vAuto Podcast

Hosted by vAuto Podcast

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Episodes

157

Latest episode

May 2026

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About the show

vAuto helps today’s leading dealers run better than the competition. With a live market view and powerful inventory management tools, vAuto is the software, the people and the vision you need to achieve record success in any market.

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60 recent

May 7, 202610 min

vAuto Quarterly Quick-Takes: A View of Key Q1 2026 Trends

In this vAuto Quarterly Quick-Takes podcast, vAuto’s director of strategic planning, Bethany Johnson, examines key take-aways from new and used vehicle inventory and sales data from the first quarter of 2026: Get out there early with new vehicle promotion; marketing in-transit units help capture buyer interest; mind your pricing on Day 1—for new and used vehicles to minimize aging and other profit-draining risks; and, make each trade-in opportunity count, particularly in situations with budget- and equity-challenged buyers.

March 26, 202627 min

Distilling What Predictive Pricing Tells You About a Vehicle

In this vAuto podcast, lead Performance Manager Michael McMullen discusses how predictive data science-based pricing recommendations help dealers make the most from individual used vehicle investments. McMullen shares how the recommendations help dealers capture the price premium a vehicle might deserve based on past history, performance; address the varying degrees of price sensitivity an individual vehicle faces as market conditions change; properly handle vehicles that possess higher risk factors and require proactive attention; and, know when vehicles that don’t receive a lot of attention online need pricing, other adjustments to move.

March 12, 20265 min

Live Market View Q1 2026 - Ramping Up for a Strong Tax Season

vAuto’s Derek Hansen and Patrick Janes highlight key takeaways that emerged from dealer conversations at the NADA 2026 convention in Las Vegas. Watch this Live Market View installment as they discuss how AI is helping dealers unlock profitability through operational efficiency; why inventory acquisition—and used vehicle department performance—will be foundational to drive growth as 2026 unfolds; and, ways dealers are preparing for a strong spring season as consumers receive larger federal tax refunds.

January 30, 202619 min

Next Gen Perspective: Why Clear Career Paths Matter Most

In this vAuto podcast, Katie Tonozzi, a general manager in training at Flow Automotive Group, and vAuto’s Patrick Janes discuss how Tonozzi realized her desire to work in retail automotive at Northwood University and turned it into a budding career at a top-performing dealer group. Hear Tonozzi’s perspective on why a series of internship experiences, including a “rotational” one at a New York dealership, cemented her retail career choice; “people like doing business with people they like” remains a personal mantra; shifting from “transactional to relational” selling will help dealers do more business with Gen Z buyers; and, dealers who offer structured opportunities/paths appeal most to students looking for retail careers.

January 12, 202616 min

NADA 2026 Preview: A Quick Rundown What’s New in Las Vegas

In this vAuto podcast, Derek Hansen and Patrick Janes provide a preview of the AI-enabled innovations vAuto will debut at the NADA Show in Las Vegas to help dealers achieve greater success. Hear how the combination of AI and integrations with other Cox Automotive solutions can help you build and scale a customer-focused service lane acquisition process to efficiently make offers and close more deals with customers; sharpen recon estimates and vehicle valuations to optimize each vehicle’s profit and ROI potential; ensure your vehicle prices match the market, no matter how it moves; and, mine missed trades more to re-engage customers and make deals before they go to the competition.

January 5, 20268 min

Live Market View Q4 2025 - How Mohawk Honda Keeps Pace as the Market Turns

Mohawk Honda’s Used Vehicle Director Mike O’Toole joins Derek Hansen to recap Q4 highlights and outline how the team will double down on inventory and customer-focused strategies in 2025. O’Toole shares the “inside our four walls” approach that fueled growth, details on service lane vehicle acquisition feeding sales, and Mohawk’s top operational priorities to drive success into 2026.

December 22, 202526 min

How a Dealer Finds His “Happy Place” Every Christmas

In this vAuto podcast, Jeremiah Mowry, operations director at Atlanta Auto Brokers, details how a drive-to-school conversation with his daughter in 2017 helped him find his “happy place”—giving away Christmas trees and gifts every December to families in his local community. Hear how Jeremiah and his team turned an idea for a cash-making side hustle into a popular holiday-giving tradition; partner with local schools, a church, a women’s shelter and area businesses to develop wish lists for needy families; reinvest cash/credit card donations for trees to fund gift-giving; and build goodwill and trust that helps drive future business at the dealership.

December 12, 202523 min

Pointers to Prime Your Service Lane Acquisition Success

In this vAuto podcast, Mike O’Toole, used vehicle director at Mohawk Honda, and vAuto’s Patrick Janes go in depth on the best practices and process steps that help Mohawk acquire and sell nearly 40 vehicles a month from their service drive. O’Toole shares how he and his team have evolved the service lane acquisition effort from a clipboard-based, one-off approach to a process where nearly every service customer gets an offer. Get guidance to help you shift from a hard-sell to “soft touch” approach to set the right tone with customers with vehicles you want to acquire; scale service lane acquisitions by using AI and automated tools to drive efficiency; develop a follow-up process that ensures you capture/close the majority of customers who need time to consider your offer and a potential next purchase; and establish process/performance expectations based on Mohawk’s benchmarks.

November 26, 202532 min

Going Beyond Look to Book to Measure Appraiser Performance

In this vAuto podcast, vAuto’s Dan Winchester highlights how appraiser Look to Book rates at some dealerships aren’t as good as dealers think. Winchester details the limits of LTB as a primary measure of appraiser performance, and why two new KPIs—appraisal effectiveness and appraisal completeness—offer a better way for dealers to maximize appraisal opportunities. Hear how you can identify the inconsistencies in your appraiser performance/process your LTB doesn’t capture; increase your ratio of appraisals to sales to improve your ability to acquire vehicles directly from customers; and, assess how well appraisers do the steps of your appraisal process (do they use the OBDII scanners?) you expect.

November 6, 20256 min

Winning Today’s ‘Race to the Customer’ in New and Used Vehicles

In this vAuto Quarterly Quick-Takes video, strategic planning director Bethany Johnson summarizes inventory and sales trends for Q3, and how dealers can maintain sales and profit objectives as the year closes. In new vehicles, Johnson share strategies to sell through ’25 inventory as ’26 models arrive—where promoting all rebates and incentives in merchandising is critical. In used, Johnson outlines how rising trade-in equity, and a higher level of appraisal transparency, can help dealers sell more customers and take in desirable inventory.