How Jay Feldman Scaled From One Store To 25

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From his early days selling cars at the ripe old age of 15 to becoming the owner of one of the most respected automobile retail organizations in the country.
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Jay Feldman's journey is a true American success story.
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As chairman and CEO of Feldman Automotive Group, Jay has built a dealership empire rooted in hard work, strong leadership, and an unwavering commitment to customers and employees alike.
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Under his leadership, Feldman Automotive has grown into one of the Midwest's premier automotive groups, representing many of the industry's top brands while continuing to expand its influence across the retail automotive landscape.
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But beyond the numbers and growth, Jay Feldman is widely respected for something even more important his passion for people, the dedication to community, and a forward-thinking vision for the future of retail automotive.
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Today we'll sit down with Jay Feldman to discuss the evolution of the car business, the challenges facing dealers today, and the leadership principles that continue to drive his success.
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Hi everyone, I'm Jim Fitzpatrick, and this is the executive profile exclusively on CBT News.
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This is the executive profile exclusively on CBT News.
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The executive profile is sponsored by the Dave Canton Group.
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Mr.
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Jay Feldman, founder and chairman and CEO of Feldman Automotive Group, thank you so much for allowing us to come into your dealership here and talk to you about the industry and about your amazing group.
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Thank you, Jim.
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I appreciate it.
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Looking forward to it.
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Sure.
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So uh let's kind of start in the beginning.
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Tell us a little bit about uh about your upbringing, where you're from, what school you went to, and how you ended up in retail automotive.
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Well, you know, my dad was a Chevrolet dealer, and uh the you know, my uh longest memory was uh when I had a snow day from school or whatever.
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I like to go to work with my dad and you know brush snow off cars and and uh uh you know just be around the dealership and then started working in the parts department when I was about twelve.
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And uh I uh approached my dad one day about selling cars when I was fifteen, and he thought that was not a great idea.
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But I uh I did it anyway and uh uh and basically without his permission, I just showed up in my suit and and uh started selling cars and uh uh in your suit at 15.
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Yeah.
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Because every 15-year-old has a suit and wants to sell cars, right?
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Yeah, that's funny.
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So uh so anyway, uh I loved the business and and then I uh ended up going to uh Northwood.
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Okay.
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And uh so I'd worked in the dealerships in the summer dealership.
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Uh my dad had a Chevrolet store in Novi, and then he had bought a little Chevrolet store in Milford, Michigan in 1987.
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That's when I was selling cars there, and and then I went to college for automotive marketing and management at Northwood.
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Uh got out of school, was a finance manager in that little store that was we were selling about 25, 30 cars a month, was losing money.
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Okay.
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We were a motors holding dealer.
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Okay.
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Um, and so my dad was gonna sell it.
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He was not a a country guy and and uh never went there, didn't like it.
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Yeah, and I talked him out of selling it and turned it around.
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Oh wow and uh paid off motors within a year.
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Nice.
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And uh he and I went 50-50 partners, built a new Chevrolet store four miles up the road and M59 and Hickory Ridge Road in Highland, where we're that store is still there today.
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We've added onto it four times.
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Okay.
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And uh and then I was awarded a new point where we're sitting today, uh, which opened in 2005.
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General Motors awarded me a new point.
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Okay.
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And uh then Hyundai awarded me a new point next door.
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Very nice.
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And uh just from there I started acquiring stores and uh partnering with dealers that weren't ready to sell.
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Yeah.
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And so we went partners for a period of time and I bought them out.
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Okay.
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And uh helped some struggling dealers that were really having a tough time and and that didn't have any val there was nothing to sell because it wasn't valuable.
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And uh from there, it just uh here we are, you know, we'll be uh 25 stores in another week.
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And uh it's almost a store every year.
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We've had some years where we acquired four stores.
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This is our biggest acquisition we're in the middle of right now, uh biggest one we've ever done, four stores at one time.
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Okay.
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Can you tell us a little bit about that acquisition?
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Yeah, yeah.
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It's in uh three of the stores are in uh Sandusky, Ohio.
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Okay.
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It's our first Toyota and Honda store, and then Stellantis is right there, so it's a little bit of an auto mall.
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Okay.
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And then uh Chevrolet store in Vermilion, Ohio, which is a suburb of Cleveland.
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So we're they're just uh over 5,000 units a year retail.
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Nice, about 211 million in revenue that we'll add to the bottom line, top line.
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Yeah, and uh uh you know we've got a lot of stuff going on.
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Uh we're awarded a new point in uh in Ohio that I'm not supposed to really talk about yet, but uh it'll be public soon.
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Okay.
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And uh uh hopefully another acquisition in Michigan.
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So by the end of uh 27, we'll probably be close to 30 rooftops.
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Nice, very nice.
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Yeah.
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Um and you're still looking, is that safe to say?
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Yeah.
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Yeah, we sat we sat on the sidelines for a couple years and and watched all the craziness and you know, we looked at a lot of deals and made offers on deals.
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You know, sometimes people outbid us by more than the asking price by a significant amount, and we just said this is crazy.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And so uh now it's you know the business is getting a little more normal and and sale prices are getting a little more normal.
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And I think there's you know, I think there's some sellers that see, you know, some concern on the horizon with different things happening in the business.
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Uh so people are getting a little more motivated to to sell.
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Sure.
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The uh many of the advisors and brokers that I talk to say that they're seeing more of those uh older dealers that don't have somebody to take over the operation in their family.
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And uh with the average age of today's dealer being 71 years old, they're seeing those people that are just saying, Hey, it it's time, you know, for me to to to uh retire, play a little bit more golf.
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Are you seeing more of that from the sellers?
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I think so.
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Although uh ironically, uh we're the acquisition we're doing now is a younger dealer.
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Okay.
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Um, but he just you know was ready to move on and do something different and and literally go fishing.
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There you go.
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So uh yeah.
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So I think you mentioned is this your gonna be your first Toyota store?
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First Toyota store and first Honda store.
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Okay, very nice.
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Yeah.
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And the Honda store is unique because it's about 60% under construction.
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Oh, wow.
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So we'll take over uh this month the the facility be done in September.
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Okay.
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Um and they're operating out of uh uh their current location down the street.
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So we'll take over that and then we'll move into the new location in September, I believe, September, October.
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Yeah, Honda's had some challenges in in recent years.
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Um what what's your take on that?
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Well, I think uh you know it's obviously a very successful company.
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I think that uh uh there's been a lot of you know changes in the industry with uh tariffs and EVs in the last couple years, and so I think they're you know fiddling their way through that.
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Um I think they're on a solid path to success.
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I think they have a lot of good product coming in and they'll be fine.
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I mean they they're Honda.
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They're yeah, they're a resilient company, and you know, Toyota's amazing, and and uh so we're we're excited about both those brands.
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Yeah, especially the Toyota.
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Every every dealer I talk to, and you it's on the top of their wish list of stores they wish they could get, right?
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And if they've got some or they have one, they want a second one.
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Yeah, it's just a great franchise.
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Yeah, for sure.
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Yeah, no question.
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And dealing with them has been amazing.
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Yeah, yeah, sure.
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Mark Wahlberg, uh you you know, we opened up automotive news back in, I guess, 2018, 2019.
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2018, 2018, and uh found that Mark Wahlberg is in partners with you and now in retail automotive.
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Well, walk us through that.
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How'd that come about?
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Well, you know, it's uh so it's actually uh more uh of a funny story.
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We uh we were he and I have been friends for 10, 11 years now.
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And uh one day we were joking on a movie set.
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I was partners with him at a Wahlberg's in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Okay.
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And he was asking me about the car business and told me he, you know, uh uh drove a choke truck and changed oil when he was a kid.
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And he's like, I've always had a dream owning at car dealership.
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And I so I said, Oh, we should buy one together.
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Yeah.
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And uh so he thought it was kidding.
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I said, let's let's do it.
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Yeah so we found a store in uh Columbus, Ohio on Broad Street, Bobby Lehman Chevrolet.
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So that was our first store.
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Okay, and it was really gonna stop at that.
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And then the Buick GMC and Airstream Dealership Cross Street came up for sale.
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Okay.
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So we said, why not?
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And then uh we you know kept going, bought a store in Worthington, Ohio, and uh so it's it's been fun.
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He doesn't really get too involved in in the business at all.
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Sure.
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Um, we're very good friends, talk all the time, and uh just had lunch with him in Las Vegas when I was there for NADA.
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And uh is he interested in getting more stores?
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He is.
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We he he brought us a deal uh that we ended up not doing that uh didn't just didn't make a lot of sense.
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But uh, you know, if something came up and it made sense, yeah.
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Sure.
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Um we're not actively looking for anything, but if something came up, you know, he's a great guy and we're partners in other things too.
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So that's cool.
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Very cool, very cool.
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Do you think the the Mark Wahlberg brand sells cars?
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I mean, did uh have customers said I'm I'm buying this because I I feel like this is an active because I have people ask me about it all the time.
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Yeah.
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Um, you know, it's certainly I think our when we opened the store in in Columbus, this is a hard number to digest, but we had 475 million people worldwide saw the PR announcement.
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Oh my god.
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Yeah, it was all over the world.
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And so we were on you know, every major talk show, you know, Stephen Colbert, Allen, you know, uh uh Jimmy Fallon.
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Sure.
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And uh, you know, Mark you know went around everywhere talking about it, and Good Morning America.
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So um, you know, uh between you know he's got 30 million followers on Instagram, so when he posts something, we get a lot of activity off of it.
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Of course, yeah.
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His stores are doing good, or I should say your stores within the city.
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Yeah, they're they they're definitely they we bought some uh underperforming stores in in uh in Columbus and turned them around.
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Um, you know, great market, uh very Honda dominated market.
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Um but Chevrolet's definitely made some inroads in that market in Buick GMC.
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That's great.
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You picked up an RV dealership um in your acquisitions.
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Talk to us.
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Yeah, that was uh so when we bought the Buick GMC Hummer store across from the original Chevrolet store, uh Chris Hadesey owned uh the RV dealership there, okay, uh Airstream and then various other RV brands.
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And so, you know, Chris is our our resident expert on RV.
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I know nothing about RVs.
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So he stayed on as a partner in that deal and still manages it.
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And then we ended up with a satellite RV store in Lorraine, Ohio, which is a suburb of Cleveland.
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Yeah.
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So, you know, really just uh it you know, we don't have any intention of expanding the RV business.
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Did you have the stores during COVID?
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Uh yeah.
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COVID was uh that was the big one for our Yeah.
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During COVID I thought we were gonna really get in the RV business because this is amazing, right?
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We need more RV stores.
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Yeah, yeah.
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But uh but we left it up to the bigger guys like Blue Compass and uh uh you know RV retailers and all these different big things.
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And there's no MSRP on a on a R V, right?
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Uh no.
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No.
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So it's kind of whatever you put out there.
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But it's relatively competitive, yeah.
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Yeah, of course, of course.
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Yeah, and we we rent RVs and so we have a big rental fleet.
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Oh, cool.
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Yeah.
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Very cool.
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Very cool.
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Talk to us about the EV business.
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Um what what what's uh what's your take on that?
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What obviously with the incentives going away from the government, we saw EV sales come back down.
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Um but now with the price of gas, you know, dealers have told me there's a there's a spike in interest of consumers that said, look, I'm I'm willing to take a look at an RV or or even a hybrid, you know?
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Well, we um we try and capitalize on the opportunities that are presented to us.
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Sure.
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Um during the whole EV you know craze, we were the number one General Motors EV dealer in the country.
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Okay.
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And uh, you know, consistently we were selling across our group about 500 EVs a month uh new.
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Okay.
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And you know, obviously the world changed.
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You know, the Trump administration changed the focus back to ICE engines.
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Right.
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And so we had a little lull in between going from you know a heavy EV inventory to an ice inventory.
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And so, you know, we you know the the factories weren't set up to backfill, so we had a little bit of a lull for a couple months, which we knew that was gonna happen.
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Okay, and of course the tax credit ran out, yeah, both on new and used.
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Right.
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And uh so um, but I think I think long term you're gonna always have an an EV presence.
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Uh I think we you know incentivized it to the point where how could you not buy one?
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Right.
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And uh you know at one point some of these were the price of a cell phone bill.
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Yeah, yeah.
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So it really was.
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Yeah, and then you know, there'll be a lot of EVs coming off lease.
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That'll be a great opportunity for us as well.
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Um and you know, a lot of people put chargers in.
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Yep.
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So uh I think long term there's gonna be EVs are gonna get better, the batteries are gonna last longer, um, they're gonna be more uh efficient.
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And uh but I think it's not gonna be to the point where you know we went from you know at 1.35% of our sales were EV during that time of$7,500 tax credit in a in the lease incentive.
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Now we're back down to you know five to ten percent sales on EVs.
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It seems out of all the brands out there, uh Toyota kind of got it right.
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They said, let's pump the brakes on EVs, let's go more hybrid.
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Um that's that strategy seemed to work very well for them.
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And uh especially at a time when other manufacturers are going all in on EVs, you know, changing their entire fleet to EVs, but Toyota not so not so much.
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And uh it looks like they played it right.
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Yeah, I think it was really smart.
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I mean, look what it's cost the manufacturers to you know get out of the EV business with a hundred billion dollars or some crazy number like that.
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Right.
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It's unbelievable.
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And to just you know doing their thing uh steady eddy.
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That's right.
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As we sit here today, how many uh stores make up the the uh J.
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Feldman group?
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Um after May 5th, we'll have 25 locations.
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25, yeah.
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And we'll do about 2.3 billion in revenue.
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All right, nice.
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That's great.
00:13:37.840 --> 00:13:38.480
Congratulations.
00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:38.720
Yeah.
00:13:38.960 --> 00:13:44.559
Do you get calls from from conglom bigger conglomerates out there that say you're ready?
00:13:44.960 --> 00:13:45.279
No.
00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:45.679
No?
00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:47.120
No, I don't think we're a target.
00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:47.679
I'm too young.
00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:49.039
You're too young, okay.
00:13:49.759 --> 00:13:50.879
And it we're and we're still growing.
00:13:51.039 --> 00:13:54.960
We yeah, we really want to our goal is to get to five billion in revenue sooner than later.
00:13:55.200 --> 00:13:55.360
Okay.
00:13:55.600 --> 00:13:59.600
I've spoken to a number of your colleagues in the industry that have got that have got groups.
00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:03.120
What drives you to say that, to say I want five billion?
00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:08.399
Obviously, with every dealership comes more headaches and more more employees and everything else.
00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:10.320
Is is why is that significant?
00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:12.559
Well, I mean, you know, you have to have goals.
00:14:12.639 --> 00:14:14.480
I mean, I started out with a store selling 25 cars.
00:14:15.279 --> 00:14:18.399
Yeah, I started out with a store selling 25 cars a month at about 20 million in revenue.
00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:20.240
And uh Is it just fun at this point?
00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:31.200
Yeah, and we're able to do a lot of cool things from uh from a uh uh fro philanthropic uh uh point of view where you know a lot of things that we do uh you we couldn't do if we weren't the size that we are.
00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:31.679
Yeah.
00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:32.000
Yeah.
00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:37.919
And uh some stores grow, as you know, where they'll bring the GM in as a as a partner into the deal.
00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:38.799
Do you do that?
00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:49.120
Um we have uh uh a general manager in Ohio that's a partner in in some of our Ohio stores, but then I also let our executive team, uh our top execs, invest in deals.
00:14:49.279 --> 00:14:56.480
Oh so we have uh uh that group is invested in almost you know probably 60, 70 percent of my stores at this point.
00:14:56.799 --> 00:14:57.039
That's great.
00:14:57.200 --> 00:14:57.440
That's great.
00:14:57.600 --> 00:14:57.679
Yeah.
00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:03.200
Kid puts everybody uh at the same level, you know, and and uh you know they're not gonna leave, right?
00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:03.440
Right.
00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:04.399
Right, right.
00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:06.000
It's hard as I grow, they grow.
00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:06.720
Yeah, for sure.
00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:08.559
And we're able to promote people from within.
00:15:08.720 --> 00:15:11.679
We have you know people that were salespeople that are general managers now.
00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:14.720
We have uh you know service porters that are service managers.
00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:16.799
I mean I could give you lots of examples.
00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:17.679
Sure, sure.
00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:27.919
Um we saw the industry, obviously after uh COVID, you know, come kind of right back down to where we found it, you know, in 2018-2019, which was a kind of a race to the bottom, margin compression.
00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:30.080
We spoke a lot about at CBT News.
00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:31.279
What are we gonna do about it?
00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:33.360
Affordability is out there as well.
00:15:33.519 --> 00:15:39.200
Um are you seeing that uh across all the brands and all the stores that you're dealing with right now?
00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:40.720
Yeah, I think it's no surprise.
00:15:40.799 --> 00:15:43.759
You know, we didn't get brilliant overnight and we didn't get dumb overnight.
00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:47.360
It's it's uh uh and it goes back to you know our acquisition strategy.
00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:56.159
We looked at, you know, I saw things happening during COVID and you know the year after where you know valuations were based on COVID numbers, and yeah, I'm like, this just doesn't make sense.
00:15:56.399 --> 00:16:02.720
Let's look at 2019 and let's look at 2025 numbers when we're looking at a multiple and how we're gonna pay for these stores.
00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:04.960
And uh so we sat on the sidelines.
00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:17.039
I bought one store uh almost two years ago in Indiana, um, and we knew that uh you know it was it was priced right, maybe a little bit above, but we knew there was an opportunity to improve the store.
00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:17.519
Okay.
00:16:17.679 --> 00:16:19.120
So um so it made sense.
00:16:19.200 --> 00:16:23.519
But other than that, we've we look at lots and lots of deals, and most of them don't make any sense for us.
00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:24.320
Okay, okay.
00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:27.120
Are you trying to keep the deals within a geographic location?
00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:28.399
No, not necessarily.
00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:28.799
Okay.
00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:29.440
Not necessarily.
00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:31.120
We we we we'll look anywhere.
00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:31.600
Okay.
00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:36.480
Um you know, California's a tough state to operate in, uh, but people make it work.
00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:38.559
There's people that only want to look in California.
00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:45.360
So uh but that's been you know, aid, you know, geography-wise, it's kind of far, and there's plenty of opportunities a lot closer to home.
00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:48.240
But sure, right now we're in the Midwest, Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana.
00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:51.600
Uh but we're not opposed to being, we'd certainly love to be in Florida and Texas.
00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:53.759
So you and every other dealer, right?
00:16:54.080 --> 00:16:54.480
Right, right.
00:16:54.559 --> 00:16:55.360
And that's another thing too.
00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:57.759
You know, you gotta now you gotta pay you gotta pay to play.
00:16:58.000 --> 00:16:58.639
That's right, that's right.
00:16:58.799 --> 00:17:09.359
I was just talking to uh one of the broker advisors out there, and they said that if a deal was gonna bring uh seven uh times multiple, it's more like nine or ten if it's a Florida store.
00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:11.200
You know, you just gotta pay that premium, right?
00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:12.640
Yeah, it's crazy, crazy.
00:17:12.880 --> 00:17:18.799
Um the you were kind of that single point store for a little while with the stores that you had early on.
00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:30.240
What do you think the future is for those, for the lack of a better term, single point mom and pop operations with with all of the with all of the consolidation that we do see among groups like yours and others?
00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:35.839
Yeah, I I actually uh I I'm in complete disagreement with the whole philosophy that you can't have one store.
00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:38.000
I think that makes absolutely no sense.
00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:49.599
I mean, there's many examples of really actually truthfully, if you have one store and somebody really works it, they can do incredibly well and be very successful because they can see everything and and pay attention to everything.
00:17:49.839 --> 00:17:57.440
I don't know that there's uh any reason to scale other than you you as an individual decide that you want to scale.
00:17:57.599 --> 00:17:57.839
Sure.
00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:10.640
Um, but as a single point operator, I think there's a lot of uh, you know, tons and tons of examples of you know, our business is only, I think the top uh 150 groups only own 10% of the dealership.
00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:11.359
So that's right.
00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:13.200
Uh they can't be the only ones that are successful, right?
00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:14.960
You can't have 90% of the stores aren't successful.
00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:16.079
That's just not the case.
00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:16.319
Yeah.
00:18:16.559 --> 00:18:24.960
But we we look at stores that are incredibly well run where their net to uh revenue is massive just because it's an amazing operator in one store.
00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:25.440
Sure.
00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:28.079
Uh and there's plenty of people that have no interest in expanding.
00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:29.279
Right, right, right.
00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:31.279
They don't have that five billion dollar goal.
00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:32.319
Exactly.
00:18:32.559 --> 00:18:34.079
They like to save through it at night.
00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:35.440
That's exactly right.
00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:46.480
Um in terms of uh the online uh, you know, d during COVID, we saw you know all the craze was digital retailing and everybody's gonna buy their car online you the way they do with Carvana and such.
00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:49.039
Um where does that stand today with the Feldman group?
00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:54.799
Are you doing many deals uh or have you made a big effort of being able to take care of those customers online?
00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:56.000
Are they even there?
00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:04.160
I think there's uh a small degree, you know, uh number of customers that are absolutely you know hell bent on doing everything online.
00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:04.400
Yeah.
00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:09.680
But the reality is most people want to come in and look at cars and and and do something in person.
00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:13.279
Um you know, obviously you can sign deals digitally now.
00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:18.480
Uh, you know, most 90% of uh buyers, maybe even higher than that, are looking or starting online.
00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:19.039
Yeah, oh yeah.
00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:20.160
And they're doing the research online.
00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:22.720
So your website has to be really good.
00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:28.559
And uh, you know, people look at your Google ratings, they look at your you know, your customer reviews more than ever.
00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:32.160
Uh so you need to have a high rating or they're gonna pass and move on to somebody else.
00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:32.559
Yeah.
00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:36.720
Um so you need to have your online presence, your online store uh perfect, right?
00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:38.079
Or they're gonna go to somebody else.
00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:38.559
That's right.
00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:41.839
And you know, digital, a lot of our our advertising is digital now.
00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:48.079
Uh where you know it was flip-flop the other way where the majority of it was TV and newspaper a long time ago.
00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:48.720
That's right.
00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:49.200
That's right.
00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:49.759
Yeah, yeah.
00:19:50.079 --> 00:19:51.440
Um let's talk about that for a second.
00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:58.559
The FTC obviously sent out these 97 letters that we hear so much about, and um I've interviewed a number of people about this.
00:19:58.799 --> 00:20:10.400
Um what what's your concern, if you've got any, about about the FTC's ruling and the notion that they're gonna come in and and find put some pretty big fines in place for dealers that are not compliant?
00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:13.759
Well, I think that having uh compliance is a good thing.
00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:16.000
Um I think there's nothing wrong with that.
00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:19.039
I think the biggest issue is gonna be uh clarity.
00:20:19.519 --> 00:20:23.920
You know, making sure that people understand what they're supposed to do and what they're not supposed to do.
00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:27.119
Right now it's it's uh uh very it's a little bit vague.
00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:27.279
Yeah.
00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:29.200
And I think that's where the problem is.
00:20:29.359 --> 00:20:34.880
Um and so you know, I think the fear is that you're gonna be fined for something you didn't even know you were doing wrong.
00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:35.359
Right.
00:20:35.599 --> 00:20:42.000
Um so uh it's a very it I don't think that book's been a hundred percent written yet as far as they need some clarity.
00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:42.799
Yeah, for sure.
00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:46.480
That's the biggest thing I hear from other dealers that hey, nobody has a problem with compliance.
00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:46.799
Right.
00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:48.559
What they have a problem with is they need to know what's the problem.
00:20:49.039 --> 00:20:49.839
We gotta know what a rule is.
00:20:50.079 --> 00:20:50.799
What are we supposed to be doing?
00:20:51.039 --> 00:20:51.359
Absolutely.
00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:53.680
There's a there really is a lot of confusion out there.
00:20:53.839 --> 00:21:00.720
NEDA has been playing a big role to try to bring the FTC in to say you need you owe it to us right now to tell us what the deal is.
00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:11.440
And then as the dealers that I've spoken to have said, I might be you know compliant on the federal FTC, but not then on the state law that governs you know the this uh situation.
00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:14.640
So and then I might be compliant on the state, but not on the federal.
00:21:14.799 --> 00:21:17.359
So these things all have to come together somehow, don't they?
00:21:17.759 --> 00:21:18.000
For sure.
00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:27.039
And listen, we all have examples of a a local dealer that's advertising in a way that you know doesn't make it easy for us to explain it to our customers.
00:21:27.359 --> 00:21:27.599
Of course.
00:21:27.680 --> 00:21:30.960
Yeah and we know they're doing it wrong, but the customer says, well, that's what I read in the paper.
00:21:31.119 --> 00:21:31.759
That's what I saw in the end.
00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:35.519
So it'll be nice from that per perspective to kind of clean that up a little bit.
00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:37.119
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
00:21:37.359 --> 00:21:44.799
Um in terms of your your fixed ops business across your brands, um, fixed ops have been just running and gunning ever since COVID, right?
00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:51.440
And obviously with the age average age of a vehicle now being in excess of twelve years on the road, are you s are you feeling pretty good about it?
00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:54.480
We we uh we are working on our fixed operations every day.
00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:54.799
Okay.
00:21:55.039 --> 00:21:57.759
Uh it's a huge uh important part of our business.
00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:08.160
Um because You know, as you sell less cars and you know, uh there is a huge car park, there's a lot of cars on the road, yeah, and we want our unfair share of of that business.
00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:10.480
And so we we look at it every single day.
00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:10.720
Yeah.
00:22:10.880 --> 00:22:13.200
And we have a great group overseeing our fixed operations.
00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:13.680
Yeah.
00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:22.400
And uh we think even like, for example, some of these acquisitions, one of the first things we look at is opportunity fixed ops, and we think there's some big opportunity in some of these stores.
00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:23.519
Yeah, for sure.
00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:26.480
Um are you doing any mobile service in any of your stores?
00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:28.640
We we're dabbling in mobile service.
00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:29.119
Okay.
00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:33.519
It's it's not an easy uh and it is an expensive proposition.
00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:33.920
Yeah.
00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:35.519
But you know, it's it's the future.
00:22:35.759 --> 00:22:36.240
Yeah, yeah.
00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:40.480
I've spoken to some stores where they've got as many as like 30, 40 units on the road.
00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:43.599
You know, Ford, these Ford, I guess Ford's behind this in a big way.
00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:47.759
Um and they are, you know, they've they're there's no going back.
00:22:47.839 --> 00:22:51.200
You know, we we're all in on this mobile service and uh well it makes sense.
00:22:51.279 --> 00:22:51.680
It's convenient.
00:22:51.839 --> 00:23:00.960
Somebody's at their office and you have their car, you know, things worked on that that uh uh you know, we don't even listen, today people don't even want to go pick up their own carry out as we have looked at.
00:23:01.200 --> 00:23:01.680
That's right.
00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:02.720
That's exactly right.
00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:04.559
Um and they'll pay for it too.
00:23:04.640 --> 00:23:05.200
They'll pay all, you know.
00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:05.759
Oh, they will.
00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:08.400
Well sure, people pay fifteen dollars for a coffee to be delivered to them.
00:23:08.720 --> 00:23:09.279
Right, it's crazy.
00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:10.880
Yeah, that's that's the world we live in.
00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:16.960
Um are the are the brands or the OEMs uh are they having are they coming to you saying, hey, we we want to go down this road?
00:23:17.039 --> 00:23:23.680
or I think you're seeing more uh uh uh definitely more focus on it, for sure.
00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:24.079
Yeah.
00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:28.000
And it'll probably get more uh it'll be become bigger over time.
00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:29.119
Yeah, for sure.
00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:33.119
Um attracting talent, obviously when you take these stores over.
00:23:33.279 --> 00:23:37.680
Um talk to me about uh you know bringing these two cultures together.
00:23:37.839 --> 00:23:43.119
The the culture that's in the store that you acquire and the the Jay Feldman way of doing business.
00:23:43.279 --> 00:23:44.960
How how do you do that successfully?
00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:45.920
That seems to be a challenge.
00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:50.480
Well, this is a unique situation for us because the group that we're buying is a one price group.
00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:52.640
So they're strictly one price.
00:23:52.720 --> 00:23:54.720
We've we don't have that in our existing organization.
00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:56.240
So we're gonna that is the challenge.
00:23:56.559 --> 00:23:59.200
We're gonna keep with that because at those stores.
00:23:59.440 --> 00:23:59.839
Yeah, okay.
00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:01.920
And uh, you know, we'll learn from it.
00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:04.000
I mean, it's uh it'll be really interesting.
00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:19.680
And what I did, what we've what we have seen from that is that the talent that they have in their stores is a different mindset because you know there's a lot, there's a contingent of the population that we'd like to hire that you know doesn't want to be on commission.
00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:30.160
Yeah, that likes you know the more positive, hey, everything's about getting the customer a bottle of water, opening the door for the customer, all about showing them through the dealership.
00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:36.319
It isn't about you know uh how much money can I make on this car, and that's affecting my commission, sure.
00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:42.559
Where they just want to get paid to sell a car and focus on you know making somebody happy and and that's their focus.
00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:42.880
Yeah.
00:24:43.279 --> 00:24:49.759
And often those compensation plans aren't based on gross profit, they're based on maybe a unit count at the end of the month and a salary.
00:24:49.839 --> 00:24:50.319
Yeah, yeah.
00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:51.279
Much simpler pay plan.
00:24:51.519 --> 00:24:51.759
Yeah.
00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:58.319
And in terms when you look at the numbers of those stores, did they impress you enough to say uh obviously they did, let's keep it one price.
00:24:58.640 --> 00:25:09.039
Yeah, and and we're and we haven't we haven't operated those stores ourselves, so you know the question is uh what uh you know how successful are they with that concept?
00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:15.839
And but we're absolutely open to uh, you know, their whole uh employee base is trained on one price selling.
00:25:16.079 --> 00:25:16.640
Yeah, yeah.
00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:17.680
That's a huge training.
00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:18.880
New and use cards.
00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:19.039
Yeah.
00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:19.839
And I agree with you.
00:25:19.920 --> 00:25:29.200
I think it gets a whole different person that uh comes into your organization that doesn't want to negotiate play the negotiation game with customers and what have you.
00:25:29.359 --> 00:25:30.799
It's a it's not for everyone.
00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:38.720
However, they would enjoy taking good care of the customers and focusing more on product knowledge and and uh giving effective presentations and what have you, right?
00:25:39.039 --> 00:25:39.279
Absolutely.
00:25:39.759 --> 00:25:45.200
You know, we're going with the mindset that uh we're buying a successful group and we don't want to go in there and tell them everything they're doing wrong.
00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:46.799
No, no, for sure, for sure.
00:25:46.960 --> 00:25:53.519
And uh because that bringing that company culture into a new operation as you've acquired these stores, that is somewhat of a challenge, isn't it?
00:25:53.920 --> 00:25:56.480
Yeah, listen, we've we've bought many stores that were broken.
00:25:56.559 --> 00:25:56.720
Yeah.
00:25:56.880 --> 00:25:58.720
And we knew they were broken, we bought them.
00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:03.039
And uh, you know, we knew that you know employees weren't gonna make the bus trip.
00:26:03.279 --> 00:26:09.839
And uh uh this is a little bit different because this is a successful group with a great culture, great reputation in the community.
00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:20.400
So it's actually kind of nice not to walk in thinking that you got to replace a bunch of people that you you know you actually can learn from from them and sure and uh hopefully help them grow the business through marketing or whatever.
00:26:20.799 --> 00:26:24.640
Could it be that one day Feldman Automotive finds itself in a one price structure?
00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:27.839
I I mean I I I I don't uh you never know, right?
00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:35.440
But every store is different in their own market, and that you know, maybe that's a market unique situation where there's other dealers in the same market doing the same thing.
00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:36.000
Sure.
00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:42.799
Um The people that are on the one price have said, oh, we don't have a problem with the FTC because we've been doing this now for you know forever.
00:26:42.960 --> 00:26:44.720
And uh then maybe there's something to that.
00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:45.920
You never know.
00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:46.160
Yeah.
00:26:46.319 --> 00:26:46.640
You never know.
00:26:46.880 --> 00:26:47.440
Yeah, it's interesting.
00:26:47.599 --> 00:26:48.079
It's interesting.
00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:53.119
Um terms of all of the stores that that you've got, uh one of them is one-800 pre-owned.
00:26:53.359 --> 00:26:54.720
Um talk to me about that.
00:26:55.279 --> 00:27:04.720
So we uh we had a uh uh a store in in Waterford, Michigan that uh we found that the franchise we had there wasn't going to work long term.
00:27:04.799 --> 00:27:11.680
And so we had this amazing location with a great building, and we came up with the concept of Feldman 1-800 pre-owned.
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:19.440
Okay, and it was more when 1-800 numbers were a big deal, but people remember it, and so we have great signage on the on the uh right on the main drag.
00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:29.279
There'll be about 50-60,000 cars a day that go by, and and we turned it into a pre-owned operation, and it's done really well, and so we've sort of branded our use car operation 1-800 pre-owned.
00:27:29.599 --> 00:27:30.079
Okay, okay.
00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:35.440
Um, yeah, so like 1-800 flowers, even though people are gonna go online, exactly.
00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:37.440
They get that, right?
00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:39.359
That's that's that's fantastic.
00:27:39.519 --> 00:27:44.480
So um and as you sit here today, um, how are you feeling about the future of the automotive industry?
00:27:44.559 --> 00:27:50.240
Obviously, you're very bullish on it and you want to get to five billion, but uh anything keeps you up at night about the industry as a whole?
00:27:50.559 --> 00:27:51.839
Yeah, I would say a bunch of things.
00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:58.319
I mean, obviously the affordability factor, um, you know, we're at fifty thousand dollars on a new car average, which is crazy.
00:27:58.559 --> 00:28:00.880
It is you know, lease payments at$800 to$1,000.
00:28:01.519 --> 00:28:01.680
Yeah.
00:28:01.839 --> 00:28:07.920
Um, you know, the Chinese factor is concerning for sure.
00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:11.039
Um but and why is the Chinese factor a concern?
00:28:11.359 --> 00:28:20.160
Well, I mean, uh when you have a uh uh you know a product that is comp that is funded by the Chinese government, yeah, where you know the playing field is not level.
00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:20.559
Right.
00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:22.880
Uh and you see what's happening in Europe.
00:28:23.039 --> 00:28:26.640
Uh I just read an article on automotive news Hyundai is getting decimated in Europe.
00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:27.039
Yeah.
00:28:27.119 --> 00:28:27.279
Yeah.
00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:41.839
Um and so you know, I think what you're gonna see ultimately is I think you're gonna see the Chinese partnering with American companies, and maybe they take a plant that isn't being used in the U.S., maybe a former EV plant, and they're probably gonna produce cars through there if if they end up coming here.
00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:46.000
I know there's hopefully you know a lot of senators that are against the Chinese entering the U.S.
00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:49.119
Um, but it's definitely caused a lot of problems in other parts of the world.
00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:49.680
It has.
00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:52.960
We're the last, we're the holdout you know, here in the U.S.
00:28:53.119 --> 00:28:59.279
And it was Canada, North America, but then of course Canadians said, well, you can let 50,000 vehicles in.
00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:03.119
And uh do you think if they came in under a limited program, that it would be okay?
00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:05.200
I think the problem is, you know, it's like anything.
00:29:05.680 --> 00:29:07.119
Give me an itch, I'll take a mile.
00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:07.599
Right.
00:29:07.759 --> 00:29:15.359
Um but I you know, everything I've ever read about, even the dealers are not successful, they're selling the Chinese products in Europe, they're they're not making money.
00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:24.799
Uh, you know, they're they're just not the same operation as you know the the American companies or the Japanese or the Koreans, they just don't operate the same way.
00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:25.440
Right.
00:29:25.680 --> 00:29:33.039
Um well since you went there in terms of uh the dealers out there and how they're setting up the dealer network, let's talk about the franchise uh system.
00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:35.039
Uh looks like it's a little under threat.
00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:39.039
You've got VW out there that's bringing out Scout that's going to be selling direct.
00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:42.319
Uh Tesla, obviously, for the last 20 years have been selling direct.
00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:43.359
Is that a concern of yours?
00:29:44.079 --> 00:29:45.920
Well, right now it's about four percent of the market.
00:29:46.480 --> 00:29:49.039
Um Yeah, it's a concern for sure.
00:29:49.680 --> 00:29:59.039
Um but you know, i i unfortunately it's uh uh you know I wish I had more control over it, but it will yeah, it's a concern for sure.
00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:04.240
I think uh if it becomes a big number beyond four percent, uh it's a concern.
00:30:04.640 --> 00:30:04.880
Right.
00:30:05.119 --> 00:30:05.359
Right.
00:30:05.519 --> 00:30:05.759
Yeah.
00:30:05.920 --> 00:30:18.000
The uh yeah, and I think everyone's looking at this the scout situation as uh obviously it's a legacy, even though they don't they say it's not, it's a l it's a division of a legacy brand, VW and Audi and Porsche and what have you.
00:30:18.160 --> 00:30:21.119
So um you know, will other companies follow suit?
00:30:21.920 --> 00:30:24.319
Well it's interesting to me that uh VW would do that.
00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:29.119
They're you know they're struggling with their VW stores and some of their other brands.
00:30:29.359 --> 00:30:43.839
And now to and now to to get into a uh you know direct retail situation with Scout, it seems a little you know un unneeded to me, but they they certainly know better than you know for themselves.
00:30:45.920 --> 00:30:46.160
Yeah.
00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:58.160
So the uh so as you sit here today and uh you think about some of the issues that are out there, some of the headwinds, um and and the auto industry is obviously one of the major drivers, you know, in the economy.
00:30:58.319 --> 00:31:03.759
Um in terms of the political uh you know uh landscape out there.
00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:06.559
Um any any comments on that at all?
00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:14.000
Any anything that you feel that that's I mean we're in war right now with Iran and and uh gas prices are through the roof and what have you?
00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:17.119
I think it's even uh more more broad than that.
00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:30.640
I mean, you see you go from one administration to another administration to another administration and you know, instant, hey, we're gonna, you know, it's okay to have plants in Mexico, now we can only have plants in the United States, and then you might get another administration comes in and says, no, it's back to Mexico again.
00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:32.960
I don't know how the car companies navigate any of this.
00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:44.640
Uh and of course, and it has an impact on us because you know, we went from EVs to no EVs, and so now you've got to build ice engines right away because otherwise we don't have anything to sell.
00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:51.359
And then you go from, you know, Mexican plants got to get rid of the Mexican plants in the in the Korean and Chinese and Canadian plants.
00:31:51.440 --> 00:31:52.480
Now we've got to be in the U.S.
00:31:52.559 --> 00:31:54.079
and it takes time to ramp those up.
00:31:54.240 --> 00:31:55.920
We're seeing it in our General Motors business.
00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:59.680
I mean, inventory is a struggle where it wasn't a struggle in the past.
00:31:59.839 --> 00:32:00.160
Yeah, yeah.
00:32:00.480 --> 00:32:05.359
So uh, you know, it's definitely makes it uh uh a little slippery slope.
00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:06.480
No question about it.
00:32:06.640 --> 00:32:10.960
Um then of course you had the war and the oil and everything else, of course it's uh it has an impact.
00:32:11.279 --> 00:32:12.400
That's right, yeah, no question.
00:32:12.559 --> 00:32:14.960
And uh so let's talk a little bit about uh AI.
00:32:15.119 --> 00:32:19.599
Obviously, uh that is making a huge impact in today's operation of a dealership.
00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:27.519
Um we see more and more programs coming out and and companies that are focused on that to help dealers bring down the cost of operating their dealerships.
00:32:27.680 --> 00:32:31.200
Some say it won't reduce headcount, it will only make your people much more efficient.
00:32:31.599 --> 00:32:32.799
I have a tendency to disagree.
00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:34.480
I think it's definitely gonna bring down headcount.
00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:40.160
I think it already is in some cases, but uh where where do you where do you stand on the AI you utilizing it?
00:32:41.119 --> 00:32:44.240
We're using AI right now in our fixed operations.
00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:52.000
Um everything from in our service BDC from a training and um scheduling uh perspective.
00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:58.400
And then we're also using the service drive so that you know everything from you know if a phone doesn't get answered after two rings, right?
00:32:58.559 --> 00:33:09.759
The AI takes over and and uh you know we can identify if it's a customer that has a vehicle in the shop by their phone number calling in to um you can tell by their voice has voice recognition if they're upset.
00:33:09.920 --> 00:33:10.160
Yeah.
00:33:10.480 --> 00:33:12.640
So yeah, so it's an efficiency.
00:33:13.119 --> 00:33:15.759
You know, it gets listen, everybody needs to embrace it.
00:33:15.920 --> 00:33:20.000
If you don't embrace it, you're gonna be, you know, behind the eight ball on it.
00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:32.720
And uh, you know, but there's so many AI companies out there, you know, you have to be careful too, because you could spend a billion dollars a year on AI, and you know, then another one comes out and it's twenty dollars a month.
00:33:32.880 --> 00:33:38.240
And so you gotta be careful what you're getting into because there's it's the the world is definitely gonna be AI, AI.
00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:41.200
I mean you listen to uh CNBC, that's all they talk about.
00:33:41.599 --> 00:33:42.160
It's unbelievable.
00:33:42.400 --> 00:33:43.119
It's all they talk about.
00:33:43.680 --> 00:33:50.559
And uh yeah, and the whole you know, and uh and I use it, I use perplexity every day looking stuff up, and and it's fascinating.
00:33:51.039 --> 00:33:53.440
That you know it helps us and yeah.
00:33:53.759 --> 00:33:56.880
So um, and I do believe that it's gonna reduce headcount.
00:33:56.960 --> 00:33:57.920
I don't care what anybody says.
00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:02.160
It's it yeah, you're gonna find that you know it'll start taking over tasks, you know.
00:34:02.720 --> 00:34:02.799
Yeah.
00:34:02.960 --> 00:34:05.119
I mean you see it in law firms, you see it in accounting firms.
00:34:05.680 --> 00:34:06.000
That's right.
00:34:06.880 --> 00:34:08.239
Marketing agencies and such.
00:34:08.320 --> 00:34:10.159
Yep, there's no question about it.
00:34:10.320 --> 00:34:16.400
Um I follow you on on social, and uh you're you've got a beautiful family, uh beautiful kids.
00:34:16.559 --> 00:34:19.360
And uh do you wish they come into the business for that?
00:34:19.760 --> 00:34:22.639
So my son is 26 and he's finishing law school this year.
00:34:23.199 --> 00:34:28.000
And he is gonna uh yeah, he's gonna enroll in the NADA Dealer Candidate Academy in in January.
00:34:28.320 --> 00:34:28.559
That's great.
00:34:28.880 --> 00:34:30.559
And so uh and come aboard the story.
00:34:30.719 --> 00:34:31.760
Yeah, and he's gonna come aboard.
00:34:31.840 --> 00:34:38.880
Yeah, he's he's dabbled in the business in you know uh some of the summers, selling cars and 15 with a suit on or uh No, no, he didn't.
00:34:40.639 --> 00:34:49.519
But uh but he's uh you know he's uh uh uh a graduate from Ross Business School, University of Michigan, and now he's at law school in New York and he's finishing this year.
00:34:49.679 --> 00:34:51.840
Yeah, he's a smart guy, so so he's excited.
00:34:51.920 --> 00:34:53.760
My daughter is in fashion school, she has no interest.
00:34:54.239 --> 00:34:54.639
No interest.
00:34:54.880 --> 00:34:55.039
Yeah.
00:34:55.280 --> 00:34:55.519
No.
00:34:56.719 --> 00:35:04.239
We had her in the BDC uh one summer, and and she called me up and said, you know, there's customers yelling on the phone at me, I don't even know.
00:35:04.880 --> 00:35:05.519
Not for her.
00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:06.559
No, not for her.
00:35:06.639 --> 00:35:07.119
That's something.
00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:09.760
That's uh she said, come pick me up, send mom to pick me up.
00:35:09.920 --> 00:35:10.719
I need to get out of here.
00:35:10.960 --> 00:35:12.239
But your son is showing an interest.
00:35:12.320 --> 00:35:14.800
He wants to come in and and and work with dad.
00:35:15.039 --> 00:35:16.159
Yeah, he's fascinated by it.
00:35:16.400 --> 00:35:16.559
Yeah.
00:35:16.800 --> 00:35:20.480
I work with my sons in the business, and there's nothing more rewarding than that's really great.
00:35:20.719 --> 00:35:20.880
For sure.
00:35:21.039 --> 00:35:22.559
And it sounds like you did early with your daddy.
00:35:22.719 --> 00:35:22.880
Yeah.
00:35:23.039 --> 00:35:23.760
Yeah, that's great.
00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:24.880
Is your dad still with us?
00:35:25.119 --> 00:35:27.679
Yeah, my dad's 85 and he lives in Boca Ratan.
00:35:27.920 --> 00:35:28.000
Okay.
00:35:28.159 --> 00:35:30.639
And he likes hearing about all the success, but he but he hasn't.
00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:33.840
My dad basically retired in his early 50s.
00:35:34.159 --> 00:35:34.559
Oh wow.
00:35:34.719 --> 00:35:34.880
Nice.
00:35:35.039 --> 00:35:35.840
Yeah, very nice.
00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:36.400
That's great.
00:35:36.639 --> 00:35:40.480
I think you have to retire to Boca Raton, don't you, when you turn 50 or you when you retire?
00:35:41.840 --> 00:35:42.960
That's why I don't want to spend any time there.
00:35:43.199 --> 00:35:44.159
That'll make me want to retire.
00:35:44.480 --> 00:35:52.239
My uh we we moved out to Delray Beach for a little while, and uh I told a friend of mine, he goes, the average age in uh in South Florida is deceased.
00:35:52.400 --> 00:35:54.079
I said, Oh my god, that's terrible.
00:35:54.559 --> 00:35:55.280
Terrible way to put it.
00:35:58.719 --> 00:35:59.679
But it's a beautiful spot.
00:35:59.920 --> 00:36:00.559
Yes, for sure.
00:36:00.880 --> 00:36:02.239
I too would like to retire down there.
00:36:02.320 --> 00:36:04.719
So that's why car dealerships are so expensive there.
00:36:05.039 --> 00:36:05.760
Yes, that's right.
00:36:05.920 --> 00:36:06.320
That's right.
00:36:06.400 --> 00:36:07.119
That's exactly right.
00:36:07.199 --> 00:36:12.880
And it's uh it's at the top of every dealer's list to say, give me a Toyota or Lexus store in South Florida, right?
00:36:13.440 --> 00:36:13.840
Absolutely.
00:36:14.079 --> 00:36:14.639
That's crazy.
00:36:14.719 --> 00:36:15.199
That's crazy.
00:36:15.440 --> 00:36:17.360
So you're feeling pretty bullish about the industry.
00:36:17.440 --> 00:36:19.840
You want to hit your five billion dollar mark there.
00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:29.519
I'm sure that caught the interest right now of a number of advisors out there that says we we got to call him and uh, you know, uh have a coffee with him because we got stores, right?
00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:31.039
Well, you know, here's the thing.
00:36:31.119 --> 00:36:36.880
I mean, you know, when I say that number, I also, you know, uh with a caveat that we want to do it smart.
00:36:36.960 --> 00:36:37.280
Yeah.
00:36:37.760 --> 00:36:43.199
And, you know, if we don't end up getting to that number because deals don't make sense, we're just not gonna do them.
00:36:43.280 --> 00:36:47.920
I you know, there is a point where you know one thing we've been really good at is we don't have a lot of debt.
00:36:48.400 --> 00:36:54.639
And uh, you know, we've uh yeah, put a lot of cash into deals and and it's more of about return on investment.
00:36:54.719 --> 00:36:54.880
Yeah.
00:36:55.360 --> 00:37:07.440
Um and so we're in a good place, you know, where we really have very limited debt and uh where a lot of you know a lot of people have really levered up to get to you know two or three billion dollars in revenue.
00:37:07.920 --> 00:37:09.280
And uh we just don't want to do that.
00:37:09.440 --> 00:37:12.159
We want to be very methodical about how we do an acquisition.
00:37:12.480 --> 00:37:12.960
Sure, sure.
00:37:13.440 --> 00:37:18.639
What advice would you have for uh some some of the GMs that are watching this conversation right now?
00:37:18.800 --> 00:37:20.800
You were a young GM that took over a store.
00:37:20.880 --> 00:37:28.719
And what advice would you have for them if they want to be Jay Feldman in a few years with billions of dollars in sales and a number of locations?
00:37:29.199 --> 00:37:37.679
Probably find a dealer that is uh like we talked about earlier, that's 71 years old and uh maybe isn't quite ready to retire and buy into their deal.
00:37:38.079 --> 00:37:39.280
Okay, yeah, that's a good idea.
00:37:39.519 --> 00:37:40.079
Yeah, yeah.
00:37:40.320 --> 00:37:54.480
I think it's hard to just go out and buy a store and have the capital to do that for even, you know, these stores are, as you know, are you know the blue sky is yeah, and the real estate's more expensive and the operating capital required, and you know, manufacturers are not, you know, they don't have a lot of leeway.
00:37:54.559 --> 00:38:01.840
Like when they tell you this is your capital standard, yeah, you better make sure you have your capital standard in line, you know, your capital in line to meet that standard every year.
00:38:02.159 --> 00:38:02.400
Right.
00:38:02.559 --> 00:38:11.440
So probably the best advice is go out and find either a really small store and become, you know, the head cook and bottle washer or you know, partner with a dealer and you know have a bio plan over time.
00:38:11.679 --> 00:38:11.760
Mr.
00:38:11.840 --> 00:38:17.039
Jay Feldman, I want to thank you so much for spending all the time with us here at CBT News on our executive profile.
00:38:17.199 --> 00:38:24.480
I know that a lot of the dealers that are watching and the managers in the industry, and in fact the whole industry, is gonna get a lot out of your visit with us.
00:38:24.559 --> 00:38:26.559
And uh congratulations on all your success.
00:38:26.719 --> 00:38:28.639
We're pulling for you to hit that five billion.
00:38:29.039 --> 00:38:31.280
I'd love to do a follow-up with you to see how things are moving along.
00:38:31.519 --> 00:38:31.760
Thank you.
00:38:31.920 --> 00:38:35.599
I might have more gray hair by that point, but thanks so much.
00:38:35.840 --> 00:38:36.480
Thank you.