Latest / One on One With a Professional / CAR TALK 12-26-24

Transcript

CAR TALK 12-26-24 · One on One With a Professional

0:01
Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
0:03
Speaker 2: It's time now for car Talk with the Dungeons family
0:06
Speaker 2: of Autos. I'm Tom Davis and I am joined by
0:09
Speaker 2: a telephone with the fellow who is the Toyota New
0:12
Speaker 2: Vehicle Sales manager and finance director, and Kobe Brinkpan. I
0:16
Speaker 2: don't know how you put that all on one badge,
0:18
Speaker 2: but good morning to you.
0:19
Speaker 1: How you doing so.
0:21
Speaker 3: I'm doing good.
0:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a called job security and no wasted minutes,
0:27
Speaker 4: hours or day, so.
0:28
Speaker 1: I like efficiency efficiency. So how are things out there
0:32
Speaker 1: at the dealership. I hope everybody had a merry Christmas.
0:35
Speaker 3: They are, Yeah, we have.
0:37
Speaker 4: We had a great Christmas, had a great Christmas party
0:39
Speaker 4: a couple of weeks ago at the Elks Lodge. And yeah,
0:43
Speaker 4: obviously we've had some changes with selling the Ford Store
0:47
Speaker 4: to Bill Knights, who is a wonderful, wonderful neighbor, and myself,
0:52
Speaker 4: I've moved into a couple of new positions. And then
0:55
Speaker 4: we have Brian Ballard, who a lot of people in
0:58
Speaker 4: Bartlesville will know who Brian is just because of Brian
1:01
Speaker 4: or his father was a sheriff, Pat Ballard, so that
1:04
Speaker 4: that rings a lot of bells, and Brian brings about
1:07
Speaker 4: thirty years of experience running dealerships from Jim Norton Chevrolet
1:12
Speaker 4: and Tulsa where they sell a thousand cars a month
1:14
Speaker 4: and there's some smaller entities and so yeah, it's.
1:17
Speaker 3: Going very well. We've Toyota did us a.
1:21
Speaker 4: Solid when Brad let them know that we were going
1:23
Speaker 4: to be Toyota specific.
1:25
Speaker 3: They we've doubled our.
1:27
Speaker 4: Toyota in new car Toyota inventory within about two weeks
1:31
Speaker 4: of the of us coming into this building. And one
1:37
Speaker 4: thing that a lot of consumers and I know even
1:40
Speaker 4: in town because I get friends say, God, how do
1:41
Speaker 4: you guys sell cars when we don't hardly have anything
1:43
Speaker 4: on the ground. Well, Toyota's turn is three times less
1:48
Speaker 4: than any of your I guess your your your General Motors.
1:52
Speaker 3: Your CD j R.
1:53
Speaker 4: And your in your Ford dealerships, meaning Toyota wants to
1:56
Speaker 4: turn our cars in under a month, where Ford's turn
1:59
Speaker 4: can be ninety days. And they're okay with that. So
2:02
Speaker 4: we turn and burn our cars a lot quicker at Toyota.
2:07
Speaker 4: And my goal always is to have I would say
2:10
Speaker 4: twenty five to thirty percent of my incoming inventory already
2:13
Speaker 4: pre sold to where the individuals can come in. They
2:17
Speaker 4: may want a different color, they may want a different
2:20
Speaker 4: interior package that options, you know how that goes at
2:23
Speaker 4: everything these days, it's like owning a spaceship. So we
2:29
Speaker 4: basically work a car deal. We sold one the other
2:32
Speaker 4: day to a very very good close friend of the
2:35
Speaker 4: family at Bruce Dungeus and that car won't be here
2:38
Speaker 4: till the middle of February, but they've already put their
2:40
Speaker 4: name on it, and now they can relax. They don't
2:42
Speaker 4: have to keep searching and the car is theirs when
2:45
Speaker 4: it comes in. And so on the new car side.
2:47
Speaker 4: That's one of the biggest things is that Toyota helped
2:50
Speaker 4: us out and doubled our inventory than even what we
2:53
Speaker 4: were just at. And I would say October and so
2:56
Speaker 4: I went from about twenty seven to twenty eight Toyotas
2:58
Speaker 4: to over fifty. Now you're not again, you're never going
3:01
Speaker 4: to see all not right now, You're never going to
3:03
Speaker 4: see all fifty of those vehicles on the ground. But
3:07
Speaker 4: they're there, they're they're in my they're in my allocation,
3:10
Speaker 4: they're they're in my inventory. They can be reserved. And
3:14
Speaker 4: then I say that then that that takes a lot
3:16
Speaker 4: of the buying pressure off the consumer that they know
3:19
Speaker 4: they can get their finances in order or just be
3:22
Speaker 4: ready for a new car when it hits Kobe.
3:24
Speaker 2: I've heard stories, and this one I know it's true
3:27
Speaker 2: because Brad was right here when the salesman told me.
3:31
Speaker 2: He said that there have been times when folks have
3:34
Speaker 2: come onto the lot and they've seen the vehicle carrier
3:38
Speaker 2: just to slowly back some of them off of the carrier.
3:43
Speaker 2: By the time he hit the asphalt sail had been made.
3:45
Speaker 2: He said, I'll take that one. And that Toyota truck
3:48
Speaker 2: had an owner at the time they even got it parked.
3:51
Speaker 2: Is that just serves Those happen every day.
3:54
Speaker 4: They they they so they yeah, they happen every day.
3:56
Speaker 4: And one of the it's.
3:58
Speaker 3: Not a struggle, I would say challenge is.
4:00
Speaker 4: When when you tell clients that they think that you're
4:03
Speaker 4: you're you're you're pulling the carpet out an under the
4:07
Speaker 4: speed and we're we're we're using the old salesman trick.
4:09
Speaker 4: But a lot the good thing is if you've been
4:12
Speaker 4: a Toyota buyer in the past where where we're not
4:15
Speaker 4: flipping you from Honda or Hyundai or what have you
4:18
Speaker 4: to to our Toyota brand. Toyota buyers they understand because
4:23
Speaker 4: they've bought them.
4:24
Speaker 3: In the past.
4:25
Speaker 4: But yes, we are very I'm going to say aggressive,
4:29
Speaker 4: but in a in a professional way. When I have
4:31
Speaker 4: a Toyota buyer that loves our loves the numbers, they
4:34
Speaker 4: love the car, I'm gonna wait and see and I
4:37
Speaker 4: kind of want to drive it when it hits the ground,
4:38
Speaker 4: even though they're already driving maybe maybe the same the
4:42
Speaker 4: same model. And my last thing is like I totally understand,
4:46
Speaker 4: but again I do let them know that thirty to
4:48
Speaker 4: forty percent of my Toyotas you'll never see hit the
4:51
Speaker 4: ground without a Soul sticker on it. And then you
4:53
Speaker 4: just keep waiting. So so that that that that that's
4:56
Speaker 4: part of my job and Brian's job, is to educate,
5:00
Speaker 4: educate the buying community on on on how Toyota is
5:05
Speaker 4: is different than any other brand out there. You don't
5:07
Speaker 4: really specifically order I I don't get on every month
5:11
Speaker 4: and and just order. Toyota is involved like you would
5:14
Speaker 4: at a Chevy store with Bill next door. So Toyota
5:17
Speaker 4: does what they call a preference every two weeks, So
5:21
Speaker 4: they tell us what cars we're going to get, and
5:23
Speaker 4: then within reason, I can go into the backscreen and
5:26
Speaker 4: I can I can match them up.
5:28
Speaker 3: With with exterior, interior.
5:30
Speaker 4: And an option package, and then they give me the
5:33
Speaker 4: percentages of how lucky I'm going to be to get
5:36
Speaker 4: that car built. So yeah, with Toyota, I get one
5:39
Speaker 4: special order a month. So if there's anybody out there
5:41
Speaker 4: that that's been looking for a Toyota and they know
5:44
Speaker 4: what they're looking for, is is not common. Not that
5:48
Speaker 4: it's a bad vehicle, it's just it's rare. It's a
5:51
Speaker 4: it's a very upper level vehicle or what we would
5:53
Speaker 4: like to call a unicorn.
5:54
Speaker 3: In the business.
5:56
Speaker 4: Uh, they can come in and and and I can.
5:59
Speaker 4: I can do one of these is a month and
6:00
Speaker 4: not get dinged by Toyota to where it's a special
6:04
Speaker 4: order and and then we know. But but again the
6:07
Speaker 4: way Toyota works, it's great. Every two weeks I get
6:10
Speaker 4: another allotment, whether it be four, seven, twenty one. Recently
6:17
Speaker 4: I've been given twenty one cars and so then I
6:20
Speaker 4: basically go in and preference those out early on a
6:23
Speaker 4: Thursday morning. By Monday afternoon, we know what's coming in,
6:26
Speaker 4: and then we start calling our clients and telling them
6:29
Speaker 4: if a vehicle they were looking for it's really close,
6:34
Speaker 4: then great, and one more thing on the new car side.
6:38
Speaker 4: Obviously we're a smaller we're what, we're a smaller dealership.
6:42
Speaker 3: That's there. There.
6:42
Speaker 4: There's no really you know, arguing or lamenting that. But
6:48
Speaker 4: Brad's Brad's words to me when we knew is going
6:51
Speaker 4: to make this decision. I want to be the I
6:53
Speaker 4: want to be the smallest but busiest Toyota dealership out
6:56
Speaker 4: there in our whole Gulf States region. So that being said,
7:00
Speaker 4: we have I'm gonna say over forty dealer trade partners Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas,
7:08
Speaker 4: Oklahoma that work with us very closely. I mean some big,
7:12
Speaker 4: big dealerships. Actually, my wife and I, Tammy, just took
7:16
Speaker 4: a trip to Burlison, Texas over the weekend, which if
7:19
Speaker 4: you know where that is, it's about twenty miles straight
7:21
Speaker 4: south of the stockyards in Fort Worth, to pick up
7:24
Speaker 4: a brand new rav for RAV four hybrid Prime, which
7:29
Speaker 4: there were only about seven of them that were on
7:30
Speaker 4: the ground in my hole in the whole five state area.
7:34
Speaker 4: And Burlesson, Texas that guy, say us about seven hundred
7:37
Speaker 4: cars a month, and he's been a great trade partner.
7:41
Speaker 4: So if you don't see what we have on the lot,
7:43
Speaker 4: or heck, you don't even really see what I have
7:45
Speaker 4: in coming that would be advantageous to you, Please don't
7:48
Speaker 4: let that be a deterrent. Come on in, let us
7:52
Speaker 4: sit down and give us your specs. What would be
7:54
Speaker 4: your perfect vehicle? That's how I like to start. I
7:56
Speaker 4: always ask somebody if if money wasn't an option, or
8:00
Speaker 4: if it even if it is an object, what is
8:03
Speaker 4: the perfect vehicle you're looking for? And then I go
8:05
Speaker 4: out and look for that exact vehicle. And then if
8:07
Speaker 4: I can't find that exact vehicle, we say, okay, can
8:10
Speaker 4: we put the running boards on here?
8:11
Speaker 3: Can we put a bedliner on? We get it here,
8:14
Speaker 3: and then we just we just we just.
8:15
Speaker 4: Back back play that until we can put them in
8:18
Speaker 4: the right vehicle for them.
8:19
Speaker 2: Wow, I have a great question for you, Kobey. How
8:22
Speaker 2: fun was it to drive that reb f.
8:26
Speaker 4: It's amazing, absolutely amazing car. Those vehicles. When I when
8:33
Speaker 4: I sold for another brand way way back in the day,
8:35
Speaker 4: I used to say, Man, those rab fours like they're
8:37
Speaker 4: nice and I know to it will last forever. But
8:39
Speaker 4: they have no power. That is not the that that
8:42
Speaker 4: is not the case. And I got I got just
8:45
Speaker 4: under thirty nine miles to the gallon driving in Dallas
8:48
Speaker 4: Sport or traffic of Oklahoma City and home, and Jimmy
8:52
Speaker 4: followed me all the way home. And she had to,
8:54
Speaker 4: she had to, she had to do her job to
8:56
Speaker 4: keep up with me.
8:58
Speaker 1: My goodness sakes, that is something else.
9:01
Speaker 2: So if if you don't have right there on the lot,
9:04
Speaker 2: you can order, you can order it or we can
9:06
Speaker 2: look for it with our trade partners. Of course, being
9:09
Speaker 2: the oldest Toyoda dealer in the state of Oklahoma, that
9:12
Speaker 2: says something.
9:12
Speaker 1: People will bargain.
9:14
Speaker 4: With you, Oh totally. And and the good thing is
9:17
Speaker 4: it's it's just it's not just us needing help from
9:19
Speaker 4: the bigger dealers.
9:20
Speaker 3: They they they do the same with us.
9:24
Speaker 4: And I do a lot of trades with Jim Norton
9:27
Speaker 4: out of Tulsa.
9:28
Speaker 3: We there.
9:29
Speaker 4: Set Seth is a great guy that that runs their
9:32
Speaker 4: their new car department there and he's our dealer trade manager.
9:37
Speaker 4: We do a lot of work with Norton out of
9:38
Speaker 4: Oklahoma City. And then I have a great trade partner
9:41
Speaker 4: down in Lawton. Even so, it's one of those things
9:44
Speaker 4: where if you know the car you want again and
9:46
Speaker 4: it's just not sitting on my lot, Please don't let
9:48
Speaker 4: that deterree you from coming in and sitting down and saying, hey,
9:51
Speaker 4: I want I want to buy local. That's the big
9:53
Speaker 4: thing with me is obviously not just in the car business,
9:57
Speaker 4: but I've worked at other you know, I would a
10:00
Speaker 4: family owned businesses in town. I'm all about buying local.
10:03
Speaker 4: If if I don't have to go to a wa
10:05
Speaker 4: Wasow or Tulsa it's a Christmas shop, I'm not going.
10:08
Speaker 3: Uh so I So we we just want to.
10:10
Speaker 4: Make sure that everybody, everybody you know from here and
10:15
Speaker 4: northeast of us. We we just sold three cars last
10:18
Speaker 4: week to Northwest Arkansas and Joplin Springfield, one of each.
10:23
Speaker 4: We do a lot of business because of Brian's connections
10:25
Speaker 4: in Southeast Kansas. And I always tell people, hey, if
10:27
Speaker 4: you're going to go to Tulsa and look at cars,
10:29
Speaker 4: you're going to drive right by me, might as well
10:32
Speaker 4: let me start try and save you, you know, two
10:34
Speaker 4: hours round trip and then sitting at a big dealership.
10:37
Speaker 4: Not not that there's anything wrong with with those with
10:40
Speaker 4: those bigger dealerships, it's just they're flat out busy and
10:42
Speaker 4: sometimes you're there for hours and hours and hours and
10:45
Speaker 4: on end.
10:45
Speaker 3: And we we like to set up all of our
10:48
Speaker 3: all of our our test drive.
10:50
Speaker 4: Our viewings. Even then when we sell a car, as
10:52
Speaker 4: far as me getting everybody's paperwork done, we like to
10:55
Speaker 4: work by appointment because then individuals don't come in and
10:57
Speaker 4: stand around for an hour waiting for someone to come
11:00
Speaker 4: out and physically start helping them with whatever process they
11:03
Speaker 4: need help with.
11:04
Speaker 1: Wow, that's amazing.
11:05
Speaker 2: And it's all about keeping things simple, simple pricing and
11:08
Speaker 2: simple process.
11:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, we we We are not a dog and
11:13
Speaker 4: pony show. We are not a pull the rug out
11:16
Speaker 4: from under you any of our And so when it
11:21
Speaker 4: comes to pre owned or new, we use a great
11:23
Speaker 4: company Zurich that that helps us with our extended vehicle
11:26
Speaker 4: service agreements, gap coverage, tire and wheel, windshield and any
11:30
Speaker 4: anything you can think of. I I I like to
11:32
Speaker 4: call it worry free driving. We we we present all
11:37
Speaker 4: of those products upfront because the last thing I hate
11:41
Speaker 4: about the car buying business is you think you've got
11:43
Speaker 4: a pain that you like or a price and then
11:46
Speaker 4: you go into that funny little corner office and they
11:47
Speaker 4: close the door like like you're getting the cell locked
11:50
Speaker 4: on you, and then they just start jamming products and
11:52
Speaker 4: money down your down your throat. I don't like doing that,
11:55
Speaker 4: it is Brian. So we we present all of those
11:58
Speaker 4: options to the customer, which again they all they all
12:01
Speaker 4: have value, they all have a great value. That company
12:04
Speaker 4: we use as Zurich, I e. The Zurich Classic of
12:06
Speaker 4: New Orleans, the PGA tour events. Yes, Zurich is not
12:10
Speaker 4: only nationwide, worldwide, and a lot of all of those
12:14
Speaker 4: products that we sell, you're covered, you're you know again
12:20
Speaker 4: tiron wheel, windshield, dent, door, ding, key, replacement, gap coverage,
12:25
Speaker 4: if if if we're in a little bit of a
12:26
Speaker 4: situation where we're trying to help somebody get out of
12:28
Speaker 4: some negative equity on a trade in, and then obviously
12:31
Speaker 4: our vehicle service contracts. So that's so yeah, we we
12:34
Speaker 4: take a totally different approach and making sure that you
12:37
Speaker 4: know what's all available to you before you go in
12:39
Speaker 4: that funny little finance office and have to sign all
12:42
Speaker 4: your papers with me. And I just think it's a
12:44
Speaker 4: better way to do business.
12:45
Speaker 2: Very good, very good. Keeping it right up, Bran. And
12:49
Speaker 2: like you said, keeping it simple. I gotta tell you Delby,
12:53
Speaker 2: it sounds like things are just going great.
12:55
Speaker 1: Uh. You know, part of your job is being the
12:58
Speaker 1: finance director.
12:58
Speaker 2: And I know that these days that folks are thinking, well,
13:01
Speaker 2: Christmas is over yep. And if they need a new
13:06
Speaker 2: vehicle or they just simply want one, we can make it.
13:11
Speaker 2: We can make arrangements.
13:13
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, And I'll tell you one thing too. Obviously,
13:17
Speaker 4: I know most people, most people within reason, pay attention
13:20
Speaker 4: to the FED when they drop rates. Our rates have
13:22
Speaker 4: dropped actually oh two times since last summer Toyota where
13:28
Speaker 4: we're in Toyota than right now it's through January fourth,
13:32
Speaker 4: which is major savings. They've got some great interest rates, man,
13:35
Speaker 4: Toyota Tundras. I've got some one point nine interest rates
13:38
Speaker 4: through forty eight months and then some two point nine
13:41
Speaker 4: with sixty and seventy two, which you can't match that.
13:45
Speaker 4: But me even some of our other lenders that we use,
13:48
Speaker 4: I like to use our Vest obviously we use Tinker.
13:51
Speaker 4: We like to use Communications Federal Credit Union and then
13:53
Speaker 4: Tinker Federal Credit Union. They all their rates have dropped
13:58
Speaker 4: in in uh, within reason. Again, there's you know, credit
14:04
Speaker 4: credit approval things like that. Toyota does a great ninety
14:09
Speaker 4: day deferred first payment no funny business. You have ninety
14:13
Speaker 4: days to make your first payment. All of our other
14:16
Speaker 4: uh just your other lenders are are are no less
14:20
Speaker 4: than forty five.
14:22
Speaker 3: So we get a lot of people to.
14:24
Speaker 4: Say, hey, I want to get to the holidays and
14:26
Speaker 4: you know, but I really want this car.
14:27
Speaker 3: Well, you know we can help you out with that.
14:30
Speaker 3: You can. You know, you'll up.
14:32
Speaker 4: To pay your ttn L. And Oklahoma, that's went to
14:34
Speaker 4: sixty days now instead of thirty. A lot of clients
14:36
Speaker 4: don't know that as well. So you have sixty days
14:38
Speaker 4: to textay of your tag, tile and licensing and then
14:41
Speaker 4: through Toyota again with with with approve the approved credit
14:44
Speaker 4: right buyer, we can we can put that first payment
14:46
Speaker 4: out for him. Shoot almost a spring break.
14:49
Speaker 2: Now, wow wee that's incredible. You want to talk about
14:52
Speaker 2: convenient yep, My kindness sakes. Now you get you got
14:59
Speaker 2: great trucks out out there, and uh and you've got
15:02
Speaker 2: some great Toyota uh you know, uh vehicles, uh that
15:06
Speaker 2: they're out there for the family.
15:07
Speaker 1: But your trucks are a are big business.
15:10
Speaker 2: And of course if you've ever owned a Toyota Trock,
15:14
Speaker 2: you're not going to change your mind anytime soon, because
15:16
Speaker 2: those things have proven performance, they have proven durability.
15:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, are are are?
15:23
Speaker 4: We We offer two different sizes of of new trucks,
15:26
Speaker 4: which Toyota has had for years, the Tatoma and the Tundra.
15:32
Speaker 4: I mean that they both speak for themselves that the
15:35
Speaker 4: Tacoma has had less tweaking than the Tundra.
15:38
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say just because we've stayed with with with
15:43
Speaker 3: that V six, the.
15:45
Speaker 4: Four cylinder is the four cylinder is almost a foregone
15:48
Speaker 4: conclusion anymore unless you're like in a fleet situation because
15:52
Speaker 4: there's just not enough gas mileage difference to go with
15:55
Speaker 4: the four cylinder and be and be quote unquote underpowered
15:58
Speaker 4: when you can go with our V One of the
16:01
Speaker 4: major things that that they've done too is there's not
16:05
Speaker 4: a Toyota out there, like if you're looking at a
16:07
Speaker 4: ninety thousand dollars land Cruise or I'm showing you a
16:09
Speaker 4: forty five thousand dollars Tacoma if you were order the
16:13
Speaker 4: right option package. As far as the options, the electronics,
16:17
Speaker 4: the goodies, the safety measures, all of those can be
16:21
Speaker 4: put on a Tacoma, just like they could be put
16:24
Speaker 4: on a Sequoia or a land Cruise. That used to
16:26
Speaker 4: not be the case. You know, they kind of trimmed
16:28
Speaker 4: him down as price went not anymore. I mean even
16:32
Speaker 4: my Toyota Corolla, which I hate to even say entry level,
16:35
Speaker 4: but that that is Toyota's smallest passenger car, which by
16:40
Speaker 4: the way, gets fifty one miles to the gallon. You
16:43
Speaker 4: can set that up with navigation, with side blind zone monitor,
16:47
Speaker 4: with three sixty park view. I mean it's yeah, so
16:50
Speaker 4: we definitely have they're hitting the spot with the new
16:54
Speaker 4: car and the Tundra. Couple of years ago, we went
16:57
Speaker 4: away from the V eight part partly to do with
16:59
Speaker 4: with I think performance and then obviously the EPA regulations
17:02
Speaker 4: on where our gas mileage averages have to hit across
17:06
Speaker 4: the whole line, across the whole brand. We went to
17:10
Speaker 4: A to A to a V six. Uh, I'm sorry,
17:14
Speaker 4: it's a it's a twin turbo man. That thing's pushing
17:17
Speaker 4: four hundred horsepower gas. Miloge is great. I mean, you
17:20
Speaker 4: can you can hook up a twenty five twenty six
17:23
Speaker 4: foot camper, twenty five twenty six foot boat behind that,
17:26
Speaker 4: and they have no problem going on vacation, going to
17:29
Speaker 4: the lake, going camping Tacoma easily tow lawnmower trailers, smaller campers,
17:37
Speaker 4: fishing boats, smaller pontoons, things like that. So yeah, they
17:40
Speaker 4: they both definitely have good qualities and and and you
17:45
Speaker 4: can meet about any criteria we need. Notwithstanding, you know
17:49
Speaker 4: that the heavy duty line, which we just don't have
17:51
Speaker 4: with Toyota, that's that that that that's the only it's
17:54
Speaker 4: not even a Nega that that's the only the only
17:56
Speaker 4: segment that Toyota is still trying to get into. But
17:59
Speaker 4: Toyota is one of those companies that if they don't
18:00
Speaker 4: have it right one hundred and one percent, they're not going.
18:03
Speaker 3: To put the product out there.
18:04
Speaker 4: I've I've I've definitely learned that in the last two
18:07
Speaker 4: years that that if they don't have everything done right
18:11
Speaker 4: where they can release those in quantity along with the
18:15
Speaker 4: quality they want, they they're they're just not going to
18:18
Speaker 4: build them. So that that that that I enjoy selling
18:20
Speaker 4: toatas for that reason because I don't have to go
18:22
Speaker 4: out and make up stories to make people believe that
18:24
Speaker 4: I that I sell a good product.
18:26
Speaker 2: Wow, you know you said the land cruiser, and you
18:30
Speaker 2: know that's like magic to people's ears. To some of
18:33
Speaker 2: the guys by age anyway, we remember the old kind
18:37
Speaker 2: and yeah, we've seen it through the years. And now
18:40
Speaker 2: this is kind of almost like a retro look, isn't it.
18:43
Speaker 3: It's a very very retro look.
18:45
Speaker 4: And here's the I'm going to go ten years back maybe,
18:48
Speaker 4: and I do that Toyota fanatics would might argue with me.
18:53
Speaker 4: And I don't know the exact year, but I mean
18:55
Speaker 4: we were selling those that Toyota was selling those that
18:58
Speaker 4: eighty ninety dollars our price point on land cruisers right now,
19:04
Speaker 4: the nineteen fifty eight, which is a that that that's
19:07
Speaker 4: gonna be again I hate to say entry level, but
19:09
Speaker 4: that that that's going to be. You know, it's not
19:11
Speaker 4: gonna have every belt bell in the whistle in the world,
19:14
Speaker 4: but you're spending sixty grand, not not not one hundred
19:17
Speaker 4: thousand dollars to go with a land cruiser that that
19:21
Speaker 4: It's funny that they call it when I order it,
19:23
Speaker 4: it's the land cruiser base, but but it is the
19:25
Speaker 4: upper echelon. I can't I can't find one out there
19:29
Speaker 4: over seventy five thousand dollars and you start comparing those
19:32
Speaker 4: two suburbans, Tahoes Yukon's expeditions were we're under their price
19:38
Speaker 4: point even with a Sequoya and a land Cruiser. And
19:42
Speaker 4: again you're you're you're you're getting the history with the
19:44
Speaker 4: land Cruiser and in both the land Cruiser and Sequoya,
19:47
Speaker 4: you're just flat out getting an amazing vehicle with with
19:50
Speaker 4: the features that that again they they're they're right up
19:53
Speaker 4: there with with with all of the other large suv segment.
19:57
Speaker 2: We're talking with Kobe Brinkman and he is with Dungeons
19:59
Speaker 2: to Yota. He is the new vehicle sales manager and
20:03
Speaker 2: finance directord and we are engaging in car talk and
20:08
Speaker 2: a little bit of you know, uh beast uv a
20:10
Speaker 2: little crossover little truck. Now you know you've got is
20:15
Speaker 2: uh what is it? The crown that it's a real
20:18
Speaker 2: real uh real uh I catcher?
20:21
Speaker 4: What an amazing vehicle, Yes, sir, yeah, yeah that that
20:27
Speaker 4: that that's one of them where where I might see
20:29
Speaker 4: one or two a month, and it's it's not always
20:33
Speaker 4: a for sure sale because again it's a new segment,
20:36
Speaker 4: so so we still do have to do our due
20:37
Speaker 4: diligence with you know, our meet and greet and our
20:41
Speaker 4: customer interview, what what what? What they really what they
20:44
Speaker 4: really want out of their what they really want out
20:46
Speaker 4: of their vehicle, what they want out of their investments.
20:48
Speaker 4: Because obviously, most most people who buy a car these days,
20:51
Speaker 4: it's going to be the second biggest purchase that they.
20:53
Speaker 3: Ever buy, behind a house. That's just kind of how
20:56
Speaker 3: it is.
20:56
Speaker 4: And some of them even they maybe more than a house,
20:58
Speaker 4: depending on when they bought their last house. So that
21:02
Speaker 4: the signia, we get a lot, a lot of a
21:05
Speaker 4: lot of interest insignias. When somebody likes it, it's a
21:08
Speaker 4: it's a done deal. It's not well, I'll look at
21:10
Speaker 4: the camera or maybe I'll look at this. When when
21:12
Speaker 4: when somebody really gets in a Signia and and the
21:15
Speaker 4: price point is to their liking, we we that that vehicle,
21:18
Speaker 4: darn your cells itself.
21:19
Speaker 3: It's an amazing vehicle.
21:22
Speaker 1: My goodness sakes. You know you got the coroll across.
21:25
Speaker 2: It's another one of those vehicles that you know, I
21:28
Speaker 2: I saw one when I was at a restaurant here
21:30
Speaker 2: in town recently. Kobe and Miss Susie just looked at
21:35
Speaker 2: it kept saying.
21:37
Speaker 1: Mine, Mine, Mine, Wow.
21:41
Speaker 4: Okay, that that that that's a great little crossover. And
21:45
Speaker 4: I say little because basically we go corol Across, we
21:48
Speaker 4: go RAB four, then we go Highlander, then we go
21:51
Speaker 4: uh Sequoia, then we go land cruisers. So I have
21:54
Speaker 4: I have five, I have five levels of.
22:00
Speaker 3: S ubs.
22:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, coroll Across, you can get an all wheel drive.
22:04
Speaker 4: Again that the Corolla Cross, just like I was talking about,
22:07
Speaker 4: when when you don't have to buy a land cruise
22:09
Speaker 4: or Tundra or a or a Sequoia to get all
22:13
Speaker 4: these bells and whistles that that you know, I always
22:17
Speaker 4: always give Tammy a hard time that that you know,
22:19
Speaker 4: now now that you have the remote start, and you
22:21
Speaker 4: have the heated seats, and you have the navigation, you
22:23
Speaker 4: have a heated steering wheel. It's I I'm old school,
22:27
Speaker 4: but but I even get spoiled to once you have it,
22:30
Speaker 4: it's it's.
22:30
Speaker 3: Hard to go back.
22:31
Speaker 1: You're right, it's hard.
22:33
Speaker 4: It's hard to say, oh, you don't need that now
22:34
Speaker 4: now that you've used it five five years in a row.
22:38
Speaker 1: So people use the heated seat just for the you know,
22:40
Speaker 1: the pressure.
22:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, yep.
22:43
Speaker 4: And so the Corolla Cross we just sold a little
22:46
Speaker 4: twenty three pre on your day that only like twelve
22:48
Speaker 4: thousand miles blue beautiful blue color, had heated seats, heated
22:55
Speaker 4: steering wheel, remote start, obviously, backup camera.
22:59
Speaker 3: You're blind, you're blind, zone.
23:00
Speaker 4: Vision, your your park assists, your power lift gates. And
23:05
Speaker 4: I mean that that's a thirty thousand dollars car for
23:08
Speaker 4: a lot a lot of options and all will drive
23:11
Speaker 4: and suv to where you have the back hatch to
23:13
Speaker 4: where that's gonna help you, that's gonna help with storage
23:17
Speaker 4: or you know, going to the grocery store, what have you.
23:20
Speaker 2: Indeed, just an amazing vehicle for the price. And on
23:24
Speaker 2: top of that, it's very stylish, it's a it's an
23:26
Speaker 2: I grabber as well. You know, you're talking about selling
23:29
Speaker 2: vehicles throughout the region Arkansas and the Joplin area. I
23:34
Speaker 2: got to tell you, I travel through Joplin back and
23:37
Speaker 2: forth to my travels back toward the Upper Midwest and
23:42
Speaker 2: to see family, and I will see anywhere from two
23:46
Speaker 2: to four Dunge just stamps on the back of a
23:51
Speaker 2: vehicle up there, and it's just amazing. People will come
23:54
Speaker 2: far and wide to get a Dungeon's product.
23:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, well we will. We trained with our with our
24:01
Speaker 4: sales staff. Again, I I came from I spent four
24:04
Speaker 4: years at UH at one of the bigger conglomerates in Tulsa,
24:08
Speaker 4: and I learned a lot from from that dealership just
24:10
Speaker 4: to not just to not being tunnel visioned on.
24:13
Speaker 3: Obviously, we want to sell in Bartlesville. You're not gonna you're.
24:16
Speaker 4: Not going to keep the life on and food your
24:18
Speaker 4: and feed your sales your sales staff. If we just
24:20
Speaker 4: if you, if you tunnel vision that that low and
24:23
Speaker 4: a lot of people. I always look like this, I
24:25
Speaker 4: don't care about the state. I look at the region obviously.
24:29
Speaker 4: If anybody has ever been in northwest Arkansas and played
24:32
Speaker 4: golfer or went to a concert over at the Amphitheater
24:35
Speaker 4: over and Rogers.
24:36
Speaker 3: There's a lot of money over there.
24:37
Speaker 4: There's there's a lot, there's a lot of expendable income
24:41
Speaker 4: in that area. And you know, I can get to Joplin,
24:45
Speaker 4: Darn near Darn, near Springfield or easily northwest Arkansas. I
24:49
Speaker 4: can get to Joplin sooner than I can I can
24:51
Speaker 4: get to Oklahoma City. Yeah, so the the the travel,
24:56
Speaker 4: the travel is not near as far as what people
24:59
Speaker 4: think just because of crossing the state line.
25:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not.
25:02
Speaker 4: It's not it's not near the drive that that you think.
25:04
Speaker 4: And we offer within one hundred and fifty miles on
25:09
Speaker 4: any car, but especially new, it's very advantageous. We offer
25:12
Speaker 4: free delivery.
25:13
Speaker 1: Wow.
25:14
Speaker 4: So if you buy a car and you're within one
25:15
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty miles from us, and honestly, if it's
25:18
Speaker 4: one hundred and you know we're not going to get
25:20
Speaker 4: to one hundred and fifty one and now say we
25:21
Speaker 4: owe me five hundred dollars, We don't do that. We
25:23
Speaker 4: basically just on a per mileage and then I what
25:26
Speaker 4: I need, what I have to pay my drivers. We
25:28
Speaker 4: have a we have a couple of retired couples that
25:30
Speaker 4: do our driving for us, and they've been doing it
25:32
Speaker 4: long enough. They're very knowledgeable. They have they have our
25:35
Speaker 4: you know, we most of the time I have everything
25:37
Speaker 4: signed by the client, but if we need paperwork signed,
25:40
Speaker 4: we verify, we sign on site, and we deliver new
25:43
Speaker 4: cars and pre owned within one hundred and fifty miles
25:47
Speaker 4: rent free.
25:48
Speaker 3: Wow.
25:48
Speaker 1: We that's amazing.
25:49
Speaker 2: See that that that's another thing that folks sometimes don't
25:53
Speaker 2: know and a good thing that we've got this program
25:55
Speaker 2: to kind of get that out there, Like you said earlier.
25:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, educating folks, Yeah, educating people.
26:00
Speaker 4: Yep, so hey, I did did have a couple of
26:02
Speaker 4: points that Brian wanted me to mention out before we
26:04
Speaker 4: get off the air. We are now since Brian's came
26:07
Speaker 4: on board, this is a really cool deal. We are
26:10
Speaker 4: a KBB buying center. That means that we are a
26:13
Speaker 4: licensed partner with Kelly Blue Book as a buying center.
26:16
Speaker 4: So even if you're not looking to buy a car,
26:20
Speaker 4: life happens, situation changes, maybe you're downsizing. You know, there's
26:24
Speaker 4: there's a lot of reasons why people have to you know,
26:27
Speaker 4: want want to want to sell a car, or need
26:28
Speaker 4: to sell a car. We one will take a look
26:32
Speaker 4: at every darn one of those cars people have for us.
26:34
Speaker 4: They can call us, they can just drive on in
26:37
Speaker 4: and we we use about seven different ratings on vehicles,
26:41
Speaker 4: but KBB is the one we start with because that's
26:44
Speaker 4: the one most people know. And then and then, and
26:48
Speaker 4: then I feel like that a lot of the hesitancy
26:53
Speaker 4: of selling a vehicle to a dealership, which I've always thought,
26:56
Speaker 4: like my mom, I I wouldn't want somebody to go
26:58
Speaker 4: into my parents' place with my dad's on on a
27:02
Speaker 4: trip for business. I wouldn't want my mom having to
27:04
Speaker 4: have people from Facebook marketplace come in to her house
27:07
Speaker 4: looking at her car when you know what I mean,
27:10
Speaker 4: when you just don't know these people. So so a
27:14
Speaker 4: KBB buying center again, we have a basically what we
27:17
Speaker 4: give is we give the customer a true quote from
27:19
Speaker 4: KBB that Kelly Bluebook would buy that car for this
27:23
Speaker 4: amount right now.
27:24
Speaker 3: Now.
27:24
Speaker 4: If Brian or myself or Bruce or Brad see the
27:28
Speaker 4: value in the car and it's advantageous for me to
27:30
Speaker 4: put that in our pre owned inventory, then obviously by
27:33
Speaker 4: all means we can get more than that KBB number,
27:36
Speaker 4: and a lot of times we do. It's just a
27:38
Speaker 4: good guide. It's a good starting point to let people
27:40
Speaker 4: know how much their vehicle is worth it if they
27:43
Speaker 4: need to sell a pre owned vehicle.
27:45
Speaker 1: Very good, very good. Tell everybody where we can find you.
27:48
Speaker 3: So we are located.
27:50
Speaker 4: I'm going to say South Bartlesville nineteen eleven Southeast Washington Boulevard, Bartlesville, Oklahoma,
27:57
Speaker 4: nine one eight three three three oh nine huns. And
28:01
Speaker 4: we are specifically out of our Toyota building and we
28:03
Speaker 4: are open Monday through Friday, eight three to six pm.
28:07
Speaker 4: And on Saturday, we're here till five. As in the
28:10
Speaker 4: car business, when I say six pm and five pm close,
28:13
Speaker 4: that really means we're here till the last customer is
28:15
Speaker 4: ready to leave.
28:17
Speaker 1: That sounds good.
28:17
Speaker 2: Kobe, thanks for being with us, Kobe Brinkman with Dungeons Toyo,
28:21
Speaker 2: Thank you, sir
28:23
Speaker 3: Appreciate it, sir, thank you,