Year in Review: Ten Popular Stories from 2024

2024 was full of positive momentum for the automotive industry. Let’s look back on some of the most popular topics from our Fuel blog and Connected podcast, highlighting important conversations and events from the last year:

2024’s top articles and insights from Fuel:

1. Going for Gold in Your Service Drive: Prioritize High Mileage Vehicles

Just as we watched athletes strive for gold in the Olympics this summer, your dealership can also aim for top performance in your service drive. Like these athletes, who train meticulously and strategize for every event, your service department can achieve new heights of success by focusing on a key opportunity: high-mileage vehicles.

2. Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late: 3 Common Compliance Issues to Address Now

The automotive industry is dynamic and ever-changing, and so is compliance. State and federal regulations, along with best practices, are updated so frequently it can feel challenging to keep your documents up to date. While reviewing documents regularly can help, it can be difficult to know what to look out for. Read on for the three most common issues that can create a compliance risk for your dealership.

3. Amid the NADA Buzz, 3 Common Themes I heard from Dealers

NADA is always a busy, boisterous event – multiply it by 10 when it’s hosted in Vegas. With NADA 2025 right around the corner, reflect on three key themes of the 2024 show – electric vehicles, single systems, and overall dealer excitement! After reading, drop us a line to let us know what’s on your mind heading into NADA 2025.

4. 4 Ways to Utilize AI and Unlock Your Full Potential

When we talk about artificial intelligence, it’s easy to think of tools like ChatGPT, but it’s often overlooked how many other purposes this technology can have for our lives. Imagine how helpful AI features could be in your dealership. Read on to learn the ways productivity would increase, your staff would have more time to focus on other priorities, and complex tasks could be made simple.

5. Beware and Prepare: What You Can Learn from the “Ides of March” Warning

Centuries ago, a soothsayer told Julius Caesar to “Beware the Ides of March” – a warning that was ignored and eventually led to his death and betrayal. You may be curious, how is this haunting omen relevant to your business office? An attentive business office is essential to running a profitable dealership. You’re constantly having to think about what’s next. When the unexpected happens, are you ready?

2024’s Top Episodes of Connected:

1. Reducing Warranty Claim Issues; featuring Jake Trott and Jason Tuck from Automotive Warranty Network

While warranty work may not always be top of mind, it can be critical to a dealership’s bottom line. Tune in to hear Jake and Jason share their expertise on common issues found in warranty ROs and claims, and how much money is really left on the table during a warranty audit.

2. Finding Trends in Automotive Data; featuring Glenn Mercer, author of Car Charts

Glenn Mercer, a long-time automotive researcher and author of Car Charts, has spent his career identifying and advising on trends in automotive data. In this episode he shares insight on some recent trends he’s seen like the impact of youth sports on car buying behavior to the future of the direct-to-consumer model.

3. Bringing the Human Element to Automotive; featuring Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier of ASOTU

Paul and Kyle shared a bit about their More than Cars docuseries and gave some insight from their personal experience as storytellers into things like building a macro-brand and how to create stories that people will really connect with.

4. Managing Compliance and Protecting Dealerships; featuring Greg Schaeffer, vice president of compliance at Reynolds and Reynolds

The average car deal requires 39 feet of forms, and with regular updates to state and federal regulations, it can be a challenge for many dealerships to keep all those documents up to date. In this episode, Greg offers ideas for how dealers can protect themselves by identifying areas in common forms where they’re most at risk.

5. Optimizing Your Dealership’s Online Presence; featuring Mike Martinez, COO of DealerOn

Mike has been working to help provide quality websites to dealerships since the early days, back when many dealers didn’t even have a website, and he continuously works to keep up with shifting consumer behaviors. Listen in to hear his thoughts for personalizing the online shopping experience for your consumers and what makes up an effective SEO strategy.

Looking ahead to 2025, many of these topics will continue to be top of mind, and there will be even more ideas that will change the shape of our industry. Want to make sure you don’t miss any? Subscribe to Fuel and Connected to receive content directly to your inbox throughout the entire year.

We know one of the most important things continues to be the community around us, and we are so grateful that you are a part of ours. Cheers to 2025!

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