TOGETHER WITH:
Howdy, Fam!
The nation's second-largest dealer group wants out of public markets.
Penske Corp. and Mitsui just offered $3.8 billion to take Penske Automotive Group private, and the real prize isn't the price tag. It's freedom from the quarterly earnings pressure that keeps every public dealer group conservative by design.
Also in today's email:
What that viral "dealerships are a scam" TikTok gets wrong, and the quick answer worth having ready
The three automakers quietly running away with 86% of the hybrid market
A $740,000 lesson in what quality leads actually look like
Keep Pushing Back,
—Chris with Paul, Kyle & Kristi
Reading time: 4 mins
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The Nation's Second-Largest Dealer Group Might Go Private. Here's Why That's Smart.
Penske Corp. and Mitsui have offered $3.8 billion to take Penske Automotive Group private, at $210 per share for the 28% they don't already own. Shares jumped nearly 10% on the news.
It's easier to do all these things in the context of a private company.
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.
The Real Prize Isn't the $3.8 Billion. It's the Freedom From Quarterly Pressure.
Public auto groups are locked into a conservative posture by design, shareholders bet on steady profitability, not long-term risk-taking. Going private removes that constraint entirely. Analysts are clear this is specific to Penske's ownership structure, not a signal Asbury, AutoNation, Group 1, Lithia, or Sonic will follow.
What This Means for Your Store
Even the largest, most established group in the industry sees real value in stepping outside public market pressure right now. Worth asking whether your own decisions are optimized for the next quarter or the next five years.
One Dealer Cut $740,000 From Their Ad Spend. Same Volume. Same Year.
The idea is simple: quality leads, driven by local organic search and targeted advertising that actually outperforms the lead sources most dealers default to.
Roper Kia in Joplin, Missouri put that to the test, walking away from a 12-year-old squeeze-page model that made shoppers hand over their name, email, and phone number before they could even see inventory. FlexDealer rebuilt it from the studs instead.
We wouldn't have been able to do that without an incredible partner in our marketing... staring at every small dial, making sure we had them turned to where they needed to be.
The result: $740,000 saved in advertising spend in year one, while hitting the exact same volume target as the year before, real proof that trust in the system beats volume of leads.
A Viral TikTok Says Dealerships Are a Scam. Here's What It Leaves Out.
A satirical video attacking the dealership model is making the rounds, framing dealers as an artificial middleman with no real value added.
The real history:
Manufacturers couldn't afford retail footprints in the early auto industry, so independent dealers fronted the capital instead. Franchise law exists specifically to prevent manufacturers from cutting those dealers out once the model succeeded.
What the video misses:
Tesla's higher per-vehicle margin shows what happens to price without local competition, one commenter correctly noted dealers make just 1-2% on the actual sale, and a local dealer is the one advocating for a customer during a warranty dispute, a role that disappears in direct-to-consumer sales entirely.
What This Means for Your Store
Have a short, factual answer ready. This exact framing is clearly circulating widely enough to reach your own customers.
The Market Is Cooling in Slow Motion. Here's Exactly How Much.
Wholesale values, CPI, and consumer sentiment are all normalizing after a hot spring, none of it alarming alone, but together it's the clearest read yet on H2.
Auto retail sales are up 5.7% year-over-year, the strongest gain in a year, while used EV wholesale values are outpacing non-EVs 12% to 1.7%.
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Three Automakers Control 86% of the Hybrid Market. GM Isn't One of Them.
Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai Motor Group now control 86% of U.S. hybrid sales, a segment up nearly 20% year-over-year to a record 15.4% market share, almost three times pure EVs. Toyota alone sold over 600,000 hybrids in H1.
GM, by contrast, has exactly one hybrid in its lineup, the Corvette E-Ray. Worth knowing exactly where your own brand sits in the segment that's actually growing right now.
🔧 Car Stuff
Waymo robotaxis showed 68% fewer police-reportable crashes than human drivers across four cities, per an independent IIHS study, though the industry's lack of standardized mileage reporting still makes broader comparison difficult.
Hyundai's Q2 profit fell 21% and missed estimates, but the company kept its full-year guidance, betting on stronger H2 sales from redesigned Tucson and Avante launches.
Ford and Geely are forming a Spain joint venture to build electrified vehicles at Ford's underused Valencia plant, a direct move to compete with surging Chinese brands in Europe.
🚀 Not Car Stuff
A Seattle-area electronics recycler nearly shredded a mysterious box of gold-plated prototype chips and vintage fiber-optic flight-control cables, before realizing it was a genuine slice of Cold War-era aerospace history. He's now trying to trace where it actually came from.
General Fusion became the first pure-play fusion energy company to go public, ringing the Nasdaq opening bell after 20+ years of development and over 200,000 plasma experiments.
Lime raised $174 million in its Nasdaq IPO, valuing the scooter and bike-share company at $1.6 billion.
1911: American archaeologist Hiram Bingham rediscovered the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru, bringing it to international attention for the first time.
1966: The first BASE jump was performed off El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, launching a whole new extreme sport.
1969: The Apollo 11 astronauts, fresh off the first Moon landing, safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, completing the historic mission.
