The Appointment Density Myth: Why Your Service Department Schedule Is Working Against You
What if the way you're stacking appointments throughout the day is actually costing you money instead of making it? Most dealership fixed ops leaders obsess ov...
Menu Pricing Is Killing Your Shop Productivity (And You Don't Even Know It)
What if the wholesale shift toward menu pricing is actually hurting your fixed ops profitability, not helping it? That's a question most dealership groups aren...
The Brake Job Close Rate Trap
Most dealers obsess over brake job close rates like it's the secret to fixed ops profitability. The assumption is straightforward: if your service advisors can ...
Stop Pricing Tires Like a Tire Shop: A Contrarian Take on Dealership Tire Strategy
You're leaving money on the table with your tire pricing strategy, and the industry consensus is probably making it worse. Most dealerships treat tire sales li...
Stop Testing Every Battery on Every Visit (And Watch Productivity Rise)
In 1912, Thomas Edison's electric cars were outselling gasoline vehicles in America. They were quieter, didn't need hand-cranking, and required almost no mainte...
Service Drive Photography Is Overrated (And Killing Your CSI Scores)
The invention of the camera phone fundamentally changed how dealerships think about selling maintenance. Before 2007, a service advisor's pitch lived entirely i...
Why Your Digital MPI Rollout Might Actually Hurt Your Shop (And What to Do About It)
Most dealerships approach digital multi-point inspection (MPI) like it's an obvious win: faster reporting, cleaner photos, instant customer communication, bette...
The Inventory Data Quality Problem Nobody Wants to Admit
67% of dealerships believe their inventory data feeds are "good" or "excellent." That number should terrify you. Why? Because most of those dealerships are fly...
The Holdback and Pack Myth That's Killing Your Margins
The Holdback and Pack Myth That's Killing Your Margins Back in 1916, General Motors introduced the dealer holdback system as a way to protect franchisees from ...
Stale Inventory Price Drops: Why Your 60-Day Rule Is Actually Costing You Money
Back in 1987, when used-car lots operated on gut feel and dealer markup sheets, a car that sat for 60 days was dead weight. You dropped the price. You dropped i...
Why Your Lot Lighting Budget Is Probably a Waste (and What to Do Instead)
Nearly 60% of dealership managers say lot lighting is their third-highest reconditioning expense, right after paint and mechanical work. But here's the thing: m...
The Contrarian Case Against Over-Certifying Your Used Car Inventory
Imagine it's mid-July on the lot, and you've got a 2019 Toyota Camry with 87,000 miles sitting in your reconditioning queue. Clean title, no accidents, single o...