Dale’s Mission

Deep in Doubt

Every good story starts at the beginning. The story of the mission that drives me today began in a dark place not long ago. In mid-2017, I stood on a cliff. I was troubled. I didn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I wasn’t right. I was facing the idea that everything I’d built with vAuto and the Velocity Method of Management® might come crashing down. I felt at risk of becoming known as the very thing detractors had described—a self-interested snake oil salesman who was ruining the car business.

An Early Calling

When I started vAuto, I knew I’d found a way to help dealers be more successful used vehicle retailers. It was a calling, not a career move. It wasn’t about the money. It was about purpose. I sincerely wanted to help dealers, and the industry, find a better way forward. I was passionate. I remember, and don’t regret, the times I became a bug-eyed preacher, exhorting dealers to change their ways. To believe. To have faith. That’s because I had faith, and my vision proved true. Over the years, vAuto and Velocity® helped thousands of dealers sell more used cars and make more money. But, by 2017, Velocity® didn’t seem to be working as well as it once did.

A New Mission

That’s when my soul-searching started. Velocity® was my idea. I was the guy who made believers and successful Velocity® practitioners out of so many dealers. If something was off, it was my duty and moral responsibility to fix it. Eventually, those dark days led to a lot of data-crunching and a discovery. I saw that, across the board, dealers were making less and less in used vehicles, despite selling more cars than ever before. I learned how a confluence of market forces made this margin compression particularly bad in some areas of the country compared to others. I began to wonder, and test if there was a better way to manage used vehicles that went beyond Velocity. I wanted to help dealers whose gross profit declines were chronic today, and be ready to assist those dealers who, over time, would probably find themselves in the same situation.

This work led me to discover a new way of managing used vehicles that leaves the traditional measurement of potential profitability—the amount of time a dealer owns a car—behind. Today, my life’s work is focused on helping dealers embrace an investment value-based used vehicle management methodology, known as ProfitTime™, and realize the profound benefits it can bring to their businesses today and well into the future. It’s a rare thing to have the opportunity to change an industry once, let alone twice. But this is my new mission. I’m no longer on a cliff. I’m climbing the mountain to change the car business for the better, yet again.