August 21, 2024 • 26 mins
Brendan Jones, owner of Ready Motors and a state lawmaker, shares his journey in the car dealership business and politics. He discusses how his family got into the car business and the challenges they faced. Jones also talks about his experience in the state legislature and the importance of small businesses and car dealerships in the community. He highlights the role of associations in advocating for the industry and the need for effective implementation of laws and regulations. Jones emphasizes the positive impact car dealers have on their communities and the importance of good government for the industry.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:53 Brendan Jones' Background in the Car Dealership Business
07:34 Brendan Jones' Entry into State Legislature
11:24 The Experience of Serving in the State Legislature
13:19 The Importance of Associations in Advocating for Car Dealerships
14:40 Challenges in Implementing Laws and Regulations
19:18 The Positive Impact of Car Dealerships in the Community
23:26 The Role of Associations in Advocating for Car Dealerships
24:36 The Importance of Effective Implementation of Laws and Regulations
25:28 Advocacy Efforts by NIADA
25:54 Conclusion
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:01):
Competition is fierce in the used car arena. So how
can you ensure that your pre-owned inventory stands above the rest?
Success starts with the quality of your leads. AutoTrader for
independence offers products that help drive high quality leads for
independent dealers like you.
S2 (00:25):
Welcome to Used Car News podcast. Used Car News is
your top source for fast and reliable news that car
dealers can rely on for this evolving industry. Here are
this month's top stories expert Ben Goodman reveals top strategies
at Niada Expo online. Used car dealer settles $1 million
(00:45):
for deceptive practices. Niada advocates for auto dealers, key legislative
wins and future plans unveiled. Plus, Brendan Jones from Ready Motors.
S3 (00:57):
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Used Car news podcast. My
name is Jeff Blount. I'm editor over at Used Car News,
and today we have a special guest, Brendan Jones. He
is the owner of Redi Motors in Tabor City, North Carolina.
But he's got a lot of other stuff he does
as well. Welcome, Brendan.
S4 (01:14):
Hey, thanks for having me.
S3 (01:16):
Thanks for you coming on to to to to the podcast.
Now you're a third generation dealer. How? Tell me how
your family got into the business and how you got
into the dealership.
S4 (01:27):
Well, back in the 50s, my grandfather was working at
a loan company in Augusta, Georgia, and he was collecting,
collecting payments for that loan company. And as they were repossessing,
excuse me, as they were repossessing vehicles, he started buying
them from the loan company, and he rented a lot
next door. And he started selling cars for $10, down
$5 a week. And the owners of the loan company
(01:49):
came to him and said, either you're going to be
in the car business or you're going to be in
the loan business, and the rest is history. That is.
S3 (01:53):
Great. Is it funny to you? Always have that. You'll
have people either get out. A lot of people get
started on the finance side and then they end up
in buy here, pay here because of that or something
like that. That's interesting. Um, and now so your your
father followed in his footsteps.
S4 (02:08):
Yeah. My dad, my dad, uh, again from Augusta, Georgia,
started working for his father around 65, 66. Married a
military brat. He wanted to come back home to North Carolina,
where her parents retired. And he opened up this lot
in 1972. And we have been here ever since.
S3 (02:28):
Excellent, excellent. What was it about? Was it was. Were
you always going to be in the dealership or is
this something you like doing?
S4 (02:34):
No, no. Uh, my father highly discouraged myself and my
brother from getting into the automobile business. We're from a
very small area. It's a it's a lot of work,
as they say. We're vertically integrated. So we did it all.
The buy and the sell and the clean and the repossession.
So it's a lot of long hours. Uh, yeah. I
can remember back when I was ten, 12 years old,
my dad would wake us up on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
(02:56):
They slip your pants on. He went and found some
cars and there we went. They repossessed the cars.
S3 (03:01):
Was that exciting as your young person? Was it kind
of interesting?
S4 (03:04):
It was just the norm, man. It was just, you know,
my dad moved to North Carolina not knowing a lot
of folks. So he depended on family. And, uh, we
just kind of did everything together and, uh, been out
here my whole life. Uh, didn't know anything any different.
I mean, it's just we just work. He had a
very strong work ethic that was passed on to us,
and people asked what my hobby is, and it's working.
(03:25):
That's that's really all we do is work.
S3 (03:27):
Okay. But now, despite his discouragement, you stayed in the
car business. Why is that?
S4 (03:32):
Well, I'm not a real smart guy, so, um, I actually,
I actually, I left home, uh, and you'll get to
this in a minute. When, when I went to work
at in the funeral service, I had a wife going
through nursing school at that time. Found out at the
funeral home if your name was not on the sign,
it was a hard way to make a living. Got
back into sales, went to work with a national, uh,
(03:52):
manufactured home company. Did very, very well with them until
the mobile home crisis of 9596 came along when they
were all folding up and had to find something to do.
And about that time, he was getting ready to really
pull back what he was doing. And so I came
home in 98, 99 and been here ever since.
S3 (04:15):
And in terms of the funeral home business, how did
you get into that mortuary science?
S4 (04:19):
Yeah, I walked into the house one day, a senior
in high school, and told my parents I was going
to mortuary school, so that went over like a lead balloon. Uh,
my family had probably. I probably never attended three funerals.
I am a guy that's pretty strong in his faith.
And the Lord works in mysterious ways. And, uh, he
knew there was a lot of stuff coming in the future.
I was a pretty introverted guy. Even growing up in sales,
(04:42):
I still preferred doing everything besides waiting on the customer.
It was a good life plan to to go into
that field, to learn how to work with folks and
all situations.
S3 (04:52):
Boy, yeah, I was going to say, if you want
to learn how to work with people, that's probably the
most difficult and the most difficult time for sure.
S4 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah. That, that, you know, you're it's if you
can get through a lot of that and you can
maneuver through a lot of the grief time, it helps
you with the good times. So it was a good
segway to where the future led me and has been very,
very useful skill for me my whole life. Excellent.
S3 (05:15):
Now you're in the buy here or in the dealership?
You're buy here. Pay here. Obviously that's that's has its
own challenges. What is it about? I buy here, pay here.
What do you like about it? What do you. What's
the challenge? I mean, I know the challenge, but just
for your experience.
S4 (05:30):
Well, used to used to really enjoy it, as we
have seen with the industry over the last 5 or
6 years. The challenge now is basically we're becoming a dinosaur.
I don't know how much of a future lots like
mine really have the small mom and pops and a
small town, uh, with the internet coming along, it's made
(05:50):
the world so small. I don't know that our usefulness
is going to be stretched out much longer. We had
a segment of the population for a long time that
needed us, and with credit the way it is now,
it's not. The scoring is not as important as it
used to be. And so the challenge now is just
just to stay in business. We're having a real battle
with inventory. What was the 5 or $6000 car 4
(06:13):
or 5 years ago now is a 10 or $12,000 car.
S3 (06:16):
Yeah, that that balance of affordable inventory with your customers payments.
S4 (06:21):
In a, in a community as this one that's close
to the poverty level. It's all about the dollar figure.
It's not what the car is worth or it's what
you have to spend, what you get on your return.
And that's very, very difficult for us for sure.
S3 (06:38):
Wow. Okay. Well that's good. Um, and then what do
you what do you what do you tell? How many
cars do you typically carry on your lot?
S4 (06:43):
Well, we got let me look out the window at one.
So that's what we have right now. So when we
when we do get good inventory we can sell it
off pretty fast. We used to pre-COVID, we actually had
two sales centers. We carried 2530 here and at our
what we call our our Big Lots, which carry the
newer model stuff. We carry 2530 there as well. But
we were renting everything there, had just stuck our toes
(07:06):
into the new model. Business was doing very well. But
when Covid came and the banking changed and everything changed
and the price changed, it forced us to leave that lot,
come back here. And the challenge again, as with everybody
out there, is inventory problems are still still the most
prevalent thing we're dealing with. Absolutely.
S3 (07:24):
Okay, so now you you're your dealer. You buy here,
pay here, you have a funeral home, and then you
decide to run for state legislature. What happened?
S4 (07:34):
The legislature came before the funeral home. I'm, um.
S3 (07:37):
Oh, okay.
S4 (07:38):
Yeah. So I've owned the funeral home about two and
a half years. Been licensed over 30 or licensed about
30 years. 31 years.
S3 (07:45):
Oh, okay. Gotcha, gotcha.
S4 (07:46):
I had a long blank space in the funeral industry.
When I came back, I would fill in for some
local guys if they wanted to go on vacation or
if they were sick, I would help out. One of
our little towns was completely devastated in a hurricane about
6 or 8 years ago. The owner closed the funeral
home and I put my money where my mouth was,
and I went over and bought it and remodeled it.
And there we got a funeral home in Fair Bluff.
S3 (08:09):
Okay, so you were, but you got into when did
you get in the state legislature or what prompted that,
I should say.
S4 (08:14):
Some local folks came to me 2010, nine, ten and
asked me to serve on the local Board of elections,
which I really didn't have time to do. But of
course they lied to you and tell you it doesn't
take up any time.
S3 (08:27):
Yes.
S4 (08:29):
They we were we were a very strong Democratic stronghold here.
The Democrat Party had always ruled southeastern North Carolina. My
family was one of the very first Republicans in the 60s,
when my grandparents came back after retiring from the military. Uh,
always had strong Christian conservative values and somewhat of a
big mouth. So they wanted they wanted me to go
(08:50):
over and serve. And I took the bait and I
went over and I started serving on the Board of
Elections and, uh, very, very eye opening. And from there
you get to meet a lot of the candidates, see
a lot of the folks serving. And at that time,
we had a guy that was just really using the
state legislature. He had been a teacher. He was using
it to boost his state retirement. He cared nothing for
(09:13):
the community, was not working for the community, did nothing
for the community. And as I was complaining, people started
telling me, well, why don't you run? And again, not
very smart guy. I'm in the car business, you know.
So I took that bait and there we go.
S3 (09:26):
Yeah, now I understand. I read a piece in the
Nyada publication and it said you lost a close one,
and then you won the next one. Is that correct? Yeah.
S4 (09:36):
So when I ran the first time again, there were
no Republicans elected in. Right, right. I think we we
share a county. We share a Da with Brunswick County,
and they're a pretty strong Republican county. So when I
ran the first time, the state caucus certainly, certainly did
not get behind my race. Oh no, no, no path forward.
(09:56):
Had no help locally, did not know what I was doing,
was just a wing and a prayer. But when we
closed it down on election night, we were just a
little less than a thousand votes away. We had prayed
hard about it and got wow.
S3 (10:08):
Wow. That's something. Yeah, I told God.
S4 (10:10):
I said, okay, man, I, I did exactly what you
led me to do. I'm going back to sell cars
and live my life and we're out. And no kidding.
The next day after election, I had a guy call
me and said, man, I'm gonna put $1,500 in your
campaign account. Keep it up. Keep doing it. You're going
to be successful. We we ran a second time and
first Republican and 157 years to be elected to a
(10:33):
state representative seat, and we won by, gosh, like 28 points.
It was a it was just a massive, uh, massive show.
S3 (10:43):
Was this the same candidate you ran against the first time?
S4 (10:46):
No. He said if I ran again, he would not run.
And he lived true to his word and he backed out.
So we faced off with a new guy and we,
as I say, beat him like a drum.
S3 (10:58):
That's great. So now you now you're in the legislature.
Now you're seeing how the sausage is made. What did
you learn? What came out of that? What was your
first impressions.
S4 (11:06):
Of the state legislature is a lot like a high school.
If we if we had a pack of cigarettes and
a pregnant girl, we'd call it legislative high. But no.
All jokes aside, we get up there, you know, it's, uh,
it's nothing what you expect, and it's everything that you expect.
So learning early that I wanted to be part of
(11:26):
the sausage making, as you say, I ran for freshman
whip and my roommate ran for a freshman leader. Was
not my roommate at the time. Ended up being my
roommate last six years. But that's how our friendship started.
And so we we immediately had a seat at the
table as freshman leaders. Oh, nice. And it is a
lot like high school. You look at who the cool
kids are, the dorks, the geeks and stuff, and you
(11:48):
kind of see, you kind of see who's making the decisions,
and you kind of latch onto those guys and you
start really drinking from that fire hose immediately. Uh, fast
forward now. My my roommate, uh, will be the next
speaker of the House, and I am I am running
for majority leader, which will be the number two guy
in the house.
S3 (12:06):
That's excellent. Now are you do you have to run
for election this year? Is. Is that but you. Are
you on a poster?
S4 (12:14):
I am, uh, second time being unopposed. Okay.
S3 (12:17):
Uh, makes it easy.
S4 (12:18):
Well, the folks here are either satisfied or, I guess,
with what we're doing. We try to be very available
to everyone, and we work. We do not play politics locally.
It's not a Republican or Democrat thing. It's a community thing.
There you go. So we work hard for everyone. And
I always say, once you're elected, you're the servant of
all the people. Not just not just the Republicans. So, uh, we,
(12:42):
we have we have broad support across socioeconomic groups, across
racial groups. I serve in a tri racial district. So
we have support from from all aspects from all over
the county. So we have been very, very successful and
very blessed with what we've done.
S3 (12:59):
Okay. And now you as a car dealer and a
small business owner, um, I'm sure other car dealers and
small business owners, like someone like you in the legislature.
What what have you done? What have you learned about
how they think about small business and.
S4 (13:12):
Well, I have no clue how important it was to
join an association and how important it was to get
involved four years, five years ago. Speaker Moore came to
me and asked me to take over transportation. So I
am senior chair of Appropriations of Transportation. Chair of appropriations,
as well as one of the main appropriators for the
House budget. Well that's great. Yeah. Having having someone sit
(13:35):
there that understands to the best of my ability, the
laws that affect us, I think has has paid dividends.
We have been able to change a lot of things
that were wrong. Our only problem, and I call this,
you know, I call it like I see it, our
commissioner that we have in this state is inept. He
is unable to follow the laws that have been prescribed
(13:57):
before him. He has not implemented the new changes. It's sad, but.
S3 (14:02):
Commissioner. Commissioner?
S4 (14:03):
Meaning what? The DMV commissioner vehicle. So he's the guy
that implements the laws. We've done a you know, we've
changed our temporary plates from 30 to 60 days the
way we license dealers as opposed to implement a new
online system. We're supposed to have a grace period on
our license to help dealers not kicked out of the
auction if there's something wrong with their renewals. Just a
(14:23):
lot of little things that we yeah, that makes great strides.
He has been a stonewall for everything that we've done.
It's sad to say he plays politics with four priorities
of businesses. But we are. We're at the end of
November hopefully will be a new day for North Carolina.
And instead of having a split split government, hopefully we'll
have a pretty, pretty solid top to bottom ticket that
(14:46):
we can get a lot more moved. With the right commissioner,
we can really, really resolve. A lot of our DMV
dot issues in the state.
S3 (14:54):
Is the DMV guys had an appointed position?
S4 (14:56):
Yes. And it's one of the governor's cronies. And he
had no he had no business being put in this position.
He's not qualified for the position. They had a lot
of folks in the in the agency that could have
done a fantastic job, not not a Democrat or Republican thing,
but there was folks lined up in there that were
able to take the take the torch and run with
it and would have had a lot of this stuff done.
(15:17):
And it's just very disappointing that we have spent so
much time and so much effort getting these laws changed.
And they are laws by statute. And yeah, he refuses
to he refuses to implement them.
S1 (15:29):
Competition is fierce in the used car arena. So how
can you ensure that your pre-owned inventory stands above the rest?
Success starts with a quality of your leads. AutoTrader for
independence offers products that help drive high quality leads for
independent dealers like you.
S3 (15:45):
Yeah, that's I think that's been a big problem over
the last decade, is the idea of the elected officials
making laws, but the appointed bureaucrats not enforcing them, whether
or not. And it's funny because you talk about dealers
working with DMV and I talk to different dealers were national.
So we talked to dealers in different states. And it's
like you said, they have good relationships with DMV folks.
(16:06):
It's just, you know, like you said, if you if
you got the wrong guy in there, that must make
it very frustrating.
S4 (16:11):
It is it's really frustrating because there's good people under
him that that understand. And, you know, I spend a
few hours a month having to navigate, negotiate, just dealer renewals,
just the DMV denying guys that have been in business
30 and 40 years. Yeah, because of some technicality they
think is wrong. And we have to go through a
(16:34):
whole process of proving that the dealer is correct.
S3 (16:37):
Yeah. You've got you guys got a pretty good, um, active, uh,
association in the Carolinas. Uh, good leadership there and everything.
How does that help you in terms of that connection
between dealers, the legislature and the association?
S4 (16:50):
As with anybody, they have a lobbyist. And that lobbyist
is Fred Bowen. With Bowen Associates. And Fred just does
an outstanding job for the association. He's been with them many,
many years. Since I've been in the legislature. John Brown
has been the executive director, and they brought in Marty Coates, uh,
to to help. Help John. Marty is a actually he
(17:10):
grew up about 40 miles from me. 30 miles from me.
So he's he's a southeastern North Carolina guy, but he
served in the state legislature in South Carolina. So Marty
brings a great perspective to the association of understanding not
only the dealer side, but the political side. Yes. So
they do a fantastic job of really getting in the weeds,
helping me. I can call Fred, and Fred will call
(17:32):
John and Marty, and they'll get with their legal team
anything that I need. And we have we have worked
through and changed a lot of things. I give those
guys kudos. They do a fantastic job in this state.
S3 (17:43):
Yeah, I was going to say of the years I've
covered the industry, there are certain states that always do
a good job in that area, and definitely the Carolinas
and John Brown, there are one of them. So are
you happy where you're at? I mean, do you see
yourself continuing in this position? You know, you don't have
like national aspirations like Congress or anything like that.
S4 (18:00):
Well, as with it's just like working in a church.
When they find a worker, they want them to do everything. Yeah.
I have been asked to run or serve in every
single position you can imagine. I am very satisfied with
what I'm doing. I am not using this as a
stepping stone. I am probably more excited about my seatmate
roommate becoming the next speaker. He's 37 years old. He'll
(18:24):
be the first millennial. He'll be the first. Well, he
is young, but he is wise beyond his years. He's
a very intelligent young man, an attorney out of Caldwell County,
but the old man beside him with some gray hair.
Will help guide him from, you know, being in the business.
Part of my job is reading people. So I do
a pretty good job at reading folks. And I look,
I just look forward to serving under a speaker hall
(18:47):
and help him navigate us through the 25, 26 season. Uh,
and I, I call them seasons because it's almost like
playoffs sometime when you get there. So yeah, it's an
exciting time for our caucus and our state. We're working hard.
He has set some records himself as far as fundraising.
Folks don't realize how expensive it is for good government,
(19:08):
but you can imagine that if we don't do the
right things and elect the right people, our industry can
be decimated. I hate to say my friends across the aisle,
but my associates across the aisles would rather put some
insane consumer protections deal that would decimate the buy here,
pay here business. I mean, just destroy it. They have
tried it since I've been there, and we've been successful
(19:29):
in blocking a lot of the things they want to do.
So good government does cost, but in the end it's
it's a huge win for the industry and the state
and for consumers because I don't care what the media
tries to portray about car dealers, especially used car dealers.
These are some of the best folks in the world.
They are. They get a bad rap. As with any industry,
(19:49):
there's there's bad players. But the guys that I've known
for literally my whole life and their children are running
the lots. Now, there's some of the best examples of
good business that that that are out there in North Carolina.
So we really lead the state. We get a bad rap,
but we lead the state of being the best in business,
I believe, because, I mean, if you look through any
(20:10):
small community, it's usually a car lot that's sponsoring the
ball team. It's a car lot. It's a car lot
that's sending the food to the hospice house. It's the
car lot that's sponsoring habitat for humanity. So these guys
have big hearts and they they do a lot of
good for their communities.
S3 (20:26):
Yeah. It's funny you talk about your You're volunteering stuff.
My boss. Who's listening in? She's putting this together. Colleen,
her publisher. She's the same way she volunteers. And, boy,
she went through the whole thing once. She volunteered. Man,
they got you for everything, you know? What's that thing? 10%
of the people do? 90% of the work.
S4 (20:43):
So you go you go from being volunteer to volunteer.
S3 (20:47):
Yes. Perfect. And the other thing, and.
S4 (20:49):
The bad thing with serving in public office, is your
family has to be as committed as you are. Because
bless my wife's heart, if she goes to the grocery store,
she gets stopped and say, you know, I need to
talk to your husband. I can't kick him. But while
I've got you here and I mean, she she has
to go through the. She's got the co-representative for the district.
So everybody, everybody here, when they can't find me, they
(21:10):
wear her out.
S3 (21:11):
That's great. Yeah. The other you know the other thing
to say too. You talked about dealers. You know, I
always go to the Oneida convention and they have that
national quality dealer event. And I always love it because
then you hear the stories like you're talking about. You
hear that. And I know story dealers are kind of
like veterans. They don't talk about the good stuff they do,
you know. And you think about, like you said, all
(21:32):
these dealers do all these good things. And I go
to that national quality dealer, and I tell everybody, any dealer,
you got to go to that event. And because you
guys really are celebrated and you hear about guys like
yourself who do all these things but never really get
credit for them. And then, of course, and on top
of that, for your job in the legislature, that you
think about the tax money that you guys bring into
(21:53):
the state as well. Oh, yeah.
S4 (21:55):
Yeah. It's, uh, you know, you don't serve you don't
own a business to to get praises for the things
you do. You never let the right hand know what
the left hand is doing. Right. Uh, and part of
serving in the legislature is to serve the people. I mean,
when the hurricanes came through, we suspended being a representative. And,
I mean, we went out there, boots on the ground,
(22:15):
as you're supposed to do. It's, you know, I, I
have been ordained to a higher position. For what reason?
I don't know, but I was chosen, and it's my
job to go out and serve everybody to help that that's.
I mean, I take that very, very seriously. And my
family does. I mean, it's a family deal. When the
hurricanes came. My kids were working in the distribution warehouse.
My wife was out gathering supplies, not patting us on
(22:36):
the back. But it's you, sir, that's you've been called
to serve. And therefore you have to do what you've
been called to do.
S3 (22:44):
Excellent, boy. That's a great spot to end it. Brendan Jones,
owner of Reddi Motors and state lawmaker. And of course,
just a great story and we appreciate someone like you
representing the industry in the state. Obviously, we love the Carolinas,
Aida and John Brown, they do a great job out there.
We do appreciate you spending time here on the Used
Car News podcast.
S4 (23:06):
Thanks for having me.
S1 (23:07):
Competition is fierce in the used car arena, so how
can you ensure that your pre-owned inventory stands above the rest?
Success starts with the quality of your leads. AutoTrader for
independence offers products that help drive high quality leads for
independent dealers like you.
S2 (23:26):
At the Nyada Convention and Expo in Las Vegas, Ben
Goodman shared key strategies for improving staff strength in dealerships
with extensive experience in employee development. Goodman stressed the importance
of thorough onboarding, setting clear performance goals, and regular one
on one reviews. Dealers should identify essential roles, establish training
(23:48):
and development plans, and use performance reviews, including 360 reviews,
to enhance team effectiveness. Recruitment challenges, especially for technicians, can
be mitigated by offering competitive pay benefits and sign on bonuses.
Retaining employees relies on creating a positive work environment and
effective management. In July 2024, the FTC secured a court
(24:13):
order against an online used car dealer for deceptive practices.
The dealer falsely advertised comprehensive vehicle inspections, quick deliveries, and
straightforward sales processes, but failed to meet these promises, violating
multiple FTC rules. Customers reported significant issues with their vehicles
and delivery delays. The dealer, which was already winding down operations,
(24:36):
agreed to a $1 million settlement and a permanent injunction
against misleading practices. The settlement emphasizes the importance of adhering
to FTC rules, including accurate vehicle inspection disclosures, timely deliveries,
and proper warranty information, even for online sales and transactions
conducted in Spanish. At the Nyada Convention and Expo in
(25:01):
Las Vegas, leaders emphasized the importance of auto dealers being
proactive in legislative and regulatory matters. Lawrence Mead and Jeremy
Beck outlined Nyoda's three pronged strategy collaborating with state associations,
engaging with national lawmakers, and working with regulatory bodies. They
highlighted recent successes, such as efforts to influence Illinois legislation
(25:24):
on starter, interrupt and GPS devices, Nyada partners with Hudson
Cook Law Firm for legislative monitoring and will host its
National Policy Conference to advocate for dealer concerns, meeting with
lawmakers to push for supportive legislation. Thanks for listening to
Used Car News podcast. Each month, we'll bring you fast
(25:46):
and reliable news that car dealers can rely on for
this evolving industry. For a free subscription of Used Car News,
please go to Used Car news.com. This podcast is a
production of BGR Group. Make sure to share us on
social media and like and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
S1 (26:02):
Competition is fierce in the used car arena, so how
can you ensure that your pre-owned inventory stands above the rest?
Success starts with the quality of your leads. AutoTrader for
independence offers products that help drive high quality leads for
independent dealers like you.
Competition is fierce in the used car arena. So how
can you ensure that your pre-owned inventory stands above the rest?
Success starts with the quality of your leads. AutoTrader for
independence offers products that help drive high quality leads for
independent dealers like you.
S2 (00:25):
Welcome to Used Car News podcast. Used Car News is
your top source for fast and reliable news that car
dealers can rely on for this evolving industry. Here are
this month's top stories expert Ben Goodman reveals top strategies
at Niada Expo online. Used car dealer settles $1 million
(00:45):
for deceptive practices. Niada advocates for auto dealers, key legislative
wins and future plans unveiled. Plus, Brendan Jones from Ready Motors.
S3 (00:57):
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Used Car news podcast. My
name is Jeff Blount. I'm editor over at Used Car News,
and today we have a special guest, Brendan Jones. He
is the owner of Redi Motors in Tabor City, North Carolina.
But he's got a lot of other stuff he does
as well. Welcome, Brendan.
S4 (01:14):
Hey, thanks for having me.
S3 (01:16):
Thanks for you coming on to to to to the podcast.
Now you're a third generation dealer. How? Tell me how
your family got into the business and how you got
into the dealership.
S4 (01:27):
Well, back in the 50s, my grandfather was working at
a loan company in Augusta, Georgia, and he was collecting,
collecting payments for that loan company. And as they were repossessing,
excuse me, as they were repossessing vehicles, he started buying
them from the loan company, and he rented a lot
next door. And he started selling cars for $10, down
$5 a week. And the owners of the loan company
(01:49):
came to him and said, either you're going to be
in the car business or you're going to be in
the loan business, and the rest is history. That is.
S3 (01:53):
Great. Is it funny to you? Always have that. You'll
have people either get out. A lot of people get
started on the finance side and then they end up
in buy here, pay here because of that or something
like that. That's interesting. Um, and now so your your
father followed in his footsteps.
S4 (02:08):
Yeah. My dad, my dad, uh, again from Augusta, Georgia,
started working for his father around 65, 66. Married a
military brat. He wanted to come back home to North Carolina,
where her parents retired. And he opened up this lot
in 1972. And we have been here ever since.
S3 (02:28):
Excellent, excellent. What was it about? Was it was. Were
you always going to be in the dealership or is
this something you like doing?
S4 (02:34):
No, no. Uh, my father highly discouraged myself and my
brother from getting into the automobile business. We're from a
very small area. It's a it's a lot of work,
as they say. We're vertically integrated. So we did it all.
The buy and the sell and the clean and the repossession.
So it's a lot of long hours. Uh, yeah. I
can remember back when I was ten, 12 years old,
my dad would wake us up on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
(02:56):
They slip your pants on. He went and found some
cars and there we went. They repossessed the cars.
S3 (03:01):
Was that exciting as your young person? Was it kind
of interesting?
S4 (03:04):
It was just the norm, man. It was just, you know,
my dad moved to North Carolina not knowing a lot
of folks. So he depended on family. And, uh, we
just kind of did everything together and, uh, been out
here my whole life. Uh, didn't know anything any different.
I mean, it's just we just work. He had a
very strong work ethic that was passed on to us,
and people asked what my hobby is, and it's working.
(03:25):
That's that's really all we do is work.
S3 (03:27):
Okay. But now, despite his discouragement, you stayed in the
car business. Why is that?
S4 (03:32):
Well, I'm not a real smart guy, so, um, I actually,
I actually, I left home, uh, and you'll get to
this in a minute. When, when I went to work
at in the funeral service, I had a wife going
through nursing school at that time. Found out at the
funeral home if your name was not on the sign,
it was a hard way to make a living. Got
back into sales, went to work with a national, uh,
(03:52):
manufactured home company. Did very, very well with them until
the mobile home crisis of 9596 came along when they
were all folding up and had to find something to do.
And about that time, he was getting ready to really
pull back what he was doing. And so I came
home in 98, 99 and been here ever since.
S3 (04:15):
And in terms of the funeral home business, how did
you get into that mortuary science?
S4 (04:19):
Yeah, I walked into the house one day, a senior
in high school, and told my parents I was going
to mortuary school, so that went over like a lead balloon. Uh,
my family had probably. I probably never attended three funerals.
I am a guy that's pretty strong in his faith.
And the Lord works in mysterious ways. And, uh, he
knew there was a lot of stuff coming in the future.
I was a pretty introverted guy. Even growing up in sales,
(04:42):
I still preferred doing everything besides waiting on the customer.
It was a good life plan to to go into
that field, to learn how to work with folks and
all situations.
S3 (04:52):
Boy, yeah, I was going to say, if you want
to learn how to work with people, that's probably the
most difficult and the most difficult time for sure.
S4 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah. That, that, you know, you're it's if you
can get through a lot of that and you can
maneuver through a lot of the grief time, it helps
you with the good times. So it was a good
segway to where the future led me and has been very,
very useful skill for me my whole life. Excellent.
S3 (05:15):
Now you're in the buy here or in the dealership?
You're buy here. Pay here. Obviously that's that's has its
own challenges. What is it about? I buy here, pay here.
What do you like about it? What do you. What's
the challenge? I mean, I know the challenge, but just
for your experience.
S4 (05:30):
Well, used to used to really enjoy it, as we
have seen with the industry over the last 5 or
6 years. The challenge now is basically we're becoming a dinosaur.
I don't know how much of a future lots like
mine really have the small mom and pops and a
small town, uh, with the internet coming along, it's made
(05:50):
the world so small. I don't know that our usefulness
is going to be stretched out much longer. We had
a segment of the population for a long time that
needed us, and with credit the way it is now,
it's not. The scoring is not as important as it
used to be. And so the challenge now is just
just to stay in business. We're having a real battle
with inventory. What was the 5 or $6000 car 4
(06:13):
or 5 years ago now is a 10 or $12,000 car.
S3 (06:16):
Yeah, that that balance of affordable inventory with your customers payments.
S4 (06:21):
In a, in a community as this one that's close
to the poverty level. It's all about the dollar figure.
It's not what the car is worth or it's what
you have to spend, what you get on your return.
And that's very, very difficult for us for sure.
S3 (06:38):
Wow. Okay. Well that's good. Um, and then what do
you what do you what do you tell? How many
cars do you typically carry on your lot?
S4 (06:43):
Well, we got let me look out the window at one.
So that's what we have right now. So when we
when we do get good inventory we can sell it
off pretty fast. We used to pre-COVID, we actually had
two sales centers. We carried 2530 here and at our
what we call our our Big Lots, which carry the
newer model stuff. We carry 2530 there as well. But
we were renting everything there, had just stuck our toes
(07:06):
into the new model. Business was doing very well. But
when Covid came and the banking changed and everything changed
and the price changed, it forced us to leave that lot,
come back here. And the challenge again, as with everybody
out there, is inventory problems are still still the most
prevalent thing we're dealing with. Absolutely.
S3 (07:24):
Okay, so now you you're your dealer. You buy here,
pay here, you have a funeral home, and then you
decide to run for state legislature. What happened?
S4 (07:34):
The legislature came before the funeral home. I'm, um.
S3 (07:37):
Oh, okay.
S4 (07:38):
Yeah. So I've owned the funeral home about two and
a half years. Been licensed over 30 or licensed about
30 years. 31 years.
S3 (07:45):
Oh, okay. Gotcha, gotcha.
S4 (07:46):
I had a long blank space in the funeral industry.
When I came back, I would fill in for some
local guys if they wanted to go on vacation or
if they were sick, I would help out. One of
our little towns was completely devastated in a hurricane about
6 or 8 years ago. The owner closed the funeral
home and I put my money where my mouth was,
and I went over and bought it and remodeled it.
And there we got a funeral home in Fair Bluff.
S3 (08:09):
Okay, so you were, but you got into when did
you get in the state legislature or what prompted that,
I should say.
S4 (08:14):
Some local folks came to me 2010, nine, ten and
asked me to serve on the local Board of elections,
which I really didn't have time to do. But of
course they lied to you and tell you it doesn't
take up any time.
S3 (08:27):
Yes.
S4 (08:29):
They we were we were a very strong Democratic stronghold here.
The Democrat Party had always ruled southeastern North Carolina. My
family was one of the very first Republicans in the 60s,
when my grandparents came back after retiring from the military. Uh,
always had strong Christian conservative values and somewhat of a
big mouth. So they wanted they wanted me to go
(08:50):
over and serve. And I took the bait and I
went over and I started serving on the Board of
Elections and, uh, very, very eye opening. And from there
you get to meet a lot of the candidates, see
a lot of the folks serving. And at that time,
we had a guy that was just really using the
state legislature. He had been a teacher. He was using
it to boost his state retirement. He cared nothing for
(09:13):
the community, was not working for the community, did nothing
for the community. And as I was complaining, people started
telling me, well, why don't you run? And again, not
very smart guy. I'm in the car business, you know.
So I took that bait and there we go.
S3 (09:26):
Yeah, now I understand. I read a piece in the
Nyada publication and it said you lost a close one,
and then you won the next one. Is that correct? Yeah.
S4 (09:36):
So when I ran the first time again, there were
no Republicans elected in. Right, right. I think we we
share a county. We share a Da with Brunswick County,
and they're a pretty strong Republican county. So when I
ran the first time, the state caucus certainly, certainly did
not get behind my race. Oh no, no, no path forward.
(09:56):
Had no help locally, did not know what I was doing,
was just a wing and a prayer. But when we
closed it down on election night, we were just a
little less than a thousand votes away. We had prayed
hard about it and got wow.
S3 (10:08):
Wow. That's something. Yeah, I told God.
S4 (10:10):
I said, okay, man, I, I did exactly what you
led me to do. I'm going back to sell cars
and live my life and we're out. And no kidding.
The next day after election, I had a guy call
me and said, man, I'm gonna put $1,500 in your
campaign account. Keep it up. Keep doing it. You're going
to be successful. We we ran a second time and
first Republican and 157 years to be elected to a
(10:33):
state representative seat, and we won by, gosh, like 28 points.
It was a it was just a massive, uh, massive show.
S3 (10:43):
Was this the same candidate you ran against the first time?
S4 (10:46):
No. He said if I ran again, he would not run.
And he lived true to his word and he backed out.
So we faced off with a new guy and we,
as I say, beat him like a drum.
S3 (10:58):
That's great. So now you now you're in the legislature.
Now you're seeing how the sausage is made. What did
you learn? What came out of that? What was your
first impressions.
S4 (11:06):
Of the state legislature is a lot like a high school.
If we if we had a pack of cigarettes and
a pregnant girl, we'd call it legislative high. But no.
All jokes aside, we get up there, you know, it's, uh,
it's nothing what you expect, and it's everything that you expect.
So learning early that I wanted to be part of
(11:26):
the sausage making, as you say, I ran for freshman
whip and my roommate ran for a freshman leader. Was
not my roommate at the time. Ended up being my
roommate last six years. But that's how our friendship started.
And so we we immediately had a seat at the
table as freshman leaders. Oh, nice. And it is a
lot like high school. You look at who the cool
kids are, the dorks, the geeks and stuff, and you
(11:48):
kind of see, you kind of see who's making the decisions,
and you kind of latch onto those guys and you
start really drinking from that fire hose immediately. Uh, fast
forward now. My my roommate, uh, will be the next
speaker of the House, and I am I am running
for majority leader, which will be the number two guy
in the house.
S3 (12:06):
That's excellent. Now are you do you have to run
for election this year? Is. Is that but you. Are
you on a poster?
S4 (12:14):
I am, uh, second time being unopposed. Okay.
S3 (12:17):
Uh, makes it easy.
S4 (12:18):
Well, the folks here are either satisfied or, I guess,
with what we're doing. We try to be very available
to everyone, and we work. We do not play politics locally.
It's not a Republican or Democrat thing. It's a community thing.
There you go. So we work hard for everyone. And
I always say, once you're elected, you're the servant of
all the people. Not just not just the Republicans. So, uh, we,
(12:42):
we have we have broad support across socioeconomic groups, across
racial groups. I serve in a tri racial district. So
we have support from from all aspects from all over
the county. So we have been very, very successful and
very blessed with what we've done.
S3 (12:59):
Okay. And now you as a car dealer and a
small business owner, um, I'm sure other car dealers and
small business owners, like someone like you in the legislature.
What what have you done? What have you learned about
how they think about small business and.
S4 (13:12):
Well, I have no clue how important it was to
join an association and how important it was to get
involved four years, five years ago. Speaker Moore came to
me and asked me to take over transportation. So I
am senior chair of Appropriations of Transportation. Chair of appropriations,
as well as one of the main appropriators for the
House budget. Well that's great. Yeah. Having having someone sit
(13:35):
there that understands to the best of my ability, the
laws that affect us, I think has has paid dividends.
We have been able to change a lot of things
that were wrong. Our only problem, and I call this,
you know, I call it like I see it, our
commissioner that we have in this state is inept. He
is unable to follow the laws that have been prescribed
(13:57):
before him. He has not implemented the new changes. It's sad, but.
S3 (14:02):
Commissioner. Commissioner?
S4 (14:03):
Meaning what? The DMV commissioner vehicle. So he's the guy
that implements the laws. We've done a you know, we've
changed our temporary plates from 30 to 60 days the
way we license dealers as opposed to implement a new
online system. We're supposed to have a grace period on
our license to help dealers not kicked out of the
auction if there's something wrong with their renewals. Just a
(14:23):
lot of little things that we yeah, that makes great strides.
He has been a stonewall for everything that we've done.
It's sad to say he plays politics with four priorities
of businesses. But we are. We're at the end of
November hopefully will be a new day for North Carolina.
And instead of having a split split government, hopefully we'll
have a pretty, pretty solid top to bottom ticket that
(14:46):
we can get a lot more moved. With the right commissioner,
we can really, really resolve. A lot of our DMV
dot issues in the state.
S3 (14:54):
Is the DMV guys had an appointed position?
S4 (14:56):
Yes. And it's one of the governor's cronies. And he
had no he had no business being put in this position.
He's not qualified for the position. They had a lot
of folks in the in the agency that could have
done a fantastic job, not not a Democrat or Republican thing,
but there was folks lined up in there that were
able to take the take the torch and run with
it and would have had a lot of this stuff done.
(15:17):
And it's just very disappointing that we have spent so
much time and so much effort getting these laws changed.
And they are laws by statute. And yeah, he refuses
to he refuses to implement them.
S1 (15:29):
Competition is fierce in the used car arena. So how
can you ensure that your pre-owned inventory stands above the rest?
Success starts with a quality of your leads. AutoTrader for
independence offers products that help drive high quality leads for
independent dealers like you.
S3 (15:45):
Yeah, that's I think that's been a big problem over
the last decade, is the idea of the elected officials
making laws, but the appointed bureaucrats not enforcing them, whether
or not. And it's funny because you talk about dealers
working with DMV and I talk to different dealers were national.
So we talked to dealers in different states. And it's
like you said, they have good relationships with DMV folks.
(16:06):
It's just, you know, like you said, if you if
you got the wrong guy in there, that must make
it very frustrating.
S4 (16:11):
It is it's really frustrating because there's good people under
him that that understand. And, you know, I spend a
few hours a month having to navigate, negotiate, just dealer renewals,
just the DMV denying guys that have been in business
30 and 40 years. Yeah, because of some technicality they
think is wrong. And we have to go through a
(16:34):
whole process of proving that the dealer is correct.
S3 (16:37):
Yeah. You've got you guys got a pretty good, um, active, uh,
association in the Carolinas. Uh, good leadership there and everything.
How does that help you in terms of that connection
between dealers, the legislature and the association?
S4 (16:50):
As with anybody, they have a lobbyist. And that lobbyist
is Fred Bowen. With Bowen Associates. And Fred just does
an outstanding job for the association. He's been with them many,
many years. Since I've been in the legislature. John Brown
has been the executive director, and they brought in Marty Coates, uh,
to to help. Help John. Marty is a actually he
(17:10):
grew up about 40 miles from me. 30 miles from me.
So he's he's a southeastern North Carolina guy, but he
served in the state legislature in South Carolina. So Marty
brings a great perspective to the association of understanding not
only the dealer side, but the political side. Yes. So
they do a fantastic job of really getting in the weeds,
helping me. I can call Fred, and Fred will call
(17:32):
John and Marty, and they'll get with their legal team
anything that I need. And we have we have worked
through and changed a lot of things. I give those
guys kudos. They do a fantastic job in this state.
S3 (17:43):
Yeah, I was going to say of the years I've
covered the industry, there are certain states that always do
a good job in that area, and definitely the Carolinas
and John Brown, there are one of them. So are
you happy where you're at? I mean, do you see
yourself continuing in this position? You know, you don't have
like national aspirations like Congress or anything like that.
S4 (18:00):
Well, as with it's just like working in a church.
When they find a worker, they want them to do everything. Yeah.
I have been asked to run or serve in every
single position you can imagine. I am very satisfied with
what I'm doing. I am not using this as a
stepping stone. I am probably more excited about my seatmate
roommate becoming the next speaker. He's 37 years old. He'll
(18:24):
be the first millennial. He'll be the first. Well, he
is young, but he is wise beyond his years. He's
a very intelligent young man, an attorney out of Caldwell County,
but the old man beside him with some gray hair.
Will help guide him from, you know, being in the business.
Part of my job is reading people. So I do
a pretty good job at reading folks. And I look,
I just look forward to serving under a speaker hall
(18:47):
and help him navigate us through the 25, 26 season. Uh,
and I, I call them seasons because it's almost like
playoffs sometime when you get there. So yeah, it's an
exciting time for our caucus and our state. We're working hard.
He has set some records himself as far as fundraising.
Folks don't realize how expensive it is for good government,
(19:08):
but you can imagine that if we don't do the
right things and elect the right people, our industry can
be decimated. I hate to say my friends across the aisle,
but my associates across the aisles would rather put some
insane consumer protections deal that would decimate the buy here,
pay here business. I mean, just destroy it. They have
tried it since I've been there, and we've been successful
(19:29):
in blocking a lot of the things they want to do.
So good government does cost, but in the end it's
it's a huge win for the industry and the state
and for consumers because I don't care what the media
tries to portray about car dealers, especially used car dealers.
These are some of the best folks in the world.
They are. They get a bad rap. As with any industry,
(19:49):
there's there's bad players. But the guys that I've known
for literally my whole life and their children are running
the lots. Now, there's some of the best examples of
good business that that that are out there in North Carolina.
So we really lead the state. We get a bad rap,
but we lead the state of being the best in business,
I believe, because, I mean, if you look through any
(20:10):
small community, it's usually a car lot that's sponsoring the
ball team. It's a car lot. It's a car lot
that's sending the food to the hospice house. It's the
car lot that's sponsoring habitat for humanity. So these guys
have big hearts and they they do a lot of
good for their communities.
S3 (20:26):
Yeah. It's funny you talk about your You're volunteering stuff.
My boss. Who's listening in? She's putting this together. Colleen,
her publisher. She's the same way she volunteers. And, boy,
she went through the whole thing once. She volunteered. Man,
they got you for everything, you know? What's that thing? 10%
of the people do? 90% of the work.
S4 (20:43):
So you go you go from being volunteer to volunteer.
S3 (20:47):
Yes. Perfect. And the other thing, and.
S4 (20:49):
The bad thing with serving in public office, is your
family has to be as committed as you are. Because
bless my wife's heart, if she goes to the grocery store,
she gets stopped and say, you know, I need to
talk to your husband. I can't kick him. But while
I've got you here and I mean, she she has
to go through the. She's got the co-representative for the district.
So everybody, everybody here, when they can't find me, they
(21:10):
wear her out.
S3 (21:11):
That's great. Yeah. The other you know the other thing
to say too. You talked about dealers. You know, I
always go to the Oneida convention and they have that
national quality dealer event. And I always love it because
then you hear the stories like you're talking about. You
hear that. And I know story dealers are kind of
like veterans. They don't talk about the good stuff they do,
you know. And you think about, like you said, all
(21:32):
these dealers do all these good things. And I go
to that national quality dealer, and I tell everybody, any dealer,
you got to go to that event. And because you
guys really are celebrated and you hear about guys like
yourself who do all these things but never really get
credit for them. And then, of course, and on top
of that, for your job in the legislature, that you
think about the tax money that you guys bring into
(21:53):
the state as well. Oh, yeah.
S4 (21:55):
Yeah. It's, uh, you know, you don't serve you don't
own a business to to get praises for the things
you do. You never let the right hand know what
the left hand is doing. Right. Uh, and part of
serving in the legislature is to serve the people. I mean,
when the hurricanes came through, we suspended being a representative. And,
I mean, we went out there, boots on the ground,
(22:15):
as you're supposed to do. It's, you know, I, I
have been ordained to a higher position. For what reason?
I don't know, but I was chosen, and it's my
job to go out and serve everybody to help that that's.
I mean, I take that very, very seriously. And my
family does. I mean, it's a family deal. When the
hurricanes came. My kids were working in the distribution warehouse.
My wife was out gathering supplies, not patting us on
(22:36):
the back. But it's you, sir, that's you've been called
to serve. And therefore you have to do what you've
been called to do.
S3 (22:44):
Excellent, boy. That's a great spot to end it. Brendan Jones,
owner of Reddi Motors and state lawmaker. And of course,
just a great story and we appreciate someone like you
representing the industry in the state. Obviously, we love the Carolinas,
Aida and John Brown, they do a great job out there.
We do appreciate you spending time here on the Used
Car News podcast.
S4 (23:06):
Thanks for having me.
S1 (23:07):
Competition is fierce in the used car arena, so how
can you ensure that your pre-owned inventory stands above the rest?
Success starts with the quality of your leads. AutoTrader for
independence offers products that help drive high quality leads for
independent dealers like you.
S2 (23:26):
At the Nyada Convention and Expo in Las Vegas, Ben
Goodman shared key strategies for improving staff strength in dealerships
with extensive experience in employee development. Goodman stressed the importance
of thorough onboarding, setting clear performance goals, and regular one
on one reviews. Dealers should identify essential roles, establish training
(23:48):
and development plans, and use performance reviews, including 360 reviews,
to enhance team effectiveness. Recruitment challenges, especially for technicians, can
be mitigated by offering competitive pay benefits and sign on bonuses.
Retaining employees relies on creating a positive work environment and
effective management. In July 2024, the FTC secured a court
(24:13):
order against an online used car dealer for deceptive practices.
The dealer falsely advertised comprehensive vehicle inspections, quick deliveries, and
straightforward sales processes, but failed to meet these promises, violating
multiple FTC rules. Customers reported significant issues with their vehicles
and delivery delays. The dealer, which was already winding down operations,
(24:36):
agreed to a $1 million settlement and a permanent injunction
against misleading practices. The settlement emphasizes the importance of adhering
to FTC rules, including accurate vehicle inspection disclosures, timely deliveries,
and proper warranty information, even for online sales and transactions
conducted in Spanish. At the Nyada Convention and Expo in
(25:01):
Las Vegas, leaders emphasized the importance of auto dealers being
proactive in legislative and regulatory matters. Lawrence Mead and Jeremy
Beck outlined Nyoda's three pronged strategy collaborating with state associations,
engaging with national lawmakers, and working with regulatory bodies. They
highlighted recent successes, such as efforts to influence Illinois legislation
(25:24):
on starter, interrupt and GPS devices, Nyada partners with Hudson
Cook Law Firm for legislative monitoring and will host its
National Policy Conference to advocate for dealer concerns, meeting with
lawmakers to push for supportive legislation. Thanks for listening to
Used Car News podcast. Each month, we'll bring you fast
(25:46):
and reliable news that car dealers can rely on for
this evolving industry. For a free subscription of Used Car News,
please go to Used Car news.com. This podcast is a
production of BGR Group. Make sure to share us on
social media and like and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
S1 (26:02):
Competition is fierce in the used car arena, so how
can you ensure that your pre-owned inventory stands above the rest?
Success starts with the quality of your leads. AutoTrader for
independence offers products that help drive high quality leads for
independent dealers like you.
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