About this episode

Jeff Watson and Luke Godwin discuss insights from the NIADA 2026 National Convention, covering various themes affecting automotive dealers.

In this episode of the Independent Dealer Podcast, Jeff Watson and Luke Godwin are coming to you live from Denver, Colorado at the NIADA 2026 National Convention. No guest, no studio — just two guys in rocking chairs sharing what they're seeing, hearing, and thinking after a week of conversations with dealers from across the country. From AI and daily score boarding to EV velocity, subprime lending shifts, and a low-balance trade cycle that's moved way further out than most dealers realize — this one covers the themes nobody's putting in a press release. What You'll Learn: -Why "know your numbers" is still the dominant theme at NIADA 2026 — and how AI is changing what dealers actually do with those numbers once they have them -The scoreboarding framework both Jeff and Luke keep coming back to — and why the metric you assign an employee has to be something they can actually control -Why independents are outselling franchises on direct-to-consumer EV brands like Tesla and Rivian — and why velocity is the only strategy that works when prices fluctuate that fast -Why subprime banks are still slow to finance EVs — and why one dealer buying 300 EVs a month should absolutely…

People in this episode

Hosts: Jeff Watson, Luke Godwin

Topics covered

• trade conversation
• dealer insights
• AI in automotive
• EV sales
• subprime lending
• low-balance trade cycle

Keywords

• trade conversation
• AI
• EV sales
• subprime lending
• dealer metrics
• low-balance trade

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NIADA, Capital One

Products: Tesla, Rivian

Places: Denver, Colorado

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