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Welcome to The Weekly, a roundup of the top five auto industry headlines of the week.
How Mohawk Honda acquired 75 used cars from its service drive in March
Mohawk Honda GM Greg Johnson acquired 75 used vehicles from the service drive in March alone, up from 25 to 30 per month, after overhauling the people, processes, and pay plans behind the program.
Some context: The store runs 3,000 ROs a month and uses a combination of automated appraisal texts, two dedicated exchange consultants, and equity mining through automotiveMastermind to identify and convert the right customers.
The single biggest unlock was paying service advisors on internals for acquired vehicles, which turned the team from skeptics into active participants.
Sky Auto case highlights risks of floorplan missteps as lenders move to seize vehicles
A district judge cleared Stellantis Financial Services to seize $12.3 million in vehicle collateral from Sky Auto Mall's two Iowa dealerships, the latest development in the double flooring case we first covered earlier this month.
The alleged scheme involved transferring vehicles between the Center Point and Newhall locations without notifying lenders, allowing each to unknowingly finance the same vehicles at both stores, while Sky Auto allegedly kept dual accounting records to conceal it.
Ford Credit, which has a separate writ of replevin tied to similar allegations, has already asked the sheriff's office to seize 10 vehicles.
A quick word from our partner
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Christian Meunier: Dealers are proof that Nissan's turnaround is 60% complete
Nissan Americas Chairman Christian Meunier told the New York Auto Forum this week that the brand's turnaround is about 60% complete, with dealer profitability now the company's number one KPI.
He arrived 15 months ago to find dealers "very upset" and a company that had lost its appetite to sell cars.
But since then, U.S.-built vehicle share has climbed from 44% to 65%, tariff exposure has dropped from $4 billion to $1.5 billion, and new products are on the way.
What we’re watching: Dealer profitability is still roughly half the industry average, but Meunier says the trend is moving in the right direction.
GM Mike Yates on using AI for service, inventory, and search visibility at BMW of Bridgewater
BMW of Bridgewater GM Mike Yates has been building his own AI tools in-house across service, inventory management, and search visibility, starting with a voice agent to cover a staffing gap in the service BDC and expanding from there.
His most practical builds include a custom GPT trained on BMW's 187-page warranty manual and a tool called AEO Whisper that runs dozens of daily queries across ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok to track how the dealership appears in AI-generated search results compared with competitors.
His advice for dealers who haven't started yet: "Go on Claude. Just start there. Just start asking some questions."
Judge rules CNCDA lawsuit against Volkswagen, Scout can proceed
A federal judge denied Volkswagen and Scout's motions to dismiss the CNCDA's franchise law lawsuit, ruling that Scout's $100 reservation program constitutes competition in the sale of new motor vehicles and that Volkswagen's corporate relationship with Scout is enough to trigger California's dealer protection statute.
The case was originally filed in April 2024 and is now cleared to move forward.
Looking ahead: It's the latest in a string of legal challenges to Scout's direct-to-consumer model, with separate suits filed in Florida and a class-action brought by two dealer groups just weeks ago also in play.
Missed yesterday’s episode of Daily Dealer Live?
Presented by:
Roger & Eric Niello on CA Gov, Scott Painter on Pricing
Featured guests:
CA State Senator Roger Niello, representing the 6th district
Eric Niello, National Business Development Manager at The Niello Company and AutoFiPro
Scott Painter, Founder and CEO of TrueCar
