Paul Daly and Kyle Mountsier spent the first episode of The Pushback ranking six dealership tactics for 2026, tier list style. Buy centers came up near the end of the episode, and it's the only one that earned a ranking above S.

That's how Kyle described buy centers, an inside-the-dealership setup for purchasing vehicles straight from consumers instead of relying on auctions or trades. CarMax pioneered the model, Carvana put it in the spotlight, and now dealership groups across the country are building their own version.

Kyle laid out the case in three parts: profitability, speed to retail, and customer experience. A buy center lets a dealership acquire used inventory without paying auction fees or waiting on trade cycles, and it gets the customer paid on the spot instead of leaving them wondering if they got a fair deal.

❝If you're a dealer and you're not thinking about how to buy vehicles not from the auction, you done gone crazy.❝

Kyle backed the ranking with a real number attached to a real store. At a previous dealership group, they opened a Nelson Buy Center in Bentonville, Arkansas, seven hours from their nearest location, across from the Walmart. His words: that thing printed cars into the dealer group.

Paul floated something: an independent buy center, not tied to any single dealership, just a place in a busy retail corridor where consumers sell their car and the operator routes it to whichever dealer in their network wants it. He also pointed out the obvious real estate already sitting idle for this: car washes. Every car rolling through already has an owner standing right there. Why not price it while it's getting cleaned?

Hear the full case for buy centers, including the Bentonville story in Paul and Kyle's own words, on The Pushback.