#20 - Monday Minute | You Can't Make Money in Recon

About this episode

Luke and Jeff discuss the importance of an efficient recon process in independent dealerships to maximize profitability.

Welcome to the Monday Minute — your weekly reset to lead better, think clearer, and build your independent dealership with intention. A few weeks ago, Luke and Jeff broke down turn time. This week, they're tackling the other half of that equation: time to line. From the moment the hammer drops at the auction to the moment that car is sitting on the front line — clean, photographed, stickered, and ready to retail — every day in between is costing you. You can't make money on a car sitting in recon. In this episode, Luke and Jeff walk through what most independent dealerships actually have when it comes to recon — not a process, but a series of "figure it out" steps. One person inspects, another looks at it later, parts may or may not get ordered, the wrong part shows up, clips get forgotten, and the car keeps sitting. No flow means no speed. They map out a real recon flow step by step — receiving the unit from the transporter, initial inspection, test drive, estimate, approval, parts, repair, re-inspection, final test drive, detail, merchandising, photos — and explain why writing it down is what unlocks improvement. You can't fix what you can't see. Top operators run…

People in this episode

Hosts: Jeff Watson, Luke Godwin

Topics covered

• recon process
• independent dealership
• automotive sales
• efficiency
• bottlenecks

Keywords

• recon
• dealership
• automotive
• efficiency
• bottleneck
• process mapping
• turn time

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