All Podcast Episodes

Today's show features: - David Thomas, Director of Content Marketing at CDK Global - Greg Johnson, General Manager at Mohawk Honda - Mark Payne, President at Total Dealer Solutions - Scott Painter, Founder and CEO at TrueCar - Joeseph Ruppel, Parts and Service Director at Meier Chevrolet Buick This episode is brought to you by: Zurich North America – Turn everyday service visits into opportunities to build customer loyalty and long-term dealership value with Zurich Lifetime Repair. Give c...

Mike Gilson believes that five years from now, the car business will look back and laugh at the software dealers run on today. Groups with 50 to 100 stores often juggle dozens of different store management and customer management systems, stacked up through decades of acquisitions, and replacing any one of them, he says, is like open heart surgery. Meanwhile, 64% of car buyers now use AI tools to compare models and payments, yet most dealerships can't even be found by those tools, and he argues...

Today's show features: - Bobby Preston, President at Preston Auto Group - Kim Saylor, Sr. Director of Product Marketing, Fixed Operations at CDK Global - Mark Shivers, GM at Suburu of Orillia This episode is brought to you by: Zurich North America – Turn everyday service visits into opportunities to build customer loyalty and long-term dealership value with Zurich Lifetime Repair. Give customers greater confidence in choosing your dealership, knowing covered parts and labor are warrantied f...

Jim Speck walks through how he turned down a $125,000 job in Arizona for $4,000 a month plus 8% of a profit that didn't exist yet, and argues that a young operator trying the same climb in a big metro market today would get squeezed out by the public companies. Jim Speck is the Pesident of Circle Auto Group in Southern California, where he built an 11-store group alongside his late partner Hank and still runs the business with Hank's trust today. He built his foundation on the fixed side of th...

Today's show features: - James Seale, Managing Partner & General Manager at Parkway Family Auto Group - Jamie Kent, Chief Strategy Officer at Overfuel - Michael Salicco, CEO at On.Page - Michael Meisinger, CEO at Mauer Auto Group This episode is brought to you by: Zurich North America – Turn everyday service visits into opportunities to build customer loyalty and long-term dealership value with Zurich Lifetime Repair. Give customers greater confidence in choosing your dealership, knowing c...

Today's show features: - CJ Wilson, Owner and GM at Porsche Fresno - Sarah Grajewski, Chief Operating Officer at PureCars - Luke Goerlitz, Service Manager at Napleton Palatine Subaru - Maureen Martin, VP Strategic Aliances at Dynatron - Damon Egan, Service Director at Sherwood Ford This episode is brought to you by: Presidio – Today’s episode is brought to you by The Presidio Group, one of the automotive industry’s leading buy-sell advisors. Visit Presidio’s new Research & Reports portal ...

71% of the brands a car shopper will ever consider are already in their head before they type a single search, and Jason Goldberg says that's exactly why dealers putting 90% or more of their ad budget into search and social are showing up too late. He walks through how dealers in one automaker's regions pooled their ad dollars into streaming TV and audio to buy the customer instead of the network, and argues that as AI shopping agents start requesting quotes on their own, dealers who don't buil...

Today's show features: - Brian Kramer, EVP, Dealer Growth & Success at Cars Commerce - Ben Sporn, CMO at VIP Automotive Group of Long Island - Zach Pucillo, Regulatory Director at KPA This episode is brought to you by: Presidio – Today’s episode is brought to you by The Presidio Group, one of the automotive industry’s leading buy-sell advisors. Visit Presidio’s new Research & Reports portal for M&A insights, blue sky multiples, exclusive benchmark data with NCM Associates, dealer sentiment,...

Alex Perdikis walks through how his AI texted service customers about selling or trading their car and drew a 60% response rate at his Ford store, with cars bought the same day, and argues that the customers you've already sold are the best source of used car inventory you will ever find. Alex Perdikis is the Owner/CEO of Koons Motors Inc, which runs Ford, Lincoln and Mazda stores in the Washington, DC area, and the founder of inRide, an AI company closing in on 100 dealerships after about six ...

Today's show features: - Alex Keenan, Corperate Head of Market Strategy (CHoMS) at Ewing Automotive - Marc Steiner, Founder & CEO at Turn Automotive - Eric Wilmeth, VP of Operations at Waxahachie Chrysler Dodge Jeep and Ram This episode is brought to you by: Presidio – Today’s episode is brought to you by The Presidio Group, one of the automotive industry’s leading buy-sell advisors. Visit Presidio’s new Research & Reports portal for M&A insights, blue sky multiples, exclusive benchmark dat...

Today's show features: - Dennis Gingrich, Platform / Group Executive at The Niello Company - Cody Short, CRO at The Laundry Guy - Travis Graddon, General Manager at Wilder Auto Center This episode is brought to you by: Carmax – Access thousands of cars weekly at 50+ locations nationwide through our 100% online auctions. From high-end to high mileage, CarMax Auctions has the inventory you need to source smarter and accelerate sales. Register now for free at https://w...

Joining host Matthew Haiken today is Michael Brown. Michael was running his father's Jaguar and Porsche store on Long Island when his dad sold it out from under him in 1998, a move that left him devastated and turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. He walks through learning the business under Roger Penske and John Staluppi, the handshake deal where he signed over his house and every asset he had for a piece of the stores, and the $350,000 health insurance bill that nearly pu...

Today's show features: - Vaughn Triolo, Platform GM at Pedder Auto Group - Peter Franco, Head of P&C Acquisition, Direct Markets at Zurich U.S. - Mahima Raghav, AVP/Senior Consultant, Staff Legal, Judicial and Legislative Affairs at Zurich U.S. - Chris Kennedy, Dealer Principal at Kennedy Auto Group This episode is brought to you by: Carmax – Access thousands of cars weekly at 50+ locations nationwide through our 100% online auctions. From high-end to high mileage, CarMax Auctions has the ...

Aaron Baldwin estimates that coordination between dealers, automakers, and vendors is maybe 10% effective today, and argues that a bad car buying experience doesn't start in the showroom, it starts with the very first ad a shopper sees. Aaron Baldwin is the President of Mobility Global Sales Solutions, the division that brings Automotive Mastermind, MarketScan, and Polk under one roof. He started out selling cars and working deals at Asbury Automotive Group in the mid-2000s, was the foundi...

Today's show features: - Andrew Reutsky, Business Student at Harvard - Eric Frehsée, President at Tamaroff Group - Spencer Webb, General Manager at Audi Salt Lake City This episode is brought to you by: Carmax – Access thousands of cars weekly at 50+ locations nationwide through our 100% online auctions. From high-end to high mileage, CarMax Auctions has the inventory you need to source smarter and accelerate sales. Register now for free at https://www.carmaxauctions.com/CDG Check out Car ...

Today's show features: - Richard Meneely, Fixed Operations Director at Norm Reeves Honda Superstore North Richland Hills - Bill Egan, Vice President of Product at automotiveMastermind - Matthew Whittenberger, Fixed Ops Director at Diehl Automotive This episode is brought to you by: Zurich North America – Zurich Advisor IQ is Zurich’s AI-driven training and coaching platform built to help F&I teams perform more consistently and sell more effectively — using real transaction data, not theory....

Today Guest Host Matt Haiken is joined by Bill Solko, Dealer Principal at Automotive Avenues. In 2009, Bill's accountant told him he had lost $1.2 million, and a few weeks later he drove past an empty dealership and decided to go retail. Last month Automotive Avenues sold 1,025 used cars across two New Jersey stores, and it outsells Carvana in the New York market while making around $800 a car, compared with the $3,800 Bill says the big box players target. Bill breaks down his "wholesal...

Today's show features: - Cooper Wilburn, Sales Manager at Al Serra Autoplaza - Dan Gaughan, General Manager at AutoHub - Aaron Smith, Platform Director at Fred Beans Automotive Group This episode is brought to you by: Zurich North America – Zurich Advisor IQ is Zurich’s AI-driven training and coaching platform built to help F&I teams perform more consistently and sell more effectively — using real transaction data, not theory. By analyzing actual F&I transactions, Zurich Advisor IQ helps i...

In this episode of the Industry Spotlight, joining host Sam D'Arc are Rick Vrablik, General Manager at Nielsen Automotive Group, and Babak Mofrad, President at AutoVision to discuss how an 11-store group that shares every used car across every rooftop sourced, appraised, and priced its way to a 400-unit record month just five months after switching appraisal tools. Rick admits he fought the shared-inventory model at first, then explains why it forces managers to put the right money on every t...

Today's show features: - Jeremy Mayoral, General Manager at Arlington Acura (Rohrman Auto Group) - David Thomas, Director of Content Marketing at CDK Global - Kareem Raposo, General Manager at Kia of Port Charlotte (Morgan Auto Group) This episode is brought to you by: Zurich North America – Zurich Advisor IQ is Zurich’s AI-driven training and coaching platform built to help F&I teams perform more consistently and sell more effectively — using real transaction data, not theory. By analyzin...

Today's show features: - Ed Roberts, COO at Bozard Ford Lincoln - Greg Heinz, Managing Partner at Corwin Toyota Boulder This episode is brought to you by: Haig Partners – When it comes to selling your life’s work, trust the only advisors who have built a reputation for maximizing value for family-owned dealerships. The team at Haig Partners has achieved record-setting values across multiple franchises and has represented more owners in the sale of their Toyota dealerships than any other firm...

Eric Rea and Dennis Steele's first pitch to a car dealership ended with the general manager writing a check for the entire year on the spot, and they say that moment is what convinced them dealerships, not the tire shops they started with, would build their company. They walk through how a 700-location collision repair network let Podium's voice agent take over 61% of its after-hours phone calls, and how that agent is now on pace to help book $1 billion in repairs this year with a customer sati...

Today's show features: - Adam Crowell, Chief Legal & Strategy Officer at KPA - Tustin Ulrich, General Manager at Roper Kia - Scott Traylor, Vice President of Sales at Mia - Sefi Adasi Lucki, Owner & Controller at Lucki Mazda of Woodbridge - Mike Lucki, Dealer Principal at Lucki Mazda of Woodbridge This episode is brought to you by: Haig Partners – When it comes to selling your life’s work, trust the only advisors who have built a reputation for maximizing value for family-owned dealership...

In this episode of the Industry Spotlight, joining host Sam D'Arc are Shawn Dennis, Marketing Director of the Ron Marhoffer Auto Group, and Patrick Janes, AVP of Inventory Solutions at vAuto to discuss why more than 90 percent of vehicle listings fail to sell themselves, and what it actually takes to merchandise a car the right way in 2026. Shawn breaks down why proper merchandising, accurate options, a clean Carfax, real angles, video and walk arounds, takes three to four hours per car and func...