Dashboard Dialogues Podcast host Sam Flecker chats with Travis Wise.
One of the biggest characters in the Dealerslink office and an automotive industry legend Travis discusses his thoughts on the inventory shortage, the state of the automotive market and the legend of the “Frankenstang“.
Transcript
00:00:16 Sam Flecker
Hello and welcome to the Dashboard Dialogues Podcast sponsored by Dealerslink.
00:00:21 Sam Flecker
My name is Sam Flecker and I’m your host as usual and today I’m joined by Travis Wise the man himself.
00:00:29 Sam Flecker
It is a beautiful day here in Colorado and we are excited to be talking about the use of our.
00:00:34 Sam Flecker
Shoulders with you all.
00:00:35 Sam Flecker
Today, Travis is one of the most experienced automotive experts we’ve got here in the office and in the industry.
00:00:41 Sam Flecker
As a whole.
00:00:42 Sam Flecker
And he’s.
00:00:43 Sam Flecker
Been in the.
00:00:43 Sam Flecker
Industry for just shy of 30 years, so we’re super excited to have him on our show.
00:00:47 Sam Flecker
Today thought to be the perfect person.
00:00:50 Sam Flecker
You talk about the current state of the market with.
00:00:52 Sam Flecker
And yeah, I’m super excited.
00:00:54 Sam Flecker
So First off, Travis, as usual.
00:00:57 Sam Flecker
We talked about your first car.
00:01:00 Travis Wise
My first car, yeah, so thank you for having me First off Sam.
00:01:04 Travis Wise
This is really awesome.
00:01:05 Travis Wise
I I love doing this kind of stuff so ah, my first car.
00:01:09 Travis Wise
Well, my actual first car was a 486 Deville Cadillac Big old 4 door bruiser. I remember I worked with my dad for.
00:01:19 Travis Wise
I don’t know.
00:01:20 Travis Wise
He was a.
00:01:20 Travis Wise
He was a drywall contractor.
00:01:22 Travis Wise
He had big him and my grandpa and I remember working with him and and I slowly saved up enough money spotting nails on the wall to pay for this old junk Cadillac.
00:01:33 Travis Wise
You know it was a good car haul all my friends around hauled a.
00:01:36 Travis Wise
Lot of beer.
00:01:36 Travis Wise
With it so got me through school.
00:01:38 Sam Flecker
The finer things in life right there?
00:01:40 Travis Wise
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
00:01:40
Just now.
00:01:42 Sam Flecker
Awesome, well to get a.
00:01:44 Sam Flecker
Little bit of background before we get into things.
00:01:46 Sam Flecker
You tell us a bit about your.
00:01:47 Sam Flecker
Roots like you grew up in Wyoming.
00:01:49 Sam Flecker
Similar to our CEO.
00:01:51 Sam Flecker
Last week Michael.
00:01:52 Sam Flecker
Cuccia you just tell us about growing up in Wyoming.
00:01:55 Sam Flecker
Kind of hide out in the automotive industry.
00:01:56 Sam Flecker
Well that was like, yeah so.
00:01:59 Travis Wise
Growing up in Wyoming was amazing.
00:02:01 Travis Wise
You know, of course, that’s where I met Mike.
00:02:03 Travis Wise
And you know, it’s a it’s a wonderful state if you don’t mind the wind blowing sideways 24/7, you know.
00:02:12 Travis Wise
It’s phenomenal for the car business because your communities are so small and the things that go on inside that community are really talked about.
00:02:20 Travis Wise
Like you can’t buy a car from somebody for 10 grand and put it out next week for 15 without hearing.
00:02:26 Travis Wise
About it at the coffee.
00:02:27 Travis Wise
Shop ’cause everybody knows everybody, so you.
00:02:30 Travis Wise
Gotta really operate tight.
00:02:32 Travis Wise
And you really gotta operate efficient.
00:02:35 Travis Wise
How I got in the car business is a great question.
00:02:38 Travis Wise
I was I bought a car I you know the the galleys with I I was she was pregnant with my first.
00:02:44 Travis Wise
Kid and we only had one vehicle and I needed to start getting to work and I bought this little junker from this car lot downtown.
00:02:51 Travis Wise
It was.
00:02:51 Travis Wise
A Ford Escort 250 bucks you know knocked I didn’t know it was knocking. You know I bought the thing, took it to work and they’re like you’re aware of the motors knocking in this junker right? And I didn’t know. So by 6.
00:03:05 Travis Wise
Months later, the guy was putting temp tags on my car over and over because he couldn’t get it out.
00:03:10 Travis Wise
So finally my grandmother was a mayor.
00:03:12 Travis Wise
I call her up.
00:03:13 Travis Wise
I’m like what do I do and she’s like.
00:03:15 Travis Wise
Go threaten them.
00:03:15 Travis Wise
With the state.
00:03:16 Travis Wise
Tell him you’re calling the state on him, so I go in and I’m like, hey, you know I can’t get a title.
00:03:22 Travis Wise
My grandma says the.
00:03:23 Travis Wise
Colostate on you and the owner came.
00:03:25 Travis Wise
Out and he’s like, oh man, you seem personable.
00:03:26 Travis Wise
You’ve been in here a bunch which I had been trying to get a title and he offered me some money.
00:03:31 Travis Wise
To move some cars around, he had a bunch of junk cars in the back lot and the city was getting on him to move the cars so.
00:03:37 Travis Wise
He needed me for two hours, gave me 50 bucks, was 25 bucks an hour. I felt that was pretty solid at my age at that time, and sure enough, we just started joking around and he’s like, why don’t you come down Saturday and try?
00:03:48 Travis Wise
And sell a.
00:03:49 Travis Wise
Car no better way to do it, oh.
00:03:51 Travis Wise
Yeah yeah so.
00:03:51
That’s another.
00:03:52 Travis Wise
So by like 10:00 o’clock in the morning that day I’d had my first car out and.
00:03:57 Travis Wise
He pulls this.
00:03:57 Travis Wise
Big sweaty wad of money out with rubber bands around it and he whips off 350 bucks cash and he’s like you’ve been in the car business for what two and a half? Three hours now and you just made 350 bucks cash. What do you say?
00:04:10 Travis Wise
Well, I’ve been hooked on it ever since, so.
00:04:13 Travis Wise
That’s beautiful, yeah, I sold 536 cars that year.
00:04:16 Travis Wise
First year in.
00:04:17 Travis Wise
The business and then I fell on my face ’cause I thought I knew how to do it.
00:04:21 Sam Flecker
Well, I guess you know, let’s get into it.
00:04:23 Sam Flecker
Let’s talk about these.
00:04:24 Sam Flecker
Kind of the.
00:04:25 Sam Flecker
Conditions we’re seeing right now in the automotive industry.
00:04:28 Sam Flecker
Pretty intense.
00:04:29 Sam Flecker
We’ve seen just about everything this year.
00:04:31 Sam Flecker
Low inventory, high demand, chip shortage.
00:04:34 Sam Flecker
I think we all know about that.
00:04:37 Sam Flecker
You you know you’ve been in the industry for a long time, nearly nearly 30 years, not mistaken.
00:04:41 Sam Flecker
So you, you know, have you ever seen conditions like this?
00:04:45 Travis Wise
Of of course, I gotta say, great question.
00:04:48 Travis Wise
The industry right now as a whole needs some answers, needs, needs, some opportunity in some direction on what they’re doing, so I appreciate that I appreciate all the all the compliments.
00:04:59 Travis Wise
But the big thing that that we all have to understand as a whole is the big entities.
00:05:05 Travis Wise
Are eating up the cars.
00:05:07 Travis Wise
Yeah OK.
00:05:08 Travis Wise
And and I love that fine that’s that’s that’s capitalism.
00:05:11 Travis Wise
The big entities and I mean there’s a shortage out there.
00:05:14 Travis Wise
We all know what it’s from.
00:05:15 Travis Wise
We know chip shortage manufacturers stalling.
00:05:18 Travis Wise
They stop buying parts now.
00:05:19 Travis Wise
The part manufacturers have to kick up and they found different clients and I.
00:05:23 Travis Wise
Mean it’s just.
00:05:23 Travis Wise
A storm OK and.
00:05:25 Travis Wise
And then we had the.
00:05:26 Travis Wise
Rental car companies.
00:05:27 Travis Wise
They they got.
00:05:28 Travis Wise
Rid of tons of inventory and now they’re not holding enough to execute on that.
00:05:32 Travis Wise
You know the leases cars are worth so much people aren’t turning their leases in, they’re buying them out and.
00:05:38 Travis Wise
Trying to sell them on Craigslist so you know right now more than ever in the industry they we need to start thinking about it as a whole entity.
00:05:48 Travis Wise
And what I mean by that Sam is is if the car business starts working as a single Organism and starts working together from the top side of the executives in the car business.
00:05:59 Travis Wise
Down to what they feed the consumer.
00:06:02 Travis Wise
This can correct itself.
00:06:03 Travis Wise
Yeah, and it’s a lot like an LS for.
00:06:06 Travis Wise
For real estate.
00:06:08 Travis Wise
You know if you’re a realtor and you’ve got, you know 10 houses for sale.
00:06:13 Travis Wise
OK, now you’re pretty pigeonholed if you only have 10 pieces for sale, So what they did in the real estate community?
00:06:22 Travis Wise
Is they brought?
00:06:22 Travis Wise
All those pieces to.
00:06:24 Travis Wise
Gather so it doesn’t really matter which office you work for.
00:06:28 Travis Wise
Yeah, you have opportunity with all of the available inventory out there in the market.
00:06:33 Travis Wise
So yeah, So what?
00:06:34
Hear more.
00:06:35 Travis Wise
What happens there is we need to get that focus in the car business so we do it with new cars.
00:06:41 Travis Wise
We trade with new cars.
00:06:42 Travis Wise
We need to be able to.
00:06:44 Travis Wise
Work together on used cars.
00:06:45 Travis Wise
I mean everybody has the right cars for their area.
00:06:49 Travis Wise
Everybody has the right inventory.
00:06:52 Travis Wise
We just need to focus on that and focus on what’s best for the dealer and then get the cars that are bad in that market to the dealers that it’s good for and share and work together.
00:07:03 Travis Wise
You have a client, they want a car.
00:07:05 Travis Wise
Everybody can make money on that.
00:07:07 Travis Wise
You know everybody can facilitate that deal.
00:07:09 Travis Wise
So I think the big shift with the shortage.
00:07:12 Travis Wise
’cause we know it’s short.
00:07:14 Travis Wise
And no, I’ve never seen anything like this.
00:07:16 Travis Wise
I mean, I’ve I’ve seen the oh a I’ve been.
00:07:19 Travis Wise
I’ve been through the rollercoaster of the car business.
00:07:22 Travis Wise
But shortages like this are are pretty pretty detrimental and and they’re more detrimental to the little guy than the big guy ’cause the big guy has buying power, yeah?
00:07:34 Travis Wise
So you know someone like CarMax like?
00:07:38 Travis Wise
Great car company. I mean they specialize in used cars so you know something like 30 to 40% or some crazy number is done through vehicle locates and utilizing that inventory as a whole.
00:07:51 Travis Wise
And that’s what needs to happen for everybody in the business is they need to get on board to utilize those inventories.
00:07:58 Travis Wise
As a whole, and then there isn’t such a shortage.
00:08:01 Sam Flecker
So going off of that, you know.
00:08:03 Sam Flecker
What would be your?
00:08:04 Sam Flecker
Kind of predictions for the automotive industry within the next.
00:08:07 Sam Flecker
5 to 10 years.
00:08:09 Sam Flecker
You know where do you see it?
00:08:09 Sam Flecker
Going how do you see?
00:08:10 Sam Flecker
It I mean that might be a little difficult.
00:08:14 Sam Flecker
To answer.
00:08:15 Travis Wise
I get asked.
00:08:15 Travis Wise
This question all the time.
00:08:17 Travis Wise
People don’t like the answers.
00:08:18 Sam Flecker
You know the Magic 8 Ball, what does?
00:08:19 Sam Flecker
The 8.
00:08:20 Sam Flecker
Ball say the magic.
00:08:21 Travis Wise
8 Ball says yes.
00:08:22 Travis Wise
Yes, the Magic 8 Ball says yes by cars.
00:08:26 Travis Wise
Buy as many cars as you can and sell as many cars as you can.
00:08:30 Travis Wise
So many so many guys right now are essentially stop being car dealers.
00:08:36 Travis Wise
OK, so that’s gonna that’s going to change the future immensely.
00:08:40 Travis Wise
And what I mean by stop being car dealers is if you’re not buying and selling a car.
00:08:45 Travis Wise
Sam, you’re not really, uh.
00:08:47 Travis Wise
Car dealers.
00:08:48 Travis Wise
OK, now you’re a car holder and.
00:08:51 Travis Wise
You have a facility.
00:08:52 Travis Wise
Honey, you know it’s kind of like a baseball team that doesn’t go.
00:08:55 Travis Wise
Out and play.
00:08:56 Travis Wise
You know you you got a clubhouse.
00:08:56
Do you have this?
00:08:58 Travis Wise
You got a bunch of guys together, but you’re not really being a baseball team ’cause you’re not going.
00:09:02 Travis Wise
To play in baseball.
00:09:03 Travis Wise
Beautiful now yeah, is this the way it is so so these guys have stopped by and they’ve stopped inserting themselves.
00:09:09 Travis Wise
I’m not paying that, it’s too much it’s it’s like well that’s the market.
00:09:12 Travis Wise
If you want a car to sell and have the opportunity with a customer, that’s the market.
00:09:16 Travis Wise
So the future.
00:09:17 Travis Wise
Is the guys that have stopped me in car dealers right now and they left 1,000,000 bucks on the table ’cause they didn’t want to pay what uh, cars work today because the prices have gone up and they think it’s going to crash.
00:09:28 Travis Wise
Think it’s going to crash?
00:09:29 Travis Wise
Well, it’s not.
00:09:30 Travis Wise
OK, if if they brought.
00:09:32 Travis Wise
8,000,000 cars in the market right now. Those cars would have to roll for 12:18.
00:09:37 Travis Wise
24 months before we see the trade ends, yeah.
00:09:40 Travis Wise
All right, so that’s going to re facilitate, so you bring in eight million cars.
00:09:44 Travis Wise
What are you doing correct in Texas and California?
00:09:46 Travis Wise
So, so everybody just needs to get on board with the way it is ’cause the the future is is going to be all in the inventory.
00:09:54 Travis Wise
OK so we have you know 10s of thousands of wholesale cars for sales, you know so?
00:10:00 Travis Wise
Through that I have a.
00:10:01 Travis Wise
Crystal ball to see to know.
00:10:03 Travis Wise
The right questions to ask the Magic 8 ball.
00:10:07 Travis Wise
We’ll just say it that.
00:10:07 Travis Wise
Way so yeah, once once.
00:10:09 Travis Wise
You have that transparency.
00:10:11 Travis Wise
You can kind of predict the future so.
00:10:14 Travis Wise
When you’re predicting the future, it’s all about supply and demand, right?
00:10:17 Travis Wise
That’s car business.
00:10:19 Travis Wise
What’s your supply?
00:10:20 Travis Wise
What’s your demand?
00:10:22 Travis Wise
And what’s it worth?
00:10:23 Travis Wise
Yeah, because there’s no bad car.
00:10:26 Travis Wise
There’s just a.
00:10:27 Travis Wise
Bad price to pay for a car?
00:10:30 Travis Wise
OK, that’s.
00:10:31 Sam Flecker
Yeah, what’s that, yeah?
00:10:32 Travis Wise
There’s no bad car.
00:10:33 Travis Wise
There’s just a bad.
00:10:34 Travis Wise
Price, I mean that’s that’s there.
00:10:36 Travis Wise
So yeah, so the future right now is going to be all dependent on transparency of what the car is worth.
00:10:37 Sam Flecker
That’s true.
00:10:45 Travis Wise
The opportunity, like right now leads are coming in like wildfire.
00:10:49 Travis Wise
I mean, it’s just you have something.
00:10:51 Travis Wise
It’s good your phone blows up.
00:10:53 Travis Wise
Yeah, that’s the way it is.
00:10:54 Travis Wise
You don’t even have to stop.
00:10:55 Travis Wise
Did you want it?
00:10:56 Travis Wise
No, oh do you want it?
00:10:57 Travis Wise
Yeah, can I drive it?
00:10:58 Travis Wise
Do you want?
00:10:59 Travis Wise
Anybody, that’s the sales.
00:11:01 Travis Wise
Pitch right now.
00:11:02 Travis Wise
We don’t have time for a test drive.
00:11:03 Travis Wise
You want this.
00:11:04 Travis Wise
Thing or not you.
00:11:05 Travis Wise
Know and it’s closing deals, but that makes you lazy.
00:11:06
’cause yeah.
00:11:10 Travis Wise
And the future is we the.
00:11:14 Travis Wise
The future is going to be a little bit of a stagnant sales market.
00:11:17 Travis Wise
Yeah, people are going to be a little more buried in vehicles than we’re used to, so we’re going to be overcoming some negative debt out there in the front line.
00:11:26 Travis Wise
And F&I trying to get stuff bought and the banks will have to buy.
00:11:29 Travis Wise
A little deeper.
00:11:30 Travis Wise
But as far as the future goes, as long as you’re buying selling.
00:11:34 Travis Wise
Cars and still being a car dealer, you’re gonna do great.
00:11:37 Travis Wise
You stop buying cars.
00:11:39 Travis Wise
Well, that’s too expensive.
00:11:40 Sam Flecker
Well, well, activity is just the the key to it.
00:11:42 Sam Flecker
You know just kind.
00:11:43 Sam Flecker
Of keep doing what you do.
00:11:45 Travis Wise
Keep me in a car dealer.
00:11:47 Travis Wise
Then everything is going to be fine.
00:11:49 Travis Wise
You stop being a car dealer.
00:11:50 Travis Wise
You might.
00:11:51 Travis Wise
Need to find a new career?
00:11:52 Sam Flecker
Well, Travis, we’re getting close to that.
00:11:55 Sam Flecker
Time before we leave.
00:11:57 Sam Flecker
What around the?
00:11:58 Sam Flecker
Offices you have.
00:11:58 Sam Flecker
A pretty cool classic car collection that I myself.
00:12:02 Sam Flecker
Have been pretty.
00:12:02 Sam Flecker
Cool, curious about.
00:12:03 Sam Flecker
I think a lot of.
00:12:04 Sam Flecker
People out there would be pretty curious about it do.
00:12:06 Sam Flecker
You mind telling us a bit about that.
00:12:07 Travis Wise
Yeah, I I seen that question so today I I decided to bring one for you so I have a 65 Shelby Cobra not a Mustang or Shelby Cobra sitting outside for you guys to check out and fiddle with today.
00:12:22 Sam Flecker
I’m pretty excited.
00:12:23 Travis Wise
Yeah, it’ll be fun.
00:12:25 Travis Wise
We’ll go rot it.
00:12:25 Travis Wise
Up and down the road a.
00:12:26 Travis Wise
Little bit, but the the cool one that’s going on.
00:12:29 Travis Wise
I mean I I have some cars this.
00:12:31 Travis Wise
And that but the.
00:12:32 Travis Wise
The cool one that’s going on is I have my 15 year old son is really crazy about cars, diesel trucks.
00:12:39 Travis Wise
He’s working on him and he just went and inquired himself. He he went and you know his grandpa gave him a 67.
00:12:46 Travis Wise
Not staying, that’s this beat up and needs help.
00:12:48 Travis Wise
So he went out and just acquired A59 Cummins diesel.
00:12:52 Travis Wise
With his own.
00:12:53 Travis Wise
Own money, own merits and he’s going to put that 59 Cummins diesel in a 67 Mustang.
00:12:59 Travis Wise
I guess it’s a big deal on YouTube and everybody putting a diesel in all these different cars, so he’s hoping to get it done and be the first one in the nation.
00:13:08 Travis Wise
With a.
00:13:08 Travis Wise
67 Mustang with a Cummins in it. I guess that’s gonna join the collection.
00:13:13 Sam Flecker
How you feel about that?
00:13:16 Travis Wise
Yeah, I’m like awesome.
00:13:18 Travis Wise
You know I’ve seen these other guys that I’ve got buddies that have transplanted Cummins into their trucks and different stuff.
00:13:23 Travis Wise
So I I think it’s pretty cool.
00:13:24 Travis Wise
I’ve never been in a car with.
00:13:26 Travis Wise
Mine so I I I know he hasn’t.
00:13:28
Let’s stop it.
00:13:29 Travis Wise
Yeah yeah.
00:13:31 Travis Wise
We’ll see how that turns out.
00:13:32 Sam Flecker
Choosing honest.
00:13:33 Travis Wise
He’s calling it the Frankenstein.
00:13:35 Travis Wise
Yeah, that’s.
00:13:37 Travis Wise
Yeah, that’s his plan is to call it the Franklin staying for for the world.
00:13:41 Travis Wise
But yeah, that’s that’s pretty much what’s going on in.
00:13:43 Travis Wise
The cars right now with me.
00:13:44 Sam Flecker
Awesome well Travis.
00:13:45 Sam Flecker
Thanks so much for joining us.
00:13:46 Sam Flecker
Today it was great having.
00:13:47 Sam Flecker
Me great talking with you.
00:13:48 Sam Flecker
And I’ll see you around the office around Colorado.
00:13:52 Sam Flecker
Wyoming wherever you’re at.
00:13:54
Lee, absolutely.
00:13:55 Sam Flecker
Awesome, well thanks so much for joining into the dashboard dialogue podcasts, everyone.
00:14:01 Sam Flecker
We’ll be back relatively soon with a new episode.
00:14:05 Sam Flecker
So stay tuned in the meantime, be sure to follow deals like DealersLick on social media, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and be sure to check out the Dashboard Dialogues podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music.
00:14:18 Sam Flecker
And SoundCloud.
00:14:19 Sam Flecker
Thanks so much everyone, and we’ll see you soon.
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