Latest / One on One With a Professional / CAR TALK Brad Doenges Talks About Being a Local Small Business

Transcript

CAR TALK Brad Doenges Talks About Being a Local Small Business · One on One With a Professional

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Wait, good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Meta's time now for car talk right here on.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: K one, the one you trust, and we've got Brad
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and Jason in here from it done just Toyota.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Hi, guys, how are we doing tonight?
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: Tom?
• 0:15
  Speaker 4: Hello everybody out there, Good morning friends. Thank you for
• 0:18
  Speaker 4: joining us this morning. We're so glad you're with us today.
• 0:21
  Speaker 4: As usual, it's a beautiful morning out at the dealership.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: It really is. This morning. It is cool. I got
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: up this morning, cleared and the sun came out.
• 0:31
  Speaker 5: It is it's that season.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I like it when we start the days get
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: a little shorter.
• 0:38
  Speaker 5: The I turned into a twelve year old boy where
• 0:44
  Speaker 5: my wife is like, Okay, it's time to come in, honey,
• 0:48
  Speaker 5: I don't want to come in outside.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: Lots of new inventory on the ground and more coming daily.
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: We got a rab for and a land Cruiser last night.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: We got a bunch of cars in the last few
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: days and there's more coming. So so come on out, folks.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: For going through the model year in season transition to
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: the twenty twenty six.
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: So we've got a couple of twenty twenty six is
• 1:11
  Speaker 5: coming in.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: We do.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: We've got great used car inventory too, really the best
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: inventory in a long time, and it's still turning super
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: fast and that's our goal. I mean, it's one of
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: these crazy things in the Toyota world where we've got
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: to hit our number in order to get more inventory
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: and keep keep growing.
• 1:30
  Speaker 5: Tom At the beginning of the month, Toyota literally says
• 1:33
  Speaker 5: to us, Okay, you're gonna have to sell one hundred
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: and thirty percent of the cars that you have on around.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, amazing.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: So if you're wanting to Toyota to come on in,
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: give us a little time.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: We're small.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: You know, we may not have everything right there on
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: the ground, but we can get just about anything.
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: We really can. You know, we are small and nimble.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: I'm small and nimble. That is an advantage actually, and.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: Over ninety five years and for generations selling cars in Oklahoma,
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: I wanted to acknowledge the importance of our customers this morning,
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: and they support us. They make the choice to do
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: business locally with a small, family owned business, and we
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: don't take that for granted. We're always working to offer
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: our customers value and better service and to compete for
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: their business and meet their expectations. It's so important local
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: dollars stay here in our community. And you know, I
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: think you know one for today's show, I want to
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: talk about changes going on in the car business and
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: now and in recent years. My family has operated daughter
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: dealerships in Oklahoma for over ninety five years, and I
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: think we're in a unique position today. It's more unique
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: maybe than it used to be. You know, the world
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: is changing. People expect more in many ways, to do more,
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: better service solutions to their problems. You know, Walmart and Amazon.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: We all know what I'm talking about there. But men
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: in our industry cling to their old practices. But at
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: the same time, the industry is really consolidating. And you know,
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: I've been thinking a lot about that lately. Uh, you know,
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: the changes in our market. And you know, I'd have
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: to think about that because I've got a position, our
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: small family owned business that just does business here in Bartlesville, Uh,
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: to to survive into the future. It almost is a
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: matter of survival.
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it really is. And just like other small businesses.
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: You know, you mentioned Amazon, Amazon eation of the world.
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: We're sitting here in the studio looking at Boulevard Pharmacy,
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: right across the street no longer here.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: Pretty sad thing, if you ask me, very hard.
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: Hard to be a locally owned anything in this world.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: And well, like I said, though, we don't take it
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: for granted. I mean, we're constantly evolving, invest in our people,
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: you know, the Dungeon simple price concept, with our great
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: value for our customers. We are non commissioned sales professionals.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: We have a very transparent sales process and tools and
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: new tools that even make it easier for people to
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: buy a car, to see what's going on in the deal,
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: to actually take control of the deal themselves. You know,
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: I've been passionate about this for a long time. Actually,
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: it's why I got in the business. Truthfully. You know,
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: I sold cars when I was in college, and and
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: to be honest, I didn't want.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: To be a part of the industry. It was.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: I loved the people and I liked the customers, but
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: the whole process and the culture it didn't fit me,
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: and I didn't want to work that way. I went
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: I went to work in the newspaper business and there
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: was a nonprofit fundraiser and then later I got in
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: the car. This is working for my father because because
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: I wanted the legacy to continue.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: You But but when I did that.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: I decided that I would focus on trying to create
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: a different kind of car dealership and different culture. First,
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: you know, first thing we did was Ford came to
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: Tulsa and took us all over, consolidated the market. My
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: father's dealership, Fred Jones, Don Thornton, uh Turnpike, Ford, Jim
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: Nelson Ford, We all became one company. Ford decided to
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: kill the names. We stopped advertising for one month. They
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: thought that would kill all that in Tulsa in ninety seven.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: Before that, every dealer Ford Dealership in Tulsa was owned
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: by an individual who lived in Tulsa worked at the
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: dealership that you could call on the phone and talk
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: to him. They were there virtually every day. And a
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: month later, you know, you know they were it was
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: Tulsa Auto Collection or for and then became Ford to
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: Tulsa and and now it's it's you know, they've unwound that.
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: But you know, the political local aspect is gone. It
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: really when I disappeared and we came.
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: To Bartlesville in two thousand. I came to Bartlesville, every
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: dealership was owned by a local man who lived here,
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: worked here, was part of the community, part of the dealership.
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: We're the last one standing. Every other dealership here has
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: outside ownership. The dealers may be here, but the truth
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: is their own their large corporations with many dealerships, and
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: you know that economy of scale is part of the
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: reason that they're doing that. But the truth is, you know,
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: we sold Ford last year consolidated to regroup to try
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: to keep going as a true family owned small dealership, and.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: We're that is unique.
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: There were in nineteen forty there were forty thousand dealerships
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: in America and about forty thousand dealership owners. Today there
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: are less than eight thousand dealership owners and that was
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: in twenty ten, so I can't I'm looking for the
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: number that are today. But it's consolidated even more.
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: And well you mentioned that the top ten corporations, so.
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: Top ten dealer groups in America sell that just ten
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: dealerships sell ten percent of the new vehicles sold in
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: the United States.
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: That is some serious consolidation.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: There's you know, the truth is you know that we're
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: we're we believe in our community, we support our community,
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: we believe in the mission to provide for our employees
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: and customers and support the community.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: And that's what we're all about. The the uh.
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: You know, when we get up every day, we go
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: in and I'm I've got my son working there, my brother,
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: my sister in law, my uncle Joe.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: Everybody knows Joe Dillon.
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: You know, we are a true family business that our
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: employees are very loyal to us. Many have worked their
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: whole careers at DUNGEUS many over twenty years. You know,
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: I've said it a lot a lot of times. At
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: our body shop. You know, there's like eighty years of
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: experience and seven people working there.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: Wow. And some of them twenty thirty years and one
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: of them, yeah, some of.
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: Them are young and I've been coming and hopefully they'll
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: be there in twenty or thirty years.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: You know. That's that's our vision for the world.
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: But you know, and I don't have anything against large corporations,
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: and you know they have their place, but you know,
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: if you want small businesses to survive, you know, my
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: point is you need to support your the local businesses
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: here in our community.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: I want to give a shout out to kW In
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: and Kevin and and his.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: Role in that because truthfully, you guys are part of that.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: And and many of our our local organizations, you know,
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: from our Best has been a great partner of ours,
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: and they they support us. They understand what we're trying
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: to do. You know, they're they're in the same situation
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: right with these large national bank organizations versus a regional
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: bank that that really is connected to our community, the
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: you know, our our customers. Toyota is another great partner
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: that that really uh you know, I think values what
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: we're trying to do, and well, they work with all
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: kinds of dealers. Uh you know, I know there that
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: the that they want uh small dealers to survive and
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: and to be able to thrive. And and that's why
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: we've stayed with Toyota.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: It's a it's a.
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: Great thing to have our community here support us, you know,
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: I really again, it's all about our customers and what
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: they uh they expect and what we can do to
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: to support them in our community. And and uh, you
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: know we do that by selling cars and fixing cars,
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: and we're just like.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: Everybody else in that way.
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: But it is a it is a time where we're
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: you know, I'm constantly challenged to think of new ways
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: to reduce our costs, to provide better service to our customers,
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: and eke out.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: You know, another another year. There.
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: The truth is people come in virtually every day and
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: want to buy the dealership.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: It's true, and and uh, you know.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: It would be easy to say yes and walk away,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: But that's not how you're hooked up.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: No, Tom, it's not. It's pretty pretty stubborn on that one.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: Well that that's not unusual for me.
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: I'm pretty determined, and I wanted to I want to survive.
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: I want to be able to do what we do.
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: I'd like for my son, William to have a chance
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: to to be a part of this community and you know,
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: maybe take over the business someday. And you know, whether
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: it's William or you know a lot of his cousins,
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: you know, I whoever it is, I just think, you know,
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: that kind of operation is has a place we all
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: remember when you know, you know, we all been there
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: when Walmart came to town and how that affected the
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: retail economy in our community. And no issue with Walmart really,
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: I mean they provide a service and help keep the
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: world competitive.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: I I believe me.
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: I believe in being competitive and forward looking and not
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: and we are adjusting to the new market. We The
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: Dungeons Simple Path is a great example.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: The Path is.
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: Our new tool that helps people go from zero to
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: a car deal, all online. And it is as transparent
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: to a tool as.
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: You get the best one that exists in our market
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: right now. And and you know, the other thing you
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: get with that transparency and with these tools is uh
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: the ability to really work your own deal and the
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: salesperson can help you do that. And and with our
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: great simple prices there you know that these car deals
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: can happen so much faster than they used to. And
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: it's a big change for us. A lot of our
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: more experienced people are having to learn whole new ways.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: Of loss to think and think of things.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: And you know, the paper back and forth does you know,
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: maybe it exists a little bit in our dealership now,
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: but we're.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: Moving away from it.
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: It's a backup and it's really only for those people
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: who don't want to do it on their smart device.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: But now you can do it on your smart device.
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: You can you know, we can actually execute UH the
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: whole car deal with you sitting in.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Washington State, if you you know, or Hawaii.
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: Or you know, that's your own carfe but more more
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: likely or just then you're at home, at home or
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: at the office, and you know, you're used to getting
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: that package delivered, and you know, and we'd want to
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: be able to provide that same kind of service.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: We can deliver your car, we can evaluate your trade,
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: we can do all that to secure financing, sign paperwork. Dude,
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: the whole car deal now digitally whether and we use
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: the same tool we'd use in the showroom now is
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: available on our website or if you're buying remotely.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: So it's a it's a.
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: Really great evolution I think in the car deal process.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: And you know, we used to call it, you know,
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: kind of a shopping cart approach, and it was a
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: website thing when I first started trying to do this
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: in about two thousand and eight.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: I guess.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Everybody's trying to figure it out in two thousand and eight.
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but you know, now I think that it's really
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: really I don't think we want to buy cars like that.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: They don't want to put it in a cart and
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: you know not.
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: You know, they want to ask questions, they want to
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: touch it, feel it, understand the deal.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know, be.
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: Able to you know work, you what what what happens
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: if I extend the term? How can I get to
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: the four hundred dollars payment I need on that car?
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: You can do that right just by playing with our
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: tool and anyway, if you you go go to our
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: website and play around with it, don't just.
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: Do it dot com. One of the other things you're
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: going to notice as you're playing with the price and
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: uh down payment of the vehicle.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: Our fees we have we have.
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: We don't have those crazy hidden fees or or dealer
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: markups and adjusted uh, you know, adjustments a lot of times.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: Uh. You know, I still see dealers.
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: Who are who are running you know, whether it's a
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: scratch off mailer or you've got to trade to get
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: that price, or you've got to finance with us to
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: get that price. You know, we don't play in those
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: games and really try to keep it simple, transparent, straightforward.
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: You know, our business is a slim and people a
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: lot of people believe cardialers make thousands of dollars on
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: every car we sell. I'll tell you on there was
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: a point there was a time when we controlled all
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: the information, when that was a bit easier.
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: We negotiated.
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: Our teams were paid on commission, so they got a
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: percentage of the gross profit we made when when you
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: bought a car.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: That for our sales team that has gone away. I
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: believe that that, uh that put the customer and the
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: sales team and an adversarial position.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: And I just don't want to be like that.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: So we're we try to align our team with the
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: customer's needs, and we can give up a little bit
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: of gross in order to make things smooth faster. I
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: did a little research on that, and you know, publicly
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: traded dealer groups in.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: The second core or of twenty twenty.
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: Five averaged about thirty three hundred dollars per new vehicle
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: sold in gross profit on the vehicle itself. And year
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: to date we're at fourteen hundred and ninety one dollars,
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: So less than half of that fourteen hundred and ninety
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: one dollars, which is about three point seven percent of
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: the average gross I mean average price of a new car,
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: so the average car is about forty thousand dollars. We
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: make a gross profit of three point seven percent. Of
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: that three point seven percent, about sixty percent of it
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: goes to our employees and the rest has to go
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: to institute, you know, insurance, utilities, floor plan, all the
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: all the overhead to run the dealership and then you know,
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: we get a little bit of profit and that that
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: In the twenty years or so I've been running the dealership,
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: it's ranged from about one percent of net of sales
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: to three percent. It's you know, it's a very narrow
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: margin in our business.
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: And as opposed to a corporate dealer who somehow is
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: able to pack in goodies. It's the add ons, it's
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: the hidden fees.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: I've got to say, some of them are even invisible.
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: Yes, invisible, right, and you know we just don't do that.
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: Transparency is super important to us. We want you to
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: have fun buying a car, keep it transparent and really
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: make it enjoyable for you so you want to come
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: to it again. And that is super important to us.
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: And we have the best product in the world, I
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: think with Toyotas and and you know they they have
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: you know, their business model, but especially their cars through
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: the entire history of Toyota have been so well made
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: and they really are.
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: They hold their resale values so well.
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: They're well made to give you a confidence that your
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: car is going to keep you on the road, and
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: because of that, we can offer you some really great deals,
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: you know, things like a payment on a camera. The
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: featured lease payment this month is two hundred and forty
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: nine dollars a month on a camera on a gas
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: version on the camera hybrid it's three ninety nine. Corolla
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: at two oh nine, Highlander at four forty nine. I've
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: got Wrap four at two ninety nine, Wrap four Hybrid
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: at three twenty nine, Tacoma is two forty nine.
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: Agin This is the best deal in town.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: It is a lease, I don't know, I mean a
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: ton drave well a little more truck four sixty nine,
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: and or you can get one seven five percent that's right,
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: or a three thousand dollars rebate. So the you know,
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: these are these are the kind of deals we focus
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: on and want and provide our customers now, you know.
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: So if you're looking for a great deal, we want
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: to support a local business. It's really going to take
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: care of you in our community. Uh, you know, come
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: check us out and we will do everything we can
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: to earn your business. And you know, I do hear
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: it still hear from people that they love dying just
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: but they bought somewhere else because it might have been
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: more convenient. And you know that just sometimes breaks my heart.
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: I want to be able to take care of them.
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: And I understand that that they have a choice, but
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: just want people to understand how important it is to
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: us to have your business. And and I think, uh,
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: you can come talk to me about that list today.
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: I'm very passionate about it, and it is, uh, you know,
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: my purpose for staying in the business really.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: You know, these these large, larger groups dominate markets. They
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: they can you know, it's really unclear whether consolidation benefits
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: car buyers and owners. You know, it could lead to
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: higher prices, fewer companies on more dealersh ships.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: Choices, fewer choices, you know.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: Survivor of smaller dealerships is you know, we face challenges
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: competing with the larger consolidators.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: You know, it helped a little.
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: Bit to be in a kind of a rural market
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: that that does help us.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: And and I.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: Think generally, you know, people in our area understand what
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: I'm talking about, and they yeah, and they want to
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: support the local world.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: I mean, and I'm you know, beyond.
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: Just Bartlesville but in this this part of the world.
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: You know, I think if you go back to how
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: the you know, the really when my grandfather got in
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: the car business and the you know that uh dealership
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: in Tonkawa in nineteen twenty nine, he became a car dealer.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: And you know, it's not like we haven't been through
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: some challenges before.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you had like the greats.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: The Great Depression, the World War two. Uh.
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: You know, my grandfather actually was one of the first consolidators. Interestingly,
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: you know, he had to sue Ward Motor Company in
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: the nineteen sixties in order to buy other car dealerships.
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: And they were resistant to let dealers at that time
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: do that. And he was, like me, a little stubborn
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: and and had had an idea of how things should work,
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: and and he fought hard for it, and he won,
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: and he was able to buy some other dealerships bring
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: them together. He grew and and here now we've we've
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: continued to evolve through this big transition.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: As the has everyone kind of caught up with him.
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: We've back the other.
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: Way, we've gone to a single unit.
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: But if you think about that, that that resiliency and
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: the ability to adjust over time, is really great and
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: I think, you know, the car business is unique because
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: it's if you think back to what life was like
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: before we've got personal automobiles and the ability to move
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: around like they give us, and the freedom of transportation
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: in the economy of you know, because virtually our whole
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: society has access to personal transportation now in a in
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: a vehicle.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: You know, it's scaled differently. Some people can have.
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: One hundred thousand dollars cars, others can afford twelve thousand
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: dollars cars. We want to be there for all of
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: you and really provide the very best service, take care
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: of you, give you confidence that you're buying you know,
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: something that that you can count on, that that we're
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: going to stand behind our product, that we're going to
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: be the one that takes care of you.
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: And you know, we don't just sell cars. We also
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: do a lot of repair work on it all, make
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: some models. Which needs me to talk a little bit
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: about our coupons on dungeons to you to dot com
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: and we do have great deals. We do have some
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: great deals right now. Angela, our service advisor has our
• 22:59
  Speaker 5: service manager has a ten dollar discount on any type
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: of service if you make an appointment. That's it Duneustada
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: dot com. It's a great deal on an oil change,
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: it really is. And then we also have what she
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: calls Angela's Service Special and it's, uh, it's kind of
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: a great deal that the more uh service you have,
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: the more dollars off we will give you.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: And this is Angela Blackard. Many people know her out there.
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: She's been, She's worked in a lot of all over town.
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: And it's back at Dungeons and and you know, frankly,
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: she's there because of this what I'm talking about.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: And you know, she has a choice where she works.
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: All all our employees do and they they believe in
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: the sparks.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: And what we do.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: I mean, I remind people what sparks is. Sincere Partnerships, Aligned,
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: Resilient Kaizen makes us all super superheroes, and you know,
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: I think that's really important. We Uh, sincerity is honesty
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: and integrity. Partnerships are like we're talking about the community.
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: Our employees are, our business partners like our best in Toyota,
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: our customers of course, and then alignment we you know,
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: everybody being like I said, then the noncommissioned sales associate
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: it's being aligned with the customer.
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know that.
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: Those things are are not to be taken for granted. Resiliency,
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: so you know, this ability to adjust over time and
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: and really challenge uh you know our preset notions of
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: how things operate.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: And and and really evolve.
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: And then and kaisen is that is that you know,
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: after you when you're resilient, you need to continually be
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: improving your processes. And kaisen is a Japanese word for
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: continuous improvement and and good communication and good processes and
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: and that's one of our passions there. That's that's how
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: we can lower the cost of our our vehicles and
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: lower our prices. I mentioned that less than half the
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: gross profit of the of the average publicly traded new
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: cars deal in North America in the second quarter of
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: this year. And uh, you know that the way we
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: do that is by continually trying to stay ahead of
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: those those our competition and really you know, provide our
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: customers the very best deal possible. And you know, so
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: that that spreads throughout our our dealership and whether you're
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: in our service department or the body shop or in
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: talking to John Kitchell down at the detail shop down
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: an done just truck ranch. Uh, it's a we do
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: provide that great service for our community and really.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: Take pride and giving back to the community.
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: And I know that's usually the theme of the show,
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: and we love to bring the nonprofits in and feature something.
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: But you know, I think this is some of the
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: subject is worth talking to people because it's we're we're
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: in a time where technology is changing, people's expectations are changing,
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: and we want to be there for you in the
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: future to help our customers with that process.
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: So it's it's kind of a service promise. It's a
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: service oriented promise that we're making to our customers and
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: into our employees as opposed to a corporation. And a
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: corporation by law, I mean.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: Well they have to serve their serve their sharolds, you know.
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: And you know, being a family owned dealership, you know,
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: we do have to have a profit at the end
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: of the day, but we definitely that that's not our
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: first priority. When it comes right down to it, it's
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: about the culture of the dealership. It's about taking care
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: of our employees and our customers and and I truly
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: believe that's what leads to a profit.
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: Very good it's uh, do the business well, the profit
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: will follow.
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: I believe that very well. And if I'm proved wrong,
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: I guess I can live with that. I think I
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: don't think.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: I'm wrong, though, I don't think you're wrong about that.
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: So I just anyway, I hope if you're out there
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: listening and you maybe you have a question about that,
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: I encourage you come come in and talk to our team.
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: Get to experience what the difference is, because it is different.
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: I hear that from people all the time. Oh that's
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: not what I expected to happen, and that was great.
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: I mean, we get those compliments all the time, and
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: even the people who buy somewhere else, we hear that
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: from them, and so it is, uh, it is something
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: that's true. And I want if you haven't experienced our
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: service and what our team is like. They're all local people.
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: They want to be there to take care of our customers.
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: They believe in the way we do things. That's why
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: they work there, and they're passionate about service and leadership
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: and that's that's you know, that's the kind of culture
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: we want to have. Very good tell us where we
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: can find you, well, you can find those tools on
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: the website at done just Toyota dot com. As Jason mentioned,
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: we're at nineteen eleven Southeast Washington Boulevard and the Toyota
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: store there, and it's a beautiful new dealership built in
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: twenty sixteen, the newest in town too. So we continue
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: to invest in our customers and our community and really.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: Proud to do that and thank you again.
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: I want to go back to where we started, which
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: is acknowledge our customers.
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: Thank you to them.
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: For ninety five years we've kept this going and and
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: you know, we'll be happy to be celebrating one hundred
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: years here pretty soon. That's going to be an incredible,
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: incredible time, and you know we're we're very muchocused on
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: that and scaling our business for maximum efficiency in our market.
• 29:06
  Speaker 5: Dongeustoyota dot com.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: All right, guys, thank you very much. Folks, you've been
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: listening to a very special edition of car Talk right
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: here on K one, the one you trust.
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: Thanks for listening to one on one with a professional,
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: a paid presentation at fourteen hundred K one