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Hey everyone,
Don’t forget—Industry Trackers are now on Car Dealership Guy News.
Right now we're tracking:
Recalls = what to bring into the service drive
Buy-Sell = which stores are changing hands and where
Tariff Tracker = latest tariff changes and their impact on the market
Let us know which data points you want us to track next.
We’ll be updating these regularly.
— CDG
First time reading the CDG Newsletter?
Welcome to The Weekly, a roundup of the top five auto industry headlines of the week.
Inside Rohrman Auto’s push to cut leads, clean data, and control costs
Rohrman Automotive CEO Ryan Rohrman is phasing out some third-party lead providers, tightening used-car turn times to under 18 days, and even spending $60K to clean up 22 rooftops’ worth of CRM records with Experian.
That clean data now lives in Snowflake, giving his team a secure, real-time system for marketing, sales, and service decisions, without the stale, broken records.
Big picture: Rohrman is proving that margin strength comes from hunting down leaks in leads, inventory, and data.
Amazon Autos adds Hertz as first fleet dealer partner for used car sales
Hertz $HTZ ( ▲ 8.57% ) just cut a major deal with Amazon $AMZN ( ▲ 3.1% ) Autos to sell its used fleet online starting in Dallas, Houston, LA, and Seattle—with plans to expand across all 45 Hertz Car Sales locations.
Shoppers can now browse, finance, and buy vehicles directly through Amazon, then pick them up at Hertz—with perks like a 115-point inspection, 12-month/12K-mile warranty, and a seven-day return guarantee.
As far as dealers are concerned, Amazon may be able to match convenience at scale, but personalized service and creative financing remain the edge traditional rooftops can use to compete.
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Subaru dethrones Toyota in customer satisfaction, Lexus leads luxury rankings
Subaru just passed Toyota for the first time in U.S. customer satisfaction, leading the 2025 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Automobile Study with a score of 85 out of 100.
Toyota and Mazda tied for second at 82, with Buick, GMC, Honda, and Hyundai right behind.
Stellantis brands (Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, and Ram) filled the bottom four slots.
On the luxury side, Lexus surged six points to 87, topping all brands, while Mercedes and Tesla slid.
Bottom line: Customer satisfaction directly drives dealer profitability through repeat business and referrals. With car payments hitting record highs and loan terms stretching longer, satisfied customers become even more valuable.
This aggressive used car inventory strategy helps dealers stay profitable, says David Spisak
Auto retail veteran David Spisak doesn’t recommend waiting around 60 or 90 days before offloading weak used car inventory.
Hit rule: If a car isn’t pulling serious demand in 21 days—it needs to go.
That means pricing it to move or wholesaling it—freeing up capital for cars that actually sell. It’s the same discipline CarMax uses, which helped the retailer wholesale nearly 600,000 vehicles last year.
The takeaway: Top operators build gross by keeping inventory fast, fresh, and always in demand.
Service profits soar to record highs, but dealer pricing power has its limit — report
Dealership service departments are seeing record profits in 2025, but not because of higher prices alone.
Reynolds & Reynolds’ latest Golden Metrics show customer-pay ROs climbing across the board.
Major urban stores hit $414 (+$33 YoY), metro stores reached $349 (+$23), community-based dealerships generated $268 (+$9), and rural locations came in at $225 (+$2).
The lift comes mainly from rising labor rates, but there’s a ceiling, and customers are already pushing back on repair recommendations.
The bigger gains are now coming from efficiency tools.
The results: “Automated dealers” using technician recommendation software average 1.74 hours per RO vs. 1.55 manually. That extra 0.19 hours adds $26.60 in revenue per ticket before parts.
Missed yesterday’s episode of Daily Dealer Live?
Presented by
Open Road on third-party overreach, Five Star Chevrolet on Chevy EV strategy
Featured guests:
Michael Morais, President of Open Road Auto Group
Alan Brown, General Manager of Sam Pack’s Five Star Chevrolet
Stellantis has revived the Jeep Cherokee in hopes of reversing sales decline
BofA: Self-driving cars could boost, not crush, auto insurer profits
Wholesale used car prices dip slightly in early August as EV values climb
Germain Motor acquires Kentucky’s only Porsche, Jaguar Land Rover stores
Majority of dealers expect Chinese EVs to hit U.S. shores within a year — report
