Andy Wright Joins Automotive Masterclass: Think Like a Challenger

Andy Wright didn’t want to become a statistic. He’s a second-generation dealer, and he says multi-generation businesses tend to fail as they pass from one generation to the next. So when he stepped in to succeed his father, he committed to being the best he possibly could.

Today he’s Managing Partner at VINART Dealerships, home of Lehigh Valley Acura, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche. His full Automotive Masterclass, The Challenger, released onstage at VINCUE: UNLEASHED26 and is now is free and live on RockED. It teaches one habit: constantly ask “How can I get better?” and push on the status quo in a way that’s constructive, substantive, and respectful.

Andy says “The Challenger” is the title that best explains how he got to where he is. He approaches every situation by asking how he can get better. That question shaped how he went to market, how he managed his business, and how he invested in and developed people. It also shaped how he matured as a business owner and a leader.

It started with his father. Andy took the second-generation job seriously. His father chaired the National Dealer Advisory Council for Honda and for Acura, and the dealer council process mattered to him. He taught Andy to stay in his lane and show proper respect for the channels and areas of responsibility.

Andy says he’s been a believer in that ever since, and so was his father. That’s the basis for how he challenges: “healthy, constructive, challenging and prodding and pushing to get better. To me, there’s nothing wrong with that.” His promise in the chapter is to teach you how to embrace the role of Challenger in your life, in your business, and in your relationships.

Andy’s rule: don’t settle for “That’s the way we’ve always done it.”

His group adopted EOS, the operating system from Gino Wickman’s book Traction. Scorecards track the numbers. Rocks, which are 90-day priorities, move them. A rock is “a promise to do X by Y via these means,” and its owner reports back at the weekly Level 10 meeting.

His proof point is parts. The team had a lot of backordered parts and customers waiting in loaners. The group assigned one person to call other dealers and find the part sooner. The gross was smaller, and the customer got their car back sooner.

Andy pushed a phone system vendor for six to eight months over reliability and gaps in call tracking. They didn’t fix it, so he left. He says he should have left at three or four months. VINCUE is his positive example. He says he challenged VINCUE co-founders Danny Zaslavsky (President) and Chris Hoke (CEO), more than once. One challenge was getting appraisal data into his data lake.

The other was pricing syndication after the FTC’s vehicle pricing rules, which he says VINCUE delivered. His advice is to list every vendor, what it costs, and what it does for you. If you’re not challenging the vendors you pay every month, “all you’re doing is subsidizing their existence.”

When Honda dealers pushed back on the new Civic, Andy says they didn’t wait. They went to Honda with feedback from their own showrooms and from dealers across the country, and asked Honda to go back to the drawing board. His method: use the dealer council process to build a paper trail. Know your leading and lagging indicators so you can speak substantively. Don’t let problems fester. And keep it respectful: “It doesn’t have to be adversarial. It absolutely can be collaborative.”

Andy hires for character, sets expectations up front, and holds everyone to VINART’s pillars of professionalism: attitude, people skills, communication skills, and accountability. Accountability is the most important pillar. “It’s a gift,” he says. Every employee has a number. “Everybody has a number,” Andy says, “the lot guy all the way up to the general manager.” His rule is that if it can be measured, it can be managed.

Andy says his biggest fear is living in a state of self-deception, because complacency leads to atrophy. What he finds most gratifying is the bench he’s built: people ready to step up into new roles and responsibilities. His closing line: “If you’re not growing, you’re probably going.”

Interested in watching the full masterclass? Learn more on how to access the Automotive Masterclass series on RockED here. Andy covers all four challenges (processes, vendors, OEMs, and people) plus his reflections on growth. Want more from the series? Browse for more in VINCUE Resources.