Nathan Shaver acquired his first dealership last August, a Stellantis store offering Chrysler Dodge Jeep and Ram brands in southern California. Shaver immediately set about boosting the store’s fixed operations’ bottom line. Already, Shaver says, throughput has surged 30%, and fixed net profit has “skyrocketed” by 81%.

While a collection of small moves helped produce the turnaround, Shaver pinpoints two that made the most significant impact – hiring Jose Murcia as the right person as a fixed operations director and drilling down on warranty repairs.

“I’d say bringing Jose on board was the most influential decision that I’ve made to drive those results,” Shaver says. “If I had to drill down, it’s going to be the warranty increases because it’s 100% profit!”

Auto Retail in His Genes

Nathan Shaver is a fifth-generation auto dealer. “I sold my first car nearly 20 years ago,” he says, remembering the 2011 sales at his uncle’s Thousand Oaks, CA, dealership.

His great-grandfather opened a Pontiac dealership in Indiana in 1935. His grandfather worked at a related business owned by the family, eventually relocating to California and opening Shaver Pontiac in Thousand Oaks in 1987. His three sons worked with him.

Shaver’s father, Pete Shaver, worked there before becoming a dealership owner. Now, his father is a partner in the Nouri/Shaver Automotive Group in Westlake Village, CA. Other relatives followed the dealership career path.

Although Nathan Shaver is a relatively new dealer, he is no stranger to CDJR franchises. Before acquiring his store, Shaver worked as general manager at LAX CDJR and general sales manager of Huntington Beach CDJR.

He has searched for a store to buy from for the past few years, Shaver says.

“It's been a dream come true. It's something I've been working on since I was a little kid,” he says.

The previous owner of the Thousand Oaks store focused on new and used sales, including F&I, Shaver says. “I wanted to lean into fixed.”

Stellantis market share is cut in half, interest rates on car loans are up, affordability is down, and profit margins are much larger in fixed ops, he says.

Immediately after taking ownership, Shaver and Murcia began plotting a fixed ops turnaround. After the store closed for the evening, they would huddle in the dealership office for hours, brainstorming a fixed-ops strategy.

At that point, the dealership had already done what Shaver calls the “vanilla stuff.”

That included checking out the posted “door” and warranty labor rates at the other franchises in the Thousand Oaks Auto Mall, where Shaver’s store is located.

They found their store was charging significantly less than their competitors.

Shaver immediately increased the door and warranty rates and is currently implementing a warranty parts rate increase.

“We’re seeing a major lift in warranty gross and net (profit) just by increasing our rates,” Shaver says.

He also adjusted the service advisors’ pay plans to incentivize them to focus more on customer pay work rather than “coasting” on the warranty rate increase. Shaver wants the advisors to upsell customer pay work through the drive with additional services.

Shaver also replaced six apprentice techs with more experienced techs. That boosted the number of hours worked during a pay period – or “flagged” – from 50 hours when he arrived to between 80 and 85 hours now.

Expansion Plans

Shaver has ambitious service area expansion plans and will use a unique financing resource.

Mopar, the Stellantis parts and service and customer care division, offers a Bulk Oil Financing program with interest-free business development funds that cover service equipment, personnel and technology expenses.

Mopar tacks a $3 per gallon surcharge on Mopar Bulk Oil purchases for five years until the loan is repaid.

He forecasts his dealership will purchase 10,000 gallons of oil from Mopar in 2025, making it eligible for up to $150,000 in interest-free financing for critical shop improvements without impacting cash flow.

“This is just the basics,” Shaver says. “Some of the more exciting and creative stuff we’re now starting to discuss as the business is stabilizing.”