TOGETHER WITH:
Howdy, Fam!
We talked with Brian Benstock to reflect on the first half of the year, and as always, got motivated toward the second half instead.
Whose name is on your building?
Heck, whose name is on your desk, your name tag, your ID, your mailbox?
Benstock's whole conversation came back to that same question, again and again, in a dozen different forms.
Also in today's email:
The 70% stat behind Benstock's case against 84-month loans
Why used EVs are suddenly worth more than they were a month ago
100 sheep, one Polish factory, zero explanation needed
Keep Pushing Back,
—Chris with Paul, Kyle & Kristi
Reading time: 4 mins
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Culture, Culture, Culture: How Brian Benstock Scales Without Losing It
Paragon Honda's Brian Benstock spent his midyear check-in laying out how he's scaling across rooftops, why he thinks F&I is quietly killing repeat business, and where the real service war is actually being fought.
Six months into 2026, we asked Brian Benstock how the year had gone so far.
"It's been busy, it's been lousy, it's been all the above," Benstock said. "The economy is going in this direction, we got a war over here, a war over there, gas prices all over the place. I'd say it's pretty much as expected."
❝ Strategy comes after culture. That culture has to be there. ❝
Benstock runs two stores about an hour apart and doesn't try to export one culture across both. His second location, run independently under its own culture, beat a much larger publicly traded competitor for first place in its district's certified pre-owned business.
His sharpest point was about who's steering the customer relationship: "Whose name is on your building? Is it your F&I manager's name, or is it your store?" His case for leasing over long-term financing: two Honda leases in a row gives him roughly a 70% chance of leasing that same customer a third time. An 84-month loan customer, by contrast, is one nobody can track the return odds on.
❝ What's the data say on return to the dealership for somebody on an 84-month loan? Nobody knows that answer. ❝
He closed with where he thinks the real competitive fight is: roughly 80% of service business is happening at independent shops, not at the dealer down the road. "I want all of the ones that are defecting in our marketplace to the independents," he said.
🎙️ Want the full conversation?
Listen to today's Automotive State of the Union episode for the complete discussion, additional context, and the conversations that shaped our perspective.
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Bookmark it, sync the calendar, and make it part of how you plan your year—check it out here.
VW's Restructuring Crisis Is Colliding With a Union Standoff.
Germany's largest automaker had a rough week, and somehow also found time to hire livestock.
Volkswagen's supervisory board met to weigh closing four German plants and cutting up to 100,000 jobs, roughly double what was previously planned, as workers protested in Wolfsburg. Union leader Christiane Benner called it a "clear message to the board: not on our watch."
📊 By the Numbers
German plants running at 81% capacity in 2026, projected to fall to 73% by 2030
Zwickau, one of four threatened plants, projected to drop from 88% to 42% utilization by 2030
Up to 100,000 jobs at stake, roughly double prior plans
Behind the scenes: tariffs and Chinese competition are forcing a rethink of a business model that's held for decades. Worth watching if you're anywhere near VW's supply chain or franchise network.
In unrelated VW news, they also just put 100 sheep to work grazing under 31,000 solar panels at a Polish factory. Somewhere, a hiring manager had a very different Tuesday.
Used EVs Are Getting Expensive. That's Actually an Opportunity.
Gas prices are up, and used electric inventory is suddenly the thing everyone wants.
Cox Automotive's Manheim index shows used EV values up 12% year-over-year, compared to just 1.7% for non-EVs, driven by Iran-war gas price spikes. That's happening even as new EV sales decline industry-wide.
❝ The risk we're watching for the second half is a steep ramp in off-lease EV supply, which could pressure this even as the headline holds firm. Gas is the swing factor. ❝
Two ways to read this: it may be worth paying up for used EV acquisition now while demand is hot, or worth marketing your existing fuel-efficient inventory harder while gas prices stay elevated. Either way, this window may not last if gas prices ease and off-lease supply floods in later this year.
🚘 At The Store
BMW widened its luxury lead over Lexus this quarter, up 13% to 102,713 deliveries while Lexus fell 7.5%. The gap between them has grown from about 3,300 vehicles to over 17,000 in a single quarter.
Audi's reversing course on screen-heavy interiors, bringing back physical buttons and rotary dials after customers apparently missed them. Our take: gimme back my buttons and knobs and nobody gets hurt.
An InsideEVs opinion piece argues EV technology has improved more in two years than gas engines did in a decade. Worth a read, though it's coming from an EV-enthusiast outlet with an obvious stake in that argument, so take the framing with a grain of salt even where the underlying data's solid.
🌀 Well, That's Odd
New York just became the first state to ban smart glasses in every single courthouse, all 1,240 of them. Bring a regular pair of glasses, they mean it.
Scientists engineered silica nanoparticles that made prostate tumors self-destruct in mice while also waking up the immune system to finish the job. Five out of ten mice with aggressive cancer went into complete remission. Genuinely one of the wilder science stories floating around this week.
2008: Apple officially launched the App Store through a major update to iTunes, forever changing the distribution model for mobile software and apps.
1972: Honda Motor Co. launched the first-generation Honda Civic in Japan
1985: Following massive public backlash over the rollout of "New Coke," Coca-Cola announced the return of its original formula, later branded as "Coca-Cola Classic."
Thanks for reading, Friend!
