2012 was a year of heightened consumer protection enforcement activity by federal regulators. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) exercised its authority to enforce federal consumer protection laws by entering into three consent dec

“Dale, remember this. As the used vehicle department goes, so goes the entire dealership.” My dad offered this advice as I was taking over the used vehicle department at our Cadillac store. I don’t think his guidance was unusual for dealers of

At the end of the month, dealership personnel often yearn for just a few more hours or days to “pull the month out.” The encouraging truth is that no one needs to put in more hours or days in order to increase production. Rather, they should firs

Almost every step along the road to the sale, from the meet-and-greet to the closing of the deal jacket — whether the up buys or not – should also protect the consumer and your dealership from various personal and business risks. Furthermore,

As the year comes to a close, 2012’s buy/sell activity surprised me. I had expected a large number of dealerships to trade hands this year, particularly given the aging demographic of the dealer community and the rise in blue sky values. Instead, f

The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) came out swinging this past summer with three punitive consent decree enforcement actions against credit card companies. In doing so, the CFPB gave both an indication of how it will enforce consumer

Most dealerships will spend somewhere north of $1.5MM this year on the supplies and services needed to support their businesses depending upon the size of their business. Those expenses are spread across 130-plus expense categories and will often inc

I was recently struggling through a seminar on the subject of building high performance business teams. This is a subject in which I have keen interest because everyone who is seeking succession is also endeavoring to build a high performance organiz

If your service department makes the majority of its revenue fixing broken cars, then get ready for massive layoffs and a huge downsizing. If your business plan is heavily dependent on warranty revenue and customer-pay repair work, then for your serv