🚗 Carvana’s Digital Strategy Still Needs Stores

TOGETHER WITH

Most industries treat innovation as an optional propellant.
You can coast.

Automotive doesn’t get that luxury.

This is where innovation is part of the culture.

So today, as we move from Carvana’s ongoing evolution through to everyone’s favorite “A” word, it’s worth remembering: this industry has always been a bridge between imagination and execution.

Tomorrow, we may be making, selling, marketing, and servicing things that look a lot closer to rocket ships than sedans.

Whatever it takes to keep the customer moving, right?

Keep Pushing Back,
-Chris with Paul, Kyle & Kristi

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TOGETHER WITH UPSTART

How One Utah Dealer Turned “Thin File” Into Thick Profits with AI

West Auto Sales in Utah wanted to say “yes” to more first-time and thin-file buyers without slowing the showroom down. With Upstart Auto Finance, they turned AI-powered approvals into their competitive edge.

In just two months, Upstart became their go-to lender, seeing ~95% of applications and helping close over 80 deals, all while delivering an average PVR of $3,500 (that’s $500–$600 more per deal than other lenders).

Instead of sending customers home to find cosigners or otherwise slowing down deals, West Auto is getting more shoppers approved while they’re still in the store, living up to their promise of getting people in and out fast.

Want your dealership to be the one that says “yes” more often, without sitting customers for three to four hours? See how Upstart Auto Finance can open your buy box and boost back-end profits at the same time.

THE NEWS

Carvana Keeps Buying Rooftops

Scale Still Wants Physical Stores

Yesterday on Automotive State of the Union, Paul and Kyle discussed an Automotive News piece tracing Carvana’s continued dealership acquisition strategy.

This time, the retailer added a CDJR + Fiat dealership in South Atlanta, bringing its total to four franchised stores in 2025 for a company long positioned as “digital-first.”

Do Carvana Dealership Acquisitions Reveal the Limits of Digital-Only Retail?

That signal matters.

As dealers work harder to meet consumers online, the online leaders are confirming something operators have always known:

Scale still wants rooftops.
Real inventory. Real fixed ops potential. Real logistics leverage. Real local gravity.

In other words, you can’t “platform” your way out of operational reality. You still have to run the business.

Digital Retail Still Ends in Operations

The next era of retail automotive will reward teams who can manage complexity and execute consistently, especially when the market gets weird (and yes, dear friend, it’s weird AF right now).

The advantage won’t go to the slickest funnel.
It’ll go to whoever can keep the machine running.

Your Dealership Tech Stack Isn’t Broken

Your Data Strategy Is Likely the Problem

Carvana’s expansion highlights a reality every scaling dealer eventually hits: systems strain before people do.

As operations grow more complex, problems don’t usually show up in the tools themselves. They show up in the data, moving between them.

Why Data Problems Always Show Up Downstream First

That was the core of this write-up from a recent Auto Collabs conversation with Jason Tryfon of Authenticom. Most dealership tech failures aren’t software issues. They’re misaligned data definitions, broken feeds, or unclear sources of truth.

When dealers, vendors, and OEMs all mean different things by “data,” downstream systems break, and teams lose trust fast.

Clean Data, Not More Tools, Enables Scale

Scaling retail auto isn’t about adding more tools.
It’s about tightening the connective tissue underneath them.

CAFE, Tariffs, and Policy Volatility

Why EV Demand Keeps Feeling Inconsistent

If EV demand feels inconsistent, part of the reason is just policy.

Why Incentives and Regulations Keep Shifting the Market

In the U.S., proposed changes to CAFE standards are being framed as an affordability move. But NHTSA’s own analysis suggests higher fuel costs could offset any upfront savings over a vehicle’s lifetime, complicating the ownership equation for consumers.

Global Policy Signals Are Moving in Different Directions

European policymakers are signaling flexibility around the 2035 combustion-engine ban, while Mexico is preparing tariffs of up to 50% on Chinese-built vehicles, reshaping pricing and supply-chain math across North America.

Policy volatility upstream creates volatility downstream, in inventory mix, incentives, and customer expectations.

Affordability Is Still Reshaping the Market

Where EV Demand Actually Clears

Yesterday we talked about uneven EV demand. Today’s question is simpler: where does demand actually clear?

Cox Automotive’s November EV Market Monitor shows new EV sales down sharply year over year, with market share falling to 5.4%, the lowest level since early 2022. At the same time, new EV days’ supply surged to 149 days, more than double the industry average.

New EV Inventory Is Rising While Used EV Demand Grows

Used EVs tell a different story. Sales rose 14% year over year, prices continued to ease, and dozens of models now sit under $30,000.

When payments work, buyers show up.

Incentives and Payments Now Define Adoption

Reuters’ global data reinforces the split. Europe continues to grow on stable incentives, while North America is on track for its first annual EV decline since 2019 after U.S. tax credits expired.

At the ground level, automaker behavior tells the same story. Tesla’s $299 Model 3 lease wasn’t a breakthrough; it was a subsidy. And with lease prices set to jump as much as 67%, the artificiality of that demand is becoming clear.

EV demand hasn’t disappeared. It’s become more price-sensitive, more incentive-dependent, and far less forgiving.

Once again, affordability, not ideology, is doing the sorting.

AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE

Dealer Conferences and Industry Events (2026)

• February 3-6: NADA Show 2026, Las Vegas, NV

• May 12-15: ASOTU CON 2026, Hanover, MD

Trends Dealers Should Watch

• Luxury demand: $100k+ projected 5–7% CAGR; 75% say they’re open to buying online.

• AI marketing: Jeep/Highdive push AI visuals at scale; execution becomes the brand moat.

• Rivian: AI Day moves the narrative forward, but capital + demand remain the headline risks.

Thanks for reading, Friend! Yesterday you said “more news,” so that’s what I wrote. Hit reply and let me know if you learned anything?