vAuto

[upbeat music] Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the vAuto Podcast.

I'm Lance Helgeson with vAuto and Cox Automotive, and I'll be your host for today's conversation.

Our topic today is one that comes up in dealerships every day across the country: how can we help and serve a customer who needs or wants a vehicle, but they're carrying a sizable amount of negative equity in their current car? And as many of you listeners and viewers know, negative equity conversations can carry some risk, but they also can present an opportunity if handled correctly.

My guest today is Micah Tindor, AVP of Consumer Disposal here at Cox Automotive.

And one of the off paths always has to be the sell down option to help resolve it.

So that's a, that's a great call out, Lance.

And, and speaking of sell down, this leads me, since we're in a little vAuto world here, inventory.

Um, it would seem to me that I need to be mindful of this, let's call it a, a wave, uh, a tide, um, of, of negative equity customers, that my inventory needs to be, um, adjusted maybe, uh, or at least be mindful as I'm stocking that this is what I'm de- gonna be dealing with when these cars are out, out and for sale.

And, and, and maybe it's just kind of, like, embedded in me.

So you're doing all this, technology, vAuto.

Ha- had you learned advertising, marketing, merchandising? I mean, now, I, there's, there's not a, a corner of our market that doesn't have your billboard on it.

So, like, where did all that come from, and when did you find your, your stride and, and, and really start, start cranking?

I- in my current operation, yes, obviously, I'm vital to the success of the operation, but it's very easy to unplug me and plug somebody else in i- if they were trained.

The tools are there now.

You mentioned vAuto.

I mean, I don't even use vAuto, so there, there's, there's a lot-

Cooper, thoughts on that?

Yeah, I mean, like, uh, Dan mentioned, it's, it's a beautiful tool because it integrates with our vAuto system, so it recognizes-

Yeah

... those VIN numbers that have been sold within the last 12 months.

Yeah.

I love that.

Corey IRL9842 comes into the chat, says, "Do any of these systems tie into the DMS FI to utilize data if they also bought the car from you, i.e. utilizing current rebates to lower payment or interest?" So is there some sort of tie back? I understand you, you, you acknowledge through vAuto integrations when they bought, and you can exclude that way.

Can you also bring in potential, uh, rebates and, and other things? I guess that would be a function of the DMS, Dan.

And I mean, I think, you know, and I'm ...

And it's not a shot at, uh, at vAuto.

I think it's a good product if you know how to read books.

If I wanna know what I wanna wholesale a car for, okay, great.

Uh, I think that a lot of the ...

And we saw the need for it, um, to answer your other question, six, seven years ago because one of the other co-founders is a dealer.

He owns a used car lot out here in the Bay Area, and he was a vAuto customer.

And-

Yeah

... say yes, that they want an appraisal on the vehicle at the market value, within 30 seconds, with the parameters that we've set up in, in vAuto, they're getting a message with a real dollar that we'll buy the car for.

Uh, and it's been tremendously successful for us.

And what's your strategy on that? Is that to go super aggressive on the valuation? Uh, does it end up being right most of the time? That's a fast turn on a figure, and I love the fact it reduces friction, but, uh, does reducing friction, uh, create a challenge in accuracy?

So it's gonna be based on our parameters we set up in vAuto.

I have it set up at 95% price to market.

It leaves a little bit of room for negotiation, but, uh, going through thousands of these appraisals, it's pretty spot on.