TOGETHER WITH:
Howdy, Fam!
Over the years, my best managers have been the people I could tell were invested in my family's success, along with the work we shared. They knew that for me to thrive at work and contribute well, my work needed to support my life. Not the other way around.
That kind of leadership is what Jack Hollis brings to today's Auto Collabs episode. Jack rose to EVP and COO of Toyota Motor North America and now serves as managing partner at Accrual Equity Partners. Put it on for the drive in and listen for how he talks about people.
The timing works, too. Tomorrow, Automotive News names its 150 Best Dealerships To Work For, and the preview data shows employees feel the difference.
In today's email...
What the Best Dealerships To Work For do differently
Why Walmart's milk on autopilot matters for your next sale
Toyota builds robotaxis for Waymo, plus BYD's big October
Keep Pushing Back,
—Chris with Paul, Kyle & Kristi
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Employees at this year's Best Dealerships To Work For are far more likely to know how their store is doing.
Automotive News previewed the 2026 list ahead of tomorrow's full ranking, comparing winners with stores that applied and missed. These are dealerships that already care about culture, so the gaps are telling.
Staff who say... | Missed the list | Made the list |
|---|---|---|
They know the store's financial status | 66% | 89% |
They rarely miss personal events for work | 73% | 92% |
They have enough PTO and sick leave | 74% | 92% |
How do winning stores make work fit around life?
Patriot Subaru in Saco, Maine pays 100% of medical, dental, and vision for its 100+ employees, and most of them work four days a week. Across the list, 56% of winners offer 3- or 4-day workweeks, compared with 26% of stores that missed. Capitol Auto Group shares sales, ROs, and service gross at a yearly all-hands, and all four of its Salem, Oregon stores made it. We broke down what sets them apart on Monday's show.
Pick one number your team never sees and share it with them this week.
It's Time to Future-Proof Your Dealership
Answering every call is just the start. Mia helps your dealership put AI to work across the whole customer experience, from the first ring to the next sale.
Every call, captured: That's the baseline. Mia answers every call, day or night, books appointments, and makes sure no customer ends up in voicemail.
One connected customer experience: Mia works across your tech stack, so every conversation has the full picture: customer history, inventory, service schedule. Your customers get faster, smarter answers, and your team stops jumping between systems.
More revenue from every lead: Mia doesn't just pick up the phone. She follows up on leads and runs outbound campaigns that bring customers back through your doors.
Plus, join us in person at ASOTU CON West, where they'll be sharing never-before-seen insights from more than 7 million dealership calls.
Walmart wants to put milk on autopilot, and your customer's next vehicle could follow.
Walmart's AI predicts rotating household purchases, like the lasagna ingredients a family buys every other week, and the company wants to put staples like milk on autopilot. On Monday's show, we called it a warning shot: the engines learning a family's grocery rhythm will soon recommend vehicles, stores, and deals.
What should dealers watch in retail AI right now?
Trust in automated reorders. The more comfortable shoppers get letting a store decide when the milk arrives, the sooner they may accept an AI shortlist for their next vehicle.
Early demand signals. Target's Trend Brain and retailers mining TikTok and Reddit are spotting what will sell before it peaks.
Adoption. eMarketer expects gen AI recommendation users to grow from 47.1 million this year to 72.1 million by 2030.
Ask your team which repeated customer touch they'd hand to automation, and which one they'd never give up.
Toyota will build Waymo robotaxis on its own assembly line in Japan.
Testing of the driverless bZ4X starts in Japan in 2027, with the UK next. Neither company said how many Toyota will build. Here's how that lines up with the Rivian news we covered Monday:
2027: Toyota and Waymo begin testing in Japan.
2028: Driverless Rivian R2s are slated to launch on Uber in a couple of cities.
The robotaxi race is now as much about factory capacity as software.
Where do your customer insights get lost between the phone, the text, and the CRM?
Your store has more customer data than ever, and a lot of it still disappears between a phone call, a text, and a CRM note.
Tomorrow at 2 p.m. ET, we're sitting down with CallRevu and a dealer operator to dig into where those insights slip through, what it costs your team, and how connecting the conversations you already have puts them to work.
Can't make it live? Register free and we'll send you the replay.
🔋 Charging Ahead
BYD sold 483,125 passenger cars globally in October, and Leapmotor's deliveries climbed 51% year over year to 106,127.
💸 Big Money Moves
Marvell agreed to buy Lumentum in an all-stock deal valuing it at $115 billion, about a 24% premium, to expand its AI data-center reach.
Oracle says its next $20 billion raise is the final one for this AI build-out, split between debt and equity. Capex is forecast to rise 65%, from $55.7 billion last fiscal year to $91.9 billion this one.
1900: The first National Automobile Show opens at Madison Square Garden in New York.
1911: Louis Chevrolet and William Durant found the Chevrolet Motor Car Company.
1964: Washington, D.C. residents vote in a presidential election for the first time.
Thanks for reading, Friend!
