Steven Cirillo, GM, Baron Honda & Joey Jack, F&I Manager, Baron Honda

Kyle Mountsier: 0:00This is In the Dirt with ASOTU.

‍Paul Daly: 0:05

So here we are with Joey and Steve to brand new friends, which is one of the reasons I love coming to NADA because we meet all the Dealers from all the corners of the country. So I don't even know what your roles are in the dealership or who wants to tell me a little bit about the group or the store?

Steven Cirillo: 0:19

We're in Baron Honda. We're part of a big group Island Auto Group and also the Baron group. I'm the General Manager of Baron Honda. He's F&I, Director of Baron Honda. So, you know, we're down here checking some new technology out and kind of see what's going on.

Paul Daly: 0:36

So you just the short show floor just open. Can you tell me about what challenges you're facing right now heading into 2023 that are a little bit unique.

Steven Cirillo: 0:47

Yeah, I mean, we're, everything's a little unique right now. You know, given the current state of the market, you know, you know, or do we charge market adjustments? Do we not charge market adjustments? inventory levels are obviously extremely low. Used cars are tanking at the moment. Yeah. So you know, we're trying to find footing and figure out you know, what, the best way to approach businesses? It's it's uncharted waters,

Paul Daly: 1:10

Joey in the F&I department, are you seeing the landscape shift a little bit now that we're coming out of the COVID? When it was obviously a lot easier to sell the inventory that you had? What do you what changes are you seeing in interest rates are going up? So how are you just kind of like fielding all of these things coming at you right now?

Joey Jack: 1:26

I mean, right now for us in F&I, we do better with volume. So we're kind of in a place where the F&I departments happy, like, oh, great, we're starting to sell more cars, maybe the front ends aren't the same as they were, but we're getting more turns. Interest rates wise, everybody, usually in the car business, our rates kind of mirror or mortgage rates. So it's kind of been easy to justify our rates as opposed to in the past. You got special rates for the manufacturer that is 0% 1.9. But even they're not that low. So it actually makes it pretty easy for us to secure it in house financing hasn't been too bad for us. You know, it's a nice turnaround for us.

Paul Daly: 2:01

Well, that's great to hear for sure. Your Honda store, lots of Honda's Dealers out there, Honda's making a lot of shifts and changes. How are you feeling as a GM that things are going with Honda what would be your advice to other Honda Dealers out there?

Steven Cirillo: 2:14

Oh, honestly, things are going well. It's just the supply chain is down. I mean, you know, at the end of the day, I think Honda is in a good position to be able to establish themselves and and hold the line a little bit and make some gross and and you know, bring more gross profit into stores. I think we're in a good position rather than a poor one.

Paul Daly: 2:33

If you had one piece of advice for F&I, F&I, Managers, Directors across the country, what would you encourage them to do?

Steven Cirillo: 2:39

Don't take no for an answer.

Paul Daly: 2:41

All right, I'm gonna let that be the last word, Joey, Joey and Steven, my new friends. I'm sure you're gonna be part of this community for a while. It's nice to meet you have a great show. And when we're down in the city, we'll come visit you.

Steven Cirillo: 2:53

Thank you, man. Thank you.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:55

Thank you for listening to In the Dirt with ASOTU. We love the automotive industry and the people who make it run day in and day out. We would love to connect with you more through our daily dose of fun, a free email that you can sign up for at ASOTU.com That's a s o t u.com. We put our heart and soul into it every day. Thanks again for listening. Join us next time for more Conversations in the dirt with ASOTU.

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