One of our team members has a favorite tire shop in his town. It mostly sells used tires and patches flats. One day the owner filled and patched his wife’s tire and wouldn’t take a dime for it. Now he’s a little delighted every time he gets to spend money there, and he usually brings a case of Gatorade for the crew.
That shop never advertised its honesty. It showed up for him first, and it earned a customer for life.
That idea ran through today’s Automotive State of the Union, recorded live at Beaver Toyota in Cumming, Georgia, the morning after the fifth annual Beaver Golf Tournament. General manager Patrick Abad made a case every dealer competing with online retail should hear.
Is pricing transparency still a competitive advantage for dealers?
With the FTC pressing on pricing practices, plenty of stores are asking whether to lead their marketing with transparency. Patrick says that window closed years ago.
“If you’re gonna get on TV or radio or in social right now and say, ‘Buy from us, we’re transparent,’ you’re like three years behind.”
He compares it to vehicle quality. The gap between the best and worst brands used to be massive and has narrowed to a sliver. Transparency has followed the same path. Customers expect it the way they expect honesty, so claiming it gets you in the game and little more.
That matters because, as we covered yesterday, Carvana is taking meaningful new-car share in markets like Tampa and Philadelphia with a simple promise of easy, transparent buying. A store whose only message is the same promise is competing on Carvana’s terms.
What can a dealership offer that an online retailer can’t?
Patrick learned the answer from Mr. Beaver himself: be where people are having fun.
Any competitor can copy | Only a local store can build |
|---|---|
Transparent pricing | Banners at the kids’ football games |
Easy online buying | A booth at a county fair 10,000 people walk through |
Home delivery | Employees who live and serve in town |
Fast paperwork | Years of goodwill before anyone needs a car |
When it’s time to buy, the store that kept showing up is top of mind. Then transparency and an easy process close the loop. Patrick says the industry spent years doing it in reverse, earning the business first and showing up in the community after.
“Everywhere I’m having fun, Beaver’s there. Of course, I’m going to give them a shot.”
How long does community investment take to pay off at a dealership?
It takes years. Patrick has led the store since 2019, and it’s now moving into its third trade cycle. Retention has to be earned from the first sale onward, and new-customer acquisition keeps running alongside it. That takes a strong stomach, because none of it shows up in a 60-day report.
The same patience shows up on the sales floor. Patrick coaches his team to leave every customer in a better position than they found them, with the next trade cycle in mind.
“Do you want them to say, ‘I just bought a car from one of the greatest humans I’ve ever met in automotive,’ or do you want them to say, ‘I just got a really good deal’?”
Transparency is now the floor every dealer stands on.
The stores pulling ahead are investing in their towns long before the transaction and giving that investment time to compound, the way a free tire patch did. Hear the full conversation with Patrick on today’s episode of the Automotive State of the Union podcast.
