Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE:LAD) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

David Whiston: I wanted to go back to the discussion we were just having on the Pinewood DMS JV in North America when it eventually comes here. As you know, Reynolds and CDK are very big too. And are you just basically hoping you can win share in North America because your system is superior, or is it going to be more of a pricing discussion? Just how do you convince dealers to make that switch?

Bryan DeBoer: I think most importantly, if you’ve ever been into a dealership and if you think about the experience that CDK and Reynolds and Reynolds provide, it’s more of a transactional database, it’s not really a relationship generator. So when you think about the Pinewood system, it’s all built around the customer experience, both in a digital and a physical presence. And I think with our experience, we can help embellish that process as well. I know that — I mean, we’ve been one of the largest partners of CDK and still intend to for a fair amount of time that their intents are always good but they’re starting from a foundation of technology that’s just not conducive to our associates or, for that matter, our consumers, that they don’t really interact with the CDK systems or the Reynolds and Reynolds systems at all.

In our ecosystem, as we envision it with Pinewood, the consumers are interacting with our DMS system just like our associates would interact with it. So we believe that there is an opportunity at some point to be able to conquest market share. And as you know, CDK went private, which means it’s private equity money and there may be an opening to some extent to be able to bring in new technology. And I think our ultimate goal would be to join forces with multiple other retailers, possibly even manufacturers or possibly even CDK or other technology companies to really provide a world class consumer experience that really isn’t out there in one form today. We all add on multiple other systems that are just clunky for associates and consumers.

Operator: We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Amit Marwaha for closing remarks.

Amit Marwaha: Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We’ll look forward to speaking to you over the next couple of weeks. Look forward to seeing you next quarter. Thank you.

Bryan DeBoer: Bye, all.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.