Top 100 Used Dealers, Tesla Delays Affordability, Sam’s Club Scan and Go

Paul J Daly  0:01  
Good morning, Monday, April 21 this is the automotive State of the Union on Paul J Daly is Kyle Mountsier Today we're talking about the top 100 used car dealers. Tesla delaying its affordable car and Sam's Club getting rid of cashiers along with the old furniture. See, you buy renovation

Kyle Mountsier  0:19  
and the whole thing, that Sam's Club's trying, they're trying to beat Costco, but they ain't got dollar hot dogs. You know I'm saying, I

Paul J Daly  0:26  
mean, I know it's kind of the opposite of Costco. It might lose the opposite. I mean, have you ever been to a BJs?

Kyle Mountsier  0:33  
No, but we have one, and my wife went, and she was like, man,

Paul J Daly  0:37  
like, Yeah, is it like Costco is target, Sam's Club is Walmart, and BJs is, like, Dollar General. Like, how does that work?

Kyle Mountsier  0:46  
I mean, no, no, I would, I would go Publix. Well, no grocery

Paul J Daly  0:52  
store, it's heavy warehouse story. It's been a long time, but BJs, I feel like, was one of the OGs.

Kyle Mountsier  0:58  
No, I've heard that BJs is, is higher than Sam's Club. These days, we

Paul J Daly  1:02  
don't have a Sam's Club anymore in Syracuse because it did close. Now it's a mini storage so that'll tell you something. BJ, can we talk about how many storage units are in the US? That's got a little conversation. Yeah, we have mini ones. They're attached to our houses called garage, where we keep that crap. That's all you need. People, all right, we call them how it is. We're okay, like a day, more than three weeks away from ASOTU CON 2025, it's gonna be unbelievable, watching the tickets come in, watching the social media posts of people posting their license plates. They're going to be there. We got some other things brewing, like I heard this little pickleball event brewing. What? Yeah, yeah. I didn't even tell you about that. Come on now. Yeah, there's a little pickleball thing of brewing. But if you go to ASOTU con.com right now and click on agenda and then detailed agenda by stage, you're going to see a whole flurry of topics that you need to know about, or you want to know about, because they're areas, all different areas to improve your business, to handle the situations as it's coming at you, whether it's tariffs or people issues. You know, we've been talking a lot how people issues are going to affect your bottom line much more than a tariff will, and that's legit. We're talking people, we're talking sales, acquisitions, health insurance. We're going to pound health insurance costs and how you can take care of people better. There all kinds of stuff. Kyle, you and I decided we were going to pick one session today, one thing that we are interested in. And naturally, I was like, I want to pick this one, which one was yours? And you're like, Well, that was gonna be it. That was gonna be it. So what are you excited about? I'm excited about day one, Studio One. This is 230, to three, SEO to Geo, which is generative engine optimization, optimization with Nick askew and John su calad. This is what's happening right now. Is that when you're searching, even if you're searching on Google, or if you're a lot of people moving to chat, GBT, or searching some level of AI tool, it is what is generated in the answer, where is it getting the information that is giving you that first answer and response, even if you're still using Google, what do you need to do to your content and your website to make sure you show up in that? Not the traditional route where you just want to show up in the first page of search results. That's actually becoming a little outdated. So cutting edge technology. I'm not going to

Kyle Mountsier  3:19  
talk about mine, because this was an interesting thing. I think this is like we're already getting into the news here today. But last week, GPT announced that the that all of your history is available to GPT. And then they announced, oh

Paul J Daly  3:38  
three, oh the memory, the memory of memory. Everything full memory. It can remember it and reference in future conversations you have with it.

Kyle Mountsier  3:46  
When you think about Geo, it's actually audience segmentation at its finest. And I posted on LinkedIn today about how we are basically creating our own echo chamber. But this is the adverse to that somewhat. If you go to 03 and ask it a question. Instead of like, what are restaurants near me? You say, What are restaurants near me that I would like, Ooh, it takes you and puts you in a deeper autumn audience segment like, Oh, I like steak and and mushrooms. Okay, so now the targeting to get me actually requires the depth of your content to be much more structured, instead of just like being a restaurant. It's like no a restaurant for people that like steak and mushrooms. It sounds like it sounds like brand at its finest, doing the

Paul J Daly  4:41  
grind of the brand, work and building out not gonna win, not like garbage, throw away content like, you know, random stuff that might get traffic, but not relevant traffic, but things that talk about who you are posting on social media has to do with this. I just asked GPT what restaurants are near me that you think I'd like. Let's see. That comes up with its search in the web right now, I think I know what it's probably gonna say. You

Kyle Mountsier  5:07  
seem to like burgers.

Paul J Daly  5:09  
I think it's just gonna generate an image of a pizza.

It's got noble cell seller, which is a small, like, kind of really hip, new fine dining concept thing. Okay, nice. A place called Eden, where I've never been to its farm to table past abilities, which is pasta, dinosaur, barbecue, it's not that good. It's it's not that good. Do that everybody wants to, yeah, I don't, granted, I don't talk about my food a lot. I mean, no, like, I can see why it picked this stuff based on what I talk about, like business and like, for sure, the entrepreneurship and like it. I don't know if it knows. I guess it knows how old I am, maybe, maybe not. Think it thinks I'm a little younger than I am. That's nice of it. What places can I go to before 830 right? Yeah, right. Also that,

Unknown Speaker  6:01  
also that, I think, I think

Paul J Daly  6:02  
there's news to talk about today, but also all that to say we are unpacking the things that are going to give you insights that when you get to your dealership, or you can call or text or take pictures of the slides and disperse them to your teams, guess what your business is actually going to get better. That's what asosu con is all about. And doing that with people who are also want to see you succeed. And the people who you can ask, what are you doing about this? And that's really where the growth comes. So go to ASOTU CON com, get your tickets, bring a team member or two, and if you need any help to do that, just DM me or Kyle. We'll make sure you can get there as fast as possible, as easy as possible. The automotive, top Automotive News, top 100 US used car dealership Groups list is out. The big takeaway isn't just who's up or down, but how they are adapting to survive. As competition at auctions grows fiercer, retailers are shifting hard into alternative sourcing strategies. By the way, we're going to talk about a lot of those out of soda con. Here are the top three. Lithia sold, 411,000 used vehicles. Auto nation was number two. Penske was number three. So Lithia, auto nation, Penske, however, if we did include used car retailers, Carvana and Carmax, Carmax would have been number one at 770,000 Carvana would have been number two at 416,000 so Carvana, I mean, Carmax 770, Carvana, 416 Lithia, 411 granted, they don't sell new cars. They don't right now, it's a different thing, but we just thought it relevant to put that in there. Cross Auto Group posted the biggest leap on the list, jumping 25 spots. They've been come on to number 67 with a 39% sales increase. Holman, our friends there, up 24 spots. Dark cars up 20 spots. And swickard Auto Group up 17 spots. Also made significant moves with strategies ranging from better internal competition interesting to expanded certification and F and I offerings. Van Horn auto group based based in Plymouth, Wisconsin, crack the top 100 for the first time at number 69 they came in smoking roughly half of its monthly news purchases come from auctions. So interesting there. Here's a quote from but

Kyle Mountsier  8:10  
only half. But only half. The rest are only 50% of their inventory is auctions. That's a strong move right at a dealership on it,

Paul J Daly  8:19  
number 69 on the list. Who is it? Brian Wyland, used car director Van Horn said we've had to readapt, because it's not just the easy to go to it's not just that easy to go to the auction and get 100 cars. Can't do that easy anymore. So and just, I think it's worth mentioning, of this list. So many of them are already going to be represented and have people at a Soto con. So if you want to get better at used car business, we're talking um number 98 holler, classic, CMA at 87 Russ, Darrow, uh, cross group, roarman, RML, automotive oarsman, Walzer, Holman, are all going to be on the floor, walking around, talking at a soda con. Can't miss

Kyle Mountsier  9:01  
that. No used car. Big deal right now. I mean, used cars is a huge deal. We've got, like, four or five conversations. We got podcast conversations and stuff on the main stage all about used cars, all about sourcing, acquisition, retailing, reconditioning, even moving through the fixed stop side of the business and figuring out how to do that. You know when, especially when we have the prospect of potentially shrinking new car inventories, you got to get your used cars up to figure out how to kind of can still compete. And here's what I think I still don't understand why we don't have a public or a mid to large size group starting to think about how you actually beat a car max or Carvana at scale. I just think, like someone's got to be poised to figure that out and and we got to do it in the on the franchise retail side. There's no reason why we can't. Got a comment

Paul J Daly  9:50  
from LinkedIn, how do you guys see the Tesla continuing to drop used sale prices? How do we see that? And how long is going to happen? So glad you asked. Oh, because. It, yeah, because, speaking of Tesla, stop segway, maybe, before we go into this, we answer that question. Go ahead, Kyle, what were you going to

Kyle Mountsier  10:08  
say? Well, no, yeah, if you've watched specifically on their used cars, right? And Jimmy Douglas has been talking about this a little bit, you know, owner of plug, how they have been taking their Certified Used Cars and continually drop prices to try and incentivize demand. It is interesting and like, that's a that that's definitely a point of like, watch out if you're buying these used EVs. Look at market, market trends right now. You might want to be in plug, even if you're not buying them often, just to understand where the pricing is, because there is a difference in the regular used car market. I We talked to someone last week where they were going to the auction, and Carmax and Carvana were seeing vehicles bringing three to $5,000 over MRR. And so you've got this like different market where EVs are bringing less and starting to price down, and the market is generally going up over the last week and a half. So just watch out when you're

Paul J Daly  11:08  
looking at this conversation with my friend on Sunday, right? It's Easter Sunday, your church, and you know, you're the car guy. So they also ask, Hey, my wife would trade in her can't remember if it's an equinox or ref or whatever it is. I was like, he's looking for the cheapest option. I said, Honestly, the cheapest option right now is the trade in that used car, which is worth more than the typical value. And then, and then, like a used Tesla is probably going to be the cheapest trade out. You know, it's just it is right now. It really is. So we got to get to a dealer. Gotta get there's plenty of them. I know that's what I'm saying like, and they're cheap, cheaper than usual. Well, speaking of Tesla, their long anticipated push into affordable EV territory, hit a speed bump. The automakers delayed the launch of their stripped down model Y, code name E, 41 intended to bolster warning signs and broaden its customer base. That's what they were trying to do. But the production of this model is now expected in late 2025 or early 26 missing the targets they said they were going to be jumping in on this like, I think, first half of this year, they plan to build 250,000 units of the model in the US in 2026 once production is fully ramped the E 21 is designed to cost 20% less to produce than the refreshed model Y, which currently starts at 49,000 the delay underscores mounting pressure from aging models back to the used car conversation. They're holding all this inventory and obviously one of the big challenges Elon Musk's political activity. They're also preparing a no frills version of the model three, as part of a broader pivot toward budget friendly offerings after shelving their promised $25,000 EV platform to prioritize Robo taxi development instead. I mean, lord knows what they're going to do next. Look,

Kyle Mountsier  12:50  
they absolutely should prioritize Robo taxi. They're seeing success. You're even Waymo is seeing success here. Why not go after something that you think is going to be the future of the industry, especially when you see, you know, well, like other manufacturers, yeah, and they can own the revenue verticals. They on all the verticals. I still think, you know, 35 $39,000 model Y would be super attractive, and a $25,000 model three would be super attractive. But, yeah, Tesla, Tesla, it's weird because Tesla's in trouble, but at the same time they have all US manufacturing capacity, and so yeah, they will be, they will not have to be impacted by tariff. So it may be like a really quick switch if pricing, you know, drives up in tariff impacted vehicles. I think

Paul J Daly  13:39  
that same LinkedIn user, sorry your name is not coming through. On on, on the stream here, I want to purchase a s plaid. Tesla. How long do I wait to pull the trigger before crisis pricing increases? I don't think we can tell you that. I

Speaker 1  13:52  
wouldn't, I wouldn't have a clue, but we'll find out. We probably know. Some people ask Jimmy Douglas. Jimmy Douglas, literally. Search them on LinkedIn. Jimmy Douglas, Alex Lawrence, John Foley. Foley, those are your guys. Those are definitely your guys. Speaking of your guys, segway, if you like, cashiers

Paul J Daly  14:10  
say goodbye. Sam's

Kyle Mountsier  14:12  
Club is betting on the future of checkout by putting it into customers hands and phones as a part of a major remodel of all 600 locations the retailer is ditching both traditional and self checkout lanes in favor of fully app powered experience. Every single store will adopt the scan and go app, eliminating traditional checkout entirely. AI tech will verify the purchases, removing the need for receipt checks at exits that little fancy, you know, you know, check one check one thing off, 1/3 this is quite crazy. 1/3 of members already use the app, with usage up 50% over three years, meaning they have a really driven adoption. There digitally engaged customers shop three times as frequently as those that are not and spend two. Get this three times as much. Whoa. EVP, Diana Marshall said connection is at the heart of every shopping journey. Experience will be a key differentiator to Sam's Club, going forward, in a quote that makes no sense to me, Well, okay, yeah,

Paul J Daly  15:14  
experience of the app experience. Brian Ortega chime in on the live stream the app is great. That was my next question, because, like, for an app, for this, you're strong. First I've used it, your Wi Fi has to be great number one. Yeah, right. You have great Wi Fi. You have a strong app. Because there's a part of having the app open, like, in I've never shopped with an app, so I'm just total I'm probably the best, like, nay Sayer right here. But like, I want to have my phone available for other things, but I guess if I don't have to check out, it's a really fair trade off. What do you do? You go through and you scan it with your

Kyle Mountsier  15:47  
scan it as you put it in your, in your, in your basket, right? And so there's none of that, like double in and out and you just as soon as you scan it, and then you walk out, you're done. I mean, it pays on the app. You're good. That's

Paul J Daly  15:58  
That's pretty amazing. I mean, I love hearing Brian benstock Has this bit where he talks about grocery shopping.

Speaker 2  16:04  
It's like, you go around, you put all the stuff in your cart, and then you get there, you take it all out of your cart, and then it goes down the belt. They put it all back, and then

Kyle Mountsier  16:12  
you take it back out of your car one more time. It's a straight mess. So, like,

Paul J Daly  16:17  
look. And they say that their their user base is, you know, Gen Z is starting to make up a big, big swath for sure, user base. And so it's, it's, I mean, there's so many implications of this, over 600 stores, how many cashiers do they have? A lot, right? And what, I think there's a, there's a really great opportunity to deploy some people throughout the store to literally make the experience better. Like, if you don't have to pay cashiers. Wouldn't it be amazing to have someone that's helping you load your bags into your car?

Kyle Mountsier  16:44  
Man, right? A little crew full public on them. It's on. I think

Paul J Daly  16:49  
that will make a major difference. And you just look out for like the folks who might have trouble, some older folks, some moms with kids. You know what I mean, doing the thing. I'll tell you what that would that would definitely make some people call

Kyle Mountsier  16:59  
your boys, because we got some consulting hours, we can put in call. You know,

Paul J Daly  17:04  
we're down. We love stuff like that. Whatever it is, it is Monday. We know you have a lot to do, but you should really go over to ASOTU, codd.com look at a few sessions, figure out the ones are going to make you the more more successful, and then go there. Be with us in three weeks. We'll see you tomorrow. Come on.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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