Dealers Are Losing an 83% Market They Don't Even Realize They're Losing
Franchised dealers capture roughly 20-25% of maintenance and service business nationally. The other 75-80% is going somewhere else, and Rhett Ricart thinks most dealers aren't treating that gap like the opportunity it actually is.
COVID Proved the Franchise Model Works. Direct Sales Keeps Ignoring the Lesson.
Fresh off receiving Ford's Lifetime Achievement Award in Las Vegas, Ricart, now executive chairman of his family's dealership group, joined the show to talk through what decades in the business have taught him about the industry's recurring fights.
🚙 A franchise dealer wants to “skip the salesperson,” Walmart turns charging into a retail advantage, and Spirit’s internal data hits bankruptcy court.
Google Wants to Buy Spirit Airlines' Internal Data. The Real Question Is What Your Dealership's Data Would Be Worth.
Google's proposed purchase would include more than 175,000 employee records: employment contracts, tax records, crew scheduling and time-card data, emails, and even Microsoft Teams records, all intended to train AI systems.
Walmart's EV Charging Network Just Hit 100 Stores. It's Not Even the Fastest-Growing One There.
Walmart's charging network now spans 20 states, with most sites offering 8 to 16 stalls and chargers capable of delivering up to 400 kW. The retailer wants thousands of Walmart and Sam's Club locations equipped by 2030, leveraging a footprint that puts a store within 10 miles of roughly 90% of Americans.
Mark Miller Subaru Built Its Own Carvana. It Just Kept the Dealership Attached.
Mark Miller Subaru launched Promise Path this weekend, a fully digital purchase journey built by GM Chris Hudson and his team on top of the dealership's existing one-price "Promise Price" model. The pitch, printed right on the site: keep the dealership, skip the salesperson.
🚙 Amazon and Walmart have spent years testing drone delivery without fully cracking consumer logistics at scale. Jack Demmer found the use case those companies never had: a fixed, short-range need between a dealership's own buildings.
More Than Half of U.S. Consumers Would Consider a China-Made Vehicle, New Dave Cantin Group Market Outlook Report Finds
77% percent of consumers under age 35 indicate openness to Chinese vehicles as affordability, changing product demand and accelerating dealership M&A reshape automotive retail
Your Dealership's Reputation Now Has an Opinion, and It's Not Yours
AI search doesn't just rank your dealership anymore, it forms a judgment about it. On this week's Auto Collabs, Chad Graves of Reunion Marketing joined Paul and Kyle to unpack what that shift actually means day to day, and three things dealers can start doing about it today.
A Michigan Ford Dealer Just Delivered Auto Parts by Drone
Jack Demmer Automotive Group is testing drone delivery between its Ford dealership, warehouse, and service center in Wayne, Michigan, aiming to move smaller, time-sensitive parts faster while avoiding the traffic and road delays that can leave a vehicle sitting in a service bay.
🚗 Polestar Says It Was Blindsided. Dealers Say That's Not the Whole Story.
🚙 Polestar is telling U.S. dealers it never saw the ban coming. One of those dealers is suing for $25 million, arguing the company saw it coming from a mile away and used the government as a convenient exit. Both accounts can't be fully true.
Ford Just Handed Apple the Keys to Its Next EV Platform's Brain
Ford is deepening its partnership with Apple, using Apple Maps data to support both its next-generation EV platform and future BlueCruise development, another sign automakers are growing more comfortable relying on big tech for critical software, mapping, and AI capabilities.
