Welcome to Saturday, Friend!
There's a funny thing about growth. Usually, you can tell when it's time for something to change, even if you haven't quite figured out what comes next.
You start asking different questions, challenging old assumptions, or wondering what might happen if you finally spoke up.
And sometimes, being around people who are asking those same questions is exactly what you need. (Helloooo, ASOTU CON West!)
Here's to trusting that little nudge and seeing where it takes you.
Keep Pushing Back,
—Paul, Kyle, Chris & Kristi
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ICYMI
Tenor
On Monday, the Q3 scoreboard came in.
All three Detroit automakers slipped while Honda, Hyundai, and Kia grew, though Ford held off Hyundai Motor Group by about 3,500 vehicles. Hybrids drove the gains, and Stellantis announced nine new models under $40K. We also cheered Appel Ford's push to collect 1,200 pounds of food for its Texas neighbors.
The brands that kept affordable options are winning share now.
On Tuesday, California's CARS Act took effect.
Dealers there must now disclose a new car's total price up front, make clear that add-ons are optional, and give used-car buyers three days to cancel purchases under $50K. GM also confirmed hybrids are coming, without a timeline, and South Dakota students started rebuilding a rusty 1976 F-350 for SEMA.
This is the clearest preview yet of where pricing rules are headed.
On Wednesday, car loans hit record lengths.
A record 25.5% of financed new-vehicle purchases ran 84 months or longer in Q3, while the average payment climbed to $787 and more than 1 in 5 buyers now pay $1K or more a month. Ford also won a key right-of-first-refusal appeal, and California closed the "Montana LLC" loophole.
When a deal only works at 84 months, show the customer another path.
On Thursday, used-car asking prices dropped.
Prices fell 2.5% in four weeks across 1.4M listings. The new car-loan interest deduction left out negative equity, which shows up in nearly 30% of trade-in deals, and the FTC dropped its Asbury case while keeping price transparency on its list.
Give your team a one-line answer on falling prices before the customer asks.
On Friday, Toyota closed in on GM.
GM's lead is down to fewer than 130K vehicles through September, with electrified models making up 57% of Toyota's Q3 sales versus less than 4% of GM's. And Rusty Drewing Automotive donated ride-on cars to help kids feel less anxious before surgery.
Every customer who leaves for a hybrid you don't have may not come back for years.
ASOTU Edge Webinar
A good acquisition process should survive a manager's day off.
That was one of the clearest takeaways from our conversation with Scott Pettitt of Del Grande Dealer Group, who walked through how a 16-store operation built consistency across the service drive and showroom with the help of AutoHub.
We pulled the biggest lessons into a recap, and the full webinar is available if you want to hear how the process actually works.
Auto Collabs
Mobile service helped Mercedes-Benz of Temecula reconnect with customers it had not seen in years.
Amir Alahwal breaks down what happened after the store launched the program, including the slow start, the internal skepticism, and the data point that got everyone's attention: 70% of remote-service customers had been away from the dealership for at least a year.
The conversation gets into retention, trust, and why process decisions get better when the data gets a vote.
The Dealer Playbook
If ChatGPT cannot read your dealership correctly, it fills in the blanks.
Wade Kerzie from Kerzie.ai shows Michael Cirillo where AI looks for your hours, departments, and inventory, and why dealer websites built only for human eyes can leave machines guessing.
He also gets into how dealers can separate static store information from live inventory so AI has a cleaner source to pull from.
November 18: ASOTU CON West in Los Angeles, CA
November 19: AutoMobility LA in Los Angeles, CA (get an extra 20% off early bird registration with promo code MTCAMLA—ends Oct. 15!)
February 17-20, 2027: NADA Show in Orlando, FL
May 11-13, 2027: ASOTU CON in Baltimore, MD
Porsche 356—Now With More Porsche!
Somebody looked at a tiny 1953 Porsche 356 and thought, "You know what this needs? Several more feet."
The result is a four-door, coach-built 356 limousine now up for auction, complete with rear-hinged doors, a glass privacy partition, Venetian blinds, footrests, champagne flute holders, and enough extra sheet metal to make the engine feel like it lives in another county.
Custom builder Don "The Egyptian" Boeke created the stretch in 2001 for Porsche collector John Dixon, who commissioned it for his daughter's wedding. Most dads rent a limo. Dixon apparently preferred the much simpler option of combining two Porsche 356s.
Power comes from a later Porsche 912 flat-four, reportedly upgraded with a hotter cam, pistons, and carbs. That's helpful, because this thing has a lot more Porsche to move than Porsche originally planned for.
And yes, it still has drum brakes. So, maybe keep the champagne corked until you've stopped.
1886: The first dinner jacket (tuxedo) is worn to an autumn ball at Tuxedo Park in New York. 🤵🏻♂️
1899: African American inventor Isaac R. Johnson patents the bicycle frame. 🚲
1978: U.S. Congress approves dollar coin honoring women's suffrage campaigner Susan B. Anthony. 🪙
Thanks for reading, Friend!
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