Used Car News 7/10/23

New York Dealer Receives Top Honor

By Jeffrey Bellant

LAS VEGAS – New York dealer Dan Johnson took home the crown jewel of NIADA Accelerate 2023, winning the National Quality Dealer of the Year Award here at Wynn Las Vegas.

Johnson, owner of LiteHouse Auto Inc. in Lakewood, N.Y., beat out 13 other state quality dealer nominees to receive the prestigious honor from the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association’s annual convention and expo.

“Wow,” Johnson said as he accepted his award. “Thank you so much. I can’t begin to tell you what an absolute honor it is to receive this very prestigious award.

“To say that I am surprised, humbled and honored would be an absolute understatement, especially considering all of the other finalists here tonight. They certainly all deserve to be up here as well.”

Johnson thanked “first and foremost my beautiful wife, Emelee,” as the award came four days shy of their 19th anniversary.

“In those 19 years, Emelee has stood right by my side through thick and thin as we raised a family and built a business,” Johnson said. “I can’t tell you how very grateful I am to her for all of her love and support.

“She’s the bedrock of our family and I value her wisdom and her counsel. She’s the love of my life and my very best friend.”

He also praised his staff as “absolute rock stars” and “exceptional at what they do and the perfect team.”

Johnson promised “to live up to the high standards of this award.”

In announcing the winner, Master of Ceremonies Michael York shared some of the comments Johnson

made in his interview that is part of the judging process.

“My parents were very hardworking folks with a strong entrepreneurial spirit,” Johnson shared.

Johnson’s father settled debts with the home sale and built a new house with his own hands. Johnson’s mom still lives there and it a “constant reminder of my dad’s

“My mom and dad owned and operated a custom cabinetry business in our town. When the big box stores moved in, it caused my parents to have to shut down the business and sell our home.”

strong work ethic and never-giveup spirit.”

After college, Johnson was working at a bank where he had been employed for a couple of years. But one day he heard about another job

opportunity during a local Bible study he attended.

It was a chance to make good money as a salesman for a local car dealership.

Johnson joined LiteHouse Auto as a salesman and moved all the way up to general manager before buying the dealership when his boss retired.

“I felt I had learned all that I could from my friend, who was a great teacher, and I wanted to take that next step,” Johnson said.

York took time to talk about the slate of nominees and what it takes to become a quality dealer.

“They’re leaders in this industry,” he said. “They’re committed to their families, their communities, as well as commitment to the highest standards of the bar they set for other dealers to follow.

“While each of them could be deserving of this honor, eventually, the list has to be shortened to a single individual.”

NIADA Panel

Veteran Dealers Use Creativity, Experience to Succeed

By Jeffrey Bellant

LAS VEGAS – A panel of dealers representing more than 125 years in the independent business discussed how to overcome the challenges of the current market during the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association convention and expo here last month.

Moderator Brady Thurgood, CEO of Carketa, kicked off the conversation by asking about the challenges of high prices of inventory, even as it has softened a bit.

Jason Berry, co-founder of Carketa and owner of Action Auto, in Saratoga Springs, Utah, said as wholesale prices slid a bit at the end of the year, there was a bit of a panic.

But what Berry’s dealership has focused on is consistency in repricing.

“One thing that’s super important is to really take a look at live market data, days to turn,” he said. “Stay super-conscious on what the industry is doing and how it is trending.”

Berry actually cut $800,000 out of his cars on a single Sunday and repositioned into new inventory in December.

Every seven days the dealership does price checks of all 600 cars in inventory.

“We reprice, keeping the prices moving, whether we go down or up,” Berry said.

It shakes out customers who may see a car go up and then call to ask if

he can get it at the lower price.

“So, price movement is important and then stay sharp on average time to turn a car,” he said.

James Santistevan, owner of ZIA Automotive in Albuquerque, N.M., started in the franchise business 46 years ago and opened his independent dealership in 1990. Since then, he’s sold more than 24,000 vehicles.

Like Berry, his dealership made “heavy adjustments” in 2022 as interest rates started to tick up.

That meant higher payments for Santistevan’s customers and also for his floorplan. Keeping prices low and moving inventory quicker works for him.

“It’s generated definitely more income on the back end,” Santistevan said. “It excites our staff which includes the management, because they’re busy all day.

Lou Tedeschi, president of ASPI Motor Cars in Dedham, Mass., is a 43-year veteran of the industry and an NIADA past president.

But he’s a smaller dealer, so it’s a different situation.

“We try to keep the overhead as low as we can,” he said.

He adds a little more investment in the recon side to make the vehicles stand out. Tedeschi is chairman of the NIADA CPO360 program and he uses that program to compete with some of the franchise dealers.

Michael Darrow, president of The Auto Finders in Durham, N.C., is president-elect of NIADA and looks

at a couple of things to reduce expenses and improve turn.

“One of the key metrics we look at is days to buy,” Darrow said. “That’s from the point you buy that car at auction to getting it through service, lot ready and getting it on the website.”

It becomes costly when a car takes 10 to 14 days to get from auction to ready to sale. Also days on the lot needs to stay low, and like Berry, Darrow has adjusted pricing.

Inventory is another issue dealers struggle with.

Darrow does something different: he sells cars on consignment.

“We’ll get the car in, market it, detail it, service it and sell it,” Darrow said. “We’re averaging about $1,000 a copy on those consignments. Last year we did 126, this year we’re on pace to do 150.”

These are situations where a parent is going into assisted living and they don’t need the car or a church calls because someone has passed and they need help selling a car.

Since selling cars privately can be dangerous, Darrow plays up that aspect of the service.

“The front end gross is not tremendous,” he said. “But on the back side, if we can sell a GAP policy or an extended warranty, we can make a pretty nice deal come together.”

Tedeschi also gets creative when it comes to inventory.

“I’m a service guy, started in the service business,” Tedeschi said.

“For years, I do a lot of accessorizing to dress up inventories, changing interiors, that type of thing. We’ll get some edge vehicles and fix them up.

“We’re also buying a lot more off the street.”

Berry said the cars are there, but the key is to try and look outside your local market.

“For example, a Subaru Outback in Utah is going to sell for more than in Los Angeles,” Berry said.

Look for areas with dense inventory, like New Jersey or Southern California. Teslas in Southern California are more plentiful than in Utah.

For inventory, Santistevan likes to buy a lot of duplicate vehicles, one with a little bit higher mileage, one with lower mileage.

“So, any consumer comes in, they have their options,” he said.

He also goes out of his market to get inventory, some of which is more specialty European stuff.

Santistevan also has a strategy when buying basic program cars.

“We’ll change it up,” he said. “Maybe paint the wheels black, something to make it look a little different.

Finding ways to cut costs can also help the dealership.

Berry is writing down every single vendor he uses and how much he spends with them.

“Start with just writing it down and list out how much you’re spending with each one of them” he said. “Right now is the time to renegotiate. Renegotiate everything.”

Photo By Jeffrey Bellant

DEALMAKERS: Independent dealers Jason Berry (from left), James Santistevan, Lou Tedeschi and Michael Darrow – with Brady Thurgood moderating – discuss strategies for how to survive and thrive in today’s economy. The panel took place at NIADA’s annual convention last month in Las Vegas. The group discussed everything from inventory and expenses to creativity in their business models.

FTC Attorney Answers Dealer Questions

LAS VEGAS – Dealers from the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association heard from a Federal Trade Commission attorney during a wide-ranging discussion last month at the group’s convention.

Shaun Petersen, of Buckeye Consulting, moderated the discussion with Dan Dwyer, an FTC staff attorney in the Division of Financial Practices.

Dwyer is the chief regulatory counsel for FTC’s proposed trade regulation rule focusing on advertising and F&I.

Dwyer said the FTC has a whole division dedicated to both consumer and business education -- it’s not waiting around for consumers to complain so it can drop an enforcement act.

One big issue was the June deadline for compliance with the new Safeguards Rule, which requires non-banking financial institutions

to develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive security program to keep their customers’ information safe.

Put the power of Chase Auto to work for you

One dealer in the audience raised a concern about how the Safeguards Rule will be enforced. How can dealers be sure their third-party providers are protecting consumer data? Dealers may be fearful that they will get hammered by the FTC because of their vendors’ non-compliance, even if they have no control of that.

“The expectation of the regulation isn’t that dealers or other entities have perfect insight or perfect control,” Dwyer said. “The requirement is that they implement reasonable policies and procedures, enact them and make sure they’re more than just paper.”

Also, dealers should document when they’ve reached out to their vendors to make sure information is safeguarded.

Dwyer added that the FTC only has the resource to bring a handful of enforcement actions each year, so it prioritizes those who are clearly defying or ignoring the rule, rather than someone who is doing due diligence.

One vendor asked Dwyer to define what the FTC considers is good “disclosure.”

Dwyer said the definition is clear and conspicuous, with “clear” meaning “in plain language” and “conspicuous” meaning “plainly visible or audible.”

Petersen said a negative example would be an advertisement for a particular term at the very top of an ad, but the disclosure is written in “mouse print” hidden at the bottom of the page. “It can provide additional information or additional circumstances, but the disclaimer can’t walk something back,” Dwyer said.

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FED TALK: Dan Dwyer, a staff attorney with the Federal Trade Commission, talks to dealers and answers questions at NIADA’s convention in Las Vegas.

NIADA News

NIADA’s Master of Ceremonies Marks 20 Year Milestone

By Jeffrey Bellant

Over the last 20 years, the country has had four presidents and the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association has had four CEOs.

But the NIADA convention has only had one master of ceremonies in that time: Michael York.

He’s been the guy who sets the tone for the National Quality Dealers Award event and he’s a pro’s pro.

But this milestone wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for a few bad jokes and an NIADA CEO’s show business instinct 20 years ago during an NIADA convention.

“I was sitting in the audience with (then NIADA) CEO Mike Linn and he had hired five different masters of ceremonies in five years,” York said. “And the guy doing that night was trying to be funny and mak-

ing fun of…car dealers! Talk about not knowing your audience. So as Mr. Linn got more and more upset, he leaned over and said, ‘Can you do that?’ ‘Do what?’ ‘THAT! Up there on stage, master of ceremonies?’

“I told him it wasn’t really what I did but I had done it a few times over the years. He said next year I would be the emcee for NQD (National Quality Dealer). That was 2004.”

Linn told the same story, adding he told York if he “goes up there and bombs, I can’t help you.”

“We’ve laughed about that so many times over the years” York said.

But it was 2005 when the stakes were raised. Linn, a former movie producer, turned the NQD into a live broadcast over the Internet.

“Way before anyone was streaming media or had even heard of it,” York said.

“That was largely due to Mr. Linn’s

entertainment background and (then producer/director) Michael Marashlian who was so far ahead of what would soon come along in the area of production and online access

to content in the car business.”

York made it look easy. Before each live broadcast, he warmed up the audience, explaining how it would go. He prompted them with cues as the show went in and out of breaks, with his trademark subtle hand gesture, asking for louder applause.

The audience stayed engaged and entertained through the two-hour event.

Linn said York had experience doing education presentations in the past.

“I knew that he could keep the crowd with something interesting,” he said. “That’s kind of what I saw. He’s always done an excellent job. The rest is history.”

York then joined Linn on the next big project.

“We also created NIADA TV and had hours of content up on that site

Continued on page 6

MICHAEL YORK

for dealers all across the country to access for years,” York said. “It was just a great time working with the same circle of people year after year for probably ten years or more.”

Did York ever consider that the impromptu request to emcee the show would lead to a two-decade commitment?

“Oh, no. I never really thought about it, maybe until the last few years,” he said. “But it’s been one amazing ride and my great pleasure to do it for all these years. That’s really one of the big differences between a ‘speaker’ doing a session or keynote and a host/master of ceremonies. No matter how good a speaker you are, you’re probably not coming back twenty years in a row. But as a host or emcee you become a part of the show, and that makes a big difference, I think.”

Indeed, York has become a fixture at NIADA conventions.

But for York, the NIADA is really an old variation of the side hustle.

“I’ve had a speaking, coaching, consulting business since 2000,” York said, “I do a lot of writing. Books, columns, lots of content created for dealers and selling professionals.

“I do lots of leadership talks/sessions and working with lots of selling organizations across many industries from insurance companies to media companies to paper and janitorial companies, but mostly helping them grow their people personally and professionally, become better leaders, and sell more stuff.”

He also uses his skills for the benefit of car dealers.

“I’ve produced a dealer education program called CETV in the Carolinas in conjunction with the Carolinas Independent Automobile Dealers Association (CIADA) all the way back in 2003,” York said. “I had spoken for the association a few times and when the N.C. legislature mandated six hours of continuing education for dealers (CIADA) wanted me to be the ‘trainer/instructor’ for live training. I told them I couldn’t do that with all the other work I was doing.”

Instead, in 90 days he created a program to train their dealers on video. CETV was created, first with VHS, then DVD and – over the past five years – online.

“It’s six hours of content I write, host, interview and help produce, and that’s been a great project to have worked on over all these years,”

York said. “I’m grateful to CIADA Executive Director John Brown for having the vision that allowed us to bring that online with a new Learning Management Platform that makes it easy for dealers to take their CE when and where it works for them. And for believing that I was the guy to do it. John is one of the great leaders I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and working with over the years.”

York said he enjoys all of his different roles and projects and is grateful for those who have helped him, starting with Linn, now CEO Emeritus for NIADA.

In fact, York’s first speaking gig for NIADA was an education session in 2000 called “Women Rule.” Again, it was Linn who hired York to speak at that education session.

York was asked what he likes about the car business.

“So many things,” he said. “Like so many in my generation I grew up around cars. Dad loved cars. Working on them, always trading, buying, selling. Never any new cars, they were all used vehicles. One of the jobs I had in my twenties was at a newspaper in the classified ads department. And many of my accounts were car dealers.”

York considers himself an entrepreneur, like the dealers he’s spoken in front of.

“It’s one of the things I speak and coach on ‘Thinking Like an Owner.’ It’s just a different mindset. And I’ve always referred to independent dealers as ‘Captains of Enterprise.’ They are a special class of entrepreneur.”

NIADA has helped him connect with a lot of people over the years.

“So many connections and relationships created over the years,” he said. “Friends and relationships all across the industry.”

But the NQD event is something special.

“As host and master of ceremonies of the National Quality Dealer Awards, I’ve also had the opportunity to interview over 300 of the top dealers in the country,” York said. “Sitting down one-on-one and hearing their stories, hearing about people who were important in their life and helped them in their business, and many of those interviews turned into longtime friendships.”

Does York expect to celebrate a silver anniversary in five years?

“Ha. I’d be OK with that, I think. But I’m also OK if it ends today,” he said.

Retail Markets

ALABAMA

Erek Yarbrough, owner, First Class Auto Sales, Bessemer, Ala.

(Yarbrough is the Alabama Quality Dealer of the Year)

“I always loved business. I started out selling candy and bubble gum since I was age of 5 or 6. I always wanted to have a business, just didn’t know what type of business. I went to a public car auction by happenstance and just put the two together. I thought, all right, that’s it, the car business.

“I started with one car as a wholesaler. I worked my way up to a couple of cars and, eventually, we worked our way up to a retail location. We’ve been rocking ever since.

“We’re retail. We have our toe in buy-here, pay-here water, but we’re primarily retail.

“We usually keep 20 to

25 cars in inventory and we usually sell about 15-20 per month.

“Our inventory is mostly cars. We mostly focus in the subprime area where the ACV is around $7,000 to $8,000. Average retail would be around $15,000.

“Our average down payment is somewhere around $1,500 and $2,000.

“We primarily used Credit Acceptance Corp. They probably do about 95% of our business.

“We mostly acquire our cars through auctions, auctions, auctions. We use a few live auctions. But, mostly now, it’s all digital. We utilize the ACV service, ADESA Simulcast, America’s Auto Auction Simulcast, etc.

“Five years ago, it was all in-person auctions, driving all over the state to various auctions. COVID forced me to go online once they shut

live auctions down.

“For advertising and marketing, that’s pretty much me. I do a series of Facebook ads. I’m on Tik Tok. I’m on Instagram. I do all that personally.

“Our area code happens to be 205, so I came up with a moniker ‘205approved.com.’ So that’s my website. I own it. So, I do a lot of a Tik Tok ads where I drive people to that website.

“The last vehicle we sold was a Toyota Corolla. It was a 2015. Mileage was probably about 120,000 or 130,000. I don’t remember the retail price, but the customer had about $1,500 down.”

SOUTH CAROLINA

Brandon Davis, sales manager, Good Deal Car Sales, Florence, S.C.

“We’ve been a dealership for two years. Before that, I was a kitchen manager

at Outback. I was working a whole bunch of hours at the restaurant. I figured if I could work this number of hours for myself instead, there’s no way we can’t win.

“We keep between 45 to 60 vehicles on the lot. Most of our cars come from auction. We also use NextGear to floorplan most of our cars.

So, if we find someone’s personal car, we can buy that, too.

“We usually use Manheim Darlington.

“We carry everything –cars, trucks, SUVs. We try to have something for everyone, a one-stop shop.

“For mileage, we’ll carry from under 100k to 200k. It depends on what it looks like. If it’s a truck, we know they go way over 200,000. So, the higher mileage vehicles are trucks. For normal cars, we try to stay between 100,000 to 130,000 miles.

“For age, we’re not going older than 2005.

“We do regular sales and buy-here, pay-here. I would say a good 35% to 40% are buy-here, pay-here.

“We have not had a lot of repos. We do use starter interrupt and GPS.

“Retail prices range from $5,000 to $10,000.

“We were sending cars out for reconditioning, but we recently got a mechanic who is really good.

“(For advertising) the corner that we’re on is a really busy corner, so pretty much everybody who’s going to Myrtle Beach comes by that corner. Word of mouth is also really helping. We also just put an ad out on the radio for the first time, still waiting to see how that goes.

“We just closed on a 2011 Ford-150. It had 119,000. We got $16,000. We did not have to do any reconditioning.”

Compiled by Ed Fitzgerald

Wholesale Markets

TEXAS

Wayne Cook, president, Greater Tyler Auto Auction, Tyler, Texas

“Volumes have been off here since June hit. I don’t know what happened. I must have missed it. Since June our numbers have been dipping some.

“We were running closer to 250 before June and now it’s (around) 200.

“Retail has been slow for a lot of the dealers, especially the buy-here, pay-here guys. What seems to be the problem is we get some high-end cars and then we get some that are older (with more mileage) and need work. There’s not as many of the cars in between those.

“People kept these cars during the pandemic and put more miles on them because they couldn’t find anything to trade for.

“Now, ½-ton trucks are

getting to be everywhere.

“The heavy trucks are bringing in money even if the used have softened. I say that even though we just sold a 2020 or 2021 Ford-350 diesel for $65,000. Those trucks are still in big demand.

“Overall, we’re selling close to 60%. Now dealers are picking and choosing a little more.

“We sell mostly dealer vehicles and some repos.

“We recently got over 200 bidders in a recent sale. We just need some more cars. I’m hearing some slowness from new car stores because, along the way these interest rates (hurt).

“Online sales are about 10 to 15%. We have some people who used to attend the auction are now buying online. I think what helps an auction online is that (bidders) feel good about us and our post-sale inspection process

and that we try to be fair. We don’t have favorites.

“One thing we’ve seen an uptick in is GSA cars. We do that once a month. It happens on sale day, with GSA in the morning and our regular sale in the evening. Next one is July 11. This one I expect 60-70 and I believe the number is only going to accelerate.

“Overall, I think the car business is going to get better. There’s a pent-up demand.”

WISCONSIN

Kristie Letizia, president, Greater Milwaukee Auto Auction, Milwaukee, Wis.

“Our consignment has gone up from 500 to 600 cars a week.

“What we’re noticing is that the new car dealers are starting to get more inventory and they’re sending them

Simple Payment Processing

to auction instead of trying to set them up for resale. So, we’re seeing our consignment increase from new car dealers.

“By the way, we’re celebrating 19 years July 13. We’re having a huge party sale with $50,000 in giveaways. Things like big screen TVs, Yeti coolers, toolboxes and a big free lunch. We plan on 1,000 cars at that sale.

“We also have Ally Financial as a consignor and Enterprise. Our lease lane’s been wildly successful, too.

“About 85% are dealer consignment -- with fresh dealer trades – and 15% are fleet/lease. We also have a strong donation presence, like Rawhide Boys Ranch, which runs every week.

“Overall, we’re selling 60%. Guys have been starved for cars and we’ve got them, so the buyers are coming. We also have a strong ‘if’ of-

fice, so we’re putting together a lot of deals.

“We’re probably getting around 300 bidders in-lane. Our online is growing, probably around 150. Online sales have risen. They used to be 5%, now they’re 10%.

“Dealers say they are having great weekends (at their lots) selling cars. It’s exciting to see this with dealers.

“The market adjusted in June, though, and everyone is kind of going with it.

“Year-to-date average sale price has been $6,200 a car. A lot of that is that the Ally Financial portfolio has changed from off-lease to repo, but they’re still selling at 90%.

“We’ve got a strong repo presence the last two years with a J.D. Byrider store out of Illinois. They run 50 every two weeks and sell 100%. We’re here to remarket whatever’s given to us.”

7/10/2023

Compiled by Jeffrey Bellant

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Tony Moorby Disconnected Jottings From

The thrill of seeing family for the first time in four years was palpable. There was one gaping chasm in that my twin brother was one of the first to be taken by the coronavirus in the UK in March of 2020. There was much to make up for; lots of people and places to see and catch up on.

Embracing the trip was helped by one of my daughters and my son. I spent three weeks, with Ally joining me for the first two and Robby coming over for the last two – there being an overlap of all three of us in the middle.

My brother’s family shared our company with open arms, dodging between two houses and a posh apartment. My sister-in-law still believes one should take three square meals a day, starting with a full English breakfast or close to it, then

lunch and dinner. It’s been a long time for such an indulgence for me and it was all I could do to persuade her that lighter fare was the order of the day. We were going to get our fill of pub lunches and dinners out so we had to make room!

I made mention, in the previous article, that roads and traffic especially in London and its environs are dreadful and motorists are the lowest form of humanity smearing the face of civilization. The cost, financially, of operating a car around London is prohibitive – gas is an arm and a leg, parking, when available is costly and fees to come and go from the city should be paid in advance or, if late, the wrath of Khan will fall on you in withering fines.

The health and mental costs are probably even greater, bringing on the

possibilities of early-onset frailties that I dare not think of! A couple of hours trying to escape the grip of West London traffic left me twitching like that detective in The Pink Panther! The prospect of an evening adult beverage did much to calm my eviscerated nerves. Speaking of beverages, the local pub, The Anchor, which dates back to the 1500s, although the current building is 100 years younger, is the epitome of the local village social center. It boasts an enormous Inglenook fireplace where you have to duck to avoid the beams, old black tables and a mishmash of aged chairs and church pews fill the tiny interior. Real Ale is hand drawn from the cellar and typical pub snacks make up the Bill of Fayre. Tuesday night is quiz night and attracts regulars, some taking

general knowledge seriously and others there for the company. It’s an extremely convivial mix although one that’s quietly disappearing. Pubs had a hard time during the pandemic and many are struggling to regain their previous position in society. Those in towns are becoming pizza parlors or cheap and cheesy eateries.

On the other hand, where British food only appealed to the British (including me), in London there is now probably the widest choice of foods available.

I remember when Notting Hill was one of the sleaziest areas imaginable.

It’s now achingly posh and upmarket where prices for houses are now in the stratosphere but fabulous restaurants are everywhere, representing any cuisine you could name; even barbeque restaurants.

• 50-year veteran of the industry

• President from 1997–2000 of ADT Automotive

• Served as ADESA’s executive vice president of sales and marketing

• Moorby & Associates

2006–present

• NAAA Hall of Famer

• IARA Circle of Excellence

To see past columns from Tony Moorby, visit www.usedcarnews.com/ columnists/tony-moorby

While the Cotswolds and coastal villages are as charming as ever, emanating a warmth from wisteria covered stone cottages and rose gardens, the attraction of Old Blighty remains. But after forty plus years of enjoying American conveniences it was good to be home.

Myles Mellor

Tony Moorby

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