Latest / Auto Collabs / Why One-Third of Americans Can’t Afford a New Car—and What Dealers Must Do Next | Public Policy Day 2026

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Why One-Third of Americans Can’t Afford a New Car—and What Dealers Must Do Next | Public Policy Day 2026 · Auto Collabs

• 0:00
  On this episode of AutoCollabs, we're live at the Washington, DC Auto Show for Public Policy Day 2026, brought to you by our friends at Safeway. [upbeat music] All right. Sitting here at publicly, Public Policy Day.
• 0:16
  Uh, thanks again to Safeway, our partners, for all the content today. We're sitting here, Jamie Darvish, owner of Dar Cars, uh, a local massive organization, uh, retail dealer.
• 0:27
  Thanks for hanging out with us a little bit today. Yeah, absolutely. Let's have some fun. Yeah, let's do it.
• 0:31
  Uh, I wanna start first, let's start with the, the fact that you are consistently a part of WANNADA, a part of the show, um, a part of Public Policy Day.
• 0:40
  What's the reason why you commit so much of your time, energy, resources into this ecosystem? You know, th-th-this show and this whole event is, is all about the consumer. You know? The, the...
• 0:51
  It's about really enabling the consumer to have one place to come and just see everything.
• 0:56
  You know, today's world, it's so complicated with everything being online and, you know, inventory levels being, you know, so scarce in, in many parts of our industry that it's very hard for a consumer to even see what their choices are in the market.
• 1:08
  So it's, it's important for me to be involved and engaged to make sure that, you know, consumers are taken care of. So how do, how do you all activate during when the car show's in town? What is, what are your stores?
• 1:19
  Are your managers involved? How do you take advantage of the fact the show's here? Uh, well, you know, just the show being here creates a lot of interest in itself. You know, people come here and I, I...
• 1:28
  We, we call it the car itch. You know, people, people get the itch to go see new cars and, you know, it doesn't really matter what someone's situation.
• 1:35
  You know, if you see a new car, you start thinking, "Hey, maybe I could get a new one." [laughs] You sure do. [laughs] So then it just starts to...
• 1:41
  You know, we activate in the showrooms by just capitalizing on people that wanna come in and then y- have a, uh, you know, on-road experience, drive the car, you know, test it out, see what options are available, check out pricing, payments, and- Yeah...
• 1:53
  that's what we do. So you see a lift around this time. Uh, like, uh, during and after the show i- in the showrooms in the area? Oh, yeah. Big time. Yeah. A lot of traffic. See, I think that's- Very interesting...
• 2:01
  one of the messages that doesn't get out enough about car shows, is that it actually generates a tangible lift.
• 2:09
  Because I think when the deal- more dealers advocating for shows, helping people put together, you know, helping convince OEMs it's worth sending their vehicles, w- would be good for everybody.
• 2:17
  It'd be good for the OEM, good for the consumer specifically, and obviously good for the dealer who's kind of in the middle of those two. Yeah, 100%. I...
• 2:25
  We were talking just before this and, and just the, the things that you as a dealer and a dealer group are thinking about right now, and you were mentioning that affordability is top of mind.
• 2:33
  Um, uh, affordability has been positioned particularly on the new car side. Uh, we were just, uh, talking to, to Joe Cook, uh, uh, with the show, you know, and the, the average new car price has gone over 50,000.
• 2:46
  We're seeing differences in, in the way that manufacturers are coming. Obviously, the EV manufacturer's at a higher price. But your position is a lot, uh, more broad than that. It, it goes past new cars.
• 2:56
  Talk a little bit about what you're dealing with and seeing right now. Yeah.
• 2:59
  So, uh, you know, with the average price of a new car being around $50,000 today, if you think about that statistically and mathematically, one-third of the US population can't, simply can't afford a new car.
• 3:12
  So that's something that really keeps me up at night. And- Hmm... the trend isn't going backwards. The trend is, is, is gonna be even worse in the future.
• 3:21
  Um, you know, so the alternative right now and where the, where the real focus is on the industry to provide a more affordable vehicle to the consumer is on the pre-owned side.
• 3:30
  You know, whether it's a, a manufacturer certified pre-owned or traditional pre-owned, um, i-i-it's just something that we're using in, as an industry, as an alternative to provide a solution for someone that just can't afford a new car.
• 3:43
  The challenge that I see moving forward also is, with that used car market, the supply drying up.
• 3:49
  Um, o- you know, if you, if you think about the new car sales over the last six years, pre-COVID we were over 17, 18 million, you know, units a year, and we dropped below 10 million at the, at the height of COVID, and we slowly crept back over 10 and to this past year just hit 16 million.
• 4:06
  And we're, we're, we're actually forecasting about half a million less in '26. Wow. But we're not gonna catch up on all that missed new car sale volume, uh, in, in one year.
• 4:16
  It's not like we're gonna do 30 thou- 30 million u- units next year and catch up. Yeah. [laughs] Right. Imagine. [laughs] So the challenge becomes, you know, y- pre-owned vehicles once were new cars, right? Yeah.
• 4:26
  Well, if all those new cars are missing from the supply, uh, over the last six years, that means they're now gonna be missing from the supply chain of pre-owned vehicles in the next five or six years, and that's the bubble that we're entering now on top of still struggling to get, uh, you know, the supply chain and the distribution chain proper on the new car side.
• 4:43
  So that begs the question, um, what to do about it right now.
• 4:48
  Obviously, getting better at new car sales, getting better at new car process, getting better at reconditioning, get a better, better at acquisition are things that doing...
• 4:57
  You know, things you're doing right now that can be helpful. But what can a dealer do to be ready for what you said is really the inevitable thing that's going to happen over the next 36 months? Yeah.
• 5:08
  I mean, really the, the focus in the dealership just needs to be on pre-owned vehicles right now.
• 5:13
  And I think that, uh, dealers need to really spend time talking to the automakers a-a-a- and their, their own local people and their automakers, just really looking at their market and really explaining, you know, the affordability issues that they're seeing in their own store.
• 5:27
  The automakers need to look at ways to build less expensive cars. And, uh, you know, I, I realize the margins are, are, are better for them on the more expensive cars.
• 5:37
  I realize that, you know, it may be, it may be a, look like a hotter product just because it's got more bells and whistles and it's a, you know, a fancy design or whatever, but there's a lot of people in this country that just need basic transportation, reliable basic transportation.
• 5:52
  Sure. Right? So I think that's where the OEMs need to go.
• 5:54
  And at the same side, uh, same time, I, I think that from a legislative standpoint, the, the, the, the, the government and the legislative bodies both at the state level and the federal level need to realize that when you make a decision to pass a mandate down that requires an expense to be put into a car, y- that's costing the consumer.
• 6:15
  That's raising the price. So when you make a law that says a car has to have a rear view backup camera-That may sound great, and it may... It, it's safe, and I agree.
• 6:24
  Sure, it's hard to get anyone to say, "I'm against more safety." Hey, yeah, that's terrible. Correct. Right. We, we want safety, right? A- absolutely. But the... But you're adding, I mean, $1,000 or more.
• 6:32
  We also want transportation, right? Yep. Yeah. So... Yeah, and when you bucket that on thing after thing after thing that's now required- It adds up...
• 6:39
  and you're a- you're going 1,000 to 3,000, and then you gotta have margin, and the people, and the R&D resources around that, it totally changes the affordability matrix a- across the board.
• 6:49
  Um, I think that it's gonna be a struggle when you think about w- what dealers can acquire, what trade-ins can, uh, are gonna come across the line, and we may see some older models.
• 6:57
  So even focusing on fix stop and what's the re- reconditioning process around getting used cars that might be slightly older ready for prime time, ready for the front line, is gonna have to be a conversation that people are having.
• 7:08
  So it's an interesting thing when you talk about the reconditioning process and service.
• 7:12
  If you look at most of the states, most states have some sort of, um, uh, of re- uh, of, of s- state certification or inspection requirement- Mm-hmm... on the sale of a used car or registration of a used car. Right.
• 7:23
  Um, but if you look at a lot of those standards, those standards were developed years ago around cars that had technology on 'em that they don't even use in cars anymore. And- Interesting...
• 7:32
  and, and some of the technology- Right. Oh... that's on cars today isn't even in those inspection requirements. So they're so outdated that I, I...
• 7:40
  I- in fact, some of the, the, the newer technicians that come in and become inspectors- Like, "What is this?"... they actually have to learn the old stuff to go take the test. [laughs] What am I inspecting here, right?
• 7:48
  And they'll never see any of that stuff. They'll never see it. Boy. [laughs] Doesn't that sound interesting? That's unbelievable. So, so, so the states need to kind of get that together, too. If you...
• 7:54
  If the, if the goal is really to have a safe car, which I know it, that's the goal, they need to get it straight. All right. Yeah.
• 8:00
  I'm, I'm gonna ask for, for one quick thing that's a little bit out of the flow of what we've been talking about, but as of time of recording today, uh, we're just about a week and a half out from the NADA show this year.
• 8:08
  Yeah. Um, what is it that your focus is going to be heading into the show this year as a dealer? Uh, well, I, I, I have to say AI. I mean, that's, uh, that's really- [laughs]...
• 8:17
  kind of the buzz right now and, and, and really looking at, uh, where these vendors a- a- and where these suppliers have progressed from a, from a, uh, an artificial intelligence standpoint.
• 8:26
  I, I think there's a, a lot of efficiencies to be gained in a dealership, and I think there's a lot of better service as dealers we can deliver to consumers if we embrace this technology- Hmm... and use it properly.
• 8:37
  The, the, the concern is, though, around it is that, you know, AI is, is basically using data from all different places, so we need to make sure that data is, is obviously secured and it's not being misused. Yeah.
• 8:48
  Is there an area of the dealership you see the most opportunity? So I, I... What...
• 8:52
  Where I look at it is that I think AI is gonna enable a dealership to have a full life cycle, uh, uh, communication, uh, platform with, with a customer.
• 9:01
  Instead of just having a, a sales program and sales and a service program and sales and a collision center if they have an accident, just one full life cycle holistic process to, to, to be able to communicate with a customer based on that individual customer's activity.
• 9:14
  People have all different kinds of habits, and these programs h- historically have always tried to have a one size fits all, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It doesn't work.
• 9:22
  So thinking about the consumer as a, as a, as a single consumer around their life cycle, and I think that's what AI, as, as, as long as you can secure that data, make sure you know what's going on in, inside the tool, it's, it's great for.
• 9:32
  Yeah. Uh, well, Jamie, thanks so much for spending some time with us, and, uh, hope the show goes amazingly, uh, again. Thanks so much. We'll see you soon.