Welcome to another edition of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast Recap—a rundown of key lessons from top operators, founders, and execs shaping the future of auto retail.
Today’s guest is Brian MacDonald, CEO & President of CDK Global.
MacDonald shares the massive scale of the CDK's automotive data ecosystem and what it means to have a touchpoint with nearly 90% of car owners in the country.
2026 auto sales will likely be flat, but profits will be harder to achieve.
The market outlook for this year suggests similar sales volume to 2025, but with more challenging profit conditions ahead.
"I think SARR 2026 vs 25 will be flat, maybe up a little bit. You know, 26 wil maybe be more challenging in retail for profitability."
Last year benefited from pre-tariff buying and the September EV cleanup—two events unlikely to repeat. This year's success will depend on affordability, interest rates, and getting back to basics.
The affordability gap between cars and trucks is bigger than most realize.
When examining transaction prices, the gap between cars and trucks reveals a significant affordability challenge in today's market.
"The average transaction price for the most common of cars is like in the $35,000 range. But for trucks and SUVs, it's in the $56,000 range."
With consumers gravitating toward trucks and SUVs priced well above the industry average of $48-49K, manufacturers need to create more accessible options in the lower end to keep buyers from crossing over to used inventory.
AI went from new to common practice in just one year.
The adoption curve for artificial intelligence in dealerships has accelerated dramatically since the last NADA.
"I think a year ago, AI was something kind of new to dealers. Today, it's pretty pervasive. Dealers are either using AI in some form or fashion or about to start using it."
This represents one of the fastest technology adoption cycles the industry has seen, with 39% of dealers already using AI and another quarter planning to adopt in 2026.
AI without data is just artificial.
The competitive advantage in AI comes from pairing the technology with rich, proprietary data sets that can drive meaningful insights.
"I've been saying this for quite some time. I should probably trademark this expression. Artificial intelligence without data is just artificial."
Large data sets, like hundreds of millions of repair orders and vehicle records, provide the foundation for AI applications that can suggest repairs, populate parts, optimize warranty reimbursement, and predict customer behavior in ways that generic AI tools simply cannot match.
Presented by:
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2. OPENLANE - The world’s best online dealer marketplace for used cars, bringing you exclusive inventory, simple transactions, and better outcomes. Learn more @ openlane.com/cdg
3. CDK Global - Dealers—big news. CDK just leveled up its CRM in a massive way. We’re talking next-gen AI baked right into your daily workflow: Automatically following up with internet leads, surfacing buyer insights, and giving you instant AI-generated summaries of every customer interaction—no more digging through notes. And CRM Video is here. Record, send, and track personalized videos to customers—all inside the CRM. Check out the AI-enhanced CDK CRM.
Duplicate customer records are bleeding money across dealership groups.
The fragmentation of customer records across systems and dealership locations creates massive inefficiencies in understanding and serving customers.
"I go to a dealer and they put me in a system as ‘Brian McDonald, MC, D-O-N-A-L-D.’ Then the next time they type me in a system as Mac or they just put ‘B’ or ‘McDonald’ if they're really busy, right?"
Consolidating these records to calculate true customer lifetime value helps identify which buyers return for service versus those who only come in for warranty work—a critical distinction for profitability.
Integrated AI will win over bolt-on solutions in the long run.
The difference between integrated AI solutions and add-on features will define which technologies succeed long-term.
"You see a lot of companies in the space with some AI bolt-on solution, but ultimately we know the complexity that bolt-ons bring over time."
Dealers who have dealt with countless integrations understand the operational burden that comes with piecemeal solutions.
The industry now has 900 million repair orders to learn from.
The volume of historical service data in the industry creates opportunities to anticipate customer needs before they arise.
"We have 900 million repair orders in our system. So if you think about any vehicle repair, we can look through that vehicle, we can look at what the customer said the issue is, and then we can populate suggested repairs or suggested issues."
This scale of data allows dealers to move from reactive service to proactive recommendations, identifying likely repairs based on vehicle history and customer patterns that would be impossible to spot manually.
Normalized EV demand won't be visible until Q3 and Q4.
The market distortions from incentive changes make it impossible to gauge normalized electric vehicle demand until later this year.
"I think towards the back half of this year, we'll learn what's normalized EV demand as percent of sales, which I think will be healthy for the industry in terms of planning and going forward."
With Q1 numbers inflated by pull-forward purchases before incentives expired, the true sustainable demand for EVs won't become clear until these effects wash out.
Consumers are increasingly turning to ChatGPT for car shopping advice.
AI-powered search tools are becoming an increasingly common part of the car shopping journey.
"I just read an interview recently…they asked the CEO how to use AI in your daily life. And he said, well, I need to buy a new car. I don't really know much about cars. So I just decided to go on an LLM and ask a bunch of questions about what kind of car I should get, what kind of questions I should ask."
As more consumers turn to tools like ChatGPT for shopping advice, dealerships need to understand how their inventory and messaging appear in AI-generated recommendations.
CDK’s 250 million consumer profiles cover nearly every car shopper in America.
Having data on roughly 80-90% of American car shoppers fundamentally changes what's possible in understanding customer lifetime value.
"CDK has 250 unique consumers that are in our system, in our platform. You buy a car from CDK, you had a car serviced at CDK. Even if you bought a car at a non-CDK dealership, but you came to have it serviced at CDK, we have that consumer profile in our platform."
This coverage enables dealers to see complete customer journeys across purchases, service visits, and shopping behavior—data points that used to exist in isolation across disconnected systems.
