In our latest episode, you'll get to know Aris Woolfolk, VADA's new General Manager, along with the man who happens to be her father: Art Hudgins, longtime owner of Holiday Chevrolet Cadillac in Williamsburg, which was sold in December to Loyalty Automotive.

The duo talk about working "in the trenches" of COVID restrictions and the sales/service environment, the future of EV and innovations, and Art's long-held belief that "Service sells cars." 

Hireology's Mike McSherry talks with us about hiring in the era of COVID-19 and the evolution of recruiting the best talent and onboarding (quickly) going forward.

Hireology is an endorsed VADA Program Partner and is built for dealerships to attract top applicants, hire the best ones, and onboard them quickly.

Learn more: www.hireology.com

Are you leaving money on the table when it comes to reimbursement on warranty parts and labor?

A Retail Warranty Reimbursement law was put in place in Virginia in 1998 and entitles dealers to full retail warranty reimbursement from manufacturers on parts and labor. (Before the law, and even today, many dealers only receive the standard 40% markup or MSRP.)

Legislation in 46 states (and counting) entitles automotive dealers to be reimbursed by manufacturers for warranty work at retail, which is actually the dealer’s customer “repair” rate. However, complex state statutes, manufacturer protocols and pressures, gatekeepers, and limited internal resources are just a few of the challenges that make receiving full retail warranty reimbursement difficult for automotive dealerships.

We talk today to VADA partner Armatus Dealer Uplift Managing Member Joe Jankowski. Armatus brings almost $100,000 a year in parts gross and $65,000 in additional labor gross, on average, to dealers nationwide. They handle the entire retail warranty process with no upfront fees – and they don’t get paid until you do.

Learn more about Armatus: https://dealeruplift.com

Get frontline insights from Maj Saboura, a longtime industry veteran and senior director at Manheim. Majd talks inventory in the used, retail, and wholesale markets and gives listeners and viewers insights on how the company is becoming more "digital first" as the world changes.

Majd also offers three best practices in these "roller coaster" times:

1. Balance your Portfolio. Look at your inventory and turn and find out what is getting bites and sales. Get your money back into the market and rebalance your portfolio to find cars and trucks that will make you money.

2. Be Frugal. If you're selling 100 automobiles a month, stock 150, not 250. Be careful how you tie up capital in your vehicles.

3. Be Smart. Leverage technology to get eyeballs on the vehicle. The more eyes, the more chances you have to sell it.

Manheim is North America’s leading provider of vehicle remarketing services, connecting buyers and sellers to the largest wholesale used vehicle marketplace and most extensive auction network. Through 125 traditional and mobile auction sites and a robust digital marketplace, the company helps dealer and commercial clients achieve business results by providing innovative end-to-end inventory solutions. Approximately 18,000 employees enable Manheim to register about 8 million used vehicles per year, facilitate transactions representing nearly $57 billion in value and generate annual revenues of more than $2.6 billion.

Manheim also operates the Manheim Express app. More than just a dealer-to-dealer network, Manheim Express delivers extreme efficiency to buyers and sellers when they need it the most. Sellers can list vehicles within minutes using revolutionary 360-degree imaging and get a Guaranteed First Bid™, while buyers can access fresh, local inventory via the new in-app buyer experience. Whether you create the listings yourself or use the Manheim Express Concierge service for a hands-off approach, selling upstream and dealer-direct is quick and easy with Manheim Express.

Manheim Express is an endorsed VADA Partners Program.

We talk with VADA's legal and legislative affairs team on Virginia's COVID-19 workplace safety requirements, the first such state-level requirements in the nation. They are formally known as the Emergency Temporary Standard, or ETS.

Resources: 

- VADA's ETS webpage: https://vada.com/ets/

- ETS Checklist for dealers, prepared by VADA: https://vada.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/VADA_ETS-Checklist_August-2020_4a.pdf

- FAQs: https://vada.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/7.23.2020.ETS-Rev-7.29.pdf

“Dealers are the epitome of optimism. It’s one of the reasons I live working with them.”

So says Buddy Dearman, a VADA friend and managing partner of DHG Dealerships. The Memphis, Tenn. accounting firm has more than 160 professionals overseeing various accounting and financial services for 3,000+ auto dealership rooftops nationwide.

In this episode, Buddy gives franchised dealer leaders unique insights on the state of the PPP loan forgiveness process, PPP tax implications, and his thoughts on inventory and the U.S. presidential elections.

Buddy has more than 30 years of experience working with dealerships and their owners, and focuses primarily on all aspects of tax planning and structuring with medium and large dealership groups.

Glenn Lundy has had "two seasons" in the automotive retail business, one with a slow-growth dealership that had numerous retention and operational issues, while the second half of his career was spent with a small dealer in a small town of Paris, Ky.. At that store, he helped grow from selling 120 cars a month to ultimately 1,043 cars in 27 business days. The store became the second largest used-car franchise dealership in the nation.

A longtime friend of VADA, Glenn Lundy is a "husband to one, father to seven" (going on eight), an auto industry expert and consultant, and host of the inspirational #RiseandGrind online morning show.

Glenn talks with VADA GM Jason Wilson about how you can "Rise every day with intention and purpose" to be the best version of yourself and make an impact in others' lives.

• Connect to Glenn
• Check out the #RiseandGrind show

You can join Glenn every Monday through Friday at 5:30 am Eastern on Facebook @OfficialGlennLundy.

Automotive News calls Glenn Mercer “The auto industry expert dealers want to hear from,” and today, Virginia dealers and others can hear directly from the longtime friend of NADA and VADA.

Glenn is the author of 2017’s “The Dealership of Tomorrow: 2025,” which provided a comprehensive view of what automotive retailing would look like to franchised dealers, consumers and manufacturers in 2025. Among other things, Mercer was one of the first to predict an "evolution not a revolution" of the dealership business model in spite of wild pronouncements about disruptive technologies and behaviors that “promised” to blow up everything we knew about personal vehicle ownership.

His followup, Dealership of Tomorrow 2.0, came out in February 2020, and it’s safe to say things have mightily changed since then. A version 2.5 is coming soon to incorporate the permanent and accelerated changes to the industry due to COVID-19. Glenn talks with VADA General Manager Jason Wilson on what we can expect from 2.5 as well as the long-discussed “carpocalypse” of EVs and autonomous vehicles.

Get The Dealership of Tomorrow 2.0: nada.org/dealershipoftomorrow/

Cory L. Mosley joins VADA's High Octane to talk culture and equity in the Workplace.

Cory is a Certified Speaking Professional and an award-winning consultant to entrepreneurs, small business owners, and major corporations (including a Fortune 10).

A retail "car guy" and entrepreneur, Cory is founder and chief strategist of Mosley Automotive LLC, a nationally recognized automotive training and consulting company founded and run by . Regularly referred to nationally as "Mosley Automotive," the company was founded in 2004 and was one of the early boutique training and consulting companies established to focus solely on Internet sales. 

Cory also helps business owners and companies that want to thrive in the new economy by giving them strategies to increase sales, build fanatical teams, and future-proof their business.

Learn more: corymosley.com

You can also watch this interview on our Vimeo page at Vimeo.com/teamvada.

2020 has been challenging for his company and dealers, says Cox Automotive CEO Sandy Schwartz. But that hasn't stopped the company from pressing forward and evolving.

This moment should cause dealers to listen to consumers' expectations for how cars are bought and sold, and continue with these innovations long after the pandemic passes. Despite the challenges they have faced, "we should never take for granted the human spirit of auto dealers," Schwartz says.

In addition to outlining his concerns on people's health and the overall economy, Schwartz discusses how his own company has recalibrated its offerings in COVID and evolved its product line to keep sales afloat.

It's all part of what Schwartz and Cox call "The Way Forward" to see what will be necessary to thrive post-pandemic. "The goal is the same as it has always been: to sell more cars, more efficiently than ever before," he says. "And our pledge to help you do that has never been stronger."