Auto Retail News

In our industry today, partnering with professional capital is a significant discussion thread. Namely, selling less than 100% of the business and joining forces with outside capital for the purposes of accelerated growth and dealership acquisitions

Management is a challenging endeavor in any business, but especially so in an auto dealership. Dealers need to manage a large staff, facilities, new and used car sales, service business, a parts business, the supplier base, the I.T. support structure

Employee turnover continues to be a problem in many dealerships, and especially in fixed ops. The ability to attract and retain service technicians, for example, is a problem so prevalent that in a recent Carlisle Dealer Principal Survey, more than 4

Build Your Store’s Direction Towards a Success Destination Recently I took a road trip and visited with several dealerships. Many of these stores were suffering from attrition anxiety and couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Why would empl

Dr. Merlot and I met up during a layover in Charlotte in route to a family business operating three semi metro dealerships in the Midwest. In our previous visit, we had been dealing with a daughter with a drug issue. Now we were focusing on preparing

How many football teams can you name that have successfully executed a no-huddle offense throughout an entire game? How about half a game? Or, a quarter? Not many, if any, I suspect. Rather, a typical team huddles approximately 70 times in a single t

A “jerk” is defined as a contemptibly obnoxious person. Sadly, there are too many jerks in management who seem to believe their position gives them permission to abuse, micromanage, continually criticize, demean, complain about, disrespect or int

Service absorption is one of the most frequently cited Fixed Ops metrics at 20-group meetings. While asking the service department to carry store profitability has never been more important, focusing on service absorption as a metric is not only limi