20 years and counting
This year marks Canadian auto dealer’s 20th anniversary — a milestone that’s hard to believe when I look back at how far we’ve come, and how much the industry has changed in that time. When we started, the goal was …
Category: Opinion
Twenty years of change
This is a big year for our team. Our baby is turning twenty. When we mailed the very first issue of Canadian auto dealer in late 2005, the world we wrote about looked and felt very different. The hot topics …
Seven minutes
I recently had a truly brilliant seven-minute experience. No, it’s not what you’re thinking. It was charging an EV at a public charging station. And it was brilliant. I’ve spent a good chunk of the past month in the U.K. …
Getting your tech stack right
There are a lot of things dealers don’t have control over. Their OEMs decide on the models and types of vehicles they will produce, set the MSRP, determine the inventory mix they will provide to the dealership, and even dictate …
The trouble with techs
You already know the auto technician shortage is more than a headline — it’s what greets you every morning when bays go idle. Ontario alone has more than 3,000 vacant trades roles, double the pre-pandemic total, and the situation is …
The key word is “And”, not “Or”
It’s a busy time in Canada, as it should be. In fact, we need to do more and do it faster, but let me focus a little bit. Recently, Mark Carney’s Liberal government announced a pause on the federal zero-emission …
The brightest lights
In this issue, we are proud to feature the three CADA Laureate Award winners for 2025: Brent Ravelle, Ambassador Laureate, Michael Wyant, Innovator Laureate and Annie Laliberté, Retailer Laureate. The CADA Laureates, and the program itself continue to grow in …
AI fatigue?
76061.3663@compuserve.com That odd configuration of numbers was my very first email address — from before email addresses could be personalized with identifiers as wild as our names. The older among you will remember those days. The younger ones will react …
Like taking a trip to the future
I’m recently back from the CADA Study Tour in China, so I thought I’d share some initial thoughts. This won’t be a deep dive. Look for that to follow in upcoming issues. It certainly warrants a deeper dive and far …
Dealers have a used advantage
One challenge dealers have is that most have spent a lifetime inside the auto industry — they drive dealership demo vehicles, and don’t have a current sense of what it’s like for a consumer to shop for or purchase a vehicle, …
Dealers have a great hand
As the circus surrounding tariffs, counter-tariffs, annexation threats, and concerns over the collapse of Canada’s auto industry swirl around them, car dealers are faced with the same dilemma they always face. Many of these issues are simply outside of their …
Time to go see for myself
I’ve spent almost three decades in the automobile industry. And I’ve never been to the country that has the largest automotive industry on earth, at least in terms of manufacturing. Time for that to change. By the time you read …
