dealers · 2026-10-08 · 17m10s
BMW of Jackson · floor ops · iX3 pages · CP parts
> Date: October 08, 2026 > Location: [Insert Location] > Participants: [Lance] [Speaker 2] [Speaker 3]
Meeting Notes
Competitive Landscape and Brand Philosophy
- A comparison was made between Tesla and German automakers, particularly BMW.
- Tesla is seen as taking a more aggressive, risk-tolerant, “deeply American” approach, enabling rapid experimentation with features like “Full Self-Driving.”
- German manufacturers, like BMW, are viewed as more cautious, politically correct, and constrained by a fear of mistakes.
- Despite this, BMW’s technology was described as superior, though the brand’s mentality is considered “ten years behind.”
- This disconnect is attributed to encountering “dork fucking MBA motherfuckers” in the U.S. rather than the engineers who invent the cars.
Internal Process and System Failures
- A new ordering system launched in July was called a “fuck up” because it was designed by people who have never sold a car.
- A major discussion focused on service department issues, specifically a differential fluid problem common in Audi and present in their own vehicles.
- Technicians and service advisors are reportedly failing to address this issue on in-warranty cars unless customers explicitly complain.
- Reasons for this failure include:
- This practice results in customer dissatisfaction, degraded vehicle performance, and higher costs for the used car department when the issue is found post-warranty.
- Service advisors not proactively asking about symptoms like vibrations or noises. - Technicians avoiding the job because the pay does not match the time required.
Product and Inventory Discussion
- The group agrees they currently have the “best new cars,” specifically praising the new X5.
- Current inventory includes three six-cylinder and one V8 old-body X5s; the V8 models are slow-moving.
- Upcoming Audi models (Q7 and Q9) were cited as potential competitors, with the Q9 expected to be “a little better than the X7.”
- The group discussed X7 seat configurations, debating bench seats (fold flat) versus bucket seats (pass-through).
- Ventilated seats will be available in the new X3, addressing a previous gap versus competitors like the Nissan Rogue.
Sales Performance and Service Metrics
- The service department is missing its daily customer-pay parts sales target of $7,400 by about $200–$400.
- The department is not overbooked; appointments are readily available, which is considered positive for customer service.
- “Customer pay” work includes any non-warranty work and services paid via maintenance plans.
- Work under maintenance plans pays less than direct customer-paid work.
Electric Vehicle (EV) Market and Strategy
- The iX3 is expected to start around $55,000, higher than a base Tesla Model 3 at $42,000.
- Tesla’s lease prices are highly competitive, with a Model 3 as low as $299 per month.
- BMW’s marketing is heavily focused on the iX3, with the first few months of production already sold out.
- BMW has adopted cylindrical cell battery technology, similar to Tesla, improving range and charging speed.
Next Arrangements
- [ ] Call Mrs. Braswell about a white steering wheel when the vehicle arrives.
- [ ] Build web pages for the iX3; hold off on assigning a dedicated advertising budget for now.
- [ ] Define a plan to close the $200–$400 daily gap in customer-pay parts sales (e.g., targeted upsells, advisor scripting, technician incentives).
- [ ] Implement a proactive process for the differential fluid issue on in-warranty vehicles (checklist, advisor prompts, fair flat-rate time).
- [ ] Align on X7 seat configuration strategy (bench vs. bucket) based on customer demand and inventory planning.
- [ ] Create a sales and marketing plan to move slow-selling V8 X5/X7 units (pricing, bundling, targeted campaigns).
- [ ] [Insert more]
AI Suggestions
> AI Suggestions > AI has identified the following issues that were not concluded in the meeting or lack clear action items; please pay attention: > 1. The service department is consistently missing its daily parts sales target. While the deficit is small, no clear strategy was defined to close this gap. > 2. There is a systemic failure in addressing a known differential fluid issue while vehicles are under warranty. This negatively impacts customer experience and dealership costs, but no solution was implemented. > 3. There is an internal disagreement on the optimal seat configuration for the X7 (bucket vs. bench), which could be impacting inventory strategy and sales. > 4. The V8 versions of the X5 and X7 are slow to sell, but no specific plan was made to address the marketing or sales strategy for this inventory.
0:00
iX3 pages
Build pages; no dedicated ad budget; national already heavy iX3
0:00
CP parts gap
Target $7,400/day parts; short $200–400; not overbooked
0:00
Old-body X5
3 six-cyl + 1 V8 left; V8s scare
0:00
ABR diff fluid
Warranty policy + tech pay friction; Eric/Richie examples
0:00
X7 seats
Bench vs bucket debate; keep a few of each
0:00
These fucking people, they came in. They, we know what they are, and I'm realizing this. Like the more I just kind of look into that company versus like all of the other ones, especially the Germans. The Germans are like handicapped by being not American. Like they're not, they're not, you know, sticking the fucking bird to the government. They, they want to be completely politically correct and not break any rules, and fucking. Tesla's just like, nah, fuck off, you know, which is like deeply American. I think that has a lot to do with how they just don't fucking care. They're like, yeah, it's full self - driving, but we're just not gonna call it that yet.
0:40
Because you people are too stupid.
0:43
Yeah, you're too stupid. Yeah, you don't fucking get it. And yeah, our car is getting wrecks once in a while, but you know, fuck it. They've got like pain tolerance that like BMW and the other manufacturers don't have any fucking pain tolerance for like fucking up a little bit to experiment, and that's I think that's slowing us down.
0:59
You know, even talking with Bill and Rich and those guys, BMW is just—you know—they drink too much of their own Kool-Aid. Yeah. You know, we got a trip to the we got a trip to the Caribbean in January. Yeah. And Bill, Bill and I were talking. Bill said, "Are you bringing Tina with you?" I said, "I am." I said, "Are you going to bring your wife?" He says, "Oh no." He said, "They don't let us have any fun at a meeting. They just torture us."
1:27
Like we have meeting, he said that fucking meeting up in Nashville. Yeah, they literally were in meetings until eleven o'clock at night.
1:34
About what exactly? What the fuck are you doing? Yeah, I'm wondering when the AI, like when those companies will catch up with the way AI lets you operate. Well, I mean, honestly, like AI lets me operate like on a ridiculous level for being a one man team.
1:50
Yes, the crazy thing is. Is that their technology is fucking superior? Hey, look. But they, as a brand, are mentally ten years behind.
1:59
Well, it's because you're not experiencing the people that are inventing these cars. You're experiencing the fucking, you know, dork fucking MBA motherfuckers they got running their bullshit in the U. S. That's a whole different.
2:12
Well, that's like when they launched the new ordering system. In July. It was a fuck up.
2:16
Oh yeah. Yeah, you had a bunch of bureaucrat nitwits running it.
2:21
Well, it was. People who have never sold a car before, right? Designing software for people who have to be able to use it.
2:29
Yep. Yeah, you would think that they would just have one person. That's all it would take. That has to order cars every day. Yeah. Um, but I can tell you this: our fucking cars are hands down the best fucking new cars that are being produced right now.
2:49
Oh, they're unreal.
2:50
I mean, you you sit in the new X5 and it's just ridiculous. Like you go sit in a Q7, a Q5. You know they've got a new Q7 coming out finally. It took them 13 years, and then the Q9 is finally coming out, which will actually it'll be a little better than the X7.
3:10
They haven't sold enough of the fucking last series Q7 to re to be able to afford to retool to make the next one. You're probably right. It's a billion dollars every fucking time you flip a brake.
3:21
Flip a car. So, I think like I don't know. I'm just saying like man, we really are lucky to have the best the best new cars. I believe. Yeah,
3:29
But they're shit too. They're double. It's a double - edged sword. These motherfuckers break so fast.
3:35
Tell me this: if you have this problem, Audi has this problem. It's uniquely Audi because literally everything's fucking quattro now, right? So we don't have as many on the road that are xDrive as they have their quattro, but. I was in a meeting. I sat in the fucking meeting way too long the other day on Monday for Audi. I got through my little piece, kind of like what we do. We discuss like, okay, what are we doing this month and marketing, and that was over. But then they launched into service problems. So they have a they have a diff fluid diff fluid problem. So do we. But wait, this is where the policy gets weird. They don't let them change the diff fluid while the car is under warranty unless the customer brings it up expressly.
4:18
And I think some of this is their service advisors are fucking idiots. So if I'm a service advisor, I have like I'm gonna have like an interview that I give my guy when he sits down. Hey man, how's it going? You enjoying the car? Any weird smells? Any weird vibrations? Anything I need to be worried about when you're driving and steering? Does it feel smooth? Like lead them down the primrose path to tell you what's wrong with the car. Apparently they're not doing that, and and apparently it has multiple fucking issues and implications. So. If they don't change the diff fluid while it's under warranty, it costs you know $1,200 right or whatever the fuck it costs. So what happens is they're not mentioning it to these people, and it's almost in every fucking car. And Eric, the used car manager, told me he said, Lance, if you get it and drive it, it's like you know what a bad diff feels like. It's like it stutters, it doesn't want to steer smooth, it makes a little ratcheting noise, it's a whole fucking nightmare. He said so. He said, but customers are a little unobservant. They don't always notice it.
5:16
Fucking meanwhile, Richie, the platform manager of the whole dealer group, chimes in. He goes, "Yeah, actually, I got in my wife's the other day, and it's doing it. And I asked her how long's it been doing that. She goes, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' So you have this, and they said it's almost every car. So you have almost every car has a diff fluid problem. So the cars are driving like shit and making noise. So right away they're not going to want another one.
5:40
So why would they not just do it? You're not loading their. Well, you're not.
5:44
Yeah, you're not loading their lips a little, saying, " How's it going? Are you feeling any vibrations?" And fucking just coach them into mentioning it. Well,
5:52
Our Lexus dealership did that with squeaking brakes, and it cost us 180.
5:56
They got audited. Got smoked. So that's what they're worried about there, and I'm like, yeah, but you know, fuck if you're just smart about it, don't you think you could figure out a way to make that work if you were a service advisor?
6:08
I know I could.
6:08
It's like, fuck. So what happens too is it it really it gets even more shitty. So you got customers that you're aggravating. They don't know what's wrong with their car and they're not mentioning it. And then you take the car in on trade and you never replace it under warranty. Now it's out of warranty. Now it costs your used car department.
6:25
I don't care if it costs my used car department. I just charge the shit out of them debt.
6:30
Yeah. Well. Yeah, but they they got profit problems, man. When it comes out, the truth comes out because Eric. Talks to the fucking service advisors and Eric's like, Eric said, man, y'all say that it's just the customers not mentioning it. He said, but what what the truth is, if your tech's driving the car, he should be able to notice it. Yes. And then he said, but what I found out is the techs don't like doing it because it doesn't pay well for work done. So like it takes them too long to do it based on the actual payable hours. Yeah. So they don't fucking suggest it.
7:06
My fucking idiots did the.
7:07
Same thing. So anyway, oh, we had a customer that had an X3 under warranty that it had some kind of there was something wrong with the differential or whatever, and Hayden had written it up for needing tires or whatever, so they can do that, you know. And I was like, Hayden, did you notice how badly this thing is driving? The car is under warranty. The customer didn't bring it up, so I can't say anything. What is that? It's bullshit.
7:37
Why wouldn't you ask your customer? Did you notice? And then they say, " Yeah, actually, I did notice. I didn't know it was a problem." Like I don't.
7:46
Know. Sometimes your people are your worst enemies, not your customers. So,
7:55
Yeah.
7:57
You have any good news? Yeah, we have the best cars on the market right now. How many X5s do we have left? I didn't. I checked last week. I don't think it's in you, right?
8:08
We've got three, four, three, three, six owners and one V8.
8:13
Like old bodies. That's all we have left. Good.
8:16
All right. How does the V8? It just got here, 30 days ago. That's that supplemental from Bill.
8:23
That's the one that scares me. The V8? Yeah. The V8 X7s and X5s both. They don't. They don't move.
8:29
Justin actually got a lead on it. Okay. I mean, the guy wants $ 950 payment. Yeah, he did.
8:40
So When are we going to have the iX3 that competes with the Tesla on price? Because that's not the first release. It's okay.
8:49
So the the sDrive.
8:50
Well, but it'll be closer, right?
8:53
It'll be 55. I don't think price is the issue.
8:55
No, but if you're going to try to steal market from them, it is because they lowered their prices,
9:01
Man. Yeah.
9:02
You go build one of those fucking things. I mean, what is the bottom one? Um,
9:06
Forty seven grand.
9:07
Yeah,
9:09
That's crazy. No, the problem is it leases for two ninety nine a month.
9:12
Does the lease that cheap? Yes. Yeah. Oh shit!
9:17
I didn't even look. The Y is like four ninety nine, maybe five ninety nine. For the Model Y, it's fucking stupid. Yeah. You can get a Model 3 for forty two grand. Yeah. Which is ten grand cheaper than a three series.
9:33
Um. BMW has now confirmed that ventilated seats are coming to the iX3 next fall. Yay! Yes, yay!
9:44
Are they going to be in the regular X3 too?
9:46
That's the regular X3. They're in it,
9:48
Right? Well, that was one of the speeches.
9:50
At the Abu Dhabi meeting in Nashville. They were throwing fits about it. Yeah. You know, Sandy Samsung was funny. He goes, " We sell Nissan Rogue. They have here seats. We can't beat a Nissan Rogue."
10:05
I mean, it's true. Yeah. Well, I mean, what happened is you got China developing all the technologies that everyone can buy and put in their cars, and it's cheap. So why wouldn't you just cram all the shit in your car, even if it's a cheap car?
10:21
Yeah. Boy, we ever fuck up and let them start bringing cars over here,
10:25
We're in trouble. You know, they're fighting it hard. Look, we'll just have to. I mean, honestly, I don't see it happening.
10:43
That's why I was.
10:45
Asking, who are those customers that are customer pay, so that I can figure out how to go after them specifically.
10:54
It's anything that's not warranty work.
10:56
Right, and so anything that is past four years,
11:00
50,000, but maintenance is included if even if they buy a maintenance plan, that still counts as customer pay. The ESC count as customer pay.
11:08
So if we push maintenance plan, so but maintenance plans can be sold.
11:13
In the light, and in the box.
11:15
So if we push those, if we push maintenance plans.
11:18
Well, selling the maintenance plan doesn't do it. Using the maintenance plan does. Got it. The problem is it pays less than if the customer paid for it.
11:26
So we'd rather it be fully customer pay. Absolutely. But that doesn't happen until their four year 50,000.
11:32
But the real problem is, is that I've got a a metric of like, I need to sell seven thousand four hundred dollars in parts a day. Parts, not labor, in parts in my customer pay, and I'm two hundred to four hundred dollars a day lower than that number.
11:50
So it's not even by much.
11:52
Yes, it's fucking piss and shit. It's two taxes is what I keep telling Terry.
11:56
Because add two taxes.
11:58
Yeah, because we don't have a we don't have a situation to where you know a customer wants an appointment. They may not get it today, but they can have an appointment tomorrow.
12:07
So we're not overbooked.
12:08
We're not overbooked. You know, we're not a week out.
12:10
Because every now and again, you'd like to see it. Being overbooked. A little bit overbooked.
12:14
I don't want to see that. I want to get in and out. If a motherfucker calls and says I want oil change, bring your ass in. Yeah, no, for sure. You know, if you don't ever tell a customer no, that's my motto. Bring them in. Come on. I'm trying to figure out how to cut back my service loaners, but I'm in nothing now. In this GKL stupid fucking bullshit they pulled. They just do dumb shit.
12:42
Well, it's it's the X5 or or or greater, right? You've got to have for those. Yeah,
12:46
But it's fucking stupid. That's the problem. Okay, so we're gonna roll that out as soon as we have the all new X5 that we won't be able to get enough of as.
12:53
It is. Yeah. Bill said, " Go out and buy some 7 Series." Right. That's the answer. Well, it helps Bill. Yeah,
13:03
No doubt. Wait, did he mean like buy like from BMW?
13:08
Yeah. Yeah. Take them up wholesale. There's I can I haven't looked I'm sure a 7 Series is easily available.
13:15
I'm thinking about pulling another 7 Series in.
13:18
Come on you waiting on me you bagging up Mrs. Braswell would like a white what color is her car That is white and ivory Okay she wants a white steering wheel I've got one I think built Yeah when he gets here call her She.
13:35
Loves red You know that's the thing I build white and ivory and other dealers.
13:41
Like X7s, we routinely get called on our white ivory ones. It, I don't get it. You should listen to Paula. Build more black block ones. Jesus Christ. My favorite thing is when Greg wants to build everything with bucket seats, and I don't. And then consistently we talk the customer into the one with the bench seat because it's the better seat. It's just a matter of explaining it to the customer. No. Why is it the better seat? It's not. The bench seat folds flat. The buckets do not. Right. If you have a child seat that has the latch anchor, okay, it has to go to the floor. It's okay. If you have the bench, it's on the back of the seat. Yeah, that's right.
14:23
So the bench is the better family car, is what is what I mean.
14:25
Yeah. It's bullshit. Everybody wants to be able to pass through. Problem is our third row sucks.
14:31
Well, and the second, the the buckets are this far apart. Unless you've got a two year old, they can't fit through them.
14:37
We would sell three times as many X7s if we built bucket seats. No fucking doubt. Call, call, call Brett at fucking Brian Harrison. Asking.
14:49
I have one of fucking seats right now. The one in the showroom. Fucking seats. Great. They both been here thirty days.
14:55
Get off your ass and sell them. I think if you always have a few of them, I guess you can't complain. You know.
15:01
Right. I try and keep one or two. Few of each. Because you, it, but just.
15:11
The Dasher is here.
15:13
Okay.
15:20
So, how many iX3s are we gonna have? No, not enough to matter. I mean, at least a few a month. No, not this year. No,
15:31
They're working through the pre - orders.
15:32
So it's like we'll get us some pages built, but I don't think we need to put any specific dollars behind it.
15:40
No. I don't really care to advertise it much.
15:45
No, but a page is free.
15:47
A page is just me building. Because I'm telling you, every fucking thing I see on TV right now with BMW is IX3.
15:54
Oh well, that's BMW. Yeah,
15:56
They're they're just fucking.
15:57
They're hoards for electric stuff, man. It's ridiculous.
16:00
Well, they've got the first three four months of production sold out for the US.
16:07
So you would think they would quit trying.
16:08
To. Well, I understand. That's like.
16:11
Well, no, they want they want to piss on Tesla's what they're trying to do, but that's like pissing on an electrical fence. Nothing good's gonna come out of it.
16:18
Yeah, hard to sell.
16:19
I mean, they're up 27 percent this year in our market. Tesla is. They're just fucking broken shit.
16:24
Well, but you know, in their defense, I mean, BMW is defensive. It's like, hey, we got to stop that bleeding. We can't let them keep fucking robbing from us. And look, man, that battery technology that they stuck in these cars is is way ahead is way ahead of Tesla.
16:38
Well, here's what's funny. They went to the the type of cell technology that Tesla already had. Yeah. They went to cylindrical cells instead of the square pouch style cells. Yeah. They are accepting Tesla has the better stuff. Idea. Yeah. But now we actually have better range than Tesla. Exactly. We got faster charging than Tesla.
16:58
It's the range thing. The range and the fast charging. Yeah. The fast charging is not going to matter as much right now. I don't think.
17:05
It depends on donuts up front.
17:06
Yep. It depends on how. Yeah.