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Is Carvana Sustainable? Robotaxis, EVs & What Happens to Dealers Next · Automotive Informants

• IgniteUps.ai: All right, welcome back. This is automotive informants. have a special guest, ⁓ Sims. He's a longtime friend, someone that I've worked with for many, many years. And I'm I'm glad to have you on, Jeremy. So before we get started into all of the topics, headlines that we have for this week, because we got some good ones to talk about, kind of, you know, tell the audience who you are and just a little bit about yourself. Jeremy Sims: I'm a general manager at Seguin Chevrolet in Seguin, Texas. twenty years the business, I think something like that. It kind of all blends together. But ⁓ spent spent seventeen years at spent five or six of those with Chris at a really, really big Toyota store in Austin, Texas. I've done every position. I've had a path. I started in sales, scion manager, inventory manager, new car manager, used manager. ⁓ did a little bit newspaper ads, had to do the photoshopping, take of cars, do a little bit of everything, working my up and you know, I feel like I have a different perspective than a lot of general managers. you know, I've with s with some really, really great people in my career. I feel really lucky. One of them was Chris for sure. And you know, it's all part of the journey and nine kids. You know, it's glad I think my wife's ⁓ officially decided that we don't need any more and you know it's I'll probably never retire so I gotta make sure I you know I know how I sell cars. So that's ⁓ IgniteUps.ai: Nine kids, man. That's that's you know, that's impressive, man. You know, ⁓ we were talking a little bit ago, and every time I think about, you know, am I doing too much, or you know, ⁓ you know, you start, you know, getting in that self-reflecting pity party, or you're just like, you know, n trying to you're like, Man, I maybe I need to take a day off, or maybe I need to do something slower. I always think about Jeremy because he has nine kids. I thought it was eight, but I missed one apparently. he's got nine now, which is super impressive, great And then ⁓ it's not just I mean your wife, you guys are su super involved in your kids, sports, ⁓ all of it. it's super impressive, man, to be able to balance that type of career with with that many children is not easy. And ⁓ I gotta I gotta hand it to you, sir. You you definitely motivate me to do more and not complain not one minute of my life. So I appreciate you you doing that because you definitely are one of those people that I look to and admire that you can you can have that type of career and and that same balance. So good job to you. you know, let's let's get right into it. Jeremy, we have there's so many different topics that we can discuss, but one of the ones that just came up and I get lot of pushback on this. Let me tell you, so many people like y you'd think I, you know, told them their their little their dog was ugly or something, right? Or you know, something. It was just it's been crazy. Like I always try to learn. And I think half the time people are g get stuck in looking at Jeremy Sims: Yeah. IgniteUps.ai: the pictures or the headlines instead of listening or reading what I actually write. but one of the the the ones that's pretty controversial and I think it can lead into and segue into all rest of the topics that we have. but you know this ⁓ this gentleman, know, let's just talk about the let's get the the bad stuff out of the way, right? So Ernie Garcia ⁓ twenty twenty six automotive news all star. So guy from Carvana, CEO, his his family, they've had some issues with you know, insider stuff. I'm not sure exactly what it what exactly they did in ⁓ with drive time and when there was ugly duckling. they They've been shut out of certain states because they had title issues, like crazy title issues that they couldn't even sell any more cars out of those st states until they fixed all their title issues. and they've just had so much controversy in the dealer world, but the consumers continue to keep shopping there. They're crushing it in new car sales recently. Jeremy Sims: Yeah. IgniteUps.ai: Well, some of the blind spots that I see, they they're currently spending four hundred million a year in interest alone. So that's a debt expense. It does nothing. got five billion dollars in loans. They have two billion in cash, which is great. But because of the amount of growth that they're doing and what what they do, you know, bad quarter Quick quickly, you know, turn that around. Their net profit was like four hundred thousand or four hundred million dollars. So that's good. wise, so they're outrunning and out earning the those big but I don't know, four hundred million dollars in interest. What do you think about all this? Is that is that valid? That he's a new star news automotive news all star? Jeremy Sims: Yeah, that's valid. I mean he's ⁓ you know, I don't he's a genius in my opinion. I mean you can't get l that kind of loan from Ally and become too big to too big to fail now. I mean he ain't going nowhere. Ally's huge. They gave him a lot of money. He bought real estate. bought infrastructure. He did a lot of things that ⁓ made it it's ⁓ they're not going anywhere. You know, all those I I would have jumped on that stock at the time. ⁓ but you know I was IgniteUps.ai: Okay. You and me both, yeah. Jeremy Sims: You know, but I I think all the things they're doing, you know, the manufacturers I they're paying attention, but they're not acting fast enough. I mean, ⁓ we're still on these ⁓ crappy that take forever to do the right thing. You know, their website is so simple, puts the customer through the process so fast ⁓ and know, it's as much as I try to plug something in to make it work like those sites, I just I can't get there. So he's done a of things right, you know, I I'm sure the Title thing, all those things, you know, that's just noise. So, you know, it's ⁓ it is what it is. I gotta compete with IgniteUps.ai: Yeah. Well, you know, I think about, you know they what they're doing. I mean, let's just think about it from a dealer's perspective. They they were allowed to just, you know, create their website. They don't have to do facilities. They don't have to do anything that a traditional dealership has to do. and then once started acquiring these Stellantis stores, they didn't have to do any of it, right? So you think about you know, I mean, we could walk into that whole vendor world of, you know, you cannot put s a widget on a website unless you pay the piper. and so like literally, like, before you can put any kind of product and get certified and pay them, you know, cut before you charge a dealer, I mean it's th there's a lot of different things in this industry that you look at. What I like about what they've done is Jeremy Sims: Yeah. IgniteUps.ai: to be able to sell, you know, almost a thousand cars that Arizona location. And you and I both know that's not an easy thing to do. ⁓ And and and they're it with, you know, all online. Jeremy Sims: No. No, we had eighty we had eighty salespeople. IgniteUps.ai: You know what I'm saying? And you think about no managers, no finance managers, none of it. And then I think their biggest Achilles heel is their service department. I you know, that's to me is is opportunity that I feel like they either gotta buy a Jiffy Lube or something because ⁓ think they're they're missing the mark there. What do you think? Jeremy Sims: Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a crazy concept that they did a thousand cars and they don't really have traditional salespeople and people are just, you know, getting a car shipped all over the country. I mean it's such a big infrastructure they've set up that works so seamlessly, like it it just that from the dealer perspective, there's no way I can even like compete with that. So it's can't imagine being a C D A Jr dealer in their area and like just just getting crushed. I would and you have nothing you can do about it. ⁓ IgniteUps.ai: What well here's the thing. So th I thought initially, well, maybe they're just cannibalizing the the the competing dealers in their market. And that's not the case. They're actually really crushing more rural areas and and dealers that are just, you know, out maybe on those fringe areas. So that's the part that I think, you know, dealers need to the those types of dealers need to have a better process because think about this. A lot of those rural they're the only deal town. So oftentimes a result they know that. So ⁓ they maybe they're not more they're not as inclined to negotiate or, you know, show a different price. And that's why those consumers are shopping outside of the market or ⁓ places like Carvana and feeling like they're getting a better deal because maybe they don't have that type of relationship that they they should be having. Jeremy Sims: Yeah, that's a real thing. I mean I when you posted those numbers and I saw someone comment that the average Delantis dealer was like selling twenty cars or something really, really low. So that that's easy pickings for Carvana. And those dealers are, you know, they're not giving Carvana money on the trade. They're not they're getting these people approved. You know, that Carvana is really, really definitely cannibalizing those dealers that aren't trying as hard. ⁓ IgniteUps.ai: Well, that's the big thing, right? That's the the biggest argument I have. They say it's a Ponzi scheme because Bridgecrest, all the loans that they get are being funneled through the same subsidiary that, know, finances all the deals that drive time does. So they're basically a buy an extended version of a buy here pay here type ⁓ functionality and happens when the money runs out or their thirty eight percent increase in in sales gonna go bye bye and then crush the whole the whole ecosystem. I don't know. I think part of that conversation and we kinda had a little bit conversation earlier ⁓ thinking about, know, ⁓ all of deportations and think about what happened with Tricolor. They just shut their stores down just because I mean their biggest market was the you know, people with I 10 numbers, right? We've we've worked with those types of customers for for many, many years. And those customers are no longer there, there goes part of your business. There goes your whole you know, business plan. And then Carmart already showing that they're closing their stores down too. I think it was forty percent of their their stores are shutting down. Jeremy Sims: Mm-hmm. IgniteUps.ai: those types of market independents I I've heard of personally, friends of mine that have had to shut their doors down. ⁓ it's a ripple a ripple wave ⁓ that that's kinda happened. and are your thoughts on that on that part of it? ⁓ Jeremy Sims: Yeah. Okay. I could talk for an hour about this. ⁓ I mean, especially in our area, it's ⁓ the east of us, it's very, very large immigrant population and know, and from a sales manager's general manager perspective, like I don't know their immigration status when they come in. They got an I ten, they a permanent resident car, they got all kinds of things that you know they look and they ⁓ have they got bank accounts with hundreds of thousands of dollars in them. They got all kinds of things that they are see ⁓ seem like they're doing everything right. So but in our area, I mean we've had 20, 30% ⁓ our business probably get deported. And really had to take we had to take a hard look at our business model because you know a lot of these folks were buying trucks, used trucks, I mean they're they're not here anymore. I can't sell as many used trucks as I used to. So we had to really adjust and make some and understand that our market is completely different. And I mean those customers they came here for service. were repeat business. They were ⁓ great customer base for us and they paid for their vehicles. paid for their houses, they and they got deported. so it's ⁓ you know, it it's become a political argument ⁓ you know, I I could debate this all day with people that there's ⁓ you know, I have relatives I'd rather get deported that were citizens than of these folks. So I don't know. It's a tough ⁓ it's I that some of the folks that got deported were not expecting it. They did not hear the conversation on that political side that they thought that they were gonna get deported and they definitely got deported. So know it's it's tough, man. It really is. IgniteUps.ai: Yeah, you know, it's it's it's interesting because I'm seeing people on social media now, you know, on TikTok or Instagram, and you're seeing these people, hey, I just got deported. This is my life now. I was a living in the United States for twenty years, never in a million years did I think I'd get deported. ⁓ here I am, I'm I'm trying to understand this new life now in a different country that I'm not ⁓ to. ⁓ you start looking at that side of it, and it's it's interesting, right? Jeremy Sims: Yeah. IgniteUps.ai: Like, you know, I can't couldn't even imagine and you know, there's no think my challenge on that is it's not that easy to come here when see some people how they talk about how hard it is to just get the papers, get all of the things legally, which It's great. You know, I'm I encourage everybody hey, let's do everything the right way. But it's also, you know, those protocols in place to maybe streamline that system so you're in in a hurry to get the good ones over here and know how to identify the ones that you we probably shouldn't have over here. So I think there's definitely some nuances there, but I do think that we should have a a better system and process in place to streamline the the the great people that Jeremy Sims: Yeah. IgniteUps.ai: We c we should be w wanting to be here and helping our economy. ⁓ Jeremy Sims: Yeah. Well it's it the I don't know if the right words bureaucracy, but I mean the government was giving them the government was giving them I tin numbers, the banks are giving ⁓ loans. The cities are taking their tax money, the t counties, the states, everybody's catering to everything they can to do to make it easy for them to live here. and then, you know, the administration changes and the rug gets pulled out from under ⁓ So it's you know, there's all these government agencies that federal agencies that were, you know, letting them have an easy life here. And they you know, they a lot of them built very successful businesses that got deported from here in Seguin. I mean, had a lady, you get her bank account closed with three hundred grand in it and ⁓ lose business. I mean she's she's bought seven, cars from us, her whole family's bought cars, you know, she's back in Mexico. So it's it's IgniteUps.ai: Wow. Jeremy Sims: It's just crazy. So I but I you know, I could I'm sure I'll get some comments. They can come talk to me about it, but it's I'm not making an opinion on it. It's a definitely a weird situation. IgniteUps.ai: Wow. That's It it definitely is. I think it it's hard to to really, you know, quantify what what that that's doing, and the long term effects could be. but I I could tell you when we were selling, you know, in Austin a ton of cars and when they that change ⁓ where you had have driver's lic or ⁓ didn't make it easy for the, you know, immigrants to get a driver's license. ⁓ Jeremy Sims: Yeah, twenty twelve they changed that law and they couldn't get it. IgniteUps.ai: And when they changed that, our business literally w went went selling, you know, sixty deals to like twenty, right? Like that was like it was just an immediate just switch and I remember thinking, like, Are you kidding me? Like, why wouldn't you want them to have a driver's license? Make I mean, at least you could tag ⁓ know exactly who they are and where they're at. Jeremy Sims: Yeah. Yeah. IgniteUps.ai: You know, I I understand some of the other reasons why they didn't want them to have that, 'cause then they may be able to like jump in there and, know, do some illegal voting maybe. I don't know. ⁓ there's there's reasons I I understand why they may have, you know, thought about it, but I don't know. I think ⁓ Jeremy Sims: Yeah. We're we're getting some interesting stuff because on the driver's license thing, Texas made it, you know, harder lately. we're a lot of folks from having out of state driver's licenses because depending on that state's political leaning, they're them So we get a lot of folks from California and New York that are in Texas right now with driver's licenses from those states. IgniteUps.ai: Wow. And so then they're not allowing you to use those driver's license? Jeremy Sims: Well, those licenses don't have the gold star, the real ID. So can legally drive in Texas, but they can't do they can't do a registration on the car, but it just it's a way for them to not get their car impounded when they get pulled over. IgniteUps.ai: ⁓ That's unreal. That's wow. I know about that. That's kinda Well, you know, kind of segueing back into the the convers the initial conversation, about Those opportunities for that company Carvana to actually have, you know, service bays. And the reason why I think that's their Achilles heel is think about this next article. Mavis tires and brakes. Have you heard of them? So they had, I don't know, thirty seven hundred stores or thirty, six hundred stores at some point, but they just acquired Pet Boys. Jeremy Sims: Yeah. IgniteUps.ai: What do you think let me just tell you why I'm bringing it up. So think about this. They've been talks I mean, ⁓ new car prices are already through the roof, right? They're crazy prices. ⁓ New ⁓ you know, Gen Z is not buying new cars, they're buying twenty year old cars, people are hanging on to their cars longer. service departments raising, you know, prices have gone through the roof, you know, recently, or And but RO is down year over year at most stores. Jeremy Sims: Definitely. IgniteUps.ai: And when you think about, you know, those ⁓ this article that we I talked about where they're that by twenty forty there's gonna be you know two million less new car buyers in the market because you know it's prices don't look like they're ever come down. ⁓ w what do you about The right to repair is coming. know, they're they're really ⁓ on pushing this politically. We're allowing anybody to have the type of technology that dealers ⁓ more likely that has been their advantage because you can't service certain vehicles, warranty, things like that without having to go to the dealer. But now all these independents at some point, if they pass this law. or these laws, could be, you know, some pretty big headwinds underway where, you know, what do you think about what's going on in this whole service ⁓ and what are you what are you doing to like overcome some of this stuff? ⁓ Jeremy Sims: I don't know, I I feel like I would bet my life savings that's not gonna happen. The the the dealer, all man, they there's a there's a lot of pushback from the manufacturer dealer side. So it's it'll be a crazy I can't see it happening. But if it to happen, it would be a pretty detrimental. I mean, warranty work is a big part of the dealer business. you know Technicians to do a lot of training in order to do it right. you know, and dealers with all the training and all the processes and we still mess it up. So I can't imagine it getting spread across such a network that the manufacturers enjoy that at all. I you got lemon laws tied to warranty work, you got All kinds of things to ⁓ the manufacturer already struggles just to deal with their dealer network, much less fourteen thousand pet boys and Mavis tired and I I can't see a way that it would actually make sense. and I'm the manufacturers will make that argument and ⁓ and probably a lot of lobbying going IgniteUps.ai: Well, you know, I I think that's one part of it, but the other part of it is Gen Z's not buying new cars right now. New car prices I can't imagine them just eventually just coming back down. You know, the only way I could see that possibly happening is we get you know, Elon's, you know, robot a c apocalypse goes in and takes over all of the, you know manufacturing jobs and then they were able to somehow cut the expense there. Maybe I see that happening, but not really. I don't know. Jeremy Sims: Yes. It's pretty absurd. I mean when I started at Chevy twenty nineteen, twenty twenty, the MSRP the highest the lowest Silverado was thirty-eight, now it's like fifty. And you even the tracks, we were selling those for twenty-two at sticker, another twenty-five sticker, and you know, those from Korea, so they're ⁓ sitting at the waiting ⁓ to find the day when tariffs are lower than the day before. And it's it doesn't any You know, it's like the cars are out of control interest. it's yeah, I can see why Gen Z's not buying cars. I mean my kids my kids wouldn't have cars probably if I doing insane lease payments for them. IgniteUps.ai: Well yeah. Well this is my this is my my what I think about, right? So think about so I talk to dealers all the time and oftentimes they'll tell me, Man, I can't afford I can't service more, I don't have the capacity right now, right? Like I just can't drive more business. So then I always think, Okay, so why not expand your capacity? You know what I'm saying? there's there's a bunch of different things you could do. Mobile service, you could do why don't you expand your base? Jeremy Sims: Yeah. IgniteUps.ai: thinking thinking about well thinking about Austin specifically. Remember, I forgot the name of the company, but there was a company there, I think it's Luxury Auto Works. I forget exactly the name of it, but I remember talking to the owner, young guy, great guy, and had built a amazing facility and was he just specifically went after all the high-end vehicles like Jeremy Sims: We have noble service. IgniteUps.ai: Mercedes, BMW, Land Rover, all the high-end vehicles. He was going to service them, but he made it like it was going to be a really place to go, like you would expect if you were at Mercedes or something like that. He did so well that he's got like five locations now. And he's just crushing it, making tons of money. And he went that business model. Jeremy Sims: Right. IgniteUps.ai: And I think that why couldn't this been another Mercedes store, BMW store, Land Rover, any well like like why wouldn't they go after that ec that business? if they can see that they have n endless supply of customers coming in and they're asking and they you mean some stores I've I've shopped and they got like a two-month waiting list before you can even go into their service department. people retaining their cars longer. It's only gonna get worse. So why aren't more people looking into expanding and really doing a doing more with you know in their in their area? Jeremy Sims: know, from my standpoint, we we did we spent a hundred and fifty grand on a mobile service truck and it's you know it's really, really nice, does lots of things and does warranty work and you know I've I've tried ⁓ many different to market to our customer base and and ⁓ Chevy and done am we've ⁓ you know hit Amazon garages, you can tell what own. you know, it's customers have perception right now ⁓ of the deal. dealers and it's it's gotta change and it's hard to change it. so that's that's what I think is the biggest ⁓ of it, you know, and from a Mercedes that guy's doing those high line cars, I mean, it's ⁓ you know, you got Mercedes dealers doing four hundred dollar hour CP work and so you know he can make quite a living off three hundred dollars an hour. so I you ⁓ and customers are getting a twenty five percent discount probably and they are happy and he's giving them great service. So it it's gonna take a lot of work for the dealers to change the perception. And you know, we do our mobile service van is out doing five, six services a day. we have another Equinox that just does updates you know for warranty and stuff like that it's it's small part of our business right now we're gonna try to expand it but it ⁓ for reason you tell customers it's free we'll come you and they just they don't respond at the rate that you would think they would and it's you know it gets a little frustrating but we're trying to we're working on it ⁓ IgniteUps.ai: That that does take some time. What about the ⁓ how many bays do you got right now? Jeremy Sims: We have seventeen here and we have eight at another off site lot where we do reconditioning. IgniteUps.ai: Okay, cool. So you got your used car reconditioning, where you do all of that, and then you've got your base. Y your capacity pretty tight right now? Jeremy Sims: Yeah, it's pretty tight. know, and then the flow of cars is always a challenge, you know, with back order parts. I mean, it is a Chevy store. lots of major jobs going on in a Chevy store. ⁓ IgniteUps.ai: Well, that's the the challenge, right? Because you'll have seventeen bays and you may have to break a couple of cars down, wait for parts and it's then you gotta put it back together and it's just sitting there and the time and that's what was kinda nice about our Toyota store where we had a hundred bays y and you know, some techs had, you know, two b two bays they could use to work out of and so I think about, you know, things like that to be more efficient and You know, that's that's where I feel like, you know, you know, we've been blessed in a in a lot of ways when we were at that location, but I've been able to do that at other locations where we've been able to expand certain areas. So I think, you know, if if kind of like looked at those types of things as opportunities instead of, you know Doing something, you know, outside of just telling customers no, you know, because I I see that often, right? Like, hey, yeah, we just can't service it. but then there's night shift opportunities where you could expand hours that way. if can get the right people. the good is you have that used car recon offsite type thing. but for you, like you know, things that I did at at CarMax or what we did was, you know, like if you ever got to a point where where you needed those off site to do regular work, could you could put your ⁓ car recon at night. Like that would be the first thing to do is, okay, gonna do all our used car reconditioning at night. Those other bays are going to be for, you know, you know, CP work throughout the day. So that that super effective for us. but ⁓ when think all of this money and all this this happening, these big acquisitions, You know, that's where I think Carfana I feel like, you know, they they sell a lot of cars but then they don't service them. They just kinda send them the dealer to go figure it out. Jeremy Sims: Yeah, it's I mean it's a lot of money. It's you know when you look at financial statements for across all brands, I mean service is a huge, huge part of it and I'm it's crazy that they ⁓ pretty much ignored it up to this point. IgniteUps.ai: Well, I mean, is this like so now ⁓ kind of ta talks about what's happening in Austin this last couple of days about the cyber cabs getting you know turned on. I mean with electric cars you don't even need service, right? I mean, is that is that the the forward thinking that maybe, you know, or wishful anyway, that you know, people will be driving these cars instead of all of these, you know, ice cars. Jeremy Sims: Dude, I I I mean you you lived in Austin. I I grew up in Austin. That I can't imagine any more cars running around Austin and especially there's no drivers in ⁓ Like I can't even, man. I don't know. It's We'll see. You know, Austin is the perfect market for that. We you know, when we were trying to sell EVs, I did s Amazon Tesla customers in Austin and that's how we sold all our EVs. So I it's the perfect market for that and it I just but you know, ⁓ can't see in other cities being widespread. I mean it's gonna take a long time to convince some of these areas of the country to adopt it like Austin is gonna do immediately. ⁓ IgniteUps.ai: I do think it's gonna take some time, but me personally I've been driving my, you know, FSD for the last fourteen, fifteen months and ⁓ I couldn't imagine driving any other way now. Like it I just jump in the car and it I'd tell Grok, Hey, take me here and it'll just take me where I need to go. Like and I'd I don't have to d think about it. I don't have to do anything. Like it's just you know, I you know, just sit there and just hang out. You know, I I saw a video where some guy's like cooking ⁓ bre in his car. Like he's got his little he's he's dry or the car's driving and he's like making ⁓ eggs bacon. Jeremy Sims: Yeah. Huh. IgniteUps.ai: And I'm just like, man, these people are crazy. Like, but you think about this FSD. I mean, I personally don't like driving. That's just just me, right? I mean, I I remember when I first moved to Austin, I was living in San Antonio and making that drive, I probably, you know, almost fell asleep at the wheel. And it's not even that long of a drive, right? Like it's like to me, for whatever reason, I've got like extreme A D D or A D H D or whatever you want to call it, that if I'm not doing something, I just like zone out, pass out, like I'm just tired, right? But you know, when ⁓ car's doing it, I don't have to think about, you know I could actually, you know, do other work or do things that don't allow or ha have me focus so much on on driving. You know what I'm saying? And it it's once you start really initially it's kind of it freaks you out, right? Like you're in this car and it's doing this, but think about what other you know things are autonomous. planes. I mean, how how many of these guys are any more? Jeremy Sims: Yeah. IgniteUps.ai: you know, really, you know, doing this, you know, this navigation like conventional, like the way it used to be. You know what I'm saying? Jeremy Sims: Mm-hmm. Man, ⁓ y yeah driving ⁓ you're talking about, I drove from s New Bronville's to North Austin to our store for seven years and I have paid a lot of money ⁓ for that. who drive me there. ⁓ And IgniteUps.ai: A lot of money. And and I guarantee you, you drive this, you will it'll change your mind. Like I I was in I was, you know, somebody told me, ⁓ someone's gonna die. And this and I'm like, look, I you know I don't know that that that today it's right now all of the data out there that they're safer. I'd actually prefer my kids to drive a Tesla just because of the FSD is just it ⁓ saved me a couple of times where I didn't even realize a deer had passed by and it literally just stopped and kind of pulled over and I was like, What's going on? And then all of a sudden I see this deer pass in front of me and I'm like, What the hell just happened? ⁓ it was raining and everything, and I'm like, Wow, I would have never seen that deer. You know what I'm saying? So Jeremy Sims: Right. IgniteUps.ai: I don't know. I think I think it's maybe it's still early, but once you start driving it, Waymo announced that they're doing like four hundred thousand drive autonomous rides week. Four hundred thousand, and they think it's gonna get to a million rides a week. So there's a lot people, you know, doing it, ⁓ but I think Jeremy Sims: Yeah. IgniteUps.ai: This is what I think. When you think it you know Ford, right? So Ford, I forget the the CEO's name, ⁓ Farley. he was on a in an interview and they basically asked them about or he was talking about when he finally, you know, pulled apart a Tesla and was like, Man, these guys are just so far ahead. And in my thought process is like, why wouldn't you have done that like ⁓ before started building it? You know what I'm saying? They waited 'til they went went out, built their whole thing, did it their way, and then they went Jeremy Sims: Farley? Yeah. IgniteUps.ai: four years later or something and then they ⁓ they took this part vehicle apart and we're like, ⁓ my God, these guys are just so far ahead. why wouldn't they have started there? Right. And I think people just aren't starting with Tesla's FSD. Like go try it. Just just experience it. See what it's like. Cause these this is the reason why they such mass adoption and why people are driving these cars because that FSD is real. Like it's it's no Jeremy Sims: Yeah. Yep. Chevy's next models coming out are gonna have ⁓ h off self driving. right now they have super crews, but you gotta you gotta keep your eyes up on the road and you know, there's no fun in that. So it's but yeah, next models are gonna have the you can look around do whatever you wanna do while it's driving. So I'm I'm excited to see. Yeah. ⁓ IgniteUps.ai: It's coming. It's coming. Like once you start driving it, you're gonna be like, Man, this really? This is this is what real life could be like? It's and then it it like weaves in and out. And then like if I if there's traffic, it'll take me off the road and get me back on, like just to pass and go around. It's like my cheat mode, like to get in and out of traffic. It's pretty amazing. Jeremy Sims: Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy. I I'm ⁓ I'm excited for it. Luckily I work a lot closer to my job or live a lot closer to my job now. But yeah, back in the day I that would have been a game changer for me. IgniteUps.ai: That would have. I it's it's amazing that when I think about why I used to live so far from my job. I I'll tell you when I f when I was living in Austin, I remember thinking, man, this is like a 45 minute drive to work every day, 45 minutes back home. And then when I moved to Oklahoma, it literally was a four minute drive to my my job. And I was like, Why didn't I do this? Figure out how to do this sooner. You know what I'm saying? I mean the quality of life gets better. sure your kids are are seeing you more often now, makes it easier. Jeremy Sims: Isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. I mean at at ⁓ Charles Mond it was an hour and a half way and you I was we were we were busy, right? So you know, you had to make DeMayo's meeting at eight eight ten. and I was late a lot. but IgniteUps.ai: I don't know how you did it bro. Like I you know, my hat's off to you. That's you you you impressed me like you don't know. Like I remember thinking like how does this guy do it? I don't I just Jeremy Sims: That was a the first couple of years were rough. I had just had triplets, so you know, I I don't even remember much of that time frame. was rough. ⁓ yeah. IgniteUps.ai: that's crazy. You think about that, I'm like, man, I don't know. Could do it again? ⁓ You what I mean? Like you start thinking about ⁓ Jeremy Sims: I don't I don't think I could. I really don't think I could. I'm a lot I'm a lot older now. I think it would kill me. IgniteUps.ai: Yeah. Well here here's one of the the last last topics I kind of wanted to ⁓ pick your brain on. And this is a good one. So driving just became more expensive, right? So gasoline prices are up twenty-five percent over last year. Maintenance repair costs, like I told you, are up seven percent. so people are keeping their cars ⁓ more often Jeremy Sims: Yeah. IgniteUps.ai: You know, do you th do you see any end in sight? Jeremy Sims: No, I don't. know, ⁓ a dealer's perspective, I mean we're you know, we s we look around at the other dealers and did this a year ago and everybody's raised their C P rates again around us you it's of course we're gonna follow suit. and as soon as you do that then your warranty rate goes up and it's it just it's never ending cycle. I mean nobody goes down on their C P rate or their warranty rate and that that's not a thing. So and talking about gas I mean gas prices fluctuate obviously IgniteUps.ai: Again. Jeremy Sims: doesn't seem like the this administration caring about that. So it's going it doesn't seem like it's gonna change as long as we're in a war with Iran. so yeah, this is this is rough. I mean I I I drive a diesel demo and you know, dollars a gallon is crazy. So it's but it is what it is. ⁓ IgniteUps.ai: Yeah, I mean I mean you got these wars happening right now that Hormuz straight, all the the challenges there. Now they're doing deals with guess we you know, something about Venezuela gas. looking at all of those things. Yeah, th it doesn't feel like at what point does things kinda normalize. know, I I'm I'm an optimist, you know, I think that you know at you know, I th still believe we're in the best country in the world and I think that, you know, we're gonna continue growing and doing big things, but y you still worry about some of these things that in the short term, but I don't know that necessarily is it it is a is it a short term thing? Is it something now that is it just gonna be like a forever thing that happened in or, you know, you know, does that what does that look like? Jeremy Sims: Yeah, y it's you know, the gas prices too, like it's a lot of stuff under the radar that people don't notice. Like just for me to buy cars online and get ⁓ from other states just man, it's like double right now. And you I'm not trying to pass that on to the retail price. So it's it's it be nice to get some relief on the gas prices and see some of the the effects the economy, you know, make people have a little more affordable groceries and all the things that come with that. So but hopefully he'll something soon and help us out. ⁓ IgniteUps.ai: Well yeah, you know, I you make a good point about the the expense of of acquiring some of these cars because You're right. You you go buy, you know, a handful of vehicles across the country and now you gotta get ⁓ here, right? And what's that do to your expense on on that vehicle and trying to get that vehicle over here. So I think I a lot of consumers are definitely feeling it and why, you know, grocery store ⁓ grocery prices, is going ⁓ up this gas prices, it's it's a big driver of all of it. It cost everything just went up overnight. And I don't know that there's even anything that can really be done about it in the short term. know what I'm saying? And what does that really mean? Is it two years, five years, twelve What do think? Jeremy Sims: Yeah. don't know, I just feel like it's you know, like I was talking about customer pay and service never goes down. I feel like once the all retail businesses realize that people will pay the prices, you know, even when they get some relief on the cost side, they don't they don't adjust. It's you everybody used to the retail price and you know, adjusts their life, tries they try to make more money, they you know, so I don't know. I think it's just the way the world works at this point. IgniteUps.ai: Yeah, well, you know, think about I mean during COVID, what COVID really did, right? What is it like eighty percent of all the money ever printed w happened during COVID? ⁓ or something. ⁓ Jeremy Sims: Yeah. I wish I wish I still had some of it. IgniteUps.ai: Right. Like that's when you think about, you know, opportunities that you you may have, you know, slept on that I know I should have done more, especially what my friends were were buying a bunch of houses because you could get money at two percent. ⁓ and were just buying everything and I was like, Man, what what are you doing? And they were kinda I kinda really just didn't understand what they were doing at the same time. Jeremy Sims: Mm-hmm. ⁓ yeah. IgniteUps.ai: ⁓ but now e both of those guys got like fifty, sixty houses each they're just making money, you know, renting those things out. I mean it's it's kinda interesting what those different models, but that that's institutions are were buying a bunch of houses too so who who knows what's gonna happen there. So it's definitely things things are changing. I think when I look at what's happening in the market today there's you know I feel like the dealers kind of like looking at it from all sides. And one of the the last articles I wanted to go over was fraud. This this one deal Jeremy Sims: ⁓ yeah. IgniteUps.ai: There's a lot of scammers online and I don't know if you've you've you've seen that. It I know it's it it's happened my Mercedes store where someone had a bill of lading, they're transport trying to push people like put people together. Here we got an invoice trying to take cars. Jeremy Sims: ⁓ yeah. IgniteUps.ai: somehow knew that we had sold a car then all of a sudden there's a transport there to try to pick it up and then it they stole it. There was a customer's car that they paid for it and then they handled the transportation themselves and somehow some other transport company came in, picked up the car, stole it. and it was it was kind of crazy. So but this one deal, they're saying that there's now scammers cloning your website, so it looks like your website. Except it's not, and then getting people to buy a car, so they go to your store thinking they just spent eighty grand on a car, but they didn't buy it. Like what what do you think about or is there things that your store's doing to kind of combat some of that stuff or or has that happened to you in any any way? Jeremy Sims: Right. It's really tough. You know, when we buy cars on Mannheim, online when we don't sometimes I buy ⁓ around the country, you they're they're like they won't release that gate pass to anybody but me, like personally. Like the Mannheim's getting scammed all over the country f by these same folks and pick trying to take in cars. We had a traverse in another state just disappear off the face of the earth, ⁓ got up and never saw that thing again. And I don't I just don't understand. there's a lot of IgniteUps.ai: Yeah. Jeremy Sims: you know, people really good at this out there. you know, the website thing, I haven't had that happen. That kinda freaks me out. if had ⁓ a lot of time I'd tell you about the got ransomware last November. It was yeah. So the we're it's Black Friday and it's about seven o'clock ⁓ and ⁓ calls into the front desk and they get to my sales manager sitting next to me. He's like, Hey this is the FBI and I'm like, You no way, bro, it's not the FBI. So I talked to this guy and he's like, ⁓ hey I'm with and so FBI, I'm in Utah. w we just got, you know, word from our IgniteUps.ai: Really? What happened? Jeremy Sims: Offices in Germany that y'all are currently being hacked. And I'm like, bro, you're no, shut up. This is like you're the scammer. he's like, bro, he's like, look, he's like, go to Google and up the FBI office in this city and call the main number. I'm like, all right, buddy. ⁓ So do it and I get ⁓ pushed to him again. And like, okay, well, this is real. And they were, mean, they were ⁓ already in our knocking on the door, trying to get in, and then we tell our IT guy, and they got into our printers our print ⁓ server but they didn't get into our main database but spent the whole weekend trying to hack us and we it was it crazy and they printed their ransom on every printer in the building a hundred times and ⁓ it was it was was man you know ⁓ IgniteUps.ai: Like that's a that's a big deal. I mean, you look at what happened with C D K. I mean, that was a big, big deal. you know, I'm in technology and I you know, w it's top of mind every day. Like, that's some of the things that we put a bunch of different things to make sure that but even still there's Jeremy Sims: Yeah. We were a C we were a C DK dealer. That was that was a terrible time, bro. I did I hand typed every contract, over three hundred deals. IgniteUps.ai: Yeah. Wow. That's yeah, that was that's not fun, sir. ⁓ you had to go old school for sure. least you still know knew how to do it. You know what I'm saying? Like that's 'cause th those things, you know, I bet you give that to a a standard, you know, finance guy that's been in the business a couple of years. I don't I can't imagine they they know how to do it. You know what I'm saying? So it's ⁓ Jeremy Sims: Kill me. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. IgniteUps.ai: Super time consuming, I imagine, right? Well, you know, we have we talked about quite a bit of things, right? So we talked about you know carvana, used cars, immigration, we talked about service vehicles, that service landscape looks like, what it could look like. We talked about electric cars, self-driving, the Tesla deal, gas are up, economy. is in a position right now. you were to tie this all together, like put it in a like, you know, what what should dealers learn from this? How could ⁓ it just noise? ⁓ just need to stick to the their basics. What what could you how could you help other dealers in the today? Jeremy Sims: ⁓ you know, in my opinion, everything that's going AI, a lot of technology involved, but ⁓ know, the last few months I've been doing TikTok videos and know, these people reach out to me direct and I think people still really crave that personal service and seeing that you care. you know, 'cause I'm texting and talking on the phone to people at all hours of the day. I mean they're texting me at two AM and telling me life stories and I've never even met them. You know, 'cause so the dealers really gotta focus on getting their personalities out there, you know, 'cause ⁓ a lot of really good people in this business and the customers don't know about them. So it's I think they need to focus on that. I mean, we can plug all the technology we want into our websites and our processes, but at the end of the day it's a people business and ⁓ if not focusing on that ⁓ and that's it's gonna bus they'll left behind. ⁓ IgniteUps.ai: I agree. I think a lot of people, and you've been, by the way, you've been doing a great job. Every time I get a chance to see some of those videos, I'm I'm liking them and and they're they're pretty amazing the content that you're doing. and I but I think a lot of dealers are just kind of missing that. Cause right now I I see two sides of it. I do see some dealers doing a good job with what you're doing, but then I also see the other side of these brokers that are going out and just like just making every dealer look bad. ⁓ Jeremy Sims: Yeah. Yeah. IgniteUps.ai: And it's not and it it's almost self inflicted because they're you know they're they're hiding, you know, prices and things like that and it's it's not a good look, right? So you you see two different spectrums and I'd rather be on the spectrum what you're going where you're showing the human side of it. You're not th saying that they're not all crooks, you know, people are out there trying to make a living and help other people that are doing good things and I think you're right. I think you know, peep there there's so much more opportunity out there that I think some people get get stuck in the headlines, but if you just you know do the right thing and and talk to people and and you know sh show the type of business you are, then good things ⁓ things can happen. So Jeremy, I appreciate your time. This has been a lot of fun. I think you know I think we got a lot of good information out for the audience today. so I wanna Tell the audience, remind everyone to like, share, post. where can people follow your videos? Because I I do think what you're doing is pretty amazing. It's I I saw one of the recent ones where you guys were watching videos of car movies, or clips car movies, and I thought that was funny. ⁓ Jeremy Sims: Yeah. Yeah, we're we're gonna start a YouTube channel. Well we have YouTube obviously, but we're gonna do some more fun stuff with our sales staff. You know, it's funny, the the new generation, as much as they are on social media, they don't actually wanna be on social media. You're like, bro, like go make some TikToks, you can see it's working, and won't it, you know. So we're gonna we're getting them involved, getting them comfortable in front of the camera and just having a little fun, you know, 'cause you you know, you spend a lot of time together and it's you know, it can't be two hundred phones. phone calls. You know, you gotta have some have some other stuff for them to do. it's ⁓ so you know Seguin Chevrolet ⁓ TikT on ⁓ YouTube. I'm Jeremy Segin Chevrolet on TikTok and we have our own TikTok, you know, also Seguine Chevrolet, but you that's that's our first video we made on YouTube. We're gonna make a whole bunch more and start clipping it and just bombarding everybody in the area with videos of us and you know try to IgniteUps.ai: Yeah, no, you did a really good job with that one. I I really liked it. I don't know who your marketing team is, but good job. My hat's off to what you're doing. Jeremy Sims: Yeah, I'm gonna see if he watches this, but have ⁓ got probably the luckiest I've ever been in my life with my marketing director. my this gentleman Orlando Rios. So he came from a background of ⁓ media, social you know, music. he's ⁓ all the equipment, all the knowledge, all the software. He came in here to try to sell cars and start talking to him like he I mean, he could be doing anything in the world for any type of professional. And, you know, he's still here, still pushing it, you know, and he's pushed me a lot to do things out of my comfort zone 'cause I never thought I'd be on camera ⁓ in life. I got the flattest voice in the world. And so IgniteUps.ai: Hey, I'm I I'm the exact same way. Like I've never I don't like doing all this stuff, but I know it's super important and it's ⁓ it's a way to get get your voice out. So yeah, no, it's You've you you've been you've been doing a really good job. I I think you you the some of the the s topics that you talk about. What I really like what you're doing is when you comment on the people that comment it. So like you actually comment on the people with the video instead of just replying with a comment, you actually do it with a video. And I think it's it's pretty amazing. Jeremy Sims: Yeah, these you know, s some of these folks, man, they come at you with some negativity or some, you know, sometimes they just have a legitimate question and you can't summarize it in, you know, ten words and you know, I and I I know that people would enjoy this information, but when you see how many views and comments and likes and the amount people texting me ⁓ and DMing me was is absurd. So I was that's kind of in I was never realized that people were looking for this kind of information so much. So yeah. IgniteUps.ai: It's good stuff. Well, I appreciate your time. Jeremy, as always, it's great talking to you. but until next time, I appreciate everybody. Like again, share, and ⁓ until next time.