Advertise on podcast: vAuto Podcast

In this vAuto podcast, Katie Tonozzi, a general manager in training at Flow Automotive Group, and vAuto’s Patrick Janes discuss how Tonozzi realized her desire to work in retail automotive at Northwood University and turned it into a budding career at a top-performing dealer group. Hear Tonozzi’s perspective on why a series of internship experiences, including a “rotational” one at a New York dealership, cemented her retail career choice; “people like doing business with people they like” remains a personal mantra; shifting from “transactional to relational” selling will help dealers do more business with Gen Z buyers; and, dealers who offer structured opportunities/paths appeal most to students looking for retail careers.

In this vAuto podcast, Derek Hansen and Patrick Janes provide a preview of the AI-enabled innovations vAuto will debut at the NADA Show in Las Vegas to help dealers achieve greater success. Hear how the combination of AI and integrations with other Cox Automotive solutions can help you build and scale a customer-focused service lane acquisition process to efficiently make offers and close more deals with customers; sharpen recon estimates and vehicle valuations to optimize each vehicle’s profit and ROI potential; ensure your vehicle prices match the market, no matter how it moves; and, mine missed trades more to re-engage customers and make deals before they go to the competition.

Mohawk Honda’s Used Vehicle Director Mike O’Toole joins Derek Hansen to recap Q4 highlights and outline how the team will double down on inventory and customer-focused strategies in 2025. O’Toole shares the “inside our four walls” approach that fueled growth, details on service lane vehicle acquisition feeding sales, and Mohawk’s top operational priorities to drive success into 2026.

In this vAuto podcast, Jeremiah Mowry, operations director at Atlanta Auto Brokers, details how a drive-to-school conversation with his daughter in 2017 helped him find his “happy place”—giving away Christmas trees and gifts every December to families in his local community. Hear how Jeremiah and his team turned an idea for a cash-making side hustle into a popular holiday-giving tradition; partner with local schools, a church, a women’s shelter and area businesses to develop wish lists for needy families; reinvest cash/credit card donations for trees to fund gift-giving; and build goodwill and trust that helps drive future business at the dealership.

In this vAuto podcast, Mike O’Toole, used vehicle director at Mohawk Honda, and vAuto’s Patrick Janes go in depth on the best practices and process steps that help Mohawk acquire and sell nearly 40 vehicles a month from their service drive. O’Toole shares how he and his team have evolved the service lane acquisition effort from a clipboard-based, one-off approach to a process where nearly every service customer gets an offer. Get guidance to help you shift from a hard-sell to “soft touch” approach to set the right tone with customers with vehicles you want to acquire; scale service lane acquisitions by using AI and automated tools to drive efficiency; develop a follow-up process that ensures you capture/close the majority of customers who need time to consider your offer and a potential next purchase; and establish process/performance expectations based on Mohawk’s benchmarks.

In this vAuto podcast, vAuto’s Dan Winchester highlights how appraiser Look to Book rates at some dealerships aren’t as good as dealers think. Winchester details the limits of LTB as a primary measure of appraiser performance, and why two new KPIs—appraisal effectiveness and appraisal completeness—offer a better way for dealers to maximize appraisal opportunities. Hear how you can identify the inconsistencies in your appraiser performance/process your LTB doesn’t capture; increase your ratio of appraisals to sales to improve your ability to acquire vehicles directly from customers; and, assess how well appraisers do the steps of your appraisal process (do they use the OBDII scanners?) you expect.

In this vAuto Quarterly Quick-Takes video, strategic planning director Bethany Johnson summarizes inventory and sales trends for Q3, and how dealers can maintain sales and profit objectives as the year closes. In new vehicles, Johnson share strategies to sell through ’25 inventory as ’26 models arrive—where promoting all rebates and incentives in merchandising is critical. In used, Johnson outlines how rising trade-in equity, and a higher level of appraisal transparency, can help dealers sell more customers and take in desirable inventory.

In this vAuto podcast, used vehicle director Drew Hall of Cloninger Automotive Group details how/why the group adopted a source channel-specific strategy for acquiring vehicles to reduce dependency on auctions. Hear how this strategy has reshaped the way the group acquires, appraisses and prices vehicles to maximize profitability. Get insights to help you establish vehicle acquisition targets based on the source channels that perform best for specific rooftops; develop an “interactive” appraisal process to build transparency and trust when acquiring vehicles from customers; evaluate appraiser performance based on source channel-specific parameters; and, ensure your pricing and desking decisions reflect the rationale/reasons used during appraisals to determine your retail exit strategy.

There’s no denying that it’s been a difficult year to predict what will happen for the automotive market. While June was down, July was hot for new cars. Tariffs are still a hot topic. In this Q3 Live Market View, Derek Hansen and Jonathan Smoke discuss how the trends may shape the year ahead; what increased affordability for top earners means for the used market; how tariffs have already affected the industry and why they're confident consumers and dealers will handle the impact.

In this vAuto podcast, used vehicle buyer Josh Kor of Richfield Bloomington (MN) Honda shares how UVeye’s AI-powered vehicle inspections and a new vAuto appraisal integration have made acquiring vehicles from service customers more effective and efficient. Kor details the process he follows that yields 1500 completed service lane appraisals and 40-plus vehicle acquisitions each month. Hear how the dealership uses UVeye technology to supplement vehicle inspections and uncover additional RO opportunities; ensures nearly 90 percent of service lane customers receive appraisals for their vehicles; and follows a “soft touch” approach that gives customers 30 days to say “yes” to the initial offer.

In this vAuto Quarterly Quick-Takes video, strategic planning director Bethany Johnson summarizes key take-aways from Q2, which saw a series of ups and downs across new and used vehicle departments for dealers. Get pointers to help you turn a new vehicle bright spot—improving trade-in equity—to your advantage to address slow-moving inventory; diversify your used vehicle acquisition strategy and mix to better serve affordability-minded buyers; and, help your car stand tall in merchandising to spur buyer interest/engagement online.

In this vAuto podcast, dealer principal Rob York of the Indiana-based, six-store York Automotive Group, shares how/why he moved from a “stock to stock” strategy for used vehicle acquisition to a strategic approach, where distinct parameters guide appraising and acquisitions decisions. York shares key metrics to identify the “right” vehicles for their inventories as well as how/when the vehicle transfers occur across rooftops. He also details the steps his team follows to mine the service drive for acquisitions as well as their approach for monitoring/pursuing missed trades.

In this vAuto podcast, vAuto’s Senior Director of Customer Program Management, Dan Winchester, addresses five performance improvement opportunities for groups. The opportunities flow from his work advising dealer groups on ways to improve their businesses. The specific opportunities include ways to bring more consistency to appraisals across group rooftops; how to ensure each vehicle retails at the rooftop that offers the best ROI opportunity; pointers to establish group-level targets to minimize vehicle price discounts; and, guidelines to understand if merchandising or pricing is problematic for a vehicle.

In the Q2 Live Market View, Derek Hanson and Jessica Stafford explore consumer shopping behavior, sales trends, and inventory dynamics in early spring 2025. They highlight how new car leads surged in March and April, how dealers adapted to tariff uncertainties, and how AI-driven tools are helping dealers optimize pricing and inventory decisions. The discussion also emphasizes the importance of real-time data, strategic marketing, and meeting consumers where they are in today’s fast-moving automotive market.

In this vAuto Quarterly Quick-Takes video, strategic planning director Bethany Johnson shares operational priorities for dealers coming off a strong pace of tariff-spurred sales in the first quarter of 2025. Bethany shares pointers to help you minimize age and maximize your new vehicle inventory mix; merchandise used vehicles to capture buyers who can’t afford a new vehicle; and align your used vehicle acquisition strategy to in-demand price points and segments.