TOGETHER WITH:
Welcome to Saturday, Friend!
We hope you caught yesterday’s Automotive State of the Union with our friend Daniel Kim. He is the host of the upcoming AI For Dealers Podcast and we’re eager to show you what we’ve been working on!
Get to know Daniel a little, and make a plan to follow the show when it drops!
Keep Pushing Back,
—Paul, Kyle, Chris & Kristi
First-time reader? Subscribe Here!
ICYMI
On Monday, we opened the week with a service advisor staring at a system that wouldn't load, after a cybersecurity incident took Honda's dealer portal offline and left more than 1,100 stores unable to order parts. We followed it with GM's $220 million privacy settlement and what it means at delivery, because when a partner's system leaks, the dealer often still answers for it. We closed with a question worth asking your managers: if your OEM portal went dark tomorrow, could your team keep writing deals?
On Tuesday, ahead of Automotive News naming its 150 Best Dealerships To Work For, we looked at what separates the winners from stores that applied and missed. At winning stores, 92% of staff say they rarely miss personal events for work, versus 73% at stores that missed, and 89% know how the store is doing financially, versus 66%. We paired it with Walmart's push to put milk on autopilot, because the AI learning a family's grocery rhythm will soon be recommending their next vehicle.
On Wednesday, with Veterans Day a week out, we opened with Roy Mora, an Army veteran Lithia Motors helped surprise with a new car and a college scholarship. Then October sales landed, and hybrids carried them: Hyundai set an October record of 73,452, with hybrid sales up 20% to make up 29% of its volume. We also dug into iSeeCars data showing used EVs swung from $2,227 cheaper than gas cars to $579 more expensive in a year, while selling nearly two weeks faster, though some electric trucks still sat 90 days or more.
On Thursday, we brought a warning home from SEMA: Chinese brands grew from 1.7% to 7.8% of Europe's new-vehicle sales in a decade, and the industry's top trade group wants Congress to act during the lame duck. Goldman Sachs pulling AI tools from its traders gave us three AI policy calls every store should put in writing.
On Friday, John Lee Nissan's gift to Fore Her grew from $10,000 to $15,000, helping breast cancer patients in northwest Florida cover rent during treatment. That set up Presidio's numbers: dealers who want to sell jumped from 11% to 18%, and buyers now check a store's reputation before they make an offer. We also asked who is servicing robotaxis in Nashville and Dallas (Lyft and Avis, so far) and watched October's sales pace slip 0.9% year over year to 15.54 million.
Get Ahead of What Customers See Next
AutoMobility LA gives dealers something most industry events cannot: one day to see the product, people, and competition shaping the market before the public ever walks in.
On November 19, you can move from brand to brand, see what automakers are putting into market next, talk directly with industry leaders and product specialists, and get a much broader read on where automotive is headed.
If you are already coming to ASOTU CON West on November 18, your dealer ticket includes FREE admission to AutoMobility LA the next day.
Can't make ACW? Dealers can still get discounted AutoMobility LA tickets with our exclusive code: MTC149.
ASOTU Edge Webinar
Earl Wheless's store went from three salespeople selling about 50 cars a month to five selling about 100, and a big part of that growth started with the phone. On our latest Edge Webinar with CallRevu, the Gaffney Buick GMC internet sales manager walked Paul through how his team reviews every flagged call. That includes the one where a salesperson told a customer the store had no blue Sierra 1500. (Three were in transit.)
Earl also shares the first habit he gives any new internet sales manager, and CallRevu's Trish Kaliandasani offers one question every manager should be able to answer about their call alerts. Most can't.
Auto Collabs
Jack Hollis on the hidden loneliness of leadership
The former Toyota executive says great dealership cultures come down to one thing: whether leaders actually care about their people. He explains why ping pong tables can't manufacture culture, and shares the airplane encounter that brought him to tears.
Tomi Mikula on death threats, F&I and $100K salespeople
Our longest Auto Collabs yet. The Delivrd founder went from growing up homeless to running an F&I office to becoming one of the industry's loudest consumer advocates. Stay for the part where he designs his ideal dealership from scratch.
The Dealer Playbook
How service earns the next car sale, with Paul Dosescu
Sales earns the first car. Fixed ops trainer Paul Dosescu tells Michael Cirillo why the service lane decides who earns the next one, from an introduction before delivery to the advisor habits that quietly drive customers away. Then hear his five-year formula for the dealerships that win.
At SEMA, the Toughest Judges Are the Other Builders
Imagine pouring 20,000 hours into one car, then letting your competitors judge it. At SEMA's Battle of the Builders, the field gets cut to 12 finalists, who then vote on each other's work to crown the champions. Peer review, with way more horsepower.
The class champs:
Hot Rod: Eddie Pettus built a 1970 Chevelle making 1,300 hp from a twin-turbo LS3. Apparently 1970 horsepower was just a suggestion.
Off-Road: Mark Giambalvo put a modern LT4 in a 1974 Chevy K10, so it looks like Grandpa's truck and drives like nothing Grandpa ever owned.
Sport Compact/Import: Buddy Hale spent more than 20,000 hours on a 1955 VW Ghia. That's nearly 10 years of 40-hour weeks.
Young Guns (29 and under): Jesse Rieger built a widebody 1969 Mustang on a chassis he designed in CAD.
And in SEMA's first-ever motorcycle shootout, Brooklyn's Steven Iacona took the title on his first trip to the show, riding a 1945 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead.
1910: Wright pilot Philip Parmalee flew the world's first air cargo shipment, about 70 pounds of silk from Dayton to Columbus. A car handled the last leg to the store.
1916: Montana's Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress, four years before the 19th Amendment guaranteed women the right to vote nationwide.
1996: NASA launched Mars Global Surveyor, which went on to map the Red Planet for nearly a decade.
