0:00
/
0:00
"We Fired All Our Managers!" — Lessons From a $500M Expansion (& What It Took to Make It Work) | David Wyler, CEO of Jeff Wyler Automotive Family
"We Fired All Our Managers!" — Lessons From a $500M Expansion (& What It Took to Make It Work) | David Wyler, CEO of Jeff Wyler Automotive Family
0:00
0:00
0:00
0:00
About this episode
David Weiler, CEO of Jeff Weiler Automotive Family, shares insights on scaling a dealership group to over 50 locations with $500M+ in sales while maintaining culture and operational discipline. He emphasizes the importance of proximity-based growth within a 100-mile radius to avoid operational drag and foster strong market ownership. The conversation covers the shift from traditional managers to coaching roles, lessons from a major acquisition, and the evolution of marketing strategies rooted in the company's heritage. David also reflects on family legacy, deliberate acquisition choices, and the challenges of balancing growth with culture preservation.
Cars:
Subaru 360
Today I'm joined by David Wyler, CEO of Jeff Wyler Automotive Family.
We dig into why Wyler abandoned traditional corporate management in favor of a “coach” model, how a strict 100-mile acquisition rule protects execution, and why culture—not capital—is the only defensible edge left in consolidation.
David also unpacks his massive acquisition of the Midwest Auto Group, the lessons of stagnation during COVID, and what it really takes to scale a family business without losing its soul.
This episode is brought to you by:
1. YSM Design - YSM Design, your expert in automotive dealer architecture, helps dealer principals and fixed/ variable ops teams improve the bottom line with EV readiness checks, OEM brand image updates/new-store requests, and expansions or renovations—big or small—powered by instant renderings, immersive 360s, and LiDAR scans that reduce surprises and speed decisions; visit @ here or call 404-249-4555
2. Siro - Siro’s AI gives dealerships full visibility into every conversation. It records, transcribes, and analyzes in-person conversations. Proactively flagging compliance issues, missed revenue opportunities, and training gaps. Go to @ https://www.siro.ai/cdg to learn more
3. CDG Recruiting - Hire top dealership talent, fast. From sales managers to GMs and C-suite execs, we’ve placed over 1,000 roles across auto retail. Ready to scale without the hassle? Visit @ https://www.cdgrecruiting.com/ to get started.
Check out Car Dealership Guy’s stuff:
For dealers:
CDG Circles ➤ https://cdgcircles.com/
Industry job board ➤ http://jobs.dealershipguy.com
Dealership recruiting ➤ http://www.cdgrecruiting.com
Fix your dealership’s social media ➤ http://www.trynomad.co
Request to be a podcast guest ➤ http://www.cdgguest.com
For industry vendors:
Advertise with Car Dealership Guy ➤ http://www.cdgpartner.com
Industry job board ➤ http://jobs.dealershipguy.com
Request to be a podcast guest ➤ http://www.cdgguest.com
Topics:
08:20 Herb Chambers' advice on buying dealerships everywhere.
18:45 Why every single manager got fired and rehired.
24:20 The game film trick that fixed F&I managers.
25:55 How an internal playbook killed outside training programs.
31:40 The brutal truth about being a second-generation dealer.
39:55 Why practicing golf is actually terrifying.
46:05 What COVID really did to company performance.
46:55 The NFL analogy exposing every dealership's weakness.
Car Dealership Guy Socials:
X ➤ x.com/GuyDealership
Instagram ➤ instagram.com/cardealershipguy/
TikTok ➤ tiktok.com/@guydealership
LinkedIn ➤ linkedin.com/company/cardealershipguy
Threads ➤ threads.net/@cardealershipguy
Facebook ➤ facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077402857683
Everything else ➤ dealershipguy.com
Filter:
|
Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Brand
Ford
"We represent every brand with the exception of Ford, Subaru, Lexus, and maybe some, some Highline folks like Aston and Clay."
Ford is a big car company from America that makes many types of cars and trucks. They have been around for a long time and are very popular.
Ford is a major American automotive manufacturer known for producing a wide range of vehicles including trucks, SUVs, and passenger cars. It has a long history and is one of the largest car companies in the world.
Brand
Lexus
"We represent every brand with the exception of Ford, Subaru, Lexus, and maybe some, some Highline folks like Aston and Clay."
Lexus is a fancy car brand that makes comfortable and reliable cars. It's part of Toyota and is known for being smooth and high-tech.
Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of Toyota, known for its high-quality, reliable, and comfortable cars and SUVs. It competes with other luxury brands and is recognized for its smooth ride and advanced technology.
Brand
Aston Martin
"some Highline folks like Aston and Clay. No Ford, I'm actually surprised to hear that."
Aston Martin is a fancy car company from Britain that makes fast and stylish sports cars. They are known for being special and often seen in movies.
Aston Martin is a British luxury sports car manufacturer famous for its elegant design and high-performance vehicles. It is often associated with exclusivity and has a strong presence in motorsports and popular culture.
Brand
Toyota
"But he actually bought a Toyota store and lost his tail, like lost almost everything in two years."
Toyota is a big car company from Japan that makes many cars people trust for being reliable and easy to maintain.
Toyota is a major Japanese automotive manufacturer known for producing reliable and fuel-efficient vehicles. It is one of the largest car companies in the world.
Brand
Mercedes-Benz
"We bought Mercedes Benz of Louisville like two months before that. And Mercedes Benz of Fort Mitchell, like four years before that."
Mercedes-Benz is a famous car company from Germany that makes high-quality and fancy cars and trucks.
Mercedes-Benz is a German luxury automotive brand known for producing premium cars, trucks, and SUVs with a focus on quality, performance, and advanced technology.
Car
Subaru 360
"...isions moving with instant renderings, immersive 360s and lidar scans of your existing facility to cat..."
The Subaru 360 is a very small and simple car made a long time ago in Japan. It was popular because it was cheap and easy to drive, especially when cars were expensive. People might talk about it to show how small cars can be useful.
The Subaru 360 is a microcar produced by Subaru from 1958 to 1971, notable for being one of Japan's first mass-produced kei cars. Its small size and lightweight design made it affordable and practical during Japan's post-war economic boom. It might be discussed in the podcast as a historical reference or in relation to compact, efficient vehicle design.
Term
M&A
""I've done some of the heavy lifting, right? Just in terms on the M&A side,""
M&A means when companies join together or one company buys another. In cars, it happens when car makers or parts companies team up or get bought.
M&A stands for mergers and acquisitions, which refers to the process of companies combining or one company purchasing another. In the automotive industry, this can involve car manufacturers or suppliers consolidating or acquiring others.
Term
OEM
""I can't imagine having to deal with 14 different OEMs and applications.""
OEM means the original company that makes cars or car parts. For example, Ford or Toyota are OEMs because they build the cars.
OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer, which refers to companies that produce parts or vehicles that are sold under another company's brand. In the automotive context, it usually means the car manufacturers themselves.
Brand
Nissan North America
"He actually worked at Nissan North America when he graduated college from the University of Miami."
Nissan North America is the part of Nissan that sells and supports Nissan cars in the US and Canada.
Nissan North America is the regional division of the Japanese automaker Nissan, responsible for sales, marketing, and distribution of Nissan vehicles in the United States and Canada.
Herb Chambers' advice on buying dealerships everywhere.
Why every single manager got fired and rehired.
The game film trick that fixed F&I managers.
How an internal playbook killed outside training programs.
The brutal truth about being a second-generation dealer.
Why practicing golf is actually terrifying.
What COVID really did to company performance.
The NFL analogy exposing every dealership's weakness.
Select text to request an explanation
CDG circles signups are back open.
If you want to learn from the best dealers in the country,
this is the digital peer group where it happens.
Over 3,000 dealership rooftops represented.
Recent dealer-only conversations
include Stellantis acquisition caps, AI selection
and integration, pay plan revamps,
cooling new car sales,
used car sourcing strategies, and more.
Don't miss it.
Join us now at cdgcircles.com.
I'm this young, dumb, aggressive guy
and I'm wanting to just buy dealerships everywhere
and it really didn't quite register with me.
I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days
with Herb Chambers probably about 15 years ago
and I told him all the stores that we had
and kind of what my thoughts and growth plans were
and he said, no, no, no, no, no, no.
You want to own your market.
Today I'm joined by David Weiler,
CEO of Jeff Weiler Automotive Family,
a more than 50 rooftop powerhouse in the Midwest.
Consolidation is accelerating
and dealers are discovering that scale alone
doesn't create an edge, execution and culture do.
David breaks down why Weiler shifted
from managers to coaches,
how proximity-based growth avoids operational drag
and what a massive acquisition taught them about discipline.
If you're thinking about growth, succession
or protecting your culture as you scale,
this conversation matters.
A big thank you to our sponsors
for making this episode possible.
Ciro, YSM Design and CDG Recruiting.
And now let's get into the show.
David Weiler on the CDG podcast, David, welcome.
Yossi, how are you doing my man?
Thanks for having me.
Bummed we couldn't make this happen in person
but this will be a great conversation either way.
So I'm excited about it.
You know, one of the cool things that I noticed
about your group as I was doing my homework
is you've documented a lot of the history of the group.
So it actually makes my life very easy
because I'm like, oh, wow, I have a great,
just lots of resources to bring into this conversation.
Love the commercial.
I was actually gonna start off by asking you,
is it true that cars like eggs are cheaper in the country?
Yeah, well, that's a good question.
That's kind of what put our company on the map.
My dad started this in 1973
and he had never done television before
and when he decided to do television,
he needed a slogan.
And he actually worked for Chevrolet Motor Division
before he became a car dealer
and one of the car dealers that he called on
actually used that slogan,
Chevrolet's like eggs are cheaper in the country.
And he called up this guy said,
hey, Bob, you mind if I use that down here in Cincinnati?
And the guy said, I don't care,
I stole it from a guy in Scranton.
And so the rest is history.
And so, you know, our company hasn't used that slogan
probably in three decades, right?
But I was gonna say since January, 2023.
Exactly, people just still remember that slogan
and my dad's commercials, you know,
from the late 70s and the 80s.
But yeah, that's that kind of really what started in fact
when you bought a car from us,
you actually got a dozen eggs at delivery.
We would bring you a dozen eggs at delivery
just to kind of like, hey, here you go,
here's your dozen eggs when you bought a car
kind of tied in the whole thing.
Why don't you do that anymore?
Genuine question.
Well, we're not in the country anymore.
Yeah, we've got our 50 locations
and they're really not rural stores
the way our first store was.
And so cars like eggs were cheaper in the country.
I don't know that that really goes with maybe, you know,
if we wanna sell a Ferrari either, right?
So I think we've changed and evolved,
but primarily we're just not in the country.
And when you think of Jeff Weiler or Chevrolet,
you would think the east side of Cincinnati
and Batavia, Ohio.
And, you know, we just don't wanna be known
for that Chevrolet store on the east side of Ohio.
So that's kind of why.
You know, one of our biggest marketing pushes
in during my time as a dealer was,
and I've spoken about the story,
was actually buying closeout pallets of electronics
from New Jersey, right?
So things that Walmart got as returns or whoever,
this wholesaler would purchase it,
I would purchase from him,
he would drop off a pallet in our service department
and it would just be a bunch of random stuff.
And you should see the delight in customer's faces
when you put a random black and decker drill on the seat,
the driver seat, they open the door and they're like,
it's your gift or you put it in the trunk,
which we did a ton.
And the delight of just receiving something for free
that's just like practical and they didn't expect,
which is why I asked you that egg question
because there's just something so,
just so endearing about that thinking, oh wow,
I get, you know, eggs, milk.
I mean, again, milk maybe spoils a little quicker,
but I love the direction and the touch.
Yeah, you know, we really were a small country store,
it's 22 miles east of downtown Cincinnati.
And so I think people would come visit us
because of that slogan, right?
And then they literally were just so surprised
and had a huge smile on their face
when they did get that dozen eggs out of the refrigerator.
So there's a lot to be said.
We need more of that, we need more of that.
Well, tell me, so tell me a little bit about,
I wanna talk a lot about the transition with you,
you're today, you're the Helma CEO.
I wanna talk about just, you know,
that you've been around for just decades.
There's been a lot of change
and you're also clearly still very much on the offense.
I just made a really massive acquisition,
Midwestern Auto Group.
I wanna say that added over 500 million in sales,
I believe, to your group.
So that's, you know, very meaningful.
Clearly very acquisitive.
What's the, give us kind of the lay of the land today.
Tell us a little bit about your status of the group.
So, yeah, the Jeff Weiler Automotive family
we're based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
And we have locations throughout Ohio, Kentucky,
and Indiana.
And our farthest location from actually where I'm sitting
at our headquarters is 100 miles.
And we've got over 50 rooftops now.
We represent every brand with the exception of Ford,
Subaru, Lexus, and maybe some,
some Highline folks like Aston and Clay.
No Ford, I'm actually surprised to hear that.
Yeah, you know, that has been on my bucket list
for a long time.
And for whatever reason, it hasn't worked out.
I haven't had the opportunities,
and quite frankly-
We can solve that pretty quickly.
Yeah, there hasn't been a lot of transition.
There hasn't been a lot of turnover and Ford source, right?
It within our market.
And so we're pretty deliberate and disciplined
when it comes to our acquisitions
in terms of where we want to go, right?
So we have this loop around Cincinnati,
which is 100 miles.
And that's kind of where we want to stay.
And we're slowly growing and moving that radius farther out.
But we still think there's a lot of opportunity
within that radius.
And so love to have Ford, obviously Subaru's hot,
Lexus, who wouldn't want that,
but that's kind of where we stand right now.
We've got 2,500 employees that workforce
that I can't think the world of,
but that's really who we are and where we're located.
What kind of premium do you put on proximity?
You just mentioned the 100 mile rule that you have,
you know, roughly, let's call it a rule,
but you want to stay close.
I assume that's probably for operating leverage,
but you can tell me otherwise.
So what type of premium do you put on proximity?
Because I know that Midwestern deal wasn't cheap.
No.
And I see that smile.
There's a couple of things, right?
My dad grew up in Texas and came back to Cincinnati
where he actually graduated college,
but he grew up in Texas.
Went to Burgess High School in El Paso, Texas.
And as a younger car dealer back in the mid-80s,
he thought it would be a really good idea
to go back to El Paso and become a car dealer.
But he actually bought a Toyota store and lost his tail,
like lost almost everything in two years.
And so he had always taught me, right?
You need to be careful where you go.
And so I'm this young, dumb, aggressive guy
and I'm wanting to just buy dealerships everywhere.
And it really didn't really quite register with me.
I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days
with Herb Chambers probably about 15 years ago.
And I told him all the stores that we had
and kind of what my thoughts and growth plans were.
And he said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
You want to own your market.
You can pay more for your stores.
You can scale your assets, which are your people,
your inventory, your branding.
And then you've got kids coming to the picture
and there's something to be said, right?
For sleeping in your own bed every night, you'll see.
Instead of having to worry about your own airplane
and putting out a fire that's 1,000 miles away,
obviously inevitably in the car business,
you're gonna have issues to come up, right?
And so it's not a problem for me
to just get in a car and drive an hour and a half, right?
So that's kind of really where we've focused.
And so far it's worked out.
This is a hypothetical,
but if you were starting from scratch today,
would you do anything structurally different to the group?
You mentioned proximity.
It seems like that's still a core tenant of just a group.
And you like growing that way
and you put your money where your mouth is.
You just acquired Midwestern,
which is roughly a hundred miles away, driving distance.
Would you do something structurally different
if you were starting from scratch today?
I don't think so.
If we had a little Chevrolet store
that was outside of Fort Lauderdale,
40 years ago, I think our company
would be a little bit different, right?
With the size and the scope,
because I think your throughput in Florida
and the Southeast is bigger,
but you can't control those things,
but I don't think we would.
I'm six generation, Cincinnati, born and raised here.
I went to Miami of Ohio, which is 45 minutes from my office.
My wife's from here.
We raised our children here.
This is a wonderful place to raise a family.
And it's a wonderful place to do business.
I always like to say that in the Midwest
and in particular, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana,
when things are going gangbusters right in the car business
and things are on an upward trajectory,
yeah, we feel that, right?
And then when things slow down, we feel it a little bit,
but we don't have, it's just kind of consistent
and steady as she goes and it's a grind,
but we're Midwesterners and we like to grind it out, I guess.
This episode is brought to you by Ciro.
Are your F and I managers compliant,
pitching every product 100% of the time?
For decades, dealerships have missed major risks
and incremental revenue because they don't know
what's really happening during customer conversations.
Now, Ciro's AI gives dealerships full visibility
into every conversation.
It records transcribes and analyzes in-person conversations,
proactively flagging compliance issues,
missed revenue opportunities and training gaps.
In their first four weeks on Ciro,
the Viva Fiesta Auto Group increased PPD by 15%
and improved PVR by 18%.
Trusted by auto groups like Keating, Tim Dahl,
Viva Fiesta and more.
Get your F and I managers compliant
and pitching every product 100% of the time.
Go to Ciro.ai slash CDG, that's S-I-R-O dot A-I slash CDG
to learn more or click the link in the show notes below.
What does your dad think about the direction
of the business on a macro level?
With all the macro pressures and the risks,
what does he think about it?
My dad will be 85 come April 1st.
And it's usually not a day that doesn't go by
that I don't talk to him,
whether it's about the business
or whether it's about just what he's got going on
in his world or my world or the grandkids.
He always wants to know what's going on
within our business.
I know the one thing that the one passion
that I got from him was making deals, right?
On the acquisition side.
And so anytime we make an acquisition,
whether it's the Midwest Auto Group
or we bought seven stores four years ago
from the Superior Automotive Group,
Mercedes-Benz Aluable, Mercedes-Benz of Fort Mitchell,
absolutely he's engaged.
And why wouldn't I want to bounce off the ideas with him?
It does get him excited when we do make acquisitions.
It's certainly something that I know
that he looks forward to with these recent acquisitions
and he's always been a go-getter
and I think that's where I get it from
or it's like, all right, we've accomplished this.
Now let's continue to grow our people
and if there's opportunity out there,
let's take a look at it.
Yeah, there's nothing like the dopamine rush
of closing a deal, it's the best.
What about just time allocation?
How did two of you split time again?
I know you're CEO today, you have been.
How does your dad allocate his time?
How does he spend his time?
My dad's not involved in the day-to-day operations.
He likes to stay where it's 70 degrees.
So if you can imagine where it's 70 degrees.
What months of the year?
What months of the year are we talking about?
70 degrees?
Every month.
So whether it's West Coast, it's East Coast,
whether it's up, no one likes to ask questions,
but he has been so respectful over the years.
Whether it was, I was a young man
to make my own decisions, to have my own successes,
to have my own failures, and so,
but the one person that I do work with on a day-to-day basis.
And this is the Jeff Weiler automotive family, right?
So we're a family-run business.
My dad started it.
I'm second generation.
My brothers and sisters aren't involved in the business,
which makes it unique in the sense
that maybe you don't have people wanting to get involved
and then how do you break it up or how do you separate it?
But the one person that's been by my side
is actually my brother-in-law.
So it's my sister's husband.
They've been married for over 35 years
and Scott Bristow, who's the president of our organization,
we have worked together hand in hand and the both of us,
not just me, have worked together side by side.
Our offices are next to each other.
He's my yin to my yang and vice versa.
And so all the decisions that are made within our company
are between Scott and myself
and I couldn't have asked for a better brother-in-law.
I couldn't ask for a better business partner.
I couldn't ask for a better mentor.
I couldn't ask for just a better human.
So you have your yin to your yang.
You've been around for, have you eclipsed 50 years
or under 50?
Yeah, so we're at 53 years.
53, so you have eclipsed it.
How are you, and you're also being aggressive,
more acquisitions and substantial acquisitions.
What's your unfair advantage if you have to label something
or how do you position yourself for success
and really make sure your operations,
your dealership is really defensible
into the foreseeable future?
It starts, you'll see with our people,
starts and ends with that.
What about them?
They are our greatest asset, bar none.
How do you cultivate that?
Our culture, I think, is best of the best.
I always like to say that culture
will eat your strategy for a bunch, you'll see.
And I truly believe that.
And this isn't an overnight thing with our culture.
It's something that it's taken decades to create.
And so when we make an acquisition,
we talked earlier, maybe a little bit about
nothing better than having dopamine of making a deal
or selling a car or buying a car dealership
or selling a car dealership, that's really fun.
But what makes it so much more enjoyable for me
and for Scott, is to see the growth and development
of our people, and so if you're either growing
or you're gonna die, we've all heard that saying,
and we truly develop the people.
And quite frankly, they expect us to grow.
And they can expand their professional career as well.
So, but culture for us is everything.
It's something that it's hard to replicate, recreate.
And I've welcomed all car dealers to come to our headquarters
and see what we do, because I don't have any secrets.
I don't have a secret sauce, it's culture.
And you gotta be bought in.
So, well, David, if I came to your headquarters,
like what would I see that would maybe surprise me,
be different, would be impressive?
What would I see?
Well, I'm biased.
I think- Give us the bias.
I think we've got the finest headquarters in America.
And I'll put that- Okay, so aesthetically,
it just looks great, it's impressive.
Aesthetically, it looks great.
And you'll see our culture as soon as you walk in.
It was about eight years ago, Yossi.
We do an annual retreat with, let's say, our top 60 executives.
Okay.
And at this retreat, we decided to go to Columbus, Ohio,
and spent two days with the Columbus Blue Jackets NHL team.
And I had this already prepared.
And I was like, you know what?
This is kind of my plan and my vision.
We're gonna get rid of our titles
within all of our stores of managers.
And we're gonna call them coaches.
And actually that day,
fired all these executives and rehired them as coaches.
Coaching and sports, they've been a huge part of my life.
And who I am and what I'm about in the competition side.
And I got the opportunity to coach my kids, right?
As they grew up, whether it was football, basketball,
baseball, lacrosse.
And I coached them all the way up
until they didn't have daddy ball anymore, right?
Until they went into high school.
But there's no greater honor than having somebody
that you coached as a child or a young man
continue to call you coach.
I mean, I'm talking kids that play division one football
that have had the opportunity to go to the NFL
and still call you coach and say,
hey, I remember what you did.
And so when I made our managers coaches,
I told them that it is a huge responsibility.
It's a huge responsibility more so than being a manager
because number one, you've got to coach your players up
on a daily basis, that's number one.
Number two, in order to attract talent,
you've got to recruit the right people.
You've got to train them.
You've got to coach them up.
You've got to have the opportunity every single day
to practice to make that individual better at what they do.
And I always say that there's the reason why people
aren't successful in the automobile business.
It's one of two things.
And it lies between you and you and nobody else.
It's either number one, you hired the wrong person
or you didn't coach them up.
There's no in-betweens.
You didn't hire the right person or you didn't coach them up.
And so when you come here to our headquarters,
every single conference room is named after a coach.
We have in our events Lombardi room,
we have pictures of coaches.
We've got Super Bowl trophies.
Everything is revolved around sports.
Sports team.
Right, and quite frankly, right?
This is a recruiting center for us.
If you go to University of Alabama for a recruiting visit
and you're a basketball player or you're a football player,
they're gonna wanna show off
what their facilities look like.
And we feel like when you come here,
they're like, wow, this is pretty spectacular.
And so I think you'll see a lot of practice
in training rooms because you can't practice enough.
That's what kinda separates I think our culture
from everybody else.
So tell me about the impact of that, right?
You fire everyone as managers.
You rehire them a second later as coaches.
The next day or the next week,
they go 2,000 team members across the organization.
How do they react?
Are they like, ah, these guys are not serious.
It's the same thing, or wow, this is unique,
or what's the zeitgeist?
Again, that takes time, right?
And it's been eight years since we've not had a manager.
I think the initial thought was a little hokey, right?
I have my wisp on and every single coach,
whether you're a sales coach, your service coach,
your parts coach, your collision coach,
your finance coach, or you're a head coach,
everybody wears a whistle to work.
And it's not like we're blowing the whistle.
See, because you did something wrong
or you let a customer walk, no, that's not...
I was gonna ask, I was waiting for that.
That was the bill, though.
That's not what we do.
This is a reminder.
This is a reminder to me every time that I come to work
that I have a huge responsibility for my players, right?
And I'm responsible for my players.
And if my players aren't performing the way
they should be performing, well, guess what?
That's on me.
And so I need to coach them up,
whether it's one-on-one, whether it's in a group session,
whether it's personally, whether it's professionally.
This is on me.
Like I said, I hired you.
I either hired the wrong person or I didn't coach you up.
We really make a big deal
out of wearing this out of this whistle
because it is a huge responsibility.
Yeah, you've really leaned in to that theme
and it seems like it's just part of your culture completely.
Okay, so tell me about what development programs
or tools do you provide your team?
I think there's many listeners right now
who are dealers who are growing.
And in general, you know, consolidation has only accelerated
in the past decade in this industry.
People are going bigger, getting bigger groups,
and you're seeing just, you know, education, training
as an overall investment.
People are, dealers are spending more time,
resources, effort into it.
So I'm curious, you make everyone coaches.
This is a theme that seems to permeate
throughout your entire organization.
What, how do you actually enable them to succeed
at their role so that you can acquire
a Midwestern auto group with, you know,
add all those rooftops to your group or whoever else?
What type of tools and resources do you provide?
That's a great question, Yossi.
So about the same time, we knew in order for us
to develop this culture, you know, of coaching
and practicing is what we like to call it.
We practice every single day.
In fact, so we'll video every F and I delivery
and we actually have game film.
We actually call it game film review, our F and I.
I've had a couple of conversations
about this recently on the podcast.
Yeah, and so, you know, it's like,
hey, we have game film review for these stores.
And so we'll review just like, you know,
a basketball team would have like,
hey, last night, why didn't you box this guy out?
You know, why didn't you move your feet?
What, why, you know, why were you,
why'd you have so many turnovers, right?
So we do that, but we give them a playbook.
We've got a sales playbook.
We've got a finance playbook.
We've got a service playbook.
And what's great is it literally is our playbook.
And again, Scott and I have worked together
for over 30 years of growing this company
where it is today and everybody that works here.
And again, we're not the smartest guys in the world.
And so what we decided to do,
let's say we started with sales.
What's the wiler way and how do we want to sell cars?
And how do we want to practice
and how do we want to coach our players?
And so we developed a team of about six or eight folks
from different brands, different locations.
And we developed internally our own sales process.
So it's not like an outside program.
This is something that we did together
that everybody bought in, right?
So I think we took probably the most respected coaches
from each of the locations on the sales side and said,
here's how the wiler way is going to present it
every single deal.
Here's the wiler way on our finance process.
Here's the wiler way on our service drive.
And every single person has our playbook
on how the Jeff Weiler Automotive family
executes each play.
When you look group-wide,
what are the biggest challenges?
Well, the biggest challenge right now for us
is this latest acquisition,
which is the integration of 250 employees,
14 new brands, which we haven't had
and integrating our culture, right?
And so our culture is unique.
And you see these guys come into your store
and they got these whistles and we're high five
and we're talking about game review.
Timid.
Yeah, we're talking about practicing
and I need you into the Urban Meyer conference room
or I need you into the Sparky Anderson conference room, right?
It could be a little daunting and overwhelming,
but again, that's what coaches do, right?
Coaches develop talent.
They develop talent.
And our last acquisition before Midwest Auditor Group
was 40 years ago.
It was seven stores.
We bought Mercedes Benz of Louisville
like two months before that.
And Mercedes Benz of Fort Mitchell,
like four years before that.
And out of those 10 dealerships,
all but one general manager at that time
is a head coach for us.
So I think people really want to embrace culture.
People, they wanna get better.
And they wanna be mentors.
They wanna be coaches and develop their own teams.
And so the biggest challenge for us right now,
Yossi, is instilling that culture,
that vernacular into the Midwest Auditor Group.
And it's gonna take some time, right?
I know a lot of the folks are bought in,
but I'm sure there's still a lot of folks
asking questions like, what are we doing with whistles?
Like, I don't get it.
I don't understand it.
I know there's been some aha moments
for some of our leadership over there,
which I'm really excited about.
This episode is brought to you by YSM Design.
Dealers, everyday construction pinches your service drive
as profits stuck in park.
YSM Design, your expert and automotive dealer architecture
helps dealer principles fixed and variable ops teams
turn facility work into bottom line lift.
EV readiness checks, OENM brand image updates
and new store requests, plus expansions and renovations
big or small with full architectural services end to end.
They keep decisions moving with instant renderings,
immersive 360s and lidar scans of your existing facility
to catch surprises early and speed approvals.
35 years in auto retail, 2000 plus designs,
repeat Fortune 500 clients and experience with nearly
every brand across almost every US state.
Get started today at ysmdesign.com,
call 4042-494555 or click the link in the show notes below.
Assume day one after the close,
I'm trying to put myself in your shoes, right?
What are the steps you've taken?
I've had conversations here with Lithia acquisitions,
where we spoke about what were the first steps you took
and how did they work?
And I have to imagine that you yourself
a student of the business,
you've clearly thought a lot about this.
This is a big, big acquisition.
How did you handle that?
And you mentioned cultural integration is a tough one,
but it's one that you're gonna crack.
So what did that look like for you to immediate
right after that acquisition happened?
And what do you do?
Other than, oh crap, what did I just get into?
Look at the bank account, look at the wire transfer.
Yeah, exactly.
That day after was really just kind of a sense of relief.
It really was.
I've done some of the heavy lifting, right?
Just in terms on the M&A side,
but I can't say enough for our folks
that administratively helped put the deal together, right?
I can't imagine having to deal
with 14 different OEMs and applications.
That's way above my mental capacity.
And then after closing in that next day,
it was just pure excitement of like, okay,
now we can go in there as a team,
as a team and we can go in and spread our culture
and we can coach everybody up.
It was really an exciting moment.
An incredible moment.
Yeah.
You know, I think about being in your dad's shoes
and seeing that kind of acquisition go down.
One thing that I haven't discussed a lot on this platform,
but I think about is how do you,
as the son of the founder,
separate your worth with the family versus,
you're the son at the end of the day,
but you're also the CEO.
And I think it's very challenging sometimes
where you feel like your worth is measured
by your success in the business.
At least I've felt that way before.
And I'm curious, you know,
you and your dad's relationship there, right?
Not every year is gonna be the highest of the highest
and some years are gonna be better than the worst.
And I'm curious how you manage that relationship.
I have to imagine other kind of family,
sons, daughters have probably maybe felt that,
but where you feel like you are,
like I said, you're running the business,
but you're also the son or the daughter.
Yeah, let me just first say,
my dad and I were best friends.
We have been forever and we'll always be best friends.
My dad, I think I mentioned earlier,
he's always been inclusive.
I just remember as a kid, he would take me to work.
He'd let me sit in sales meetings.
He'd let me sit in factory meetings, right?
He'd ask me questions.
What do you think, Dave?
What do you think about this?
What would you do?
He was also respectful in the fact, as I said,
he let me have failures, right?
And have successes.
And one thing that I see so much in the automobile business
and whether it's gen two or gen three is that gen one,
having a hard time letting go
and allowing their son or their daughter
to have successes and or failures.
I mean, the one thing my dad always told me is, man,
you know, I love you more than anything in this world.
I would do anything for you.
You're my best buddy.
But family's family and business is business.
And if you ain't getting it done on the business side,
you're gone.
And there's no nepotism in this company, Dave.
You're gonna have to work your tail off
and you're gonna have to prove not only to me,
but to everybody else that you have the ability to do this.
Not only did he do this to me, he did this to Scott.
And, you know, we navigated it.
And the one thing for me in particular,
and I know that folks that are gen two or gen three
are going through this.
And I tell this to my children.
The success that I've had or will have in the future,
the perception is that it's because you're dad.
It's because you're dad, Jeff Weiler, right?
And any failures that I have had
and that I will continue to make, well, that's on you, Dave.
That's because of you.
And if you accept that and you're okay with it,
I think that you'll be more successful.
And I didn't learn that for a long time.
And I think that's probably what made me so competitive
in the earlier days of my career is like,
I'm gonna show you that, you know, it's just not my dad,
you know, I can do this too.
So I love that.
And, you know, I've been so conflicted on bringing the,
like having a kid or child into business.
It's something I think about a lot
because I grew up that way.
And on one hand, it, you know, made me who I am
and I'm grateful for that.
And I was exposed to so much.
On the other hand, sometimes I say, wow,
I don't know if I'd want, you know,
my kids to go through this.
I think being in a dealership setting is,
you mentioned you were sat in those factory meetings.
You sat in other meetings,
but being exposed to real challenges like that
is so important for development.
And I put so much value on that.
And I also remember, I did notice
that you were with your son when I saw you in Vegas.
So I did take note of that.
You guys walked in together.
It seemed like, you know, he's right in there with you.
I said hello to you.
He right away introduced himself.
I noticed the little details, you know,
he shook a firm hand.
You guys, you know, it seems like
you're definitely mentoring him well.
How have you adopted or have you adopted
your dad's approach to parenting with the business?
Is your son involved to the extent that you were at his age?
How do you think about that?
I've got three boys.
I think they all three want to be in the business.
My oldest is involved in the business now.
He actually worked at Nissan North America
when he graduated college from the University of Miami.
He started on the wholesale side,
kind of like, I think he wanted to take the route
of my old man who started a Chevrolet Motor Division.
And so I've given him the opportunity to come in here.
And again, I've told him the same things
that I've just told you, right?
There's no nepotism in here.
And I love you more than anything in the world, son.
I do.
We talk every single day.
We FaceTime each other.
If I don't see him in person.
And there's a difference between running, you know,
a huge enterprise than it is being your son.
And you can have both, but there needs to be guardrails
and there needs to be expectations.
What second generation can and can't do,
we expect them, you know, to be the coaches
that everybody thinks that they should be, right?
Which means as a coach, you gotta be the first guy.
You gotta perform.
You gotta perform, but you gotta be the first guy
in the building, right?
And you gotta do everything that I'm asking you to do, right?
And I've gotta have all the answers.
And then I'm gonna be the last person
to leave the practice facility at night as well.
So it's a daunting challenge.
It's probably, there's probably more pressure,
more pressure probably on gen two than gen three.
I like to say, and I kinda kid that, you know,
with my dad sometimes, right?
And he's like, what are you talking about?
I stuck my neck out online and this and that.
And I'm like, I don't disagree with that,
but, you know, the pressure of having everybody think
that gen two is gonna fail in your business is daunting,
let alone gen three, right?
So it's a big task.
I see it.
I mean, by gen three, gen two has proven
that a transition is possible and doable.
So gen three, you know, you have some success
to lean on there, although statistically,
gen three is more likely to not work out
if you look at statistics, but who's looking at that?
I'm taking more interest in you now.
Like, what do people not know about you, right?
Someone listening, what is their,
let's peel the layers to the onion of David's eye.
What do people not know about you?
Well, I don't like to peel layers.
That would be the first thing you'll see.
That's what they don't know.
I'm this alpha guy, right?
I'm the CEO of one of the largest
privately held automobile dealerships.
I can't have any vulnerability, right?
Or emotions, but I do.
I am a human being, right?
You know, I care deeply about, you know,
all of our employees.
I really do.
I wanna make sure that they're taking care
of the families they're taking care of.
So I do have vulnerabilities.
You know, I'm just a guy that,
like the one thing that I love to do
is just be in the car business.
Like, I don't know that, like,
I'm the luckiest guy in the world that I'm my dad's son.
Like, I could have picked,
my dad could have been something else
and I would have been a creek.
I really would have, because there's nothing Yossi
that I can do other than sell cars.
Like, I'm pretty one dimensional.
I can't do anything else.
So I hit the jackpot when it came to my old man
being a car dealer,
because I can't do anything else.
One thing that I do know,
you know, I love my family.
I love my boys.
Like I said, I had the opportunity to coach them as kids.
Those are some of the best times
that I've ever had in my life.
I think you're underselling yourself.
I think you're more than one dimensional,
but we'll get there.
So tell me, what other interests do you have,
like health, religion, working out?
I'm curious, you know, what else,
how else you spend your time?
So, I love to golf.
I love to golf.
And I don't put a lot of work into golf,
but I love to golf.
And so if I can play golf, you know,
for nine holes or 18 holes and sneak out one day,
I'd love to do that.
It really frustrates me.
I kind of feel like, here's my vulnerable side
when it comes to like golf.
I'm not a very good golfer.
I'm like a 12 index.
And I think I'm afraid sometimes to practice at golf
because I don't practice at golf.
I would never go to the driving range.
I don't go to the driving range before I play golf.
And like, actually I'm kind of scared.
Like if I did practice and I didn't become a better golfer,
that scares me actually.
And so in the back of my mind,
because I think I have this fear of failing, right?
And so at work, you know,
I think effort is a huge part of your success.
And effort is only between you and you and nobody else.
And I think I relied on, you know,
maybe my personality of being able to sell cars
that made me not so much my golf swing.
So like it actually does kind of scare me.
And I've always thought about like, Dave,
why don't you just like for like two months,
like go to the track man and like bang balls
every single day for two months
and see what happens to your golf game.
And I'm scared to do it.
I think this episode was brought to you by CDG Recruiting.
The car dealership guy platform has direct access
to thousands of skilled professionals
in the dealership and automotive industries.
And so building on top of our free industry job board,
we've launched CDG Recruiting,
a hands-on white glove automotive recruiting service.
Whether you're looking to fill roles
in dealership management, the C-suite, FNI,
fixed stops, auto tech or SaaS,
we take the hassle out of hiring
by doing the heavy lifting for you.
It's easy.
Start by submitting a confidential talent request
on our website.
Next, we connect you with a dedicated talent expert
who will thoroughly understand your unique needs.
And finally, we present you with top notch candidates
who are ready to drive your business forward.
And here's the best part.
We vet and screen every candidate for you
so you don't have to.
And with our placement guarantee,
hiring through CDG Recruiting is 100% worry free.
Collectively, our team has decades of experience
and has successfully placed over 1,000 roles
in the automotive industry,
so you know you're in good hands.
If you're ready to find your next Rockstar employee,
try CDG Recruiting today by visiting cdgrecruiting.com
or clicking the link in the show notes below.
Again, that's cdgrecruiting.com.
I think it's super cool that you're cognizant of that
because years ago I read about Mark Zuckerberg
who every year he takes on a new challenge,
just like something random.
And one year he decided to learn like Mandarin Chinese
and one year then suddenly became like a UFC fighter.
And really, I mean, the guy is just a genius
and very stellar at what he does.
But that always inspired me.
And I've tried to do some of that since,
but this year, personally, I took on tennis.
He said, I wanna learn.
I've never picked up a racket in my life.
I was a wrestler in high school.
I wrestled, I played soccer, you know what I mean?
So never did any sport with that, but I said, let me try it.
And it was like super terrible for the beginning,
but I think I've gotten decent at it.
I really empathize with the feeling.
I think that it's cool that you're aware of that.
And I would say if I could leave an impact
on you and this podcast,
it would be just keep trying new things.
Cause it's just great, you know, you get out of your shell.
And the fact that you're already aware of that,
like you're like 80% of the way there.
And just try something new.
What am I gonna do, Yossi?
Am I coming back to you?
Just get back up and keep going, baby, let's go.
We can bring you back on a podcast.
It's great content.
The thing that I think catches people by surprise with me
is with my personality, I'm actually introverted, right?
I'm not like, I don't really wanna go out
and meet new people.
And, you know, it kind of gives me some anxiety to do that.
I'm a homebody, if I wanna go out.
You and me both.
Yeah, if I wanna go out, I'd rather just go out,
you know, with my wife, or I wanna go out with my wife
and kids.
And not every night, but I'd like to be in bed
by at the latest, 9.30, like every night.
If not, if I can get into bed by 8.30 one night,
I'm doing it.
And people are completely wigged out when they hear that.
And so when I'm in Vegas, it's so funny,
I go out there with our team and I'm like,
all right, tonight we're getting a table,
we're going to the club and they all laughing, man.
Because they know, they got no chance of doing.
Break the flow.
Incredible conversation.
You know, I know we spoke a lot about the family,
the business and one thing we didn't touch on
and I would like to touch on before we come to a close
is just your overall take on the trajectory of the industry
with where margins are going, volumes,
the brand mix that you have today,
new potential brands in the future.
What's your kind of, give me your executive summary,
the David Weiler executive summary of,
you know, how you view the direction of the business.
Yeah, so coming out of COVID, right?
Our company for one, we got stagnant
and we kind of just relied on COVID, right?
And in easy-
The tailwinds.
Yeah, the market just, the market was good.
We think we took things for granted.
We took our eye off the ball.
We didn't execute what the playbook said.
We didn't block, we didn't tackle fundamentally.
That's kind of what I like to say
because, you know, that blip in time,
it's never gonna happen again.
And so I think where we have been in 25
and what I think 26 is gonna be and moving forward,
it's gonna be the traditional Carbiz.
This is gonna be a grind, but it's gonna be tough, right?
This is not an easy business.
And so moving forward, we've got to roll up our sleeves.
We're gonna have to practice harder
than we've ever practiced before.
You know, I always like to say, like in an NFL game,
and this is kind of one of my canned speeches,
you know, to a group or to our team is like,
in an NFL game, think about this, Yossi,
like there are four quarters and they're 15 minutes each,
right?
And so that's an hour, that's an hour.
But if you actually look inside of an NFL game,
during, there's only probably like 11 minutes
worth of plays in an hour, right?
Of just live action, whether it's a running,
running play or special teams, you've got 11 minutes.
And so these professional athletes, all right,
are gonna play for an hour or a condensed 11 minutes.
And half of that is offense and half of that is defense.
And so that would be like five and a half minutes
for offense and five and a half minutes for defense,
that you would actually have live action.
And so what does a week look like for an NFL player
and how much time and effort and practice
do they put in for that one hour?
Think about that.
And for those, for those respective five and a half minutes.
Yeah, and so you're probably,
they're probably putting in with lifting,
practice, game film, they're putting in 50 hours a week,
right, conservatively.
And what are the coaches putting in?
The coaches are putting in more than that for a one hour.
And what are we doing in the retail car business?
We're gonna be open for how many hours a day,
how many hours a week,
and you'll see what's your practice schedule.
My practice schedule is a half hour a day.
It doesn't make any sense, does it?
Makes no sense on that correlation.
You're a professional salesperson,
you're a professional advisor, right?
And we're only practicing 30 minutes a day,
five minutes a day, 10 minutes, whatever the number is,
your return on what your professional game is
that day of eight hours,
I only put in 30 minutes for eight hours.
That doesn't correlate.
So that's some of the things that we've tried to change.
I love the look into the business
and how you think about it and how you lead the team.
And it seems like you're doing a great job
and you're bringing really just lots of cultures
is clear that you don't just say you mean it.
So I really do appreciate that.
David, any closing thoughts?
Appreciate you having me on.
I'd love to have you come up to our headquarters.
So you actually can see, you can feel.
Headquarters is in Cincinnati, right?
Yeah, headquarters is in Cincinnati.
In fact, we partnered years ago with a group
that actually built out and remodeled
college locker rooms and recruiting centers.
So you really went with the theme, wow.
Yeah, and so we literally have,
that's the same company actually has come in
and done our facility.
So it actually looks like a college.
I can imagine you're going home to your wife
and saying, listen, you're gonna think I'm crazy,
but I think this walk-in closet should have locker rooms.
Exactly.
Yeah, that's what she says to me.
She's like, yeah, you know I don't work for you, right?
Oh my God, love it.
David Weiler, what a conversation.
This is super fun.
Yeah, I'm excited for, you know, to air this
because it's really just, you know, you're very authentic
and I love having conversations with people like yourself
where you can really tell a real story
and understand the history, but also, you know,
how you think about operating today
and, you know, business life.
So incredible conversation.
Hopefully in the future I can have you here
down in Florida recording together.
Love to.
What's scheduling in advance and I'll make an app for sure.
Incredible.
David Weiler, Jeff Weiler, or JJ Dobb, automotive group.
That's right.
Thank you for commenting on the pod.
This was super fun.
Thanks, COC.
Appreciate you.
All right, 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.
Request an explanation for:
1 cars
1 cars featured
Request an Explanation
Heard something you'd like explained? We'll add it to this episode.
Sign in to request explanations for terms you heard.
Want to learn more?
Browse our glossary for plain-English explanations of automotive terms, jargon, and concepts.
Help improve this episode
See something that's not quite right? Our annotations are AI-generated and can sometimes miss the mark. Click the flag icon on any annotation to suggest a correction.
Report incorrect info
Suggest better explanations
Flag missing cars
More from Car Dealership Guy Podcast
Fixed Ops Friday w/ Rogers, Kaminski, Coyle, and Skinner | Daily Dealer Live
Jun 5, 2026
"One Deal Is Enough!" The Blind Spot That's Costing Dealers 10–20 Sales a Month (and Their Best Customers) | Industry Spotlight
Jun 4, 2026
Johnson on Tech Shortage, DeMont on Defection, Wood on Buy Centers | Daily Dealer Live
Jun 3, 2026
"Your Presence Is a Lie!" The 60-Second Car Deal: One Dealer's Bet on the Future of Retail (& The Numbers Behind It) | Jon Alcorn, Operating Partner at Dogwood Automotive Group
Jun 2, 2026