Jason discusses weekly updates including the Jimmie Allen Concert for Hope cancellation. He also talks about some exciting arrivals including a Grabber Blue Mustang Mach-E GT, a Black Widow F-150, a First Edition Bronco and more! Nick Savino, Fixed Operations Director, joins the podcast to discuss the current service loaner vehicle situation both around the country in our industry and within our dealership.
Jason discusses weekly updates including the Jimmie Allen Concert for Hope cancellation. He also talks about some exciting arrivals including a Grabber Blue Mustang Mach-E GT, a Black Widow F-150, a First Edition Bronco and more! Nick Savino, Fixed Operations Director, joins the podcast to discuss the current service loaner vehicle situation both around the country in our industry and within our dealership.
Hey everyone, I'm Jason Savino, the Marketing Director for the All American Auto Group. And this is the All American Auto Mall in Old Bridge Updates Podcast. This is episode number 60 of our weekly podcast. And this week I have on my brother again who is Nick I have not either we all drove here. It's incredibly fast. Savino, the fixed ops director for our location here in Old Bridge. He's gonna get into some service talk and some loaner vehicle, the current loaner vehicle situation. First, I just want to run through some of our recent social media posts and happenings here at the dealership. So as everybody should know by now, hopefully we had to cancel or postpone or Jimmy Allen concert. His wife went into labor the Saturday before the concert, so the concert was supposed to be on Sunday, March 17, or April, way off here with the MONTH october 17. And his wife went into labor. I got a call from the agents that Saturday morning instantly called as many people as I could the radio station that's involved with us. And we had to get it up on social media. We sent an email blast right away, but it was postponed for a good reason. Obviously. Congratulations to the Allen family on new addition to their family. But we are looking at rescheduling it for probably the spring of 2022. So look out for an updated announcement on that if you have tickets, you can request a refund 100% since as the date change of an event for that you have to go through the charity jar of hope because they were getting 100% of the donations. But if you want to hold on to your ticket, it'll be honored for the rescheduled date obviously. And then some cool vehicles we got in so we got in our first ever f150 Black Widow edition. Really nice looking trucks two tone white and black paint and it's got the Black Widow emblems all over the place. Have you seen our Black Widow yet? I have. It's very nice. It's lifted, it's got the logos and emblems everywhere it's got the blackwidow logo stitched into the seating. I did have a very embarrassing moment with the customer this morning. So, service customer came over to the front desk with me Joe Petty's there and he's wearing a hoodie black hoodie that has what looks exactly like our blackwidow truck logo on a shirt. So I say to him and I'm wearing my mash so it's probably hard for him to hear me but I say oh is that for the Black Widow truck. And I don't think he heard the word truck because he said You mean the Marvel movie like he thought I just said Black Widow. And he's like like he gave me this look like why would I be wearing a hoodie for the Black Widow movie is a great movie so it's very I haven't seen it yet so no spoilers but very embarrassing and he was just not on the same page with me it was not for the Black Widow truck it was not for the Black Widow movie. Apparently there's a brand called spider spelled with a Y i don't know. But it was that was a hoodie It was a spider logo. It looks exactly like our blackwidow truck. Anyways a little embarrassing with the customer but we all laughed about it after the fact I think he was still confused. He probably still is to this moment but it is what it is. We got in a grammar blue Mustang Mach-E T so these Mustang Mach-E GT's have been coming in. And gr bber blue, very bright blue olor really nice. I actually till haven't driven a Mustang Mac Yeah, we all drove the regular Mach-E, but not the GT yet. This is the one with the 480 horsepower we'd like to drive it. And then very exciting yesterday we got in our very first full size Bronco first edition. So these are the extremely limited ones. I don't know if you've seen it yet. Very cool. Very limited, very low production run for this first model year of the new Bronco. So very exciting stuff that we have it in it is in the area 51 exterior color and that's very sought after for these it has the hardtop so check that out on our social media pages. So that's all of the updates I have for the happening. So let's talk about the loner situation. Where do you want to start with that?
Nick Savino:Well, the longer situation here at all American we have made a company decision to suspend most of our loaner operation. And the reason for that is unlike every other dealership who has either never had a loaner program, which is most for dealerships and super dealerships in the state of New Jersey, even the ones that had some have months ago, gone away from the loaner program. And the reason for that is our low inventory. Unfortunately, the forecast for this year coming up the end of this year and beginning of next year came out and they're not good for manufacturers, meaning we're gonna have very low inventory. And we have an opportunity to service our customers and provide them with with say we use vehicles and so we're going to take that up If we think as a company, it's more important to get vehicles on the road and have customers driving in vehicles, rather than just have them sit in loaner cars. So we are trying actively to come up with a game plan and a policy, it's going to be kind of evolving, we are going to limit our loaner cars that we are going to keep to only the customers that purchase from us. Because it is important for us to deliver them the highest level of service, first and foremost, because of their loyalty to us as a dealership and the fact that they obviously bought from us and have a relationship with us already. But of course, that's not
Jason Savino:something that's new. That's what most dealerships not even Ford Super, that's all makes and models. That's what most dealerships have been doing pre pandemic, even, that you really, you have a limited amount of loaner services, we've always had one of the largest fleets out there regardless, but you have a limited number. So you're going to use those on your VIP customers, the customers that actually purchase for you that were loyal to you. And that supported you as a business. That's been the case. You know, for most dealerships,
Nick Savino:if you were to call any of our competitors, yeah, you will find that they are making service appointments out to January, that was literally yesterday, a service customer that didn't buy from us, contact us from Staten Island and said, Hey, I called a local dealership, and they told me January, and they laughed when I said loaner car in any capacity. So you know, and we were able to get that customer in, they have an appointment in another day or two, they're gonna come in, and we are changing our business model approach that when customers come in, they're gonna wait for cars a little bit more, you know, I understand that time is this world's most precious commodity because not everybody has a lot of it, obviously, and everybody wants more. So we are going to actively try and get customers that come in that can't get along the car with us to wait for the vehicle, try and fix it as fast as we can, or at least tell the customer What's wrong, what it needs to get done to be fixed. And most situations vehicles are safe to drive. You know, a lot of situations unfortunately, like when a check engine light on, there's 500 components in every car that could cause that light to come on. And you know, 400 of them are perfectly safe, it's a sensor it's it's that it's not affecting the drivability of the car and there's not going to be any long term further damage to it. But then again, there are you know, a small handful of parts in the car that when that check engine light comes on the vehicles not safe to drive. So we're going to try and do the best we can while you wait. be completely mindful and conscious of your time and energy into figuring out how fast we can get you in and out how fast we can get the vehicle fixed with as little problems or consequences for you as possible.
Jason Savino:And all the other options available to that we've always had really the complimentary pickup and delivery with as many valets as we could possibly get our hands on everybody knows there's huge hiring issue right now worker shortage and all that stuff. The mobile service man. Yeah,
Nick Savino:our mobile service fans we're able to take care of a lot of our customers. But it's he's one guy even though he's a superhero Pat Sharkey works for us as mobile, Vandy. He does great he's on the road all day every day trying to help our customers out. We have to tow trucks that operate all day every day, not on the weekends and not off business hours. But what we really want to utilize those tow trucks for is for customers that can't get a loaner car set can't get down to the store. You know most of people are working from home most of you guys are working from home at this point, picking up the car and a tow truck bringing it back trying to get it fixed as fast as we can and then shipping it back to you. But on the other token if you want to come in or if you have to come in to show us a problem or verify a concern with the vehicle coming in and we'll we'll have we have three or four shuttle vehicles that we're going to be able to shuttle customers home in and then when the cars are done pick them up so and we can pick you up from work we can pick you up from home you know whatever's convenient for you within reason we're not going to go to Connecticut and have a valet gone for eight hours we're not going to go to Long Island but you know we would travel we traveled to Staten Island we traveled to Southern jersey if we have to Northern jersey we have to try and accommodate everybody as best as we can
Jason Savino:we can send them to Long Island only if we get some of the food that we've grown course so we've talked about a lot obviously family on operated the Smith family from Long Island our father had a dealership on Long Island and that's only on my mind because today I think we might be sending a part driver or tow truck out there and we might be getting all American burger.
Nick Savino:I hope so
Jason Savino:here's the story that happened
Nick Savino:this is a good situation. So customer came in just yesterday and had a check engine light on India catalytic converter that Ford has on a national backorder and does not have any release date until November. So we did our due diligence spend our trying to look across the country to see where we can find a catalytic converter to see if another dealership has it that we could take from it. So we were lucky enough to find one on Long Island. And when we told our park driver Listen, you're gonna have to go there tomorrow. You know, there's lots of money and tolls and taxes and gas, but we're gonna send them there and there happens to be a burger joint That used to when we were younger sell burgers for about dollar $9.10 was crazy french fries for $1 best burger hands and ironically it's called all American. I owe American burger. I wish we could say that we named our place here after that burger place, but we didn't. It's just a coincidence.
Jason Savino:But it's been around forever right?
Nick Savino:That place has the feel of like a 1950s diner and
Jason Savino:we've been there forever I wonder if you don't think they were designed it or anything upgraded?
Nick Savino:No, I doubt it. We had it maybe like six months ago. So when we had a similar situation, and we were actually picking up a customer's car on Long Island they brought it back for us and they brought it back for us. Yeah, so if anybody wants to win over hearts Feel free to bring us all American burgers
Jason Savino:Long Island your free service.
Nick Savino:I don't know if I can promise that Jason promises a free Bronco of any customer that brings us all Americans
Jason Savino:barely happy. Um, alright, so that's the loaner service we talked about mobile service fan. If we get increase that and get more of those I think there's plans or we're looking into that for next year
Nick Savino:we have purchased a second mobile service fan. So that is just like every other vehicle in this world during this pandemic is about 18 months out. So we're not expected to get it until sometime second or third quarter of next year. Especially transits right now transit transit The biggest problem with Ford I'd say almost definitely all of our transits are going over to Europe Europe, transit vans in Europe are the biggest sellers for Ford and the market for them are so great over in Europe that all of our resources from Ford Motor Company ago to
Jason Savino:Europe is that what's happening to make sense
Nick Savino:that's what's happening to transit in Europe are comparable to how Ford sells f 150s here in
Jason Savino:America Wow. Cuz I was gonna say without 150s now the current chip short is they are 100% going to push more chips that 150 is to sell them more because the bestseller which is great for our dealership because we're one of the biggest f150 dealerships probably on the east coast to be honest with you with the amount we sell. So definitely interesting stuff. Anything else you want to say about service on this episode or loners? It's going to be a process we'll we'll post more about it, we'll get this video out there on social media, it's going to be a growing process, you know, hopefully, inventory gets better. And yeah, we can eventually add more to it. But again, it's going to stay with those VIP loyal customer of ours for the most part, and we have those other options available. So it's not like this is gonna be, you know, a showstopper or anything like that and completely destroy Ford service departments across the country. But this is something that dealerships have been doing for a while, way before us really starting with this kind of stuff. Yeah, we
Nick Savino:held that as long as we can. Because I know how important loaner cars are to customers. I know I personally dropped a vehicle off somewhere, how am I getting home? What am I doing? Am I getting to work? it's it's a it's a big factor. So we're, we want to continue maintaining our exceptional level of service for all of our service customers, whether you bought from us or not, we're just going to have to work together and we in this country we're in this pandemic in this world together, you know, signs everywhere you go there are signs on restaurants and say that, you know that that is basically saying please be kind you know, some people want to work some people don't want to work. And you know, the people that are working are overworked and unfortunately, you know, customer services lacking in a lot of spots.
Jason Savino:I think the culture is changing. People are starting to realize that like you said, we see that on signs in every restaurant. The last few that we've gone to like it just a sign on every single door now that's crazy. So people understand that they're they're more understanding of it, I guess, I would say so. All right, cool. Thanks, everybody. We'll be back next week.