Odds and Ends

Not every lesson about running a used car department fits neatly into a category. This hub is where Mike Crothers, CEO of MOTO(acquire), puts the rest of it: car dealer industry commentary on the things he sees while working alongside hundreds of dealers. Some videos are about inventory. Some are about people, process, or how stores make decisions. All of them are short, and all of them are made for GMs, used car managers, and dealer principals who want a straight answer without a sales pitch wrapped around it.

What This Car Dealer Industry Commentary Covers

Think of "Odds and Ends" as the conversation in the hallway after the managers meeting. It is where the honest observations come out. Here you will find car dealership industry takes, automotive retail observations, and dealer software founder thoughts that do not belong to any single product or playbook. Topics tend to include:

Habits that cost stores money without anyone noticing, like trades that go unappraised or customers who never hear from the store again after the sale.
How dealers actually use technology, and why tools that look great in a demo sometimes never get turned on.
Market shifts and what they mean for how a store should source used inventory.
Leadership and accountability in the used car department, from the desk to the service drive.
Plain car business commentary on what is working for stores right now and what is not.

Why It Matters to Your Used Car Gross

Used car gross is usually won or lost before a vehicle ever hits the lot. Where you acquire a car, what you pay for it, and how quickly you get it frontline ready all shape the margin you can hold. Auction cars come with fees, transport, and competition. Cars bought directly from your own customers usually come with a better story and a better number.

The small things covered in these videos add up. A service customer who would have sold you their car but never got asked. A website visitor who wanted a trade value and left. A salesperson posting on social with no way to track what it produced. None of these feel urgent on a busy day, but together they decide whether your store is buying the right cars at the right price.

What to Measure

Commentary is only useful if it changes what you track. As you watch, ask whether your store has a clear read on these:

Acquisition source mix. How much of your used inventory comes from trades, the service drive, direct buys, and auctions.
Gross by source. Which acquisition channels produce the strongest front end gross once the car retails.
Service drive buy rate. MOTO(drive) stores consistently buy about 1% of their repair orders without dedicated service acquisition hires. If you are not tracking this, start.
Customer engagement after the sale. MOTO(retain) value tracking emails have a 36% open rate and 99.5% deliverability. Compare that against what your current follow up actually reaches.
Lead attribution. Whether you can tell which website tools and which individual social posts are producing appointments in your CRM.

How the Videos Below Help

Each video is built to make a single point you can act on. Watch one before a managers meeting and use it to start a conversation. Send one to a used car manager who is wrestling with sourcing. Share one with a dealer principal who wants to know why the service drive should be a buying center.

Where it fits, Mike connects the idea to how MOTO(acquire) tools handle it. MOTO(convert) puts instant valuations, firm offer requests, monthly value tracking, and the free buying power tool on your website. MOTO(retain) sends past sales and service customers their vehicle's value every month. MOTO(drive) uses DMS data and automated texts on the service drive, pushes VIN and miles to your inventory tools, and alerts your sales team when a customer is ready. MOTO(social) gives each person posting on social their own link, with leads attributed in the CRM. MOTO(insite) offers consumers free vehicle history information.

MOTO(acquire) integrates with all major DMS platforms and many others, including Tekion, Dealertrack, CDK, Reynolds, and Auto/Mate. If your store uses a DMS we do not integrate with yet, we will build the integration.

Pick a video below and start with whatever is bugging you most this month.