🚗 CarMax Q2 Data

TOGETHER WITH

Dear Friends!

It’s the end of the week but the start of a brand new day.

My (Chris) imagination is always so active at the start of a new thing. It seems easier to optimistically consider what may come next if the good steps start to line up.

So, new year, new week, new day, whatever, I find it important to pay attention and bring along my friends to experience that magical space between 0 and 1.

ASOTU is preparing a Day 1 of sorts. Paul, Kyle, Michael, and the team have been working on something we’re announcing on 10.01.

I’d love to see you there. In-person or online.

Check out MoreThanCars.com to get a spot in the event.

Enjoy your new day, and…

Keep Pushing Back
-Paul, Kyle, Chris & Kristi

_{Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here!
Reading time: 3 min}

THE UNION

From the Automotive State of the Union

Yesterday, Paul and Kyle shared some information about the upcoming event on 10.01, like how you get to make your own shirt if you come in person. Check out MoreThanCars.com

Then they looked at the day’s headlines:

• Almost every dealership website is janky according to Google.

• Cybersecurity is factoring into the majority of consumers' car-buying considerations.

• And we’ve heard about it for a long time, but we are now seeing some meaningful data-based evidence that AI, like GPT, is driving consumer traffic. GEO is here.

From The News w/ ASOTU

The Week the Wind Changed (Again)

China keeps pressing into Europe: BYD outsold Tesla in the EU for the second month running, and Xiaomi is lining up a 2027 launch with showrooms and a “maybe later” on local manufacturing.

Closer to home, CarMax’s Q2 results show revenue down 6% and net income down 28%, with used sales softening—a clear signal that affordability fatigue is still shaping the market.

Waymo is expanding its driverless taxi fleet into corporate travel, while Acura has already pulled the plug on its first EV, the ZDX, after just one model year.

Meanwhile, most dealers expect AI to reshape operations, though experts caution it’s only as good as the data feeding it.

And in the wholesale lanes, values dipped again (Cars −0.24%, Trucks −0.27%), conversions eased to 59%, and retail days-to-turn is holding around 35.

TOGETHER WITH VAUTO

Know the Rooftop That’s Right for Every Vehicle

It’s one thing to move a vehicle that hasn’t retailed at one store to a different store in your group. It’s quite another to know, as early as Day 1, the rooftop that offers the best opportunity for a vehicle to meet your profit and retail objectives.

Find out how dealer groups are using vAuto’s AI-powered predictive data science and deeper, rooftop-level performance data to transfer vehicles to the right rooftops faster, so they maximize profitability and minimize losses.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Quick Hits

• 🛒 Retail: The economy is wild, but Build-A-Bear is doing pretty well. Maybe dealers should let buyers sew little hearts into the car seats?

• 🇺🇸 Policy: Amazon agreed to a FTC suit that requires they make canceling Prime easy.

• 👽 Weird: Pranks are fun till somebody goes to jail. Which happened to a high school staff member when he did $55K in damage with his fart spray.

AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE

Price Matters. Trust Sells the Car

When shoppers are making the second-biggest purchase of their lives, price gets them looking, but trust gets them buying.

Lauren Moriarty, Director of Sales at iPacket, says transparency is the true revenue driver. From features to warranties to reconditioning receipts, customers want details that make them feel confident, not sold.

Most dealers still hide that info, but flipping the script turns doubt into value. That’s why iPacket, born inside a dealership, now serves 1 in 6 new-car stores with a 96% retention rate.

Read the full write-up.

Today in History

• 1580 – Francis Drake finishes his circumnavigation of the Earth in Plymouth, England. 🌎️ 

• 1789 – George Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson the first United States Secretary of State. 🇺🇸 

• 1982 – Knight Rider debuts 🚓 

Thanks for reading!