Car Dealership Guy Podcast Mar 3, 2026

"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

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Brand

Ford

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.

Brand

Lexus

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.

Brand

Aston Martin

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.

Brand

Toyota

Toyota is a big car company from Japan that makes many cars people trust for being reliable and easy to maintain.

Brand

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz is a famous car company from Germany that makes high-quality and fancy cars and trucks.

Car

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.

Term

M&A

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.

Term

OEM

OEM means the original company that makes cars or car parts. For example, Ford or Toyota are OEMs because they build the cars.

Brand

Nissan North America

Nissan North America is the part of Nissan that sells and supports Nissan cars in the US and Canada.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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.

Aston Martin Ford Lexus M&A Mercedes-Benz Nissan North America OEM Toyota

Subaru 360

Original notes

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

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