The Recon Spending Trap: When You're Overcapitalizing on Trade-In Restoration
It's Monday morning at your dealership, and a 2019 Mercedes E-Class just rolled into the lot with 89,000 miles, a salvage title cleanup in progress, and what yo...
The Contrarian Case Against Off-Lease Inventory Dependency
Seventy percent of dealers say off-lease inventory is their most reliable acquisition channel. And yet, the stores crushing it in used-car gross profit are doin...
Why Your Dealer Principal Shouldn't Chase Exotic Cars and Specialty Inventory (Yet)
Picture this: it's Tuesday morning, your service bay is running at 78% capacity, CSI is hovering around 82, and your parts director just flagged three technicia...
Why Most Classic-Car Consignment Programs Fail (And What to Do Instead)
Eighty-three percent of dealerships that launch a classic-car consignment program abandon it within eighteen months. That's not an industry stat I pulled from a...
The Powersports Cross-Sell Trap: Why Most Dealerships Get Specialty Inventory Wrong
Most dealership groups are dead wrong about powersports and RV cross-sell, and it's costing them six figures a year in missed margin and worse CSI scores. Here...
Why Your Motorcycle Department Is Losing Money (And What To Do About It)
Why does every dealer group with a motorcycle department lose money on it? That's not a rhetorical question. It's the question that separates the dealers makin...
Why Most Franchise Dealerships Should Stop Trying to Sell Used RVs
Why Most Franchise Dealerships Should Stop Trying to Sell Used RVs The RV market exploded around 2008. Not because people suddenly loved camping, but because t...
The Facility Design Problem Nobody Wants to Admit
In 1900, a hurricane hit Galveston, Texas with such force that it killed over 6,000 people and reshaped the entire Gulf Coast approach to disaster planning. Wha...
Why Your $400K Facility Upgrade Is Probably Going to Fail (And What to Do Instead)
Sixty-three percent of dealerships plan a facility upgrade in the next 18 months. That's a lot of general managers staring at architect renderings and wondering...
The Solar Panel Trap: Why Your Dealership Facility Might Not Be Ready Yet
The Solar Panel Trap: Why Your Dealership Facility Might Not Be Ready Yet Most dealership groups are getting sold on rooftop solar panels as a no-brainer facil...
Better Signage Won't Fix a Bad Layout: A Contrarian Take on Dealership Wayfinding
Eighty-seven percent of dealerships say their facility signage and wayfinding are "adequate or better." Meanwhile, mystery shops consistently show customers spe...
Stop Over-Correcting on ADA Compliance: A Contrarian Dealership Perspective
You've got a 40-year-old service bay, a showroom that's seen three remodels, and a parking lot that slopes like the Cascade foothills. Now you're staring at an ...