The Biggest "Sleeper" Brands in Automotive | Car Dealership Guy Podcast
发布时间 2024-04-04 09:00:34 来源
I don't want to call it a disaster, but when dealers won't take that vehicle on trade, you know it's a flop. Most automakers have had trouble selling as many cars as they did in 2019, but a few brands have managed to rise above the rest. Today on the Car dealership guy podcast, I'm speaking with Alan Hague, founder and president of Hague Partners, a dealership by Sell Advisory that helps dealers sell their businesses. Don't forget to click subscribe so you never miss an episode.
我不想说它是一场灾难，但当经销商不愿意用那辆车进行交易时，你就知道它是个失败。大多数汽车制造商在销售车辆方面遇到了困难，但有几个品牌成功地脱颖而出。今天在《汽车经销商先生》播客节目中，我将与Alan Hague交谈，他是Sell Advisory下的经销商Hague Partners的创始人和总裁，帮助经销商出售他们的业务。别忘了点击订阅，这样您就不会错过任何一集。
Before we get into the show, this episode is brought to you by Impell, a word of caution to dealers, open source GPT's or conversation tools, not business solutions. If you want to embrace results, not risk, choose AI that's designed for automotive retail. With Impell AI, you can drive real results throughout the entire customer journey. From website, chat, sales and service, Impell AI is custom built to achieve your business objectives. It features a proprietary blend of large language models, automotive optimization layers and seamless integration with your entire tech stack.
在我们开始节目之前，本集由Impell赞助，给经销商提个醒，开源GPT或对话工具并不是商业解决方案。如果你想取得结果而非风险，请选择专为汽车零售设计的人工智能。通过Impell AI，您可以在整个客户旅程中实现真正的成果。从网站、聊天、销售到服务，Impell AI都是量身定制，以实现您的业务目标。它具有专有的大型语言模型、汽车优化层和与整个技术堆栈无缝集成的功能。
The result? Exceptional customer experiences an increased customer lifetime value and that means more revenue and greater profitability. Embrace results, not risk with Impell AI. See what the future of AI looks like today? Visit impel.ai or click the link in the show notes below. This episode is also brought to you by AutoHaulerExchange. AutoHaulerExchange is changing how vehicle shippers and carriers can connect and work together.
结果是什么？卓越的客户体验，增加客户终身价值，这意味着更多的收入和更大的利润。拥抱Impell AI带来的结果，而不是风险。想看看今天的AI未来是什么样子吗？访问impel.ai或点击下面演示说明中的链接。本集还由AutoHaulerExchange赞助。AutoHaulerExchange正在改变车辆托运商和承运商之间的连接和协作方式。
Now, if you need to ship a car, you can work with carriers all over the country directly. And if you transport cars, you don't have to look through brokerage boards to find good, fair jobs anymore. By eliminating the middleman, all shipments on AutoHaulerExchange come directly from the owner of the vehicle being shipped with carriers receiving real shipment opportunities at direct pricing. AutoHaulerExchange helps shippers and carriers work together easily and clearly, adding transparency and making better partnerships. Get off the AutoHaulerExchange by getting on the AutoHaulerExchange. To learn more, visit autohaulerexchange.com or click the link in the show notes below.
现在，如果您需要运送汽车，可以直接与全国各地的承运人合作。如果您运输汽车，就不再需要通过经纪人来寻找好的、公平的工作了。通过消除中间商，AutoHaulerExchange上的所有货物都直接来自被运送车辆的所有者，承运人以直接价格获得真实的运输机会。AutoHaulerExchange帮助承运人和承运人轻松明确地合作，增加透明度并建立更好的合作伙伴关系。加入AutoHaulerExchange来了解更多信息。详情请访问autohaulerexchange.com网站或点击下方节目注释中的链接。
Lastly, this episode is also brought to you by Hague Partners. I'd like to thank Hague for coming on as a guest and also supporting this podcast. Alan Hague on the CDG podcast. Alan, welcome back. Thank you, OC. It's good to be with you again. It's good to have you back on. I was going to start by asking you about the industry, but I think the conversation we had before I even started press the record is even better. I mean, having a good little conversation with you about marriage, weddings, relationships. So not the direction I thought we would take to start this pod, but I love to hear it.
最后，这一集也是由Hague Partners赞助的。我想感谢Hague成为我们的特邀嘉宾，并支持这个播客。Alan Hague参加CDG播客。Alan，欢迎回来。谢谢你，OC。很高兴再次和你在一起。很高兴你能回来。我本来打算先问你关于行业的问题，但我觉得我们在录制之前的对话更好。我是说，和你谈论婚姻、婚礼、关系是更好的方向。所以这不是我想开始这一集的方向，但我很乐意听到这些话题。
Well, I think that one aspect of our industry that's unique is that many of these businesses, the vast majority are owned by families and families have moms and dads and sisters and brothers and sons and daughters and cousins. And that makes our lives richer, trying to give people advice on buying and selling and also ties us a little closer to our clients because we're a business in which we have some family members working out too. Two of my sons joined about a year ago. My wife has been our CFO for since we formed the company, but regularly when we're talking with people that are thinking about selling, it's often family matters that are the decision makers and even for folks that are buying, often it's a family decision about whether it's an investor or not. So it's a big part of our daily lives, even though we deal with a lot of numbers and legal documents, et cetera.
我认为我们行业中独特的一方面是，很多这些企业，绝大多数都是家族经营，家庭中有父母、姐妹、兄弟、儿子、女儿和表亲。这让我们的生活更加丰富，尝试给人们购买和出售的建议，也让我们与客户更加紧密地联系在一起，因为我们的企业中也有一些家庭成员在工作。我的两个儿子大约一年前加入了我们。我的妻子从公司成立以来一直担任我们的首席财务官，但通常当我们与考虑出售的人交谈时，家庭事务往往是决策者甚至对于那些正在购买的人来说，往往是一个家庭决策，无论是投资者还是否。因此，尽管我们处理很多数字和法律文件等，但家庭事务仍然是我们日常生活的重要部分。
At the end of the day, it's almost always a family decision about exiting or growing. So it makes our lives a little richer and sometimes more complicated. I bet I know a thing or two about a family dealership business. So been there and experienced the dobs and the downs. So that's right. Yes. Definitely keeps it interesting. For those that have not or for new listeners on the podcast who have not yet heard from you, and I think one of the things I love about you is you bring such a well-rounded perspective to the podcast, giving your experience and what you're doing daily in the field and exposure to such a wide array of dealer groups. But give our listeners a brief background on you for our new listeners who have not listened to your prior podcast.
在最后，关于退出或成长，几乎总是一个家庭决定。这让我们的生活变得更加丰富，有时也更加复杂。我打赌我对家族经销商业务了解一些。我去过那里，经历过高潮和低谷。没错。是的。肯定让人兴趣盎然。对于那些尚未或通过播客尚未听过你的新听众来说，我认为我喜欢你的一点是你给播客带来了如此全面的视角，分享了你的经验以及你在领域中的日常工作，以及接触到如此广泛的经销商集团。但对于我们的新听众，他们尚未听过你之前的播客，请给我们的听众一个简要介绍你的背景。
I grew up, my planners were both teachers. And I started my career in New York doing investment banking. And I was scared every day he'd going to work because there really wasn't qualified for the job that I've been given. And I knew after working in finance that I also wanted to have a chance to work in a real company, one that had products that they sold and customers, employees, etc. So after I got my business degree, I went down to work for the Heising of Family of Companies here in Fort Lauderdale. And Wayne's known for waste management. He's known for Blockbuster. He's also known for AutoNation. And I was hired after we sold Blockbuster to Viacom.
我在成长过程中，我的父母都是老师。我在纽约开始了我的投资银行业生涯。每天上班我都很害怕，因为我真的觉得自己并不适合这份工作。在金融领域工作后，我意识到我也想有机会在一家真正的公司工作，一家销售产品、有客户、员工等的公司。所以在获得商业学位后，我来到劳德代尔堡的海辛家族公司工作。韦恩以垃圾清运、视频租赁和汽车销售而闻名。我是在我们将视频租赁公司出售给维亚康姆后才被雇佣的。
I was hired to write a business plan on forming a new car division to accompany the AutoNation used car super stores, which were under development. So I didn't know anything about the new car business. So I went and did my little MBA research and put together a business plan that called for rapid consolidation of the automotive retail industry. We would have economies of scale that smaller dealers wouldn't have. We'd have national brand that we could use to leverage our advertising dollars. We would deploy the best practices throughout our dealership chain so that we could operate highly profitably and take share without having to buy at all and please the factories.
我被聘请撰写一份关于成立新汽车部门的商业计划，以配合正在开发中的AutoNation二手车超级商店。所以我对新车业务一无所知。于是我进行了一些MBA研究，制定了一份要求迅速整合汽车零售行业的商业计划。我们将拥有小经销商所没有的规模经济效益。我们将拥有可利用广告费用的国家品牌。我们将通过我们的经销店链部署最佳实践，以便高效盈利并夺取份额，而无需购买，并取悦工厂。
Basically, we got it approved by the board and they said go start acquiring dealerships. I didn't know a single dealer. So they teamed me up with some people from Southeast Toyota and we started acquiring dealerships and AutoNation went from zero dealerships to over 400 dealerships in a few years. But much of what I wrote didn't come to fruition. It almost all fell short of the plan, the hope because we realized we didn't really have anything that an entrepreneur didn't. We didn't have better practices on average than entrepreneurs.
基本上，我们得到了董事会的批准，他们说去开始收购经销商。我一开始不认识任何经销商。所以他们把我和一些东南丰田的人组成团队，我们开始收购经销商，AutoNation 在几年内从零经销商发展到了400多家经销商。但我所写的大部分内容并没有成真。几乎所有的计划、希望都未能实现，因为我们意识到，我们实际上并没有比其他企业家更好的做法。平均而言，我们没有比企业家更好的做法。
The consumer didn't care about our scale. In fact, they're really, we're almost diseconomies of scale. We couldn't buy the products any cheaper, new or used. We couldn't buy real estate cheaper. We couldn't pay less for real estate. Couldn't pay less for utilities, maybe a little bit less for technology insurance. So we didn't have any economy of scale, but we sure had a lot of overhead. And what we learned is some of the businesses we were buying, which were very high performing businesses, when the entrepreneur stepped out of the store and he was replaced by the best general manager that we could find to fill his role, often the performance dropped.
消费者并不关心我们的规模。事实上，他们实际上非常不关心我们的规模经济。我们无法以更便宜的价格购买产品，无论是新的还是二手的。我们无法以更低的价格购买房地产。我们无法支付更少的房地产费用。可能我们对公用事业支付的费用较少一些，对技术保险支付的费用也许会少一些。所以我们并没有规模经济，但是我们确实有很多固定费用。我们学到的是，一些我们购买的企业，这些企业表现非常出色，当企业家离开店面，由我们找到的最优秀的总经理接替他的角色时，往往业绩会下降。
And sales maybe went down a little bit. Maybe customer service wasn't quite as good. Maybe the customers weren't as happy with the experience. And so the factories started to push back and say, you know, if you can't run these as well as the last guy, if you can't get your sales goals, if you can't get your CSI goals, then maybe you shouldn't be buying more stores. And so I think that's a lesson I really learned early in the business is that our industry does have some economies of scale. There are some best practices that absolutely exist. But the entrepreneur is still the key to success, in my opinion.
销售可能略微下降了。可能客户服务没有做得那么好。可能顾客对体验不太满意。因此，工厂开始反击并表示，如果你做得还不如上一个管理者，如果你无法实现销售目标，无法实现顾客满意度目标，那或许你不应该再购买更多的商店。我认为这是我在创业早期学到的一课，即我们的行业确实存在一些规模经济。有一些绝对存在的最佳实践。但在我看来，企业家仍是成功的关键。
And a guy with one store can outsell and out earn the largest auto retailer if he's there every day caring about his people and his customers. Why is the entrepreneur so important to the local dealership model? In your opinion nowadays, like why has that not gone away when we have all these massive retail establishments and technology which standardizes things? How is it to this day that, you know, there's so much, I don't know if I want to call it key man risk, but in essence, I mean, if an one person that's so key to the ethos of a thriving dealership, why is that?
一个只有一家店铺的人，如果每天都在乎他的员工和客户，就可以超越销售量和收入最大的汽车零售商。为什么企业家对当地经销商模式如此重要？在您看来，为什么当今在所有这些庞大的零售商和技术的标准化之后，这个模式还没有消失呢？直到今天，为什么一个人对繁荣经销商的精神核心如此重要，这是怎么回事？
Because people inside the building and it's people outside the building. Again, going back to my days, getting my MBA, I don't think I took a single class, we've talked about quality of employees. Employees were just like a commodity, like water or electricity. It was just you get higher labor and you get the only increased production. But there's a difference in the quality of the person who works for you and how they perform their tasks. So we had the pleasure of representing a couple of Jack and Robin Saltzman on the sale of their Stylantis dealership a little over a year ago. And Jack and Robin put everything they had into buying those stores back in, I forget when it was in the 90s perhaps. And during the Great Recession, they almost lost them because, you know, sales were dropping, customers couldn't afford the cars.
因为建筑内部的人和建筑外的人。再次回到我攻读MBA的时候，我觉得我没有上过一堂课是关于员工质量的。员工就像商品一样，就像水或电一样。你只是雇佣劳动力，就能增加生产。但是员工的质量和他们执行任务的方式是不同的。所以我们很荣幸代表Jack和Robin Saltzman在一年多前出售他们的Stylantis经销商。Jack和Robin为购买那些店铺投入了全部心血，大概在90年代的某个时候。在经济大衰退期间，他们几乎失去了这些店铺，因为销售额下降，客户无法负担得起汽车。
And so they nearly went bankrupt. In fact, they were told by their landlord, you should go out and fire bankruptcy council right now and they said, no, we're not doing this. They showed all their chips. And when I asked them, you know, what were the keys to success? And we, they were paid the highest value ever paid for Stylantis dealership. That was just over a year ago. It's amazing to think about what happens happens to Lantis since we can talk about that later. But when I asked like, what were the key? Yeah, they said the three things that they really emphasized to people coming up are work harder than anyone else. Bet on yourself and treat everyone like your family.
因此，他们几乎破产了。事实上，他们的房东告诉他们，你们应该立刻解雇破产律师，但他们拒绝了。他们把所有的筹码都摊出来了。当我问他们成功的关键是什么时，他们说，他们收到了付给Stylantis经销商的最高价值。这发生在一年多前。想到Lantis之后发生了什么真是令人惊讶，我们可以稍后再讨论。但当我问起关键是什么时，他们说他们真正强调的三个事情是：比任何人都更加努力工作；相信自己；并对待每个人都像家人一样。
So they were going to work every day, walking in the same door, going in the service drive, you know, going to the sales tower, going to their offices, every day trying to satisfy customers, trying to attract and retain people. And that's difficult for anyone who's a paid employee to match that amount of commitment, passion, care over 20 years or however long they own those stores. So that, that passion, that energy, that commitment to, to your family business is something that's very difficult, I think, for a public company to hire a general manager to get that out of their people. You know, it's interesting when the more I got exposed to the large dealer groups. And we're talking, you know, in the billions and whatnot, the more I was initially shocked at how decentralized some dealerships are, meaning how much power and authority a single general manager has, even under a large, you know, multinational dealer group.
因此，他们每天都要工作，走进同一扇门，进入服务通道，去销售楼，去他们的办公室，每天都在努力满足客户，努力吸引和留住人才。对于一个雇员来说，要匹敌那种在拥有那些店铺多年后的承诺、热情和关心，确实很困难。所以，那种激情、能量、对家族生意的承诺，我认为对一个上市公司来说很难找到一个总经理来激发员工的这种情感。你知道，当我接触到规模庞大的经销商集团越多，我们在谈论的是数十亿美元之类的，我最初对一些经销商的分散程度感到震惊，即使是在一个大型的跨国经销商集团下，一个单一的总经理拥有多少权力和权威。
It's just not something that I expected before I knew that these people, these GMs have so much power over the dealerships that are operating. And it feels to me as though it's unlike any other form of retail out there, right? Go to go to the biggest Walmart in America, that GM, yes, sure, they have to have some power and all that, but they don't have, I mean, they're governed like crazy, right? They're in a box. They can only do so much. Go to the, you know, a large dealership, that GM has, you know, it's, it really is in a way like their own business where they really can make, you know, intimate decisions. Now, you know, that changes dealer group to dealer group, clearly.
在我了解到这些人，这些总经理对正在运营的经销商有如此强大的权力之前，这并不是我预料之中的事情。我觉得这和其他任何零售形式都不一样，对吧？去美国最大的沃尔玛，那个总经理，是的，当然，他们必须拥有一些权力，但他们没有，我是说，他们被严格监管，对吧？他们被关在一个盒子里。他们只能做到这么多。去一个大经销商，那个总经理，你知道，这实际上在某种程度上就像是他们自己的事业，他们可以做出亲密的决定。现在，你知道，这种情况从一个经销商集团到另一个经销商集团都有所不同，很明显。
But I was pretty surprised at initially when I learned this, because I always assumed early on that, hey, of course, you know, massive dealer group, everything's going to be some centralized and the GM will just be, you know, like a pawn, but it's, it's definitely not the case in this business. So that's just something that surprised me when I first learned about it. It's true. I think it's been, you know, as the public companies came in and I experienced this a little bit when I was at AutoNation the second time, I was there twice in my career.
但是当我最初了解到这一点时，我感到非常惊讶，因为我总是一开始就假设，嘿，当然，你知道，大型经销商集团，一切都会被集中管理，总经理只会像个棋子，但在这个行业，情况绝对不是这样的。这是我第一次了解到的事情。事实如此。我认为随着上市公司的介入，我在AutoNation第二次任职时也经历过这种情况。我在职业生涯中去过两次那里。
And the second time I came back, AutoNation had a large, a couple large institutional investors. And one of them was, was a hedge fund, Eddie Lambert's hedge fund. And Eddie made a very smart investment. He bought AutoNation stock at like $4 a share or $6 a share, something like that. And it was a low point. And he got more involved. I think he started to look at the compensation paid to gel managers. And he realized that some of the GMs who were running one store were being paid more than like the CFO at Sears, that he also controlled the time.
第二次回来的时候，AutoNation有一些大型机构投资者。其中一个是一个对冲基金，埃迪·兰伯特的对冲基金。埃迪做了一个非常聪明的投资。他以每股4美元或6美元的价格买入了AutoNation股票。那时处于低谷。他开始更深入地参与其中。我想他开始关注给总经理支付的薪酬。他意识到有些管理一家店铺的总经理的薪水高于西尔斯的首席财务官，而他也同时控制着西尔斯。
He says, this is nuts. This guy's got a P&L. Maybe they're making $75 million in revenue. How can he be paid more than the guy who's getting, you know, making financial decisions for a multi-billion dollar retailer that has thousands of locations? So I think that AutoNation and maybe some of the other companies too, tried to, tried to reduce the amount of complexity for the job of gel manager and therefore reduce the compensation. Yes. Hey, say if we don't, if we pull away ordering inventory, you know, or if we do the advertising or if we come up with the pay plans, then we're doing that at the corporate level and he doesn't have to do it at the local level.
他说，这太疯狂了。这家公司的人员总单里可能赚了7500万美元。他怎么可能比那个为拥有数千个门店的跨国零售商做财务决策的人领更多的薪水呢？所以我认为AutoNation和其他一些公司也试图简化总经理的工作，从而减少报酬。是的。嘿，如果我们不负责订购存货，或者如果我们不负责广告宣传或者制定薪酬计划，那么我们就是在总部级别做这些事情，而不是在地方级别做。
So maybe we can squeeze that comp down. And I would argue that the best performing retail groups, and there are some excellent performers out there have reached a balance where they say, I'm going to get the GM latitude to order inventory. So long as it's selling, I'm going to order, allow them to advertise. So long as it's not too much. I'm going to allow them to pay as people as he wants, so long as he stays within certain metrics. And then he can be truly responsible for his P and L.
所以也许我们可以压缩这个比较分析。我认为，表现最好的零售集团达到了一个平衡，他们会说，只要商品销售情况良好，我就会给GM权力来订购库存。只要不过度，我会允许他们进行广告宣传。只要在一定指标内，我会允许他们自行支付员工工资。然后他可以真正对其损益负责。
If I do everything for him, if I order cars, price to cars, compensate his people, you can't really hold him responsible for the performance of the store because he didn't make those decisions. You did. So the groups that I've seen are the ones who say, I'm here, we've got this great dealership. Maybe I'll loan you money to buy into it. So you're an equity partner. That's a model that I've seen some of the most successful retailers adopt where they're selling perhaps 20% equity to the gel manager. So now he's invested literally with you. You believe he's going to be committed to stay with you for decades, hopefully. You let him run the business as he sees fit so long as you're getting market share. So the factory is happy. So long as customer satisfaction is good, so long, he's not taking any big risks that could hurt you if you were to leave. So as long as those conditions are met, he's staying in that box, run the business. And that to me is the model that I think works best. I wish the public companies could find a way to offer equity to their gentlemen, because I think if they did, it would really transform their businesses for the better. Yeah. And you're when you say that you're referring to equity at their actual store, not equity, of course, in the parent company.
如果我为他做所有的事情，如果我为他订购汽车、定价汽车、补偿他的员工，你不能真的责怪他店铺的表现，因为这些决定不是他做的，是你做的。所以我见过的一些团体表示，我在这里，我们有这家很棒的经销商。也许我会借钱给你让你进来。所以你是一个股权合伙人。这是我见过一些最成功的零售商采用的模式，他们也许会卖出20%的股权给经理人。所以现在他是和你一起投资的。你相信他会承诺与你待在一起数十年，希望如此。你让他按照他认为适合的方式经营业务，只要你在获得市场份额。所以工厂很高兴。只要客户满意度好，只要他不承担可能会伤害你的任何大风险，如果你离开的话。只要这些条件得到满足，他就呆在那个框里，经营业务。对我来说，这是我认为最好的模式。我希望公共公司能够找到一种方式向他们的先生提供股权，因为我认为，如果他们这样做了，会真正改进他们的业务。是的。当你说到股权时，你指的是他们实际店铺的股权，而不是父公司的股权。
As you were saying that, you know, I was, I was laughing or smiling because I remember when, when I initially raised venture funding for Get A Car and, you know, we were starting to, you know, we brought on CFO, starting to really clean things up and, you know, just become professionalized, right? You raise funding. So we instituted pay bands and I remember the friction between corporate and operations, right? When you have a sales manager or, you know, the dealership GM making, you know, 200,000 plus 300,000 plus whatever. And suddenly you have, you know, a CFO and a startup making less money than that or, you know, close to the same. And it's like it was people were like not understanding. They're like, wait, this is operations, making this much money. And now start explaining to someone who's not from the industry that, yes, it's actually totally normal. This position in a dealership is a 200,000 or, you know, three, even $300,000 plus position annually, that caused a lot of friction. Comp is one of the hardest things in our business. The ones who I see do really well, they come up with a formula. It's a pay plan. You get X percent of the gross profit you generate. So the more you generate, the more you get paid. It's just that simple. Most people didn't change their comp during the pandemic, even though people's earnings probably tripled. Uh, we were selling a truck dealership group right now. One of his salesmen made over $2 million last year. That's not the general manager. That's a sales. Wait, wait, where is this? Where's this? This is in the central part of the country. I'll put it that way. And so we and what type of deal is it? Freightliner. So this is a heavy truck group. So, so he found some clients and he was able to sell them a lot of trucks, and I screwed gross profit. And my client was happy to pay it to him. We talked about maybe treating that as an ad back as it was so exceptionally high. We said, if we can't, that's legitimate comp. He earned it. It's, uh, it's something that should be paid and it may not be repeated. We'll see if he does it again, but that to me is kind of part of the fun about this business is that it really is a meritocracy. If you're working at a dealership, if you're a great sales person, doesn't matter if you're 20 or 80, what race you are, what weight you are, what your educational level is, if you're good at taking care of customers, you can make a lot of money and have a great career.
当你说这些的时候，你知道的，我在笑或微笑，因为我记得当初为购车平台筹集风投资金时，我们开始引入CFO，开始清理一切，变得更加专业化，对吧？筹集资金后，我们设立了工资梯度，我记得企业和运营之间的摩擦，对吧？当你有一个销售经理或者车店总经理拿着20万或30万美元以上，突然间你有一个刚刚加入的CFO拿的不是那么多，或者接近的情况。人们不理解。他们说：“等等，这是运营，怎么会挣这么多钱呢？”现在开始向那些不来自这个行业的人解释，这个在车店里的职位其实挣20万，甚至30万美元的工资是完全正常的，这引起了很多摩擦。薪酬是我们行业最困难的事情之一。我看到做得很好的人都有一套公式。这是一个薪酬计划。你根据你的毛利的X％来结算。你创造的毛利越大，你就能赚到更多。就这么简单。大多数人在疫情期间都没有改变他们的薪酬，尽管人们的收入可能翻了几番。现在我们正在出售一家卡车经销商集团。其中一名销售员去年赚了超过200万美元。那并不是总经理，而是销售员。等等，这在哪里？中部地区。这是什么类型的交易？Freightliner。所以这是一个重卡集团。他找到了一些客户，他能够卖给他们大量的卡车，我客户很高兴付给他这么高的毛利。我们讨论过将其视为调整之一，因为这个数字太过异常高。我们说，如果不能，那就是合理的薪酬。他挣到了。这是应该支付的一部分，可能不会再次发生。我们会看看他是否能再次实现，但对我来说，这就是这个行业有趣的部分之一，它真的是一个精英管理体制。如果你在经销商工作，如果你是一个出色的销售人员，不论你是20岁还是80岁，你是什么种族，你的体重是多少，你的教育水平是多少，只要你善于照顾客户，你就能赚很多钱，拥有一个非常棒的职业。
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Before we get into the broader car market and all the moving pieces, there's so much change happening right now. You mentioned Stellantis. We'll talk about that by sell. Tell me what are you seeing on? You mentioned becoming like an operating partner. You mentioned opportunities, you know, for for GMs to get ownership. Give us like a little behind the scenes, look into some structures that you're seeing in our market nowadays, right? What's changing? What's happening with opportunities for employees in this industry as specific as you can? What are you seeing out there?
在我们深入讨论更广泛的汽车市场和所有组成部分之前，现在正在发生许多变化。你提到了Stellantis。我们将逐一谈论。告诉我你看到了什么？你提到了成为像运营合作伙伴这样的角色。你提到了机会，你知道，供GM拥有股权。给我们看一些幕后情况，看看你在我们当前市场中看到的一些结构，对员工有哪些机会？在这个行业中，你看到了什么具体变化？在这方面你看到了什么？
Well, the dealership values tripled during the pandemic. So it became difficult for the historical transfer ownership where it went from a GM, I mean, from a dealer operator to his gel manager. Sometimes the dealer would finance GM. That became almost impossible to do when dealership values were 10, 20 million dollars in goodwill per location. It's just very hard to transition that to a GM. So I would say that the opportunities for GMs to buy out and become 100% owners has declined over the years as the worship values have gone up. But we still see, and I don't know what percentage it is.
在疫情期间，汽车经销商的价值翻了三倍。因此，历史上转让所有权变得困难，例如，从一个总经理，我是说，从一个经销商经营者到他的经理。有时，经销商会为总经理提供资金。但当每个地点的经销商价值达到1,000万到2,000万美元时，几乎不可能做到这一点。将这种过渡转变给总经理非常困难。因此，我会说，多年来，随着经销商价值的上升，总经理购买并成为100%所有者的机会已减少。但我们仍然看到这种情况，而且我不知道百分比是多少。
You see, we still see that maybe half of the folks we work with that have privately owned dealership groups have equity partners. And there's a lot of nuances in them, but basically they'll say, OK, the blue sky value of this business is, let's say, 10 million dollars. So if you want to buy in 20%, that's $2 million in cash you have to come up with. If you don't have $2 million in cash, I might loan you 50%, 80% of it, whatever. There's some folks who say, you've got to invest every last nickel you have. You have a bass boat, you sell it. You have a lake cabin, you sell it. You got a portfolio of stocks, you sell it. I want to see you fully committed into this business and I'll finance the balance.
在我们与私人拥有的经销商集团合作的人群中，可能有一半左右的人有股权合作伙伴。其中有许多微妙之处，但基本上他们会说，好吧，这家公司的资产净值可能是1,000万美元。所以如果你想购买20％的股份，你就得拿出200万美元现金。如果你没有200万美元现金，我可能会贷给你50％、80％，等等。有些人会说，你得投入你所有的积蓄。你有个巴斯船，你卖掉它。你有个湖边别墅，你卖掉它。你有一大堆股票，你卖掉它。我想看到你全情投入这个业务，我会为其余部分提供融资。
So now that dealership owner knows he has the commitment of that GM and the GM that just shoved all his chips in there for sure is going to be going to work and busting his tail to make sure that store performs well. So Ellen Allen, the defined blue sky, defined blue sky for anyone that doesn't know what that means. So from an accounting standpoint, it's an intangible assets. If you buy a dealership, there's the real estate component, then they're the tangible assets like the vehicles, the parts, the furniture, fixtures and equipment. Then because that business generates profit, when someone wants to sell it, there's also a price to be paid to buy into the ownership. And that price is called Goodwill or blue sky. They're both the intangible asset.
所以现在，经销商老板知道他得到了总经理的承诺，而那位总经理已经全力以赴，肯定会努力工作，竭尽全力确保店铺表现良好。所以埃伦·艾伦，对于不知道这意味着什么的人来说，就是明确的蓝天。从会计角度来看，这是一种无形资产。当你购买一家经销商时，有房地产部分，还有诸如车辆、配件、家具、固定装置和设备等有形资产。然后因为那家企业盈利，当有人想要出售时，买家也需要支付买入所有权的价格。这个价格就称为商誉或蓝天。它们都是无形资产。
What something is worth above the physical assets. And it's often a multiple of pre-tax earnings that somebody expects the business is going to make in the upcoming years. And it varies based upon the franchise type. So people will pay a higher multiple of earnings for a brand that they think is going to be growing faster or is very stable like Toyota. And they'll pay a lower multiple of profits for a brand that maybe has some risks, which today I would point to Nissan is an example.
价值是指超出实物资产的价值。通常是指某人预计企业未来几年会实现的税前收益的倍数。这取决于特许经营类型。因此，人们会为他们认为会增长更快或像丰田这样非常稳定的品牌支付更高的利润倍数。他们会为一些有风险的品牌支付更低的利润倍数，比如今天我会提到尼桑。
So the GM now has an opportunity to buy into that business. I believe that increases the work ethic for that general manager. I think they feel that they can make long-term decisions that are in the best interest of the business. They're more likely to say to the majority owner, hey, we need a new roof. Because this thing is leaking a lot versus if I just were there and had a job, I would just put a bucket in the corner to catch the rain when it came in. So that I didn't have to pay for any maintenance repairs out of my P and L because they get a percentage of the profits.
因此，总经理现在有机会投资这家企业。我相信这会增加总经理的职业道德。我认为他们会觉得自己可以做出符合企业最佳利益的长期决策。他们更有可能对大股东说，嘿，我们需要新的屋顶。因为这个地方漏水太多了，相对于如果我只是在那里工作，我可能只会在角落里放个桶来接雨水。这样我就不用从我的利润中支付任何维护修理费用，因为他们会从利润中拿取一定比例的收入。
So I think it encourages better long-term decisions making. I think the GMs were going to recruit better talented people. I think that they're going to treat those people better because they are going to be hoping to work with them for decades, not months, which often happens if there's a lot of turnover in a store. So if you could buy into a store and you can be there for 10, 20 years, let's say that the ocean is making $2 million a year. So you get your compensation as the general manager, but then you also get a compensation for having a cut of the profits. So many people that we see that have been partners of stores have been making seven-figure incomes from their compensation pay plan, plus their ownership percentage. And you do that five, 10, 20 years, you create generational wealth for you and your family. Right? And so there are very few opportunities that I know of outside of auto retail where somebody can come in at the entry level and have a good chance, if they work hard and do well, to become a millionaire by the time they're 40 or 50 and be worth 10 to millions of dollars by the time they want to retire. That's not common in my experience in any industry. Yeah. Yeah. I just had Julie Herrera on the podcast and, you know, phenomenal, phenomenal story in episode 30 years in the business, but really, really took that playbook and started from nothing built up just to conglomerate, to go to store owner, you know, just incredible, incredible journey.
所以我认为这鼓励做出更好的长期决策。我认为总经理们将会招聘更有才华的人。我认为他们会更好地对待这些人，因为他们希望能够与他们合作几十年，而不是几个月，如果店铺经常发生人员流动的话。所以如果你能够投资一家店铺，你可以在那里待上10、20年，比方说这家店每年赚200万美元。所以你作为总经理得到你的报酬，但你也会因为分得利润而得到一笔报酬。我们看到很多店铺的合伙人通过他们的报酬支付计划和所拥有的股份赚取七位数的收入，然后在五、十、二十年内，为你和你的家人创造世代财富。对吧？我不知道有多少机会除了汽车零售外，一个人可以从入门级别开始，并有机会（如果他们努力工作，并做得好）在他们40或50岁时成为百万富翁，在他们想退休时价值数百万美元。这在我的经验中在任何行业中都不常见。是的。是的。我刚在播客节目中邀请了朱莉·赫雷拉，她的故事非常惊人，在第30集中就讲述了她30年的从业经历，但真的非常了不起，从一无所有开始，建立了一个庞大的企业，成为了店主，真的是不可思议的旅程。
I want to transition to a very high level overview of what is currently happening in the market. Where are we at right now? When I say the market, I'm referring to the broader auto market, but with an emphasis on the dealership by sell market, which has been, you know, a very, very good proxy for the health of our industry. So hit us off. Where are we at right now? We're in a very good spot when it's coming down. You know, dealership profits peaked. Twenty two, I think it was we had a remarkable increase in profitability. I think it ran up over three times the levels it was before the pandemic hit. What was it?
我想要对当前市场情况进行一个非常高层次的概述。我们目前处于什么阶段？当我提到市场时，我指的是更广泛的汽车市场，但重点放在经销商市场，这一直以来一直是我们行业健康状况的一个非常好的指标。告诉我们，我们现在处于什么位置？当谈到经销商利润达到峰值时，我们处于一个非常好的时机。我想是在2022年吧，我们的利润率有了显著增长。我记得在疫情爆发之前，它的水平增加了三倍以上。是不是这样？
What was it in twenty two? When you say they peaked, where were we out in twenty two? So when we estimate the average blue sky value again for dealerships, so excluding the tangible assets like inventories and furniture and things like that, if we just look at the intangible, that's what's gone up and down along with profits. We looked at the data published by the publicly traded retailers. And we estimated that the blue sky value per dealership, they own prior to the pandemic was around six million dollars. In twenty twenty two, it was over twenty five. So it more than quadruple, really.
在二十二年，究竟是什么情况呢？当你说他们达到巅峰时，我们在二十二年又处于何种境地呢？所以当我们再次为经销商估算平均蓝天价值时，排除了像库存、家具等有形资产，如果我们只看无形资产，那就是随着利润的上下波动。我们查看了公开交易的零售商发布的数据。我们估计在疫情爆发之前，每家经销商所拥有的蓝天价值大约是六百万美元。而到了二零二二年，这个数字超过了二十五万美元。所以实际上增长了超过四倍。
Because the shortage of inventory led to a lot of positive impacts that the dealership that led to a significant increase in profits. So you had higher front end gross profits on new higher front and gross profits on used. You had lower advertising costs because dealers didn't have to promote vehicles to get them people come in, people coming in already. You had lower floor plan expenses because you didn't have vehicles sitting on the ground very long, they were coming in and going very quickly. And you didn't need as many employees to sell the fewer cars that were out there. So it was a perfect storm of goodness for dealers during the pandemic.
由于库存短缺导致了许多积极影响，从而使经销商的利润显著增加。所以你在新车前端和旧车前端的毛利润都增加了。由于经销商不必推广车辆来吸引顾客，广告成本也降低了。由于车辆没有长时间停放在地面上，库存支出也降低了，它们进来又迅速离开。而且因为需要销售的车辆更少，所以没有那么多员工。所以对于经销商来说，疫情期间是一场利润的完美风暴。
Now, we all knew that was temporary. We all knew that the computer chips would return employees. We go back to work, productive or production of new vehicles would resume. And that's the story that we're experiencing now is that productivity has returned faster than demand in some cases because we we had a lot of customers that wanted to purchase vehicles that couldn't because they weren't available. Now we're having a lot of customers are having a hard time person vehicles because of affordability. The factories increased their prices on their products significantly, maybe as much as a third during the pandemic, far and excessive inflation.
现在，我们都知道这只是暂时的。我们都知道电脑芯片会让员工回归。一旦我们重新开始工作，生产新车辆或者提高生产效率就会恢复。现在我们正在经历的情况是，生产效率恢复得比需求更快，因为我们有很多想要购买车辆却无法购买的客户，因为车辆不可用。现在很多客户因为支付能力的问题很难购买车辆。工厂在疫情期间将产品的价格上涨了很多，甚至可能增加了三分之一，带来了明显过度的通货膨胀。
And interest rates have gone from historical lows, historical highs to help offset inflation. So the average consumer is now under pressure, even though they're making money, their wages have gone up, they haven't gone up enough to offset the big increase in vehicle prices and monthly payments. So there's a little bit of attention where now the producer, the OEMs are producing cars, they're getting pretty high levels, but the demand is suppressed because of high interest rates and high costs. And the result is inventories are building and to clear lots, dealers have to cut prices and they have to advertise more. And because their inventory is turning more slowly, their floor plan interest expense are going up.
利率从历史低点上涨到历史高点，以应对通货膨胀。因此，尽管平均消费者现在赚钱了，工资涨了，但涨幅不足以抵消车辆价格和月供的大幅增长，所以现在平均消费者面临压力。生产商、原始设备制造商正在生产车辆，生产量很高，但由于高利率和高成本，需求受到压制。结果是库存正在累积，为了清理库存，经销商不得不降价并增加广告投入。由于他们的库存周转速度变慢，他们的贷款利息支出也在增加。
So when you kind of now we have the reverse happening of what we happen to be in the pandemic. So dealership profits are falling. We estimate they fell in the fourth quarter of 2023, they were down 31% from the peak, which was the fourth quarter of 22. So big drop in profits, or assume that's 23%, not 31%, 23%. So, but we're still 78% higher than the fourth quarter of 2019. So we're down off our peak, but we're still way over where we were before the pandemic hit.
因此，现在我们看到的情况是与大流行爆发时相反的情况。 汽车经销商的利润正在下降。我们估计他们在2023年第四季度下降了，与峰值相比下降了31％，即2022年第四季度。 利润大幅下降，假设是23％而不是31％，下降了。 但是，我们仍比2019年第四季度高出78％。 我们虽然从峰值下降了，但仍远远高于大流行爆发之前的水平。
So dealers that we speak with are still pretty happy. And maybe they all do this time would come when the pendulum would start the swaying back. Now the big debate in our minds and the minds of many dealers is, is it going to swing all the way back? Are the factories going to go back to their over-producing ways? And will that crush margins and push up advertising costs and push up floor plan interest expense? Or will some lessons have been learned that less is more?
因此，与我们交谈的经销商们仍然很高兴。也许他们都预见到这样的时刻会到来，钟摆将开始摇摆回来。现在我们和许多经销商心中的大辩论是，它会不会完全摇回？厂家们会不会回到过度生产的方式？这会不会压缩利润并推升广告成本、推高地板融资利息支出？或者会有一些教训被吸取，认识到少即是多？
You know, if we look at some of the most successful brands out there, I'm going to point to Portia and Subaru. The factories and the dealers and the consumers have benefited by having one fewer unit supplied than what is demanded. When I say all of them benefit because the factories win with fewer, with more demand and supply because they have fewer incentives, they don't have to cut the margins, they don't have to advertise as much. The dealer benefits because of the same reasons. He doesn't have to cut his price, he doesn't have to store the inventory, he doesn't have to advertise. And the consumer benefits because the residual value for that vehicle they're purchasing is higher in one year, two years, three years, 10 years than if he bought a vehicle from a company like Nissan that overproduced and then the residual value goes down a lot for the domestic brands, so far from that too. So that's the when, when, when that I feel that the OEMs should have learned.
你知道，如果我们看一些最成功的品牌，我要提到保时捷和斯巴鲁。工厂、经销商和消费者受益于实际供应量比需求量少一单位。当我说所有人都受益时，因为工厂会因为需求量大而供应量少而获胜，他们减少了激励措施，不必降低利润，广告支出也减少。经销商也因为同样的原因受益。他不必降低价格，不必储存库存，也不必广告。消费者受益因为他们购买的车辆在一年、两年、三年、十年后的残值更高，而不是如果他从像尼桑这样过度生产，国内品牌的残值大幅下降。这就是我认为OEM应该学会的事情。
Question is, will they have learned it or will they fight for shared? Well, to be devil's advocate there, right, one person does lose. And that is the consumer that has not bought a car in theory, right? Because if you based on that logic, that consumer is will be paying more for the next car they buy. Fair? Yes. Yes. That's fair. I guess it can all be perfect in life.
问题是，他们会学到还是会为分享而战？嗯，要站在反对者的角度来看，对吗，总会有一个人会输的。那就是在理论上没有购买汽车的消费者，对吧？因为如果基于这个逻辑，那些消费者购买下一辆汽车时将会支付更多的钱。公平吗？是的。是的。这是公平的。我想生活中无法完美。
I think that they also will benefit though because when they buy that vehicle, they'll still be less depreciation when they own the vehicle. You know, when you have so many cars getting produced, the value tanks for everybody, everybody's suffering from that, that decline in residual values. So if there are fewer units in inventory, by buying units three years old, I should have less ammunition of value over the next three years than I would if they're just flooding the market. So they would have to pay more to get that used vehicle, but then they'll suffer less depreciation during their ownership lifecycle as well. I think it works out best for everybody.
我认为他们也会受益，因为当他们购买那辆车时，当他们拥有这辆车时，折旧会更少。你知道，当有这么多汽车被生产出来时，每个人的价值都会下跌，每个人都会因为残值下降而受到影响。因此，如果库存中的单位较少，通过购买三年的车辆，我未来三年的价值损失应该会比市场泛滥的情况下少。所以他们将不得不支付更多来购买这辆二手车，但在拥有期内他们的折旧也会更少。我认为这对每个人都是最好的。
Yeah. I think this is a perfect segue into Nissan. I want to go. I want to do a bit of a brand by brand breakdown here because there's several brands as one person recently said to me independently box. And so I want to start with Nissan, which is really a name that we did not discuss last time being used to add down to have a discussion. If anything, we discussed it in a positive manner. But Nissan has been changing some things up lately. Give us the overview on Nissan, where they're at right now. What's happening?
是的。我认为这是一个完美的过渡到日产的话题。我想要谈一谈。我想从逐个品牌分析入手，因为正如最近有人独立对我说的那样，这是一个涉及多个品牌的话题。所以我想从日产开始，上次我们并没有讨论过这个品牌。如果有的话，我们也是以积极的方式来讨论。但是最近日产进行了一些改变。请给我们一个关于日产的概述，他们现在处于什么状态。发生了什么变化？
I feel bad for our friends that have Nissan's the workshops. I feel like they have been battered children and the relationship with their supplier, their parent. During the Carlos Goan era, there was a lot of push in the system. Carlos Goan was pushing for 8% market share and 8% free tax margins. So he won a volume and profit. And he pushed his dealers to take a lot of cars and had stair-step programs where if your target number was fair, your stair-step program was fair, you can make a lot of money.
我为我们的那些在尼桑车厂的朋友感到难过。我觉得他们就像是被虐待过的孩子，与供应商、他们的家长之间的关系受到了伤害。在卡洛斯戈恩的时代，整个体制都处于强大的推动之中。卡洛斯戈恩希望实现8%的市场份额和8%的免税利润率。所以他追求了销量和利润。他督促他的经销商多进货，并实施了阶梯式计划，如果你的销售目标合理，你的奖励计划也会很公平，你可以赚取很多钱。
But every month, the leading dealers that I talked to had their target raised. So if they had a great month, great, you made some money. Next month, it was even higher. So they got on this wheel, like a hamster wheel, or the faster they spun, the more they sold. In some ways, the harder it was to make money. And the consumers suffered because if you bought a vehicle at the beginning of a month for $30,000, they were selling that vehicle for $27,000 at the end of the month to try to hit their numbers.
但是每个月，我谈过的主要经销商都将他们的目标提高了。所以如果他们这个月生意很好，那很好，你赚了一些钱。下个月，目标又更高了。所以他们就像上了这个轮子，就像仓鼠轮子一样，转得越快，卖得越多。在某种程度上，赚钱变得更加困难。消费者因此受苦，因为如果你在月初以3万美元购买一辆车，到月底他们会以2.7万美元的价格出售这辆车，试图达到他们的销售目标。
And then Carlos Goan got, you know, charged with these crimes from Nissan and the business collapsed prior to the pandemic. Teoships were having a hard time selling any cars. There was no incentives. There was no marketing. The product was getting stale. The pandemic was a bit of a godsend for many Nissan dealers because they had massive inventories that were aging. But when the pandemic hit and there was no production, they were able to clear it all as inventories.
然后卡洛斯·戈恩因为尼桑的犯罪指控而身败名裂，事业在大流行病爆发之前就已经破产了。尼桑经销商一直很难销售任何汽车。没有激励措施，没有营销策略，产品也变得陈旧无新。大流行病对许多尼桑经销商来说是个神送，因为他们有大量堆积已久的库存。但当大流行病爆发，生产停滞时，他们能够将所有库存清理出去。
Great. Then now we're getting passive handduction. You kind of want to ask more production again. And it doesn't come very fast. The products are not that compelling to customers. Now they're in a position of overproducing. And they're coming out, particularly with these 24 rogues. There's still a bunch of 23 rogues that are sitting on the ground. It's not enough incentive to clear them out. And the horse is saying, I can't take any more. I can't take any 24s till I get rid of the 23s. And the consumer's like, I don't want a 23. I'd rather have a 24. This is an old unit. So they create a problem for themselves again.
太好了。现在我们正在进行被动的加工。你可能想再次问问生产方面的事情。但是这没有得到很快的回复。产品对客户来说并不那么吸引人。现在他们处于过度生产的位置。尤其是这些24号机器。仍然有大量的23号机器堆在地上。没有足够的激励清理它们。现在人们说，我再也受不了了。在处理掉23号机器之前，我不能再接收24号机器。消费者也表示，我不想要23号机器，我宁愿选择24号。这是旧设备。所以他们又为自己创造了问题。
I also read that in January, I think they saw it sold 44% of its volume to fleet operators, to rental car companies. Those rental car companies are going to do what they always do, which is keep the car for maybe six months, maybe a year. They're going to dump it. So in six months a year, now there's going to be this big influx of used rogues and centros into the market that's going to depress the value of all consumer vehicles that were just purchased. So it's.
我还看到，在一月份，我认为他们将其44%的销量卖给了车队经营者，租车公司。这些租车公司会像他们以往一样，可能会把车子保留六个月，可能一年。然后他们会把车抛售。所以六个月或一年后，市场上会涌现大量二手的Rogues 和Centros，这将压低所有刚刚购买的消费车辆的价值。所以。
And that's where I wanted to dig into, right? What does this all mean at the end of the day? Well, number one is the vehicle that you own and the vehicle that the dealer currently owns and wants to sell is officially, once there's a lot more supply in the market, that will now be worth less when you go to return that lease or you want to sell that car as a consumer. My calculation is different because if I thought your vehicle that you're selling me was going to be worth $15,000 in X amount of years or $20,000, it's not going to be worth less than that, right? So I'm going to be willing to pay less or I'm getting less value.
这就是我想深入探讨的问题，对吧？归根结底，这一切意味着什么呢？首先，你拥有的车辆和经销商目前拥有并想要出售的车辆在市场上供应充足时将会价值更低，这意味着当你要归还租赁车辆或作为消费者出售汽车时，车辆的价值会降低。我的计算方式不同，因为如果我认为你要出售给我的车在未来的某个时间值15000美元或20000美元，那么它的价值不会低于这个数额，对吧？所以我会愿意支付更少，或者说我会得到更少的价值。
And what does that do to your loyalty to that brand? If you bought a vehicle and it depreciates faster than a competing vehicle, the next time you're ready to purchase, are you going back for more? Or are you going to say, maybe I'll try it to go to this time or a Subaru? I heard that the depreciation curve is less. Even if I have to pay a little bit more for it, maybe it's worth it. So that's what I mean about my friends that were Nissan dealers, I feel like they're better children where they're trying hard. They show up every day, they open the doors, they pick up the paper that's on the floor, they hire the best people they can, they sell the vehicles that they're offered. But the factory, the business model of the factory is running is a lot less successful for the dealer and the factory, in my opinion, than the one that Toyota is running or Subaru's running or Porsche's running.
这对你对那个品牌的忠诚度有什么影响呢？如果你购买了一辆汽车，它的价值下降速度比竞争对手的快，那么下次你准备购买时，你会再次选择该品牌吗？还是你会说，也许这次我试试别的品牌，比如Subaru？我听说它的折旧曲线较缓。即使我需要为它多付一点钱，也许这是值得的。这就是我说的关于我那些是日产经销商的朋友，我觉得他们像是在竭尽全力，他们每天都出现，他们打开大门，他们捡起地板上的纸，他们尽力雇佣最好的人才，他们卖出他们所提供的车辆。但就我看来，工厂的经营模式对于经销商和工厂来说成功得少得多，比如丰田、Subaru或者保时捷的经营模式。
Sometimes I feel like saying, just copy Toyota, just copy them. It's proven it works. Why do something different? And it may take a while to perfectly copy, might not get there. When you say just copy Toyota, what does that really mean to you? I think in the Toyota DNA, there is a long-term perspective about product development, about how it impacts the consumer. And it's not just Toyota. I think Honda probably feels this way, but one thing that makes Toyota unique is that they believe their retailer, the dealer, is a significant advantage in their ability to compete in the marketplace and win. So they give a lot of support to the dealer. They don't try to punish the dealer, which I think some factories tend to do when success happens.
有时候我觉得自己想说，就照搬丰田吧，就照搬他们。事实证明这样行得通。为什么要做些不同的事情呢？可能需要一段时间来完美地复制，也许无法完全复制到位。当你说要简单地复制丰田，这对你来说真正意味着什么？我认为在丰田的基因中，有着对产品开发的长期考量，以及对消费者影响的深思熟虑。不仅仅是丰田如此，我认为本田也可能有同样的感觉，但丰田独特之处在于他们认为他们的零售商、经销商是在市场竞争中获胜的重要优势。因此他们给予经销商大量支持。他们不会试图惩罚经销商，这点我认为有些工厂在成功发生时往往会做的。
So Toyota will have not so many of the throughput per Toyota dealership, sales per Toyota location is higher than any other brand. That means that Toyota dealers can make more money. If I make more money, I can have the best real estate, I can have the best marketing, I can have the best general manager. There's a phrase that Mike Jackson used to say that there's a war for talent and capital in automotive retail. And if I have a business model that's high volume, allows the dealer to make a lot of money, then I'm going to get the best locations and the best people. And it becomes a virtuous circle.
因此，丰田每家经销商的吞吐量并不多，但每个丰田经销商额销量高于其他任何品牌。这意味着丰田经销商可以赚更多的钱。如果我赚更多的钱，我就能拥有最好的房地产，最好的营销，最好的总经理。迈克·杰克逊曾经说过一句话，即汽车零售业存在人才和资本的竞争。如果我有一个商业模式，高产量，让经销商赚很多钱，那么我就会得到最好的地点和最好的人才。这将成为一个良性循环。
They also have never pursued to my knowledge any policies like the agency model where they're going to try to sell cars direct. They've never been talking about creating a new sales channel for different brands. When they came over to Lexus, they sold it through dealers. When they came up with what's the brand that's gone now with their lower prices. Sion, Sion, thank you. They sold it through the dealers. Compare that to a lot of those. Okay. So compare that to what Volkswagen is talking about doing now with Scout. They're saying, oh, we're not going to necessarily sell it through the deal. We may come up with a different sales district, your channel, maybe it'll be direct to consumer.
据我所知，他们从未实施过像机构模式这样的政策，他们试图直接销售汽车。他们从未谈论过为不同品牌创建新的销售渠道。当他们开始销售雷克萨斯时，他们通过经销商进行销售。当他们推出价格较低的品牌（Sion）时，他们也通过经销商进行销售。与许多其他汽车公司相比，这点非常不同。比如，与大众现在正在讨论的“Scout”计划相比。他们说，哦，我们不一定要通过经销商销售。我们可能会推出一个不同的销售渠道，也许会直接面向消费者。
That's the kind of thing that I feel like, if you could knock them on the head a little bit and say, just copy Toyota, put that vehicle in your existing dealer's hands, they will do a great job selling it. They need the volume and they need the margin and they need the fixed ops. So here's where if you just copy Toyota and you do things that are on the long term, it's just consumers and the dealers, you're going to win. This might make you chuckle. But someone close to me recently spoke with a prominent dealer son and the dealer son said that they're just trying to milk out every dollar from the dealerships for the remainder, decade or who knows even two decades for what it's worth because they don't think they're going to be here in 30 or 25. I mean, your guess is as good as mine.
这就是我觉得的事情，如果你能稍微敲打他们一下，告诉他们，只需要模仿丰田，把那款车交给现有的经销商，他们会卖得很好。他们需要销量，需要利润，需要固定的运营。所以如果你只是模仿丰田，做一些长期的事情，专注于消费者和经销商，你会成功的。这可能让你笑一笑。但我最近听说一位知名经销商的儿子说，他们只是想在剩下的十年里从经销店里榨取每一美元，甚至可能是二三十年，因为他们觉得他们在30或25年后可能不会在这里了。我意思是，你猜的和我一样好。
But basically, they don't think they'll be here at some point. What are your thoughts on that? So it's a good question. We have had some clients who believe that the threats are sufficient enough for them to say, I'm out. I'm going to take my chips and I'm going to go invest them in other industries or public securities diversified set of assets. So no matter what happens, I'm going to be fine. And that's a logical choice. Diversification creates certainty and reduces risk. You're so freaking calculated.
但基本上，他们不认为他们会在某个时候不在这里。你对此有什么想法？这是一个很好的问题。我们有一些客户认为威胁足以让他们说，我走了。我要把我的赌注拿走，然后投资到其他行业或者公开证券多样化的资产组合中。无论发生什么，我都会没问题。这是一个合乎逻辑的选择。多样化可以带来确定性并降低风险。你太过计算了。
Like, I love how your response is so calculating. Anyway, I don't want to cut you off, but go ahead. Yeah, this would be, it's true. I mean, you're not going to make the same cash on cash return from owning a dealership if things continue as I hope. But this is a question I asked myself, Yosie, because I mentioned that two family members you joined recently and I asked myself, if they come into this business in their 20s, they're going to give up a career in a different industry. And at some point, they won't be able to go back. So they're kind of burning their bridges to come over and work at HIG partners and sell Dorships for their living. So do I think that Dorships are going to have value in 30 years, 40 years when these guys, you know, are within their careers. And in the end, I decided I think they will. I think they will.
喜欢，我喜欢你的回应是如此的深思熟虑。无论如何，我不想打断你，继续说吧。是的，这是真的。我的意思是，如果事情继续如我所希望的那样，拥有一家经销商将无法获得同样的投资回报。但这是我问自己的一个问题，Yosie，因为我提到了最近加入的两位家庭成员，我问自己，如果他们在二十多岁时进入这个行业，他们将放弃在另一个行业的职业。在某个时候，他们将无法回头。所以他们一种决心过来工作在HIG合伙人，为了生活而销售Dorships。那么我认为在30年，40年后，当这些人仍在他们的职业生涯中时，Dorships会有价值吗？最终，我决定我认为会有价值。我认为会。
I think the Dorship business model, it's been around for 100 years, I believe, you know, franchise Dorships. I call them the cockroaches of retail, no matter what gets thrown at them, whether it's public companies, whether it's the internet, whether it's a pandemic, whether it's a recession, on average, Dorships have remained profitable through all those, all those threats. And in fact, in 2023, they had record profits because of a pandemic. I would never have guessed that a global pandemic would have created a gesture of wealth for those in the industry. But it did. Now, will it continue this way? No, it'll go back towards where it was. And I'll give an example.
我认为Dorship的商业模式已经存在了100年了，我相信你知道，它们是特许经营Dorships。我把它们称为零售业的“蟑螂”，无论遭遇什么困难，无论是上市公司、互联网、疫情还是经济衰退，Dorships总的来说都能保持盈利。事实上，在2023年，他们因为疫情实现了创纪录的利润。我从没想到全球大流行会给这个行业带来财富的转变。但是它确实做到了。现在，这种情况会持续下去吗？不会，它会恢复到之前的状态。让我举个例子。
There's a there's a train system in South Florida. It's the only privately owned rail network in North America. Maybe I don't even know if it's in Europe. It's called the Bright Line. The nickname for it is the Red Mist by its advertising company because it's sadly it hits so many people and literally so many deaths on this rail line and the cars are mostly empty. The buses that run around mostly empty roads full full of cars people during the Great Recession gave up their houses, but they kept their cars through the keys back to the front door. They moved out. They gave up their half a million dollar home, but they kept their Toyota Corolla because cars are freedom.
在南佛罗里达有一套火车系统。它是北美唯一一家私人拥有的铁路网络。也许我不知道它是否在欧洲。它被称为Bright Line。广告公司给它取了一个绰号叫红雾，因为它很不幸地撞到了这么多人，而且在这条铁路线上发生了很多死亡事件，车厢大多数时候是空的。在经济大衰退期间，绕着大多数空着的道路行驶的公交车上坐满了汽车，人们放弃了他们的房子，但他们保留了车子的门钥匙，将车开到前门。他们搬走了。他们放弃了半百万美元的房子，但保留了他们的丰田卡罗拉，因为车子代表着自由。
Cars are freedom. So I do not think that cars are going to go away. We're not going to have the ability to transport ourselves without these vehicles. And as many of the new entrants have shown whether it's Fisker, Rivian, the best way to sell these vehicles to consumers is through the franchise dealership model. Tesla is an anomaly. Tesla received tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies from the government, including us paying $7500 for every Tesla purchase. That's not sustainable.
汽车代表自由。因此，我不认为汽车会消失。我们没有能力在没有这些交通工具的情况下进行自我运输。正如许多新进入者所展示的，无论是Fisker、Rivian，向消费者销售这些车辆的最佳方式是通过特许经销商模式。特斯拉是个例外。特斯拉从政府获得了数十亿甚至数百亿美元的补贴，其中包括我们每购买一辆特斯拉付出的7500美元。这是不可持续的。
But for every other factory that's been successful over the long term, it's been by selling a car or truck through a franchise dealer for a lot of reasons. They can handle the trade-in. They can arrange the financing. And a lot of customers need help getting financing, especially if financing is maybe 15-20% of the business, but most people need some help when they're financing or ensuring a vehicle. And then when the car breaks and it will, there's a dealer within five to ten miles of most people. You can take a car in that day and probably get it back the next day. The consumer experience with Tesla Francis has been far different.
然而对于其他一些长期成功的工厂，他们通过特许经销商销售汽车或卡车的方式取得成功，原因有很多。他们可以处理二手车交易。他们可以安排融资。很多客户需要融资帮助，尤其是如果融资可能占到公司业务的15-20%，但大多数人在融资或确保车辆时都需要一些帮助。当汽车出了故障时，而事实上它总会出故障，大多数人家附近五到十英里范围内都有经销商。你可以当天把车送进去，可能第二天就可以拿回来。消费者在特斯拉身上的体验完全不同。
You take your vehicle in there. They don't have extra parts. Who knows how long it's going to be to get it back? So I think over and over, there have been risks that have presented it to dealers. And I was one of them back in the 90s when I wrote that business plan about how public companies are going to take over the industry. They've all proven to be hollow threats. And I don't want to say there are no risks in our business, but the diversification of the business model for a new car dealer where you can sell a new car, you can sell a used car, you can provide finance and insurance, you can repair that vehicle, you can service that vehicle, you can replace a bumper or a fender if it gets an accident.
你把你的车开到那里去。他们没有额外的零部件。谁知道要等多久才能拿回来呢？所以我一次又一次地想到，把车辆交给经销商总是有风险的。90年代我就是其中之一，当时我写了一个关于上市公司将如何接管这个行业的商业计划。结果他们都被证明是空洞的威胁。我不想说我们的业务没有风险，但作为一家新车经销商，业务模式的多元化让你可以卖新车，卖二手车，提供金融和保险，维修车辆，维护车辆，如果车辆出事故还可以更换保险杠或车身翼子板。
The diversification of all those different businesses yields a consistent and highly profitable business that I think is going to be here for decades to come. And therefore, on my kids express interest, I said, you know, so long as you're working hard on bullish. Yeah. Talk to me about the most improving brands. What are you seeing out in the market where you're saying, you know, what is the one, two, three brands that are simply operating and performing the best in terms of improvement? Did you ever play monopoly when you're growing up? Yes, he did. I lost so many times until I realized that the key is whenever you land on a property, you buy it, you don't save your money for the blue one and not buy the yellow one, right?
这些多样化的不同业务的发展，产生了一个持续稳定且高利润的企业，我认为它会在未来几十年继续存在。因此，当我的孩子表达兴趣时，我说，只要你们努力工作就好。是的。谈谈你觉得最有改进的品牌。你在市场上看到了什么，在你看来，哪些品牌在改进方面表现最好？在你成长过程中有玩过大富翁吗？是的，他有。我曾经输了很多次，直到我意识到关键是每当你落地一个地产时，都要购买它，而不是为了蓝色的那个而存钱，而不购买黄色的那个，对吧？
So my advice is if you're a dealership owner, whenever a Toyota comes up, that's in your area, you buy it. Because it's such a great brand and it's going to be a great brand. It's a great partner for the dealers, etc. So that's not necessarily an improving brand. It's always been good, but that's already been good. Yes. So no newsflash there.
所以我的建议是，如果你是一家经销商的老板，每当有一辆丰田车出现在你所在地区时，就买下它。因为它是一个非常棒的品牌，而且将来也会是一个非常棒的品牌。它是经销商的绝佳合作伙伴，等等。所以这并不是一个在提升的品牌。它一直很好，但已经是很好了。是的，这并不是什么新闻。
The one that the two brands that have probably improved is more than any others in terms of profits and probably goodwill values as well are Hyundai and Kia. The sales performance that they enjoy during the pandemic was exceptionally good. I guess they didn't cancel their chip orders like every other factory did when the pandemic hit and the product quality is also dramatically improved.
在利润和可能的商誉价值方面，可能比其他品牌更有可能有提高的两个品牌是现代和起亚。他们在疫情期间的销售表现非常出色。我猜想当疫情来袭时，他们没有像其他工厂一样取消芯片订单，产品质量也得到了显著提高。
You know, I used to think about Hyundai being an Elantra or, you know, something that's kind of a basic transportation. Now the vehicle quality they have in design, you know, the Santa Fe, the tell-your-eye, get the Kia and the Palisade. I guess it's the Palisade right at Hyundai. They're beautiful in the designs and they're as nice as any you're going to see.
你知道吗，我过去总是认为现代汽车就像是一辆雅阁轿车或者是一种基本的交通工具。现在他们在设计方面拥有的车辆质量，比如圣达菲、泰尔拉、起亚和帕里塞德，我想帕里塞德是现代出的。它们的设计非常漂亮，和任何其他车型一样优雅。
So those brands have increased significantly in their profitability and their desirability over the past four years. A sleeper brand, I would point to Mazda and, you know, Mazda for many people has been a low margin, low profit kind of vehicle, but the last five years, my eyes have been open because on the margin side, if you have a facility that meets their image requirements, I think there's as much as 12% gross margin in a Mazda if you're selling it. If you go into a Mazda dealership, you'll think you're in a luxury dealership.
这些品牌在过去四年中增加了其盈利能力和受欢迎程度。作为一个潜力品牌，我想提到马自达，对于很多人来说，马自达一直是低毛利、低利润的品牌车型，但在过去五年里，我的眼界被打开了，因为如果你有一个符合他们形象要求的设施，销售一辆马自达可能会有高达12%的毛利。如果你进入马自达经销商店，你会觉得自己仿佛置身于一个豪华经销商店中。
The design is really nice. It's pretty. Yeah, it's, I think it's a very pleasant place for customers to go and their sales per location have probably improved more during the last five years than most other brands. I can look that up while we're talking. And they also have a partnership now with Toyota, where Toyota Financial Services are able to provide financing to Mazda buyers.
这个设计真的很棒。非常漂亮。嗯，我觉得这是一个非常愉悦的地方供顾客前往，他们每个位置的销售可能在过去五年里比大多数其他品牌都有所改善。我们可以一边谈话一边查找这个信息。而且他们现在也与丰田合作，丰田金融服务公司可以为马自达买家提供融资服务。
That's a huge advantage that they didn't have before. Yeah, Mazda, before the pandemic, Mazda dealerships were selling about 490 cars per year per location. Now they're selling about 650. So that's a significant improvement in sales per location. And so once you get up, you know, closer to 800,000 per mark per location and you're getting 12%, that's like a little luxury store. And the multiple on those stores is quite low.
这是一个他们以前没有的巨大优势。是的，在大流行病之前，马自达经销商每家门店每年售出大约490辆车。现在他们每家门店每年售出约650辆。因此，销售额每家门店显着提高。一旦达到每家门店接近80万的销售额，获得12%的利润，这就像一个小型奢侈品店。这些店的多次购买成本相当低。
Because no one thinks about, I'm going to, G, when I grow up, I want to be a Mazda dealer, like you think I want to be a Mercedes or a Lexus dealer or Toyota dealer. But for people that are starting out in the business, and you see, I know you have a lot of folks in the independent industry, I think it's a great first franchise. It's often neglected by a group.
因为没有人考虑到，所以我想说，当我长大了，我想成为一名马自达经销商，就像你认为我想成为奔驰或雷克萨斯经销商或者丰田经销商一样。但是对于那些刚开始涉足这个行业的人，你会看到，在独立行业中，我知道你有很多朋友，我认为这是一个很好的第一家加盟店。它经常被一群人忽视。
If they have six or eight or 10, they put their worst talent in the smallest one. Maybe it's the Mazda store. So it's underperforming its potential. But if you buy that business and you give it the love that it deserves, I think you'll do well. So those are brands that maybe are kind of obvious and maybe one that you hadn't thought of.
如果他们有六个、八个或十个，他们会把他们最差的才华放在最小的那个里。也许是马自达专卖店。所以它的潜力没有发挥出来。但是如果你买下这家商店，并给予它应有的关爱，我想你会做得很好。所以这些品牌也许有些是显而易见的，也许有些是你没有想到的。
I had CJ Wilson on the podcast and he started with the Mazda. I'm pretty sure. I mean, today he's got Porsche Audi, BMW, but he started with the Mazda. And then two other brands, which are a little bit higher risk, but could be high return. I go back to Nissan because historically they've been the number two Japanese or number three Japanese producer.
我在播客节目中采访了CJ Wilson，他开始的时候是马自达。我很确定。我是说，今天他有保时捷，奥迪，宝马，但他当初选择的是马自达。然后又选择了另外两个品牌，风险略高，但可能回报也高。我又回到了日产，因为历史上他们一直是日本第二或第三大汽车生产商。
Now they've been passed by Hyundai Kia. But I still think that DNA and that desire to do well and they have this partnership with Renault still and they're partnering with Honda on EV. So I still think they could come back if they just come up with the basic retail business model that's long-term focused and as a win-win for the customer and the dealer, I think the factory will win too.
现在他们已经被现代起亚超越了。但我仍然认为他们具有不断进取的DNA和愿望，而且他们仍然与雷诺保持合作关系，并且他们正在与本田合作开发电动汽车。因此，我仍然认为如果他们只是提出一个长期着眼的基本零售业务模式，同时确保为顾客和经销商双赢，他们有可能重新崛起。我认为工厂也将获胜。
And perhaps, Solantis, I mentioned that it was only a year ago where we set the record for the most money ever paid for Solantis dealership. What was that? Did you guys announce that number? We haven't announced the number. It's a private figure. It was substantial. It was a nine figure number for that whole transaction. I won't say for that particular dealership.
也许，Solantis，我提到过仅仅一年前我们创下了Solantis经销商史上支付最高金额的记录。那是多少？你们公布了那个数字吗？我们还没有公布这个数字。这是一个私人数字。整个交易金额非常可观，是一个九位数的数字。我不会透露那个特定经销商的数字。
But since the pandemic had somebody decided that Jeep was going to become a luxury brand. And so was Chrysler. And so was Ram. And they jacked their prices up maybe by a third. I think more, the wholesale prices for Solantis went up maybe higher than any other franchise. 50%.
但自从疫情爆发以来，有人决定让吉普成为豪华品牌。而克莱斯勒和兰姆也是如此。他们把价格提高了大约三分之一。我认为更多，Solantis的批发价格可能比其他特许经营更高。涨了50%。
50%. Yeah, Solantis raised their prices of 50% since 2019. And I sat there one day and I asked myself, why introduce a luxury line? I mean, these are competent individuals, right? There's a lot of smart people working on these companies. And the only conclusion that I arrived to was someone miscalculated just the economy and where we're going to be in the over the next couple of years and will interest rates stay low.
是的，Solantis自2019年以来涨价了50%。有一天我坐在那里，问自己为什么要推出一条豪华产品线呢？我是说，这些都是有能力的人，对吧？这些公司里有很多聪明人在工作。我得出的唯一结论是，有人误算了经济形势，以及未来几年我们会在哪里，利率是否会保持低位。
I can't think of any other reason why you would push so aggressively into the luxury space and just raise prices so far up. Unless you think that the rates at the time would stay low and I'm not necessarily saying that that's a terrible prediction at the time. I mean, I don't think anyone expected rates to jack up that quickly, but making such a steep, long-term move, right? This isn't like changing an image on a website. This is production factories, design. I mean, you're talking about years of design production cycles. It feels a little careless and hindsight. You all know what the rationale was. I know a little bit about retailing and other issues. It's extremely difficult to go from a mass market brand to a premium brand.
我想不出其他任何原因，为什么你会如此积极地进军奢侈领域，只是将价格提高得如此之高。除非你认为当时的利率会保持低位，我并不是说那时这是个糟糕的预测。我的意思是，我不认为任何人预料到利率会上涨得这么快，但是做出如此陡峭的、长期的举措，对吧？这不像改变网站上的图片那么简单。这牵涉到生产工厂、设计。我是说，你在谈论数年的设计生产周期。看起来有点草率，还有事后诸葛亮的感觉。你们都知道当时的理由是什么。我对零售和其他问题有一些了解。要从大众市场品牌转变为高端品牌是极其困难的。
Not that many people make that journey. Sometimes you can take a premium brand and bring it down scale, but it's really hard to go the other way. So, I don't know what their strategy was. Perhaps they felt that Chinese brands are going to come and they had to move up market, but they have really put themselves in a tough position. Well, we have a client now. We did a valuation on this business a couple months ago, and he's got an excellent brand, and he's got Stellanus. We looked at his inventory, his new vehicle inventory. He had an eight and a half month supply of Stellanus product.
并不是很多人会选择这条路。有时候你可以拿一个高端品牌来降低规模，但是很难反过来做。所以，我不知道他们的策略是什么。也许他们觉得中国品牌会进入市场，所以他们必须向上市场发展，但是他们实际上把自己置于了一个困难的位置。嗯，我们现在有一个客户。几个月前我们对这家公司进行了估值，他有一个优秀的品牌，还有Stellanus。我们看了他的库存，他的新车库存。他手上有八个半月的Stellanus产品供应量。
We said, is this number right? How could it be this thing? I finished my G showroom. I built a new facility for them. If I did it, I was supposed to get an extra 500 vehicles of allocation. The day I did it, is the day the truck started showing up. They gave me 500 all at once because they had tons of them to where they couldn't sell other dealers. They raised their prices. The market didn't respond properly. People decided, I used to be able to buy a Wrangler for 30,000. I don't feel like spending 50 on that unit now. So, dealers are suffering and the factory suffering because dealers are not ordinary products.
我们说，这个数字对吗？怎么会是这样呢？我完成了我的G展厅。我为他们建造了一个新的设施。如果我做了这件事，我应该得到额外的500辆车的分配。我做这件事的那一天，卡车开始陆续出现了。他们一次性给了我500辆，因为他们有太多了，其他经销商卖不掉。他们提高了价格。市场没有正确回应。人们决定，以前我可以用3万美元买到一辆牧马人。现在我不想花50万美元购买那辆车了。所以，经销商和工厂都在受苦，因为经销商不是普通的产品。
They got to get rid of this inventory they have. Fortunately, just recently, incentives have increased enough so that inventory is going to clear it out. Because I was afraid, hey, closing, what are we going to do with eight months supply of of Chrysler many bands and Jeep gladiators. That stuff is going to be treated as a use car if it's more than a year old. Fortunately, that problem is being resolved. I would say that's another brand where, again, it's been like Nissan. It's never been a leader. I mean, Chrysler in this country was always third behind Ford and Joe Motors. Nissan's always been third behind Honda and Toyota in Japan. But we have seen these stores make a lot of money, particularly if the dealer is good in used vehicles because there are a lot of units that are out there and the vehicles break.
他们必须处理掉手头的这些库存。幸运的是，最近，激励措施增加到足够的程度，以便库存将被清理掉。因为我担心，嘿，关闭，我们怎么处理克莱斯勒和Jeep Gladitor的8个月供应。如果超过一年的话，这些东西将被视为二手车。幸运的是，这个问题正在得到解决。我会说这又是另一个品牌，在这个国家一直像日产一样。它从来不是领导者。我的意思是，克莱斯勒在这个国家总是落后于福特和乔木汽车。日产在日本总是落后于本田和丰田。但我们看到这些门店赚了很多钱，特别是如果经销商擅长二手车，因为市场上有很多单位和车辆出问题的情况。
So, the service business is really good on the Salinas product. It's going to be a good business model and given how far profits have fallen for this brand. Can you give us some more detail when you say Salinas profits have fallen like any absolute numbers here that you can share? Well, I have the anecdotal information. I would say profits have probably fallen from the peak down below where they were before the pandemic happened. So, if profits more than tripled for Salinas dealers from 19 to call it 21, I think they have gone all the way back to where they were in 2019 and probably even below that level because of this excess inventory. So, it's been a incredible roller coaster for Salinas dealers, but it's really been two straight years.
所以，萨利纳斯产品的服务业务真的很不错。这将是一个很好的商业模式，考虑到这个品牌的利润已经大幅下降。当你说萨利纳斯的利润下降，你能给我们更多细节吗？比如有没有绝对数字可以分享？嗯，我有些轶闻信息。我想说，利润可能已经从峰值下降到疫情发生之前的水平以下。所以，如果从19年到21年，萨利纳斯经销商的利润增加了两倍以上，我认为它们已经回归到2019年的水平甚至低于那个水平，因为有过剩库存。所以，对于萨利纳斯经销商来说，这真是一个令人难以置信的过山车，但这已经持续两年了。
I think it's nine quarters in a row of sales declines at Salinas. That's brutal. The market and the fourth quarter, or for the year, I think, was up 12%. So, if you're going down and the market's going up 12, you're losing gobs to share and it's not that easy to get it back. Nine quarters in a row of new car sales declines. Yeah. That's massive. Yeah. I would ask you about a brand that we spoke a lot last time. You know what I'm thinking about? I can't remember. My brain's not that sharp. What was it? The F word. Ford. What's up with Ford? I mean, is it too early? Is it too early to even consider dabbling in that space and looking at Ford? I mean, they've been walking back on certain decisions and things and whatnot, but give me your overview on Ford. Where's Ford at nowadays? I think you can go back to Ford now. I think that Mr. Farley, to that extent, huh? Yeah. I think it's time because I think it was two years ago when Mr. Farley went, said we're going all in an EV, some break in my company up into three parts, the EV part, the ICE part and the commercial part. And I'm going to run the EV part because he was convinced that EVs were going to become the company's future.
我觉得萨利纳斯已经连续九个季度销售下滑了。这太残酷了。市场和第四季度，或者说全年，我想，增长了12%。所以，如果你的销售下降，而市场增长了12%，你会失去大量份额，并不容易把它拿回来。连续九个季度的新车销售下滑。是的。这是巨大的。是的。我要问你上次我们谈了很多的一个品牌。你知道我在想什么吗？我记不得了。我的记忆力不那么好。是什么来着？F这个字母。福特。福特怎么样了？是不是太早了？甚至考虑涉足这个领域看看福特？他们一直在回撤某些决定和事务，但是给我说说你对福特的概述。如今福特处于什么状态？我认为现在你可以回到福特了。我觉得法利先生，就这个意义上来说，是吧？是的。我认为是时候了，因为我认为两年前法利先生上任时说过我们全力进行电动车业务，把公司分为三个部分，电动车部分、传统燃油车部分和商用车部分。我会负责电动车部分，因为他坚信电动车会成为公司的未来。
And last year, I think I already lost $5.5 billion in EV division. So, if I'm Bill Farley and I want to keep my job and I'm running the division that lost $5.5 billion, I probably want to get out of that chair and go back to the division that's profitable. I would say that F-150 Lightning, I don't want to call it a disaster, but when dealers won't take that vehicle on trade, you know it's a flop.
去年，我认为电动车部门已经亏损了55亿美元。所以，如果我是比尔·法利，我想要保住我的工作，而我负责的部门亏损了55亿美元，我可能会想要离开那个位置，回到赚钱的部门。我想说F-150闪电，我不想称其为灾难，但当经销商不愿意接受这辆车的交易时，你就知道它是个失败。
And dealers won't take that vehicle on trade because they don't know what it's going to be worth tomorrow because they're afraid that Ford will put incentives, hiring incentives on the new 150-watt Lightning to sell them. So, now that I think Ford is realizing that EVs are not what its core customers want, which to me is amazing that they didn't know that beforehand.
经销商不愿意用那辆车换取其他车辆，因为他们不知道它明天会值多少钱，他们担心福特会为全新150瓦特闪电车提供激励措施来促销。所以，我现在认为福特意识到电动车不是其核心客户所需要的，这对我来说令人惊讶，他们竟然之前不知道这一点。
I mean, I think we talked about those dealers in the north part of our country that customers bought a Lightning, they hooked up their trailer with the snowmobiles and they wanted to go up to the cabin for the weekend. They were petrified of running out of juice and being by the side of the highway overnight and sub-zero temperatures. So, all those vehicles came back from those customers. I've seen two Lightning's maybe ever. I live in a big metropolitan area. I just don't see them.
我是说，我觉得我们谈过我们国家北部的那些经销商，客户买了一辆闪电车，他们把雪地摩托车挂上拖车，想要周末去小屋度假。他们害怕电量用尽后在寒冷的温度下夜里被困在路边。所以，所有那些车辆都被客户退回来了。我可能见过两辆闪电车。我住在一个大都会地区。我就是看不到它们。
I think they're great tailgate machines because you can have open up the front. There's a huge place where the engine used to be that not going to be where your cooler beer goes and in the back they have all the outlets where you can plug in your TV and your grill and your stereo and everything else. But it seems to me that Toyota wins again when they talk about the hybrid strategy is the way to have electrification in the vehicle. So, I think that dealers have been suffering with the EV products they've had, the Ford, Mach-E's, the Must, the Lightning's, the whole discussion that it was going to be an agency model and customers are going to order vehicles directly off the Ford website and you could bid to deliver them if you're Ford dealer.
我认为它们是非常棒的露天派对机器，因为你可以打开前部。有一个巨大的地方，引擎曾经在那里，现在可以放置你的冷藏啤酒，而在后部，有所有的插座，可以插入你的电视，烤架，音响等等。但在我看来，当他们谈论混合动力战略时，丰田再次获胜，这是在车辆中实现电气化的方法。所以，我认为经销商一直为他们拥有的电动汽车产品而受苦，例如福特Mach-E，Mustang，闪电等等，这些都是值得讨论的，按照代理模式运作，并且客户将可以直接从福特网站订购车辆，并且如果您是福特经销商，您可以竞标交付。
I think all that futuristic dreaming is going out the window. I think it's going to go right back to where the traditional Ford customers buy traditional vehicles from the dealer one at a time plus the commercial aspect of Ford, which is one of its strengths is that many of its products are used by people not for personal transportation but for a living. They're the roofer, they're the exterminator, they're the contractor, that vehicle is in production for them to make money.
我认为所有那些未来主义的梦想都将泡汤。我认为它将重新回到传统的方式，福特的传统客户将逐一从经销商购买传统车辆，再加上福特的商业方面，这是其实力之一，许多产品不单是用于个人交通，而是用于谋生。他们是屋顶修缮工，他们是灭虫者，他们是承包商，这些车辆是为了他们赚钱而生产的。
So, they need it to work, they don't mind bringing it back to the shop if there's any issues with having it running, they're going to put a lot of miles on that vehicle, tires, brakes, alternators, engine rebuilds, etc. So, for that business, I kind of like Ford again, I think a lot of the stuff that gives me anti-dealer or threatening dealer, I think it's going poof and they're going to go back to what made that franchise so strong in the past. General Motors is kind of the same way.
所以，他们需要汽车能够正常运行，如果出现任何问题需要把车送回店里修理，他们将在这辆车上行驶很多里程，例如更换轮胎、刹车片、交流发电机、发动机重建等。因此，对于这家企业，我有点再次喜欢福特，我觉得很多让我反对经销商或感到威胁的东西都会消失，他们会回到过去让这个特许经销商变得如此强大的原因。通用汽车也有点类似。
Yeah, I was going to say on Ford, there's a line that my dad always says that I love and he says, life and death is at the power of the tongue. I feel like it's tough after you let the genie out of the bottle to kind of earn back trust from people so quickly. How do you actually see that impact valuations? So, they may have cooled down and they're doing the right things to potentially appease shareholders. But is that reflective yet in potentially, and I say potentially rebounding valuations for four dealerships or are you still seeing a market that is somewhat frozen on the Ford side?
是的，关于福特，我爸爸常说一句我很喜欢的话，他说，生死全在言语之间。我觉得一旦让鬼出了瓶，要想很快重建起人们对你的信任是困难的。你如何看待这对估值产生的影响呢？ 所以，他们可能已经降温并且正在做正确的事情来潜在地安抚股东。但这是否已经反映在潜在的、可能会回升的福特经销商的估值中呢？或者你还在看到市场在福特方面有些冻结？
I think the values have come back. I'm just a quick math while you talk about this. We had two Ford dealerships under contract. The day that or three actually, the day that Mr. Farley said, hey, here's our new plan. If you want to be a dealer with us, sell EVs, you have to do all this stuff. And it added to be like a million six per dealership. That's a lot of money. That's $5 billion worth of investment, I believe, required by Ford dealers to be able to sell vehicles. Two of our deals broke instantly. The buyers are like million three, million six.
我觉得价值观已经回归了。我只是在你谈论这个的时候快速算一下数。我们有两家福特经销商签约了。实际上是三家，就在法利先生说的那一天，嘿，这是我们的新计划。如果你想成为我们的经销商，销售电动车，你必须做所有这些事情。每家经销商要增加约160万美元。这是一大笔钱。我相信，福特经销商要投入50亿美元的投资才能够销售汽车。我们的交易中有两笔立刻破产了。买家要价从130万到160万美元。
That's on you seller to invest that. That's coming out of the deal. And the seller's like, no, that's going to give you all these great EV products to sell in the future. No. So, two deals broke right away because of that. We didn't publish it because we weren't sure what the long-term impact was going to be. We weren't sure if they're going to stick with that. Since that time, many Ford dealers did make the investments.
这取决于卖家来投资。这是从交易中支出的。而卖家认为，这将为你提供未来销售的众多优秀EV产品。不是。因此，有两笔交易因此立即破裂。我们没有公布此事，因为我们不确定长期影响会是什么。我们不确定他们是否会坚持这一立场。自那时以来，许多福特经销商确实进行了投资。
I think they're some who are a little bit upset. They made it because the return hasn't been there yet. Eventually, they'll get a return. But now, those requirements have been watered down. And dealers, in some cases, in small markets, just won't do them because they're not going to sell them off cars to justify it. But I think that a lot of dealers have been in their chairs a lot longer than the CEOs of these automakers have been. And so, they've seen management come and go. They enjoyed good times and bad times.
我觉得有些人可能有点不高兴。他们生气是因为收益还没有达到预期。最终，他们会得到回报的。但现在，那些要求已经变得不那么严格了。在一些小市场里，经销商们不愿意执行这些要求，因为他们没有足够的车辆去证明其合理性。但我认为很多经销商的经验比这些汽车制造商的CEO们长得多。他们见证了管理层的来来去去，经历了好时光和坏时光。
And so, I think for many of these dealers, they may be sitting there sort of chairs longer than the CEOs. So, they may not want to buy a Ford store if there's a million six requirement. But when that dissipates and that goes away, they're going to step back in. And we just sold a Ford store earlier this month for decent value. It was up in New Hampshire. And the buyer there was excited to get it. So, I think that the worst risks of being a Ford dealer may be behind us. Probably the same thing as truly General Motors. I mean, what a flop. Their strategy has been to remember the Hummer. Remember how that money they spent on the Super Bowl was that three years ago? I've seen two. And I have to imagine they're losing gobs on each one they sell.
因此，我认为对于许多这些经销商来说，他们可能坐在那里的椅子比CEO的时间还要长。因此，如果需要一百六十万美元，他们可能不想购买福特经销店。但是当那种要求消失了，他们就会重新投入。我们在本月初出售了一家福特经销店，价值不菲。这家店位于新罕布什尔州，买家对此感到兴奋。所以，我认为成为一家福特经销商的最大风险可能已经过去了。可能通用汽车也是一样。我是说，多大的失败啊。他们的策略是要记住悍马。还记得三年前超级碗上花费的资金吗？我见过两辆。我不得不想象每卖出一辆他们都在亏损。
So, just this week, the EPA dial back its requirements for when the engineers have to be electrified. That's going to keep coming because otherwise, the voters would vote out these politicians that are voting for green policies that are further ahead than they are. So, I feel like it's safe to buy a Ford store again. I feel like it's safe to buy a Jean Motor store again. The strike is over. I think we're locked down for three years, you know, how long these contracts are for? Three years, five years? I can't remember. Don't have exact date on top of my note.
所以，就在本周，环保署放宽了对工程师何时必须使用电力的要求。这种情况将会继续出现，否则选民们会投票赶走那些投票支持比他们更领先的绿色政策的政治家。所以，我觉得现在再次购买福特汽车是安全的。我觉得现在再次购买吉利汽车也是安全的。罢工结束了。我想我们会锁定三年，你知道这些合同有多久？三年，五年？我记不清了。我笔记上也没有确切日期。
Yeah. So, I think the bad surprises are in the past. And we're selling a Ford truck franchise now. They don't even have the main consumer products. It's just kind of the Ford medium-duty trucks. And the blue sky value was really strong. So, I think if it's got diesel or gas trucks, you can sell in this country, you're going to do well. And so, dealerships are selling again. Before we wrap up in the transition to macro, I'm curious your take on Chinese manufacturers. This is, again, another topic that's percolating and getting lots of questions. Are dealers asking you about this? Do you foresee in five years? Are we going to see a Chinese dealership down the street? What's the deal here with the Chinese car manufacturers?
是的。所以，我认为不好的意外已经过去了。我们现在正在销售福特卡车特许经营权。他们甚至没有主要的消费者产品。它只是福特中型卡车。而且市场估值非常强劲。所以我认为如果有柴油或汽油卡车在这个国家销售，你会赚大钱。所以，经销商又开始销售了。在我们转向宏观层面之前，我想知道你对中国制造商有什么看法。这又是一个被讨论的话题，引起了很多问题。经销商们询问你这个吗？你是否预见五年后我们会在街上看到中国汽车经销商？中国汽车制造商到底是怎么回事？
It's a great question. Potentially, that is a great threat to the franchise system if their vehicles are well-designed and priced lower. Consumers will swap to a Chinese car for, say, with 200 bucks a month. I talked to enough dealers to be convinced of that. There's no, there's not going to be this like, oh, we're having conflict about China because China might take the user data from TikTok. If you can save 200 bucks a month as a consumer, you're going to buy that Chinese product, right? 100%. I totally agree with you. If you don't think that, you need to get into retail a little bit more.
这是个很好的问题。潜在地，如果他们的车辆设计良好且价格更低，那将对特许经营系统构成很大威胁。消费者可以用每月200美元的价格换购一辆中国车。我已经和足够多的经销商谈过，确信这一点。不会有类似于“哦，我们对中国感到不安，因为中国可能会获取TikTok的用户数据”的情况。如果作为消费者能省下200美元每月，你会去购买那个中国产品对吧？百分之百。我完全同意你的观点。如果你不这样认为，那你可能需要多了解一些零售业。
I did a tweet maybe a couple months ago and I think it was newsflash. People don't care where the car is made. The average consumer simply wants four wheels and Apple CarPlay. That was the tweet. And the point was that it was exactly what you're just saying. It's like, you're living in Lottaland. If you think that there's going to be a car with a different emblem here on the roads and the average consumer who's living paycheck to paycheck, who maybe has no savings debt or like 30 days of savings is not going to, say, give me that Chinese car. It's cheaper. I mean, you're in Lottaland if you don't think that's going to take off.
几个月前我发了一条推特，我觉得它就像一个新闻快讯。人们并不在乎汽车是哪里生产的。普通消费者只是想要四个轮子和苹果CarPlay。这就是那条推特的内容。我的意思是，这正是你刚才说的那样。这就像是你生活在幻想世界里一样。如果你认为会有一种不同车标的汽车出现在路上，并且普通消费者每个月只能够勉强度日，可能没有储蓄或者只有30天的储蓄，他们不会说：“给我那辆中国车。它更便宜。”如果你认为这种情况不会发生，那你就是在幻想世界里。
Honor percent true. I mean, I look at the German brands. A lot of Americans died and what we're two fighting the Germans in 1950s and 60s, their cars came over and people bought them. The Japanese same thing true in the 60s and 70s. We tens of thousands of American soldiers died and now their kids are driving them. Lottaland, to be clear, I commend people that their values are more important to them and maybe they say, no, I'm only buying American made or X made or Y made or Z, whatever. But the practical reality of the American consumer is that is just not going to be the case.
我是说，就像德国品牌，很多美国人在50年代和60年代与德国人作战时牺牲了，他们的车进入美国市场，人们购买了。同样，日本在60年代和70年代也是如此。我们有数以万计的美国士兵牺牬，现在他们的孩子们还在开这些车。要明确一点，我钦佩那些把价值观放在首位的人，也许他们会说，不，我只购买美国制造的或X制造的或Y制造的或Z制造的产品。但美国消费者的实际情况是，这并不会成为现实。
So it's a threat. It's a big threat. So I have a dealer friend that has two BYD vehicles in their driveway right now. And they said, one is like an RX 350. It's beautiful, drives great, handles well, styling is just the same. It's 39,000. This is the price, that's something US price versus I'm guessing an RX 350 is in the 60s, you might guess. I forget what the other model he had, but he said it's equally nice, beautiful car, et cetera.
所以这是一个威胁。是一个很大的威胁。所以我有一个朋友是经销商，他们现在在车道上有两辆比亚迪车。他们说，其中一辆像是RX 350。漂亮，驾驶感觉很好，操控性很好，外观也很不错。售价为39,000。这个价格相对于美国市场的价格来说，我猜RX 350的价格应该在60多万。我忘记他还有哪个型号的车了，但他说另一辆车同样漂亮，外观很好等等。
Now, I think they're trying to figure out how to enter this market. Are they going to set up a retail network, in which case it could be a good opportunity for franchise dealers that have capital, have experience, know the market, et cetera, and would welcome the ability to sell a well-made vehicle made in China. If it takes share, will it threaten all the existing ones? Yeah, just like Tesla took share. But again, dealers can adopt, you're not just selling or adapt, you're not just selling new cars, right? You're selling used cars and you would sell used BYDs. You can service cars. You can fix cars and get in accidents.
现在，我认为他们正在尝试弄清如何进入这个市场。他们会建立零售网络吗？如果是这样，那对于拥有资本、经验、了解市场等等的特许经销商来说可能是一个好机会，他们会愿意销售中国制造的优质车辆。如果它占有市场份额，会威胁到所有现有的竞争对手吗？是的，就像特斯拉占有了市场份额一样。但是，经销商可以适应，你不仅仅在销售新车，对吧？你还会销售二手车，你也会销售二手的比亚迪。你可以为车辆提供维修服务，可以修理车辆，也可以处理事故。
So if they come and it's a lower priced vehicle, and it goes through the retail network, the franchise system could be good for the deal community overall. Now, I have a feeling in the politics of this country today, given all the anti-China rhetoric, which frankly a lot of it's deserved. They've been terrible thefts of intellectual property, quite hypocritical. When US companies or German companies or Japanese companies wanted to manufacture or sell in China, they had to give away half of their company to a Chinese partner. So will that happen here? I don't know. But I think they'll be successful if they come with a product that is as reliable as it is priced. You don't have to have a Toyota reliability if you're charging half the Toyota price or one quarter or three quarters of the Toyota price.
因此，如果他们带来的是一个价格更低的车辆，并且通过零售网络进行销售，特许经营系统对于整个交易社区可能是有利的。现在，在今天国家政治方面，我有一种感觉，鉴于所有的反华言论，说实话，其中很多是应该的。对知识产权有可怕的盗窃行为，相当虚伪。当美国公司或德国公司或日本公司希望在中国制造或销售时，他们不得不把一半的公司让给中国伙伴。所以这种情况会在这里重演吗？我不知道。但我认为如果他们带来的产品价格不贵，质量可靠，他们肯定会成功的。如果你的价格只有丰田的一半，或者四分之一，或者四分之三，那么你就不必拥有丰田的可靠性。
So is it a risk or is it an opportunity for franchise dealers? Yeah, if they want to come in through a direct consumer model, that'll be a risk. But I can also imagine the challenges of them setting that up and getting this vehicle serviced because it's not going to be that special. A Tesla special. People will wait a couple weeks to get through Tesla repaired. I'm not sure you're waiting a couple weeks to get a low price vehicle repaired and being happy about it because you need that car. The Tesla might have been your third car or fourth car. But if you're buying a BYD, that's probably your primary source of transportation.
那么，这对于特许经营商是风险还是机遇呢？是的，如果他们想通过直接消费者模式进入，那将是一个风险。但我也可以想象到他们建立这种模式并维修这种车辆的挑战，因为这种车并不那么特别。特斯拉才特别。人们愿意等几周来修理特斯拉。我不确定你会愿意等几周来修理一辆价格便宜的车并对此感到满意，因为你需要那辆车。特斯拉可能是你的第三辆车或第四辆车。但如果你买的是比亚迪，那可能是你的主要交通工具。
Yeah, and the Chinese are very methodical. And they know, hey, this is already going to be something that's a bit confrontational. I would be shocked if they did not come into the US under the dealer network, right? They don't want to come in and make enemies. They already know this is going to cause a bunch of hoopla. Right? This is the, you know, it's the elegant way to do it where they're kind of coming in with the crowd. They're on the dealer side. Dealer lobbying is on their side. I mean, I would be again, this is my personal opinion. And I'm no expert at this specific topic by any means. But that's just my, my hunch based on what I know.
是的，中国人非常有条理。他们知道，嘿，这已经是一个有点对抗性的事情了。如果他们不通过经销商网络进入美国，我会感到震惊，对吧？他们不想进来就和别人对立。他们已经知道这会引起很多骚动。对吧？这是一种优雅的方式，他们在人群中进来。他们站在经销商这一边。经销商的游说活动是支持他们的。我的意见仅仅是我个人的看法。在这个特定主题上，我并不是专家。但根据我所知，这只是我的直觉。
So before we we wrap up, Alan, I want you to bring us a full circle. I mean, this has been amazing discussion. And just really doing a brand deep dive. Lots of changes here in the last couple months alone. What is next for our industry, right? Like give us your outlook for, you know, the remainder of the year, how you how you see the overall market and where do you think we're headed? I think that life is going to return to quote normal, you know, where dealers we're going to have to go and sell cars again as opposed to taking borders. It's already happening. You can see that because the inventory is already built up.
所以在我们结束之前，艾伦，我希望你把话题提到一个圆满的地步。我的意思是，这次讨论真是太棒了。我们真正深入探讨了品牌。就在过去几个月里有很多变化。我们行业接下来会发生什么呢？告诉我们你对今年剩下的时间的展望，你对整体市场的看法，以及你认为我们将走向何方？我认为生活会恢复“正常”，你懂的，经销商们又要去销售汽车了，而不是只做出口。这已经在发生了。你可以看到，因为库存已经积累起来了。
I think that dealers will continue to invest more in the fixed operations and they have in the past. Because I think they're realizing that, hey, even if I made less money per car going forward because the supply is back, there's a lot of pent-up demand for service work. And so we see people building bigger service apartments in these two and promoting that. I think there will continue to be a search for technology that makes dealerships more efficient. So they can do more with fewer people or they can reach more eyeballs with fewer dollars. So I think the business will, I mean, I spoke with Darryl Kenningham, he's a CEO at Group One, which is one of the largest dealership groups in the world. I've got, I'm not sure how many stores, probably over 200 dealerships in the United States and in England. And he says, you know, we're kind of like a two and a half percent net-to-sales business. I can't work that with exactly a minute.
我认为经销商将继续在固定经营方面投入更多资金，比过去更多。因为我认为他们意识到，即使以后每辆车赚的钱少了，因为供应开始恢复，但服务工作的需求积压很高。因此我们看到人们在这方面建造更大的服务公寓并加以推广。我认为会继续寻找能让经销商更有效率的技术。这样他们就可以用更少人员做更多事，或者用更少的资金吸引更多关注。所以我认为这个行业会继续发展，我和Group One的CEO Darryl Kenningham交谈过，这是世界上最大的经销商集团之一。他们大概有超过200家店铺，分布在美国和英格兰。他说，我们的净销售额大概是百分之二点五，我可能算错了一点时间。
So for every dollar revenue we make, we keep two and a half cents. That's a really low margin business compared to almost any other industry. But the average dealership today might do $800 million of revenue. Some do several hundred million dollars of revenue. So in his minds, if he can take a two and a half percent, if he can save half a cent a year, he's going to improve his profits from two and a half percent to three percent. So he's going to improve his profit by 20 percent by just the middle. Yeah, a little bit of a long business. Yeah, you can just nibble a little bit on the edges. So you spend a little bit less money on a car advertising it because, you know, you had a better message that resonated better. If you have vehicles that turn a little bit faster because you were the right vehicle and you price them correctly, that's something technology can help with. It's not going to sit on the ground and cost you advertising dollars and floor plan dollars, and then you have to discount to sell it. So I think that technology is going to contain to play a big role in our industry.
对于我们赚取的每一美元收入，我们能留下两分之半美分。与几乎任何其他行业相比，这是一种利润非常低的生意。但是如今，平均每家经销商可能会产生8亿美元的收入。有些经销商的收入可能达到数亿美元。所以在他的看法中，如果他能节省两分之半的百分比，如果他每年能节省半美分，他将把利润从两分之半提高到三分之。所以他将通过简单的方式提高20% 的利润。是的，这是一个稍微长期的生意。是的，你可以稍微在边缘上节省一点。所以你可以少花一点钱去广告汽车，因为你知道你有一个更好的信息传达更好的共鸣。如果你的车辆转动速度稍微快一点，因为选择正确的车辆并且给它们正确的价格，这就是技术可以帮助的地方。它不会坐在那里浪费广告费用和库存资金，然后你不得不打折来卖掉它。所以我认为技术将继续在我们的行业中发挥重要作用。
There are dealer groups that also believe that larger scale will help them save money. So if I go from two stores, which is the average dealer that has two stores today, I go to five stores or 10 stores, maybe I don't need as many accounting people per store, maybe I can advertise more cost effectively so I can spend less money per car, maybe I can attract and retain better talent because I say, hey, this is a growing group. If I just go to the guy that's got one store and he's 70 years old, he's not going to buy another store. If I go to the guy who's 50 and he's got five and he just bought a store and he wants another store, I'm going to have a shot to be that GM partner on his seventh, eighth or 15th store. So I think people that are growing, there's a couple terms that I've heard that I like, and I remember and I share them, maybe I share this one already, but there's a deal in his Sam he had a phrase, when you're green, you're growing and when you're ripe, you're rotting, and you're green, you're growing, you're ripe, you're rotting. So those groups that are growing, in my opinion, attract talent through their acquisitions.
有一些经销商集团也认为规模越大将有助于节省成本。所以，如果我从两家店开始，这是如今拥有两家店的平均经销商，我扩张到五家或十家店，也许我就不需要每家店那么多会计人员，也许我可以更具成本效益地进行广告投放，这样我每辆车的花费就更少，也许我可以吸引并留住更优秀的人才，因为我可以说，嘿，我们是一个不断壮大的集团。如果我只找一个70岁的老板，他可能不会再买另一家店。但如果我找一个50岁的老板，他已经有五家店，刚刚买了一家店并且想再开一家店，我就有机会成为他第七、第八或第十五家店的合伙人。所以我认为，那些在成长的人们吸引人才通过他们的收购。
When you buy a dealership and you have 70 people, 100 people working there, there's going to be some talent in there that you didn't have in your company before. And there's excitement, there's energy, there are things that are happening, people notice that they want to be a part of something that's growing and vibrant and healthy, and it creates more opportunities within the company. So the folks that are out there working to grow their groups, in my opinion, that's a good use of their time and capital, because every time you get a little bit bigger, in my opinion, you get a little bit stronger, a little bit more diversified, whether it's just geography, or whether it's by franchise, or whether it's by talent, you've got more, you've got more ability to take advantage of the good times, and you've got more strength to weather the tough times. So we're big fans of people, if they have the motivation and the capital energy to use that to grow versus paying down your mortgage, or buying a fifth property, or a bigger jet, or a bigger boat, I would take that capital and put it into another dealership, maybe a Mazda store, maybe a Styliana store, maybe when that Toyota store comes in, that's around the quarantine, you always want to, you say, it costs a fortune, but it's a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to have that brand in my group, and I'm going to grab it. So those are things that I see leading dealers do.
当你购买一个销售点，并且有70人、100人在那里工作时，你会发现在你的公司里有一些你以前没有的人才。这带来了兴奋、活力和发生的事情，人们会注意到他们想成为一个正在快速成长、充满活力和健康的机构的一部分，这为公司内部创造了更多的机会。所以对于那些在努力扩大他们的团队的人来说，在我看来，这是对他们时间和资本的良好利用，因为在我看来，每当你变得更大一点，你就会变得更强大一点，更多样化一点，无论是地理位置，还是特许经营，或是才能，你都拥有更多，你有更多的能力利用好时机，你也有更多的力量去经受困难时刻。所以我们非常支持那些有动力和资本能量去用于成长而不是用来偿还抵押贷款，或购买第五个物业，或更大的飞机，或更大的船只，我会将这笔资金投入到另一个经销店，也许是一家马自达专卖店，也许是一家斯提尔亚纳专卖店，也许是当那家丰田专卖店进来时，那是在隔离期间，你总是想，这要花大笔资金，但对于我来说，这是一次机会，让我有机会将这个品牌纳入我的团队，我会抓住它。这些是我看到前沿经销商所做的事情。
Now at the same time, I had this great conversation with Rediccation, I got 12 dealerships, and I asked her, you know, we're usually growing. Nope, I don't want any more, I'm in a sweet spot. I've got $2 billion in revenue, I've got world-class people working for me, I'm really now about quality and opportunity. What do you mean? Yeah, what do you mean by that? It's like, well, on the quality side, I want to be the highest, the best sales that I can for my franchise, and she wears a lapel that says number one. So she's driven to be the number one Honda store, the number one Volkswagen store, the number one Kia store, the number one, like she wants to be number one at all of her brands, but she also wants to provide opportunity to her associates and to people in the community. And I learned that she and her husband have raised over $125 million over the years for the boys and girls clubs of Broward County. That is making a difference.
现在同时，我和Rediccation有了这次很棒的对话，我有12家经销商，我问她，你知道，我们通常都在增长。不，我不想再增加了，我觉得现在很不错。我有20亿美元的收入，我有一群世界级的员工在为我工作，我现在真的关心的是质量和机会。你是什么意思？是的，你是什么意思呢？就好像，嗯，从质量的角度来说，我想让我的加盟店成为最高、最好的销售商，而她身上戴着写着“第一”的徽章。所以她努力成为第一家本田店、第一家大众店、第一家起亚店，她想要自己的所有品牌都成为第一，但她也想为她的同事和社区的人提供机会。我了解到她和她的丈夫多年来为布劳沃德县男男女女俱乐部筹集了超过1.25亿美元。这真的能带来改变。
So for some people, like Rita, she doesn't need more dealerships. You know, she's happy, she's making sure I know plenty of money. She has no interest in selling. She loves what she's doing. She got kids in the business, one day she'll have grandkids in the business. But for her, she wants to get better with what she has. So it's not always about growth. You know, her green and growing is getting better at what she owns. She says, my buildings have the capacity to sell more. It's a great way to put it. Yeah. Yeah. So it doesn't have to be acquiring new businesses, but getting better with the ones that you have is also a great strategy in terms of development and expansion.
所以对于有些人来说，比如丽塔，她并不需要更多的经销商店。你知道，她很开心，她确保我知道她挣了很多钱。她对销售没兴趣。她热爱她正在做的事情。她的孩子也在这个行业里，将来她会有孙子在这个行业里。但对她来说，她想要用手里的现有资源做得更好。因此，增长并不总是重点。你知道，她的“绿色与成长”是要把自己拥有的东西做得更好。她说，我的建筑有能力卖更多。这是一个很好的表达方式。是的。所以并不一定要收购新的企业，但提高你已拥有的企业的水平也是发展和扩张的一个很好的策略。
Well, that's a great, that's a great way to wrap up. I love that story. And Alan, always a pleasure to have you on. Always something, always something new happening. So it's, it's never a dull moment. yeah. Well, congratulations on all your continued success, USC and you've come out from behind your, your avatar, I guess. And we all can see your smile. I remember the first time we recorded together, you're like, you're, you're, you're stumbled on my neighbor. Like you'll see a card card. You're from guy, right? yeah. Well, I can say your name now, right? yeah. We're good now. I love that.
哇，这个故事真是太棒了，太棒了。阿兰，很高兴能够和你一起。总是有新的事情发生，永远都不会无聊。祝贺你在南加州大学取得的持续成功，你终于露出了真面目，我们都能看到你的微笑。我记得我们第一次一起录音时，你有点紧张。你是从加利福尼亚来的对吧？好，现在我可以说出你的名字了吧？我们现在关系好了吧，我很喜欢这样。
Alright. All right. Alan, always a pleasure, my friend. Thanks for talking with you. All right. Hope you enjoyed that episode. Please give the podcast a rating. Consider subscribing to the show and check the show notes for links to what we talked about. Thanks for tuning in. I'll see you guys next time.
好的。没问题。Alan，和你聊天总是一种乐趣，朋友。谢谢和你交谈。好了。希望你喜欢这一期。请给这个播客评分。考虑订阅节目并查看节目笔记中我们讨论的链接。感谢收听。下次见。祝你一切顺利。