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Hey everyone,
The used car side of the business hasn’t slowed down one bit. Prices are all over the place, floorplans are tightening, and dealers are getting scrappy, finding new ways to move metal when the market won’t cooperate.
With that in mind, it felt like the right moment to highlight five trends that really stood out on the used side this week.
Oh, and with Used Car Week around the corner, curious who’s heading to Vegas?
— CDG
First time reading the CDG Newsletter?
Welcome to The Weekly, a roundup of the top five auto industry headlines of the week.
Ohio dealer flags major discrepancies in wholesale vehicle condition reports
An Ohio dealer is raising concerns about what he says are significant gaps between wholesale condition reports and the vehicles his team inspects.
Findlay CDJR owner Kable Derrow says his staff has repeatedly rechecked “5.0” cars that later scored much lower when returned to the auction, creating claim backlogs, delays, and constant fights to recover money.
So, to avoid the grind, Derrow says he’s expanded his sourcing playbook beyond the lanes, leaning into direct-from-seller deals and increased cross-border buying. Today, he estimates that about 75% of his used inventory originates from Canada due to the tight domestic supply.
Derrow’s stance: Accuracy and consistency in condition reports matter more than ever, and until he sees both, he plans to rely on alternative channels to keep inventory moving and margins protected.
How Tully Williams slashed used-car reconditioning from 5 days to 2
At the Niello Company, parts and service director Tully Williams just cut used-car recon times from 5 days to 2, and he did it by treating recon like the heartbeat of fixed ops, not an afterthought.
His playbook centers on one obsession:
How fast a car moves from acquisition to the shop, and how fast it moves through it.
To make that happen, he built a dedicated internal advisor and tech team paid on recon speed, not gross, giving the process true ownership.
Stores could use whatever recon tool helped them hit the number, and used-car managers were compensated on recon gross to keep everyone pulling in the same direction.
Add in zero tolerance for comebacks and required photos, videos, and digital inspections, and the workflow tightened quickly.
“Sales only sell the first car,” Williams said. “If it wasn’t for fixed ops, sales couldn’t sell the second, third, fourth, or 50th car.”
A word from our partner:
Capital One Auto is now a GM iMR Turnkey Approved vendor.
Through this collaboration with GM, eligible dealers have access to tools that:
Help boost visibility
Improve lead quality
And enhance sales performance.
Ourisman Auto Group’s decreased ad spend delivers record October performance
Most dealers are pouring record amounts into advertising right now, but Ourisman Automotive Group is running the opposite playbook.
CMO Jeff Ramsey cut $2.8M in ad spend this year by dialing back low-quality leads, syncing marketing with actual inventory flow, and pushing hard into used cars.
And it’s working…
October marked the group’s highest conversion rate ever and a record sales month, fueled by nearly 50% YoY growth in used-car volume and tighter alignment between marketing, acquisitions, and store ops.
The takeaway: While everyone else is spending more to get the same results, Ourisman is proving that disciplined spend and cleaner lead paths can move the needle faster than any blanket ad blitz.
Used-car demand drives new sourcing strategies at Fred Martin Motor Company
As used-car demand keeps rising, Fred Martin Motor Company is doubling down on a sourcing strategy that sidesteps auctions altogether.
The strategy: Used-car director Nick Huff is paying sales staff up to $500 per “street purchase,” turning local driveways into a faster, cheaper supply channel that arrives on the lot with no transport fees and no surprises.
And rather than chase rental returns or bid blind at the lanes, Fred Martin is using its own people to find inventory in the $10k–$20k sweet spot, an approach that offers better condition insight, lower acquisition costs, and tighter control at a time when subprime competition is heating up.
Huff’s POV: “Ultimately, we're just trying to drive down those auction rental car acquisition numbers, and paying our salespeople a good amount of money to acquire them is a big part of how we're doing that.”
Used cars aren’t the affordability buffer they used to be — report
Used-car prices are pushing into near-new territory, and it’s slowing the market down.
Edmunds says 3-year-old vehicles averaged $31,067 in Q3, up 5% YoY, with lot times stretching to their slowest third-quarter pace since 2017.
Why it matters: The used market is no longer the easy affordability escape hatch it once was. Dealers are navigating rising ATPs, longer turn times, and a shopper base squeezed by record new-car pricing and tighter credit.
And while 3-year-old EVs turned unusually fast ahead of the federal credit’s expiration (thanks to scarce supply and accessible $20k–$30k pricing), the broader picture here tells us buyers and dealers are being pushed into a new calculus of what’s affordable, what’s available, and what’s worth the wait.
Missed yesterday’s episode of Daily Dealer Live?
Presented by:
Service lane game-changer: Brian Benstock, TeamVelocity, VINCUE, Spyne.ai
Featured guests:
Brian Benstock, partner VP and GM of Paragon Honda and Paragon Acura
Danny Zaslavsky, Co-founder and President of VINCUE
David Boice, Founder and CEO of TeamVelocity
Sanjay Varnwal, Co-founder and CEO of Spyne.ai
