Dan Kommeth On the Future of Car Dealerships
Transcript
Kelly : Well, here’s the Nostradamus section of our podcast where we asked you to break out your crystal ball and make your future prediction. What will the typical car dealership look like in five years?n
nDan : Well, I’m a free market capitalist. So I really think that instead of the government, putting their thumb on the scale, and trying to, you know, get the results that they want, I’d rather have the consumers have the choice to buy what they want to buy, right? And so let the marketplace dictate that, instead of saying, well, everybody needs to buy an EV. And because this is the way we’re going, it just locks people. I don’t like taking away choice from consumers, when they have greater choice. The marketplace is more robust, right? If electric vehicles have to compete in a marketplace with internal combustion engine vehicles, and, and gas electric hybrids, and how about hydrogen?n
nKelly : Right, you know, 100 percent agree.n
nDan : So in five years, I’d like to see, this is not a prediction. What I’d like to see is an arena, and quite frankly, you know, from whatever administration is an office, I don’t care. But where they say this is going to be a level playing field, we’re going to let everybody fight on the merits of their product and the benefits of it. n
nBut we’re not going to force people to go down the, you know, to go down this one path, right. So it’s, it’s, electric vehicles are great. I’ve driven them, we have franchises we have, you know, we have lots of electric vehicles and more coming every day, you know, that they’re wonderful to drive. But telling a consumer that they can’t buy something is just really, I just don’t like that. I mean, there’s so many applications for so many different things. n
nIf you own a, you know, we have three Ford stores, and we have some rural customers, right that have a farm. And they have six or seven, heavy duty Ford pickup trucks that work on their farm. And you’re telling them that Oh, not your next one’s got to be an f150 Lightning. Well, maybe that doesn’t work because the F-250 Superduty is his truck of choice, it’s worked for him, he’s bought 100 of them from us and things like that. n
nI just, I just want the customers to buy the cars that fit their lifestyle best if it’s an electric car, if you have, if you have one electric car, and you have one, you know, internal combustion, or you have a gas electric hybrid doesn’t matter to me, you know, in terms of of what it is, but let’s not, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that the government knows better than the marketplace does, because what you see is is that customers still are raising their hand for internal combustion engine vehicle.n
nSo I mean, why would we take that option away from people? And by the way, those vehicles are cleaner from an emissions standpoint than anything we’ve had in a long time and then, you know, the argument is like, Oh, well, the electric is cleaner. It’s like, well, if you follow the supply chain all the way back, it’s not necessarily the case. Right? n
nSo, I mean, it’s, you know, so I really, like we have, you know, Toyota is one of our partners, and I think Toyota has a really good approach to it. Right there. You know, they have gas, they have gas electric hybrid, they have full electric now, and oh, by the way, they’re working on hydrogen. Right? So Akio Toyoda, who’s head of the company or whatever, you know, thinking like that, like, hey, let’s, let’s not put Toyota in a box. Let’s have Toyota have options for all consumers out there. Right. So that to me is the type of thinking that I’d like to see five years, 10 years, you know, 15 years down the line.n
nDan : Well, I’m a free market capitalist. So I really think that instead of the government, putting their thumb on the scale, and trying to, you know, get the results that they want, I’d rather have the consumers have the choice to buy what they want to buy, right? And so let the marketplace dictate that, instead of saying, well, everybody needs to buy an EV. And because this is the way we’re going, it just locks people. I don’t like taking away choice from consumers, when they have greater choice. The marketplace is more robust, right? If electric vehicles have to compete in a marketplace with internal combustion engine vehicles, and, and gas electric hybrids, and how about hydrogen?n
nKelly : Right, you know, 100 percent agree.n
nDan : So in five years, I’d like to see, this is not a prediction. What I’d like to see is an arena, and quite frankly, you know, from whatever administration is an office, I don’t care. But where they say this is going to be a level playing field, we’re going to let everybody fight on the merits of their product and the benefits of it. n
nBut we’re not going to force people to go down the, you know, to go down this one path, right. So it’s, it’s, electric vehicles are great. I’ve driven them, we have franchises we have, you know, we have lots of electric vehicles and more coming every day, you know, that they’re wonderful to drive. But telling a consumer that they can’t buy something is just really, I just don’t like that. I mean, there’s so many applications for so many different things. n
nIf you own a, you know, we have three Ford stores, and we have some rural customers, right that have a farm. And they have six or seven, heavy duty Ford pickup trucks that work on their farm. And you’re telling them that Oh, not your next one’s got to be an f150 Lightning. Well, maybe that doesn’t work because the F-250 Superduty is his truck of choice, it’s worked for him, he’s bought 100 of them from us and things like that. n
nI just, I just want the customers to buy the cars that fit their lifestyle best if it’s an electric car, if you have, if you have one electric car, and you have one, you know, internal combustion, or you have a gas electric hybrid doesn’t matter to me, you know, in terms of of what it is, but let’s not, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that the government knows better than the marketplace does, because what you see is is that customers still are raising their hand for internal combustion engine vehicle.n
nSo I mean, why would we take that option away from people? And by the way, those vehicles are cleaner from an emissions standpoint than anything we’ve had in a long time and then, you know, the argument is like, Oh, well, the electric is cleaner. It’s like, well, if you follow the supply chain all the way back, it’s not necessarily the case. Right? n
nSo, I mean, it’s, you know, so I really, like we have, you know, Toyota is one of our partners, and I think Toyota has a really good approach to it. Right there. You know, they have gas, they have gas electric hybrid, they have full electric now, and oh, by the way, they’re working on hydrogen. Right? So Akio Toyoda, who’s head of the company or whatever, you know, thinking like that, like, hey, let’s, let’s not put Toyota in a box. Let’s have Toyota have options for all consumers out there. Right. So that to me is the type of thinking that I’d like to see five years, 10 years, you know, 15 years down the line.n