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Hey everyone,
Well… now that we’ve got your attention thanks to this morning’s blank email, here’s the actual newsletter.
Appreciate the patience. And if you’re just seeing this and have no idea what we’re talking about… even better!
— CDG
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Welcome to The Weekly, a roundup of the top five auto industry headlines of the week.
Auto industry responds to FTC warning letters on pricing practices
Earlier this week, we reported that the FTC sent warning letters to 97 dealer groups over concerns about advertised pricing, and that dealers who received one weren’t waiting around.
One multi-state group told us they were surprised to get a letter despite spending over $1 million a year on compliance, and immediately began auditing everything from their own website to aggregator listings.
What we’re watching: Compliance consultant Tom Kline says most regulatory problems start with customer complaints, and that violations under Section 5 can carry fines of up to $53,088 per incident.
This auto group is tripling service lane sales using daily monitoring and tiered outreach
Also this week, Hicks Layton of Hicks Auto Group joined Daily Dealer Live to walk through how his team tripled service lane car sales across five Texas stores by building a structured daily monitoring process from scratch.
How it works: A dedicated employee now scans incoming vehicles every morning, pulls CRM history before any outreach goes out, and routes appraisals to sales managers — resulting in 750 to 1,000 appraisals a month and monthly service lane sales climbing from 5–7 units to 15–20.
Layton noted that while the process is still largely manual, it's working.
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Toyota, Lexus top resale value rankings again in 2026 KBB awards
Then, on Thursday (March 19), KBB released its 2026 Best Resale Value Awards, with Toyota and Lexus topping the rankings for the 10th and fifth consecutive years, respectively.
For context, Toyota averages 53% retained value after five years, compared to just 45% for the average 2026 model-year vehicle.
And for dealers: That gap is a concrete talking point in lease conversations, trade-in appraisals, and any room where affordability is top of mind.
The $50 oil change strategy driving customer-pay ROs at Bob Rohrman Toyota
In other news from Daily Dealer Live, Bob Rohrman Toyota GM Zac Kinch shared that a $50 flat-rate full-synthetic oil change (for any make or model) has driven a 13% increase in customer-pay RO count and an 18% jump in CP hours per RO in just three weeks.
Per Kinch: The idea came after burning through every conventional tool to drive fixed ops traffic with nothing to show for it, and frames it as customer acquisition, not a cheap service deal.
Adding to the results, he says two first-time oil-change customers have already converted into new-vehicle sales.
U.S. auto groups press Trump to keep Chinese automakers out
On Monday, five major auto industry groups (including NADA and the Alliance for Automotive Innovation) sent a letter to President Trump urging him to keep Chinese automakers out of the U.S. market and maintain existing cybersecurity regulations that effectively block most Chinese vehicles.
The letter argues the threat is the same whether Chinese brands import vehicles or build plants on U.S. soil, pushing back directly on Trump's prior openness to domestic Chinese production.
Bottom line: The timing is notable given Trump's planned summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on March 31, with the letter potentially complicating those talks.
