than it is negative. Because if you've got one person that owns the entire market share, then how's that fair to consumers, right?
Chris: Yeah. Well, what, this is what I look at. I think that here's like, when I see these types of pushbacks from competitors, I think it's only going to push you as the competitor to innovate and do Right?
So now they they're in a position. Well, Hey, I can't provide my dealers KBB values. can't show them Mannheim or I can't, you know, do these competitive sets using this other data. And it's unfortunate.
Yes. But then can push you ⁓ innovate and do more. Like give me an example. Here's Carfax has been like a dominant player in automotive. Auto check experience is been the two ⁓ and it's been the background for years.
Well, now they're making bigger plays now because dealers are just kind of fed up with the Carfax pricing. And so they're now some of those products and going to the lesser known product and still selling the value.
I can tell you at CarMax when I was there, know, we never, we have Carfax to present to customers. I mean, we could if we, if push came to shove, but for the most part, we would just show them auto check.
And for six years that I was there, I never lost a car deal because I didn't have Carfax. You know what saying? So, and you know, if they really like had to have that, I mean, we could, we could pull it for them, but It wasn't it wasn't it was like a non event if that makes sense ⁓
Zach Fritz: Yeah, it's tough because data is in the automotive industry today. It's if you don't have data, you can't do anything, right? You can't prove service history, you can't prove vehicle history, all the way down to even repair, right? So I remember I was consulting on AI ⁓
Chris: all the way down to even repair. So, I remember I was posting on AI and data was looking to search for them. We couldn't even find somebody who had enough data to feed it into the AI and send it in. So, then you're going around to different credit centers and begging for tax center boards and building, what did you replace to try to fill in the aggregate in?
Zach Fritz: Data was what we just searched for and we couldn't even find somebody who had enough data to feed into the AI and train it. So then you're going around to different collision centers begging for accident reports and vehicle, you know, what did you replace to try to build it and aggregate it and unfortunately, whoever holds the data has the peace of the kingdom.
Chris: Yeah, you know, depends on how you use that data too. Cause I've seen some people that have all the data in the world and can't You know what saying? Like you, just, see them, they've, they've got reports out there, you know, years ⁓ and they and they don't do anything with them. You know what saying? So I think.
Chris: You know, the old adage, what gets measured improves. sometimes it, it doesn't really, if you have someone that doesn't want to do anything with that data, right? Like I've, can, I've shown people real results, real opportunities, and then they look at me like I'm trying to sell them snake oil.
Like it's something that is just, you know, not capable or possible in their eyes. because they've never seen it. You know what saying? They'll just, they don't believe the numbers something. You know, it's one of those weird anomalies that you look at sometimes.
And something I've looked at, you know, a lot of career because, you know, I show people the numbers. saying, hey, this is what it is. And they'll look at you think, I don't believe it. You know what I'm saying?
Zach Fritz: think that comes down to a deeper rooted issue that we see in our industry where everybody's trying to save somebody time and money and then you get people who honestly can and people just don't believe it. And it's either because they don't ascribe that level of value to themselves or their own time they trust nobody. I don't
Chris: There is that there is that right. Well, I think, um, for Cox and VinQ, I've never, I, you I remember VinQ when it was the, the third party listings thing, where they could help you, you know, source third party trades with Facebook and auto trader. And I remember seeing it then. And then as they got more up like rooftops and more funding, I guess, then they kind of.
Chris: You know, rolled into, um, of the auto competitor. think that the biggest challenge today for most dealers, um, in my mind is that if you already have the auto and you use VIN solutions, then it's going to be a challenge to, to move away from that system, especially if, you know, you're already, it's already part of your, your organization because.
The one of the value adds that I like is that I can see I'm pricing cars, I can see, okay, this car has had, you know, four leads. I'm the price. I'm going to go and reach out to these four customers.
I can jump right into VinSolutions and see those four leads and have someone out. Or I personally would probably reach out. So there's some advantages having it. I don't, I can't speak on VinQs. system.
It sounds pretty amazing. They get big 20 groups ⁓ that program. And I hear a lot of good things. but I personally don't, I don't, I haven't seen the capabilities of recent, ⁓ but they, they seem to be, ⁓ they appear to be doing a really good job.
Zach Fritz: Yeah, gonna be interesting to see. mean, somebody's gonna eventually monopolize the market, but like I said, I think the competition's healthy. I mean, I wish for the betterment of the entire industry that there was a certain set of data that was available to everybody and wasn't gate-kept by how many auctions you own or how many collision centers you can aggregate and fund. Kinda sucks because...
Chris: Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see how somebody's... Like I said, think it's probably just selfie. I mean, I wish.
Zach Fritz: Then for people trying to innovate and create cool stuff, they're pretty limited unless they want to pay to play.
Chris: Yeah. No, understand. speaking of, like execution and you know, other data here's Cox again, they, seem be on a roll. Like it seems like every week or two now they've got some new report that they're highlighting their chief economist editors out there, you know, on a podcast or he's going over some recent data, you know, as, as you know, they've got thousands of stores.
So they've got a lot of data they can really dissect and they can have their on the, on the market, just based on how many stores they have, they can see turn rates, they can see all kinds of data. And so they just released Q1 2026, their automotive report, they released this yesterday.
And they're saying is new car sales are down 6%, interest rates still around 9-10%, insurance, gas, gas, let me say gas one more time, ownership costs all rising rapidly. They said EV is soft, but that's, you know, that's nothing new.
And we have actually another story we can talk about that. ⁓ But then they're saying growing on use, but dealers are feeling better, but still behind last year. Nothing's really broken is what their, their sentiment is, but nothing is easy either.
This is what a real market looks like right now is what they're saying. Customers are just payment sensitive. They're more cautious and they're slower to commit. so reality your.
Chris: This isn't like 2021 where all you had to do is show up and make money. You're just going to now have to execute and play at a higher level if you want to make some money and a star. What do think?
Zach Fritz: It's making payments work, I think is the big takeaway. Can you make a payment work for a customer? Because I think everybody's focused on this debt to income ratio and whether or not they can fit a payment into how much they make. And so now we're seeing these extended loan terms like $84.96, $120 a next 30 years. I mean, that'll be the next thing.
Chris: and and get what he's focused on. And then appreciate whether or not it's a pain in the same kind of thing. And so now we're seeing these expensive loans are in the right place. $8,000, $6,000, $120,000, you know, in next 30 years. And it allows them to get that whole thing.
Zach Fritz: And it allows them to get that lower payment fitted into their lifestyle, but kind of the other edge here is, are cars even lasting that long?
Chris: the other edge. Well, yeah, I mean, there's a lot to consider, right? Like, let's unpack that, you know, if you want lower payments and, but it really depends on the price of the car and the average new car price is what like $48,000 right now. So you've got to be, you've got to make more money just to be able to afford a new car today. Um, the $25,000 car is almost non-existent under $25,000 cars, almost non-existent.
Chris: So, I mean, because those turn so fast and it me up when you got a dealer that won't put the money on a, you know, 10, $12,000 car, but overpays for a $50,000 car. And you're looking at them like, man, why wouldn't you just, you may to overpay a little bit on those cheaper cars because they'll turn faster and you have an opportunity to get another trade and and make some back end and, know, get your service department move in and the whole, the whole ecosystem, right?
The cycle life in automotive, but they don't do it sometimes, but I think it's, it's but execution definitely one of the ones that you definitely need to pay attention to this year. if you want to survive this business.
Zach Fritz: having like you said having those more affordable cars on your lot and taking the chance on those I mean that's most consumers right like think people's first cars people's you know they need a daily driver yes there is good sir I was gonna say there is this whole class of consumer who thinks need an SUV it's got to have leather and captain's chairs and all the
Zach Fritz: gadgets and doodads, but at the same time that's not everybody. We've been so conditioned to think this way that we need the latest and greatest vehicle when in our reality most people don't. So I think if dealers focused on that they might actually longer term start to change what the market segment looks like and start getting automakers to start making a little bit more of an affordable car because that's what's selling.
Chris: Well, then the other thing you have to consider that I did another post recently where the, the companies are seeing record, salvage vehicles. like that's the highest it's ever been. And what that means is you go in to do like a normal fix on a car.
So you're in a collision, right? And you accidentally, you know, crash into something you hit. It's like, looks to you on the surface as a fender bender, but then you go through the body shop and any more, you, you barely hit the car and everything breaks and you got to, you know, replace thousands of pieces.
And so now what they're doing is they're just totaling these vehicles and now you don't have a car. So you might have a really clean car, but it's an older car. And then now you've got the insurance company just totaling it out because it's just cheaper to total it out than it is to fix it.
had a friend of mine that this just happened to recently on a warranty repair. So the warranty repair was going to be too expensive. So they just gave them the cash value of the car. And yeah, we're done here.
Here's the, what's your car's worth. And this is what we're going to give you versus fixing the car. And so this guy didn't have the, the, the best, he wasn't in a best position financially to buy a new car.
And now like struggling, right? He's retired. He's in a position that he can't, you know, work as much as he used to. ⁓ And, and now you know, in a, in a, in a situation where. He has to go and buy a new car.
So there's a lot to the market today. And especially when I think about insurance card, like that, just totaling the card, not just for insurance, but just for a warranty work. That's crazy. It's something I used to see a lot.
So I worked with a couple of our startups in the advanced driver's business space. And part of what we did was to determine...
Zach Fritz: Thanks. It's something I used to see a lot of. So I worked with a couple different startups in the advanced driver assist space. And part of what we did was to determine what was hidden below the surface level of that accident via scanning the car and double checking wiring and things like that. And it's so funny to me, the cars that had more stuff on them, more tech, more lane keep assist and all the things that we now kind of take for granted in our standard, those cars.
Chris: What was below the surface level of that accident is standing in car and trying to clear it and things like that. And it's still funny to me the cars that had more stuff on them, the tech, more lane keep assist, all the things that we now take for granted and standard, those cars, they would hold themselves really to the weight. The cheaper Audisitix with air gun, not like Audis, they're almost impossible to allow.
Zach Fritz: They would total themselves really easily. The cheaper Honda Civics with bare bones and nothing on them, they're almost impossible to total out. So, it goes to support. If we had more simple cars, maybe it would start to trend back towards insurance not totaling out as much.
Chris: So it goes to support if we had more simple cars, maybe it would start to trend back toward the entry. Well, it's hard to say, right, to get those simpler cars like you put it. think that the challenge is you want more safety equipment.
You want more technology. The person today wants a little bit more creature comforts. I think the challenge is some of the regulation that's happened with some of these and things like that that have increased the value of these, or not the value, but the cost to make some of these vehicles.
So I think we've kind of done it on ourselves to to, you know. You know, we talked about this last week where we, know, the disposable engine, right? Like the oil consumption some of these cars is ridiculous.
know, somebody mentioned that it's partly because how we engineered some of these, cars that have caused these, these engines to consume oil at a higher rate, just to be cleaner. That makes sense.
Zach Fritz: think an interesting one too, since we're talking about cars that used to be really budget and have now just gone astronomically high as far as their asking price. Let's talk about Subaru. Wanted to launch some EVs and get into that game. You think they're too late? ⁓
Chris: That's a good, that's a good segue. That's a good segue. as we wrap up, right? Like, so Subaru, what are, what are they? That they little too late on that story? You know, the, the recent story came out that they just now have, an EV come into the market. What do think?
Zach Fritz: think Subaru, it's an interesting spot. I think that they're either going to be, I don't necessarily think it's too late to market, because this happens in other industries too, where you get somebody who's kind of known for having a halfway decent product like Subaru.
they kind of sit back and they perfect it before they launch it while everybody else kind of has recalls and is trying to get ahead. And I think that might be the position we see Subaru in, but I'm more curious what price point is this going to be for Subaru?
Is this going to be now their highest level price point or are they going to drop something that low?
Chris: I'm more curious what... Well, here's the thing that we've already seen the, in the U S the economics on these cars and why most of the, why the billions are being lost because they couldn't pencil it.
Right. They don't have the. The infrastructure like China has, they don't, they can't make them produce that inexpensively. and then more importantly, the range anxiety is still issue. Now, if Subaru comes out with a cheaper version and they say they're up to Tesla's network, then then may.
might draw some some buyer current buyers to ⁓ buy But let's look at what just Honda just did. They've got economical vehicles and they just took an L and lost billions, canceling all of their EV products because it just didn't make any sense They don't have no, no incentives to sell them from the government.
You remember that $7,500 EV credit a big deal. ⁓ You now, now it's just not there. And reality that $7,500 credit ⁓ made as the similar priced as an ice car versus ⁓
Chris: where they're at today. You know what saying? So when you remove it, now there are $7500 more.
Zach Fritz: Exactly. Yeah, it removes the incentive to do it in the first place. it makes it challenging to say, okay, well for my daily driver, I'm gonna switch over, I'm gonna install a charger, I'm gonna do all these different things, I'm gonna have to go park at a supercharging station or whatever they are now and sit for an hour or 45 minutes just so I can drive the rest of week. And there's an argument to be really debate both ways. Is worth the lifestyle change or not?
Chris: Superstar station or whatever they are now. Can sit for an hour or 45 minutes just so I can drive the rest of the weekend. There's an argument here.
Zach Fritz: I mean, then you get into enthusiast vehicles like what you have, which is what I consider the Cybertruck is more enthusiast because of how they're built. That's a different conversation, but for the average consumer, it's kind of a tough pill to swallow.
Chris: So Cybertrop is more enthusiast because of how they build, have a different conversation. Well, I'll tell you, I think Elon just, I just saw something on X just recently. And he said the model Y is like the best selling car worldwide ever right now.
And, tell you it's. Cybertruck is cool. Don't get me wrong. I love my Cybertruck, but Even their model three, I'd buy one just because that self-driving, the self-driving makes the car like really don't understand it.
Like when you're there, like once they make it so that I can fall asleep at the wheel consistently, man, God bless you. I'm going to be taking all kinds of trips. All right. ⁓ then, but more importantly, like you can watch TV when you're driving.
If, if it gets there, like it's going to get there at some point, like right now I, I'm self driving and I have very rarely seldomly have to intervene. Like I don't have to have my hand on the steering wheel.
Chris: relaxing, having conversation with my family and I can just let the car drive and make turns and park they, they just released the summons ⁓ the model three, believe, or one of those smaller vehicles. But man, I can't wait to have that on my cyber truck because guess, guess what? I'm going to park as far as I want, but going to have it drive me to the front of the, wherever I want to go, drop me off and say, go park yourself. It's going to go park itself. And then.
Chris: When I'm ready, I just say hey come pick me up and then it's just gonna come pick me up and then I'm good You know I'm saying What would be even better is like, like, I could just go down to one car.
Like I could, if I really was, you know, wanting to be super frugal, right? I go to one car and you know, drop myself off where I need to go. ⁓ then if my wife or, you know, somebody needed to borrow a car, they could, because I'm just going to be there for several hours.
And then when I'm ready to, to go, I just tell the car to come pick me up and it'll come pick me up and I'm ready to go. ⁓
Zach Fritz: Autonomous chauffeur is what it is at that point
Chris: 100 % and it's gonna get there like it truly is gonna get there There's no doubt in my mind words currently at today I I trust it enough that I don't I don't ever have to like Really ever look at the car like sometimes the map
Chris: It, what I love about it is if I'm late for wherever I need to go and it there's traffic, it'll literally just get off the freeway while I'm talking. Didn't even pay attention. see traffic coming and all of a sudden, boom, I'm like, here we go. You know what saying?
Zach Fritz: Do you think that we're already there for the technology? They just have not released it.
Chris: Yes, a hundred percent. Cause if it's in Austin on the robo taxi in like a mile, like driving by itself. And now if you live in Austin, they can do deliver it to your house. The car can drive itself to your house. ⁓
Zach Fritz: And that's it. the one the way mode that wasn't actually driving themselves?
Chris: Yes. Unless it's that, yeah. Now I can attest, you know, I'm driving that car on self-driving 99 % of time. So it's.
Chris: It's the real deal, man. Like, you know, if you're the type of driver that wants to multitask and you're better off just self-driving, you know, people that are drinking and driving, you know, there's a lot of people that, that do it, that, you know, tipsy being tipsy and they drive, better off just putting it on self-driving.
And I that driving over anything. I mean, it knows when people are crossing the road, it knows when people in, like I told you, I was driving with my daughter. having a conversation with her at night in the rain and a deer jumped out in front of us.
luckily I didn't see it until the car stopped. And it kind of went like had the car never been, if I had been driving it, I would never seen that deer. Like that was like, that was shocking to me. was like, ⁓ my God.
And the deer just took off like nothing. And I'm like, damn, that was pretty cool that it caught that.
Zach Fritz: Yeah. can do things that most drivers are not capable of doing. And it just, it really makes me think maybe that's part the difference that we're seeing right now, right? Is we've got people that are so distracted behind the wheel. I guarantee you I could leap right now, go two miles down the road and probably count 20 people with their phone in their hand.
Chris: 100 % it's worse than and driving like there's so many deaths with people texting and driving and you know, it's unfortunate like it's a real problem.
Zach Fritz: Thank you. Yeah. We need to work on creating a better environment for them to be distracted in behind the wheel.
Chris: right, well, so let's wrap up. We talked about quite a few things. How do we tie it all up into a nice bow and give our audience a way to execute and be better operators in this environment?
Zach Fritz: Well, I think right now competition, we've talked about is a great thing for our industry. Being a lot more transparent with the customers is going to go a long way because you can't mask that and you can't fake it.
And then also adapting to the times. can't be so stuck in our ways that one, we're not adapting to the internet still, right? There are still people out there who are that way living underneath a rock and...
saying, well the internet's gonna be the death of us all. Well, yeah it is. So get with the program, start being honest, and you'll likely see more cars.
Chris: Well Yeah, it is. So give it the program. Start being honest. You like to sell more cars. And service more, right?
Zach Fritz: service a lot more because if you don't have technicians it's gonna be a really sticky situation for you.
Chris: Yes. Well, you know, I think you're right. think for me, it's always been stick to the basics, you know, the blocking and tackling of the business. Make sure that you are aware of what's going on and just, you know, it doesn't mean you need to go and change your whole business.
It means just, you know, stick to the basics, the blocking and tackling, and you can be successful. Like I think... most good operators ⁓ that logic, right? The that win the games are the ones with the least amount of mistakes.
And as long as your team is focused on basics, they can do big things. What's that quote by? Francis Assasi or Azazi or Ansasi. I forget the guy's name. he says first start doing what's necessary, then do what's possible.
And then suddenly you're doing the impossible. And I think that's true ⁓ anything and everything that you do. And because most people just don't do it. So that's that's my my closing comment. Zach, as always, been amazing.
I having these conversations. I'm a sad you didn't push back a little harder on the other topics we talking about, because you said we were going to say some cool stuff. But I get it. ⁓ think you got a air in the side of nice.
Zach Fritz: You gotta self edit at times, anybody wants to know about Richard Balding's Subaru and EVs and some things the brand's
Chris: But all right. Yeah, that's good stuff. All right, cool, man. Well, let's do it again next week. I hope you guys get value. Where can they reach out to us? They can go on YouTube. They can go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, automotiveinformants.com. You can go there. But we give you a take on what's different in the marketplace today and how you can use it to your advantage. So hope you guys subscribe to our channels. Listen to our podcast.
Chris: And check us out online. Zach, as always, it was a great, time. Let's do it again next week. And I'll see you next week.
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