Regional President, Lithia Motors -cl A
Search every verified Bryan Osterhout interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Bryan Osterhout, Regional President at Lithia Motors, has discussed the company's strategies for navigating the automotive market. In 2022, he described the semiconductor chip shortage as a "mixed bag," noting that while some manufacturers had seen the worst of it with around 20 days of supply, robust demand meant recovery to normal levels would likely take into the middle of the following year. He stated that Lithia balanced new car shortages with strong used car sales, reporting a 40% increase in same-store revenue for used cars and highlighting that margins were strong on both new and used segments. Osterhout also emphasized the company's e-commerce platform, Driveway, which he said offers in-home delivery and a seven-day return policy on used vehicles, with plans to extend that policy to new vehicles in early 2022. He noted that Lithia's e-commerce business accounted for nearly 25% of sales, or about $5.5 billion annualized, and that the company had purchased over $10 billion in revenue in the previous 15 months to increase regional density. In earlier appearances from 2012 and 2013, Osterhout focused on the impact of the internet on dealership operations. He stated that general managers needed to either learn internet skills or hire someone who could, as stores that performed well online were consistently successful. He argued that the internet expanded the sales area for used cars from about 50 miles to 200 or 250 miles, and that used car buyers were often "predisposed" to specific vehicles, traveling long distances to purchase them. Osterhout also stressed the importance of customer retention, saying that retaining only 40% of sales customers into the service department indicated poor performance, and that efforts should be made to keep customers engaged for future sales. He described mobile technology as "the next evolution" but noted that the company was first focused on improving its internet processes.
“We've been able to balance the shortages in new cars with very robust used car sales; we have almost 18,000 cars on our driveway and Lithia websites in used cars and we're up 40% in revenue on a same store basis in the quarter.”
“Margins are pretty strong right now on both segments and having both used and new cars in our stores and online gives us the ability to provide optionality to our consumers which allows flexibility in our profitability and really realize those benefits across the company.”
“It's definitely a mixed bag; it appears like we've troughed in a number of manufacturers with the worst of it sitting around 20 days supplies, but because demand is so robust, it's probably going to take into the middle of next year before things really recover to more of a normal level.”
“Driveway allows consumers the convenience of in-home delivery as well as the transparency and empowerment of being in control of their own environment online, which provides optionality for consumers and hedges against changes in the dealership business.”
“Our e-commerce business is almost 25% of our sales, nearly five and a half billion dollars annualized, making it a significant part of our normal business alongside our 300 local and regional brands.”
“We've defined the country as six specific regions where we target to achieve density of about 100 miles from all customers, and we've grown in four of those regions, purchasing over 10 billion dollars in revenue in the last 15 months and growing the company almost 60% in total revenue base.”
“We stay humble, keep our head down, and focus on our consumers. When you do that, it's very clear that you're a kind of a 360 company.”
“We're at the forefront of rolling out our driveway strategy, which is an e-commerce solution that provides in-home service, body parts work, as well as vehicles directly in consumers' homes.”
“You can have your car service in your slippers, and over the next two years, we'll be rolling that out market by market in the country, so you can actually never set foot in a dealership again if you so choose.”
“With Driveway now, there's 20,000 vehicles online, all used at the current time. We have a seven-day return policy, no questions asked, and come Q1 of next year, we'll have another 20 to 30,000 new vehicles online with the same seven-day no questions asked return policy on new vehicles.”
“We're the number four company in the S&P for a 10-year total shareholder return.”
“Mobility is here and important, but first how does your dealership handle the internet? We're just trying to get the internet down now and we're trying to get internet processes put in the stores that make sense.”
“I think mobile is the next evolution — I know it's already here — but with our company what we're trying to do now is we're just trying to get good at the internet.”
“We have a lot of general managers that have been in the business for a long time and they don't have a ton of experience with the internet, so we're kind of letting them take one bite at a time.”
“We work with LAD, who's our internal advertising company — they know more about mobile than the stores do and I think they're trying to push that down just a little bit at a time.”
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