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Hey everyone,
A few solid sales roles just hit the CDG Job Board:
The Niello Company is hiring an Audi Sales Client Advisor in Sacramento.
Superior Van & Mobility is looking for a Mobility Sales Consultant in Lexington, KY.
And Murphy Motor Co. is hiring Sales Consultants across the Raleigh area.
Worth a look if you’re in the market (or know someone who is).
— CDG
First time reading the CDG Newsletter?
Welcome to the Market Pulse—your no-fluff cheatsheet to auto retail, built to help dealers price right, stock smart, and stay ahead.
New-vehicle pricing discipline is replacing volume pressure: With higher-income buyers still transacting, OEMs are holding prices and protecting margins rather than chasing softer demand with incentives.
Similarly, used inventory is rising, but pricing discipline is keeping demand intact: As supply normalizes, modest price resets, not broad discounting, are sustaining demand, while mispriced units are aging faster.
Dealers are preparing for 2026 by tightening data and speeding up decisions: Operators are cleaning up bad comps, delivering faster appraisal numbers, and using personalized video to build trust earlier in the process.
(Source: Cox Automotive / Edmunds / Daily Dealer Live)
New-vehicle inventory is staying high into year-end, while pricing discipline is keeping margins intact.
By the end of November, dealers were carrying about 3.0 million new vehicles, or roughly 90 days of supply. That level stayed essentially flat through the fall and was slightly lower than a year ago.
Sales, though, slipped about 4% YoY, which means fewer buyers are getting deals done.
Normally, that combo would trigger the usual playbook: cut prices, boost incentives, and push volume.
But that hasn’t happened.
Instead, ATPs stayed just under $50,000. MSRPs kept rising because buyers continued leaning into larger, higher-trim vehicles. Incentives stayed tight. And wage growth helped the buyers who are still in market handle the higher payments.
NOTE TO DEALERS:
With higher-income buyers still transacting, and OEMs holding pricing steady, the advantage goes to stores that are:
Routing new-car leads by verified payment tolerance earlier in the process to avoid mismatched desked deals.
Increasing orders of trims and configurations that have closed in the last 60–90 days and reducing allocations of slower-turning builds.
And reviewing which sales depended on late-month OEM incentives and resetting pricing or mix to avoid relying on program spikes to hit volume.
Used-vehicle inventory is rising toward year-end while modest price cuts keep sales moving.
On the used side, dealers ended the month with about 2.31 million used vehicles in stock, the highest level of the year, pushing days’ supply to roughly 50 days.
On paper, that’s usually the point where sales start to slow. But so far, they haven’t.
Dealers actually still moved 1.39 million used vehicles in November, beating both October and last year despite the extra supply.
And the reason is pretty simple: pricing.
Because as supply crept up, used listing prices eased to about $25,730. And that small step-down lowered monthly payments just enough to keep price-sensitive buyers in the game, without dealers having to blow out inventory.
WHY IT MATTERS:
The more inventory there is, the harsher the penalty for mispricing.
That’s why disciplined operators are:
Filtering out listings built on conditional pricing that no real shopper actually qualifies for.
Excluding deceptive listings that skew appraisal tools by advertising prices dependent on trade-ins, financing, or stair-step assumptions.
And adjusting prices by day 10–14 instead of waiting 30 days, so units don’t fall out of market alignment as supply rises.
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When new-vehicle pricing is holding firm and used supply is rebuilding, it’s easy to think the market is calming down.
But what actually stood out in yesterday’s episode of Daily Dealer Live was how three operators, each sitting in different parts of the business, kept circling back to the same point:
2026 will reward dealers who price accurately, respond quickly, and communicate clearly.
So, I put together a few of their Dos and Don’ts from the ground.
Do: Protect pricing integrity as inventory rebuilds.
Andy Wright, who runs a multi-store group in Pennsylvania, emphasized that too many dealers are making real decisions off distorted market data.
“I just find it so ironic that a company like Cox, that owns vAuto and also owns Autotrader, is using data from their Autotrader platform that is compromised to turn around and present to a member of our of our team who uses vAuto.”
Andy Wright
His point: When your comps are compromised, your pricing strategy is compromised, and in a rising-supply market, that mistake gets expensive fast.
Do: Increase speed and transparency as used-vehicle supply rises.
Rob Dell, who helps run one of the highest-volume used-car operations in the country, explained that their growth comes from aggressively sourcing cars directly from consumers and giving fast, honest numbers upfront.
“If you give a number, you have a chance. If you don’t, you have no chance.”
Rob Dell
And that’s his secret sauce. Because, as he sees it, the store that gives the first clean number often earns the car.
Don’t: Build your month around stair-step volatility.
Wright also made it clear how OEM stair-step programs disrupt dealer strategy and erode margin discipline.
In his words: “We walk into a casino every month when we get our stair step objective.”
That’s why he says the stores outperforming in 2026 will be the ones that build predictable processes, not the ones solely gambling on late-month incentives.
2026 is going to drag a quiet truth into the open: this is a cost-cutting, efficiency-first era.
Headcount is tightening. Tech stacks are shrinking. Processes are getting stripped to the studs.
And the day-to-day goal is shifting from “How fast can we grow?” to “How lean can we run?”
So here’s my question…
If you had to run your store tomorrow with fewer people and fewer tools, would your process survive?
If the answer isn’t an immediate yes, that’s your 2026 homework. Grow only after the machine runs clean.
Missed yesterday’s episode of Daily Dealer Live?
Presented by:
Wright on Deceptive Pricing, Dell on Used, Robertson on Video Lead Response
Featured guests:
Andy Wright, Managing Partner at VINART Automotive Group
Rob Dell, Vice President of Bob Ruth Ford
Patrick Robertson, GM of Hyundai of Cool Springs
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