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 guests are Kyle Coleman, Rob Ruth, and Scott Simons.
Together, we dug into how they're navigating the biggest challenges in auto retail.
The M&A market is finally coming back to reality, and overpaid buyers are starting to feel it
Deal flow is wide open right now, from small rural stores trading at real estate value to mega 15-rooftop packages. But the multiples that made sense two years ago no longer hold.
"A store that transacted two years ago at an 8x multiple… you know, for easy math, it makes a million bucks, it sells for eight million bucks. Well, that store really should probably trade for six million bucks at the most." — Kyle
When you factor in inventory, real estate, and working capital on top of whatever Blue Sky number is on the table, the check you're writing at closing is almost always substantially bigger than the headline, and that math matters more when you're paying a multiple that was set during the best three years the business ever had.
Simple OEM programs are why some brands outperform and others don't
The brands that have built loyal, profitable dealer networks share one thing in common.
"The reason why manufacturers have excelled such as Honda, such as Subaru… it's because they keep their programs simple." — Scott
When the program is hard to follow, dealers start making decisions based on whether they think they'll hit the incentive, not on what's right for the customer, and that's how you end up with bloated inventory and dealers who've talked themselves out of selling cars.
Facility doesn't drive the business as much as people and experience do
Two of the three dealers in the room are running stores built decades ago. One sells 400 cars a month in a town of 2,700 people out of a building from the 1950s with one renovation since the '90s.
"We sell 400 cars a month in a town of 2,700 people. Our CSI is great. We outsell our market. It's not the facility. It's exactly what you said, Scott. It's the experience you give people. It's the trust that they have in you." — Rob
The real tension is between what manufacturers require of facilities and what the business actually needs, especially as more of the transaction starts online before a customer ever sees the building.
Pickup and delivery works in rural markets just as well as urban ones
The assumption that mobile and pickup-and-delivery service is an urban phenomenon doesn't survive contact with the data.
"Even if they live right behind us, let's pick up their car and not have them have to come here." — Rob
Pickup and delivery also improves MPI thoroughness because techs working on cars without time pressure do more complete inspections, make better recommendations, and generate more repair revenue per RO.
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Sourcing 305 cars off the street in a single month started out of desperation during COVID
When Pennsylvania shut down and auction inventory dried up overnight, Rob Ruth got on Facebook Marketplace himself and started messaging sellers. Five cars the first day, five or six the second.
"For years, I'm like, ‘Man, we should really start a buying center.’”
— Rob
Six people now run the acquisition department across a 300-mile radius, paying on the spot via check or wire transfer. The cost-to-market spread between street sourcing and auction is 7%, and every car bought from a private seller also builds the dealership's brand as a place that helps people sell.
FTC pricing enforcement leveled the playing field for dealers who were already doing it right
All three operators are in markets where larger competitors had been stacking incentives customers couldn't qualify for to advertise prices that disappeared at the dealership.
"What the FTC just recently did leveled the playing field for someone like me. I'm surrounded by mega dealers, the Rick Hendricks, the Capital Automotive Group, Deacon Jones." — Scott
Kyle took it further: The dealers still stacking incentives customers don't qualify for aren't just making the consumer experience worse, they're actually breaking the law, and costing compliant dealers real market share every single month.
A $59.99 synthetic oil change loss leader drove a 20% jump in customer pay ROs in 30 days
When Kyle Coleman rolled out the oil change price across the group, his parts and service director predicted the effective labor rate would go backward, but it went up $5.
"We we've seen almost a 20% increase in customer pay ROs in 30 days...Our effective labor rate has increased by $5 across the board. It just comes down to perception is reality, right?" — Kyle
More oil-change traffic means more full inspections, more identified repair needs, and more conversations about work customers didn't know they needed.
Impact (not store count) is what drives the 40-store goal
The growth thesis behind Kyle Coleman's seven-to-40 roadmap is a specific philosophy about what scale makes possible for the people inside the organization.
"I don't have 300 employees. You know, 2.5 people live in the average household in the United States. I have dramatically more than 300 people that I have to worry about. The impacts I make on their children in the future, like that's why I look at 40 stores, right?" — Kyle
That framing sits alongside an honest admission that ego is part of it as well. The desire to win, to prove the goal wasn't crazy when he said it after buying his first stores, and to build something that lasts beyond the transaction.
Rural markets punish bad operators faster and harder than urban ones
In a small town, a reputation damaged 25 years ago by a previous owner can still cost a new buyer customers today. That reality shapes how all three operators think about transparency and customer experience.
"Small town people hold grudges, too. If you lose business, it's really hard to get it back because ‘Hey, my grandfather's best friend so and so went there 25 years ago and this happened." — Kyle
A small, concentrated customer base with long memories is also the forcing function that keeps these operators honest in ways that larger metro dealers can afford to ignore.
The biggest risk to dealers over the next 24 months is their own operators, not the market
The lightning round at the end of the conversation produced one answer worth sitting with. Asked for the single biggest risk to dealers in the next two years, the three answers were credit, operators, and turnover… none of them external.
"Even in a weaker market there are dealers that win and there are dealers that lose." — Kyle
Tariffs, affordability concerns, flat new car sales… all of it is real, but none of it changes the answer.
