The Software That's Changing How Used Cars Are Appraised And Merchandised

On this episode of The Doug Horner Show, I sit down with 
Tyler Astorg, co-founder of iPacket, to break down their 
new appraisal and merchandising feature that's changing 
how dealerships value, price, and resell pre-owned 
inventory.

If you're in the car business, whether you're a sales 
manager, used car manager, GM, or dealer principal — this 
conversation is going to give you a real look at the tools 
that are helping dealerships maximize profitability on 
every unit.

Tyler shares the Astorg family's deep roots in the 
dealership world, the story behind founding iPacket, and 
exactly how their new iPacket Value tool helps dealers 
appraise cars more accurately, merchandise them more 
effectively, and price them to make the most money 
possible.

Whether you're trying to tighten up your reconditioning 
process, improve your merchandising, or just understand 
what the best dealerships are doing differently — there's 
something in this conversation for you.

🔗 Work with me & the team, partner with my preferred 
vendors, and more: https://stan.store/benzsandbowties


🎙️ ABOUT THE DOUG HORNER SHOW
The Doug Horner Show is the podcast where I sit down with 
the people shaping the automotive industry: dealers, 
content creators, technology founders, and the disruptors 
changing how cars are bought and sold.

Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.

📱 FOLLOW BENZSANDBOWTIES
TikTok: @benzsandbowties
Instagram: @benzsandbowties
Facebook: BenzsandBowties
YouTube: @BenzsandBowties

#TheDougHornerShow #iPacket #CarDealership #UsedCars 
#DealershipLife #AutomotiveIndustry #CarBusiness 
#DealerTech #CarSales #AutoRetail #UsedCarManager 
#CarAppraisal #DealershipOwner #BenzsandBowties 
#TylerAstorg

Transcript

0:00

All right, welcome to the Doug Horner Show. I am here with Tyler Astorg of iPacket. Tyler, thank you so much for being here with me this morning. Hey, it's good to be here, Doug. So, Tyler, it's I've known you for a long time, right? Going back to our days doing dealer trades in Mercedes-Benz land, but you also I also know you in a different capacity because you um are part of the iPacket family, which is a product that I've been using for my entire uh career at Mercedes-Benz and North Olmstead, which is coming up on 10 years now. So I wanted to uh kind of go back to the beginning and you know, what is the Astorg family's history in the car business and what was it like growing up around dealerships? Yeah, um, so my uh grandfather, Joe Astorg, um matter-of-fact, Parkersburg, West Virginia, that's where my entire family's from. Um was more or less selling used cars on the side, uh, was working at a local chemical factory um and just had a passion for cars. So he'd buy them, he'd flip them. That was kind of his thing. And I think just by doing that for several years, he thought to himself, hey, maybe I can start a dealership and do this as a full-time job. So um that's kind of how it started, south side of Parkersburg is a little used a lot. Um, I think it was called Indian Village, is what it was traditionally called or originally called when he first began. And that uh lot allowed him to afford his first franchise, which was Buick. And that was in 1967. So kind of how he got his start in the car business and certainly gave my family a lot a lot of opportunity over time. Yeah. So when you were young as a kid, were you around the dealership a lot, or did it kind of was it a thing maybe a little later in life that you came to it? Oh, we we were we were in it for sure. Uh matter of fact, at the time we were living in an apartment um right behind it. Okay. So um Sevy and I, you know, it whether if it was after school or whatnot, we'd go into the dealership and try to find my my old man or my my dad, Paul Astorg. And uh, or for that matter, you know, on Sundays, we were always in there because my dad was in the service drive, closing out tickets and doing his thing. So it was just a place that we were comfortable with and and comfortable in, and a place that really um I've been in every every day since I can remember. Wow. So for listeners who don't know iPacket yet, walk us through what the original iPacket product was and what did it set out to solve? What problem was it trying to solve? What was broken about uh how car dealers were presenting their inventory back when you started, right? Like kind of give me the story of how iPacket came to be alongside of you know the Astorg dealerships. Yeah, so um kind of going back, um, we started uh a one price philosophy at our store. Um it's been about 30 years now. Wow. And um, so you know, my dad was out at a dealer meeting for Ford or something like that, ran into a dealer group that actually was doing it at the time, and he thought that makes a lot of sense. So that was at the core of how we do business is transparently. Um, and at the time, you know, when somebody's more or less asking for a lesser price or whatnot, we certainly have uh a reason for our pricing, a rhyme and reason, but we didn't necessarily have any data to back it up. Sure. Um so um years ago, my grandfather was actually building these packets. Uh, we called them worry-free folders. And it just allowed um the salesperson or whoever's showing a car to show all the details on the car to build trust, share that the transparency behind we do how we do business, and ultimately speaking, just a way to conversate less on the bottom dollar and more towards, hey, what makes our vehicle unique? Um, because everybody believes that, hey, the car that you have is the same as the one down the road when it could be totally different based upon how it was reconditioned or the culture of the dealership or the parts that were put on it. There's so much to it, as you know, Doug. Yeah, don't you love that? It's like everybody's favorite thing to do when they're shopping for a car is oh, I'm looking at this one at this other dealership, and then you pull it up and you're like, wow, these two things are nothing alike, right? Yeah, absolutely. So I'll never forget at the time um I was using them at our used forward store. I was learning how to to sell cars 19 years old. And you know, it it was really a part of our process because after the test drive and we and we found that, hey, this vehicle kind of fits what they were looking for uh in a vehicle, we would invite them inside. Hey, I have a lot of information I'd like to share on this car, and it was just a part of the value building process before we got to numbers. Um, because again, we wanted to share our uniqueness uh in the vehicle that we have. Yeah, and um that's kind of how it began. Now, the problem with that, Doug, was if I was sharing a packet, the salesperson beside me couldn't share a packet because I I had it. Because it was like a physical packet. It was a physical packet inside of literally inside of a filing cabinet. What kind of information was inside that packet? Yeah, we had we printed off Carfax, uh, we printed off the repair order receipts, JD Power, or at the time it was in ADA, uh, and some information like why buy from our store. So those are just four or five slides, although we actually have one of the original packets in Parkersburg. Um, I think Sevi has it, but I'm sure there's a few other docs that I'm missing, but yeah, more or less that's what was in the iPacket or the packets at the time. Okay. And so that was pretty unique back then. You're sharing information, and and this was it sounds like it was kind of birthed from used cars, right? Where a Carfax is going to be relevant and and service uh repair orders. What was the I mean, I'm sure a lot of people looked at you like you were crazy to be sharing some of this information back then, right? Back before transparency was uh more of a common thing or even a buzzword like it seems to be today, right? I mean, that were you probably one of the only dealerships doing that sort of thing back then? You know, I don't know. Like we've ran into a lot of stores that um had paper folders in a way. That was a part of their strategy. And, you know, I think the clients always really liked it. And it and and when they come and see you at a dealership and you share that information with them, it gives you a strategic competitive advantage because when they go down the road, they're not gonna see the that information. I'd stage it that way. Hey, if you go down the road, ask for this information, they can't provide it to you. Ask why. Like they have. Um, and just remember me, right? Just remember me. I gave it to you transparently up front. You didn't even have to ask for it because it's important. Yeah, so I became more of like a uh uh you know an advisor, if you will, while buying a car versus actual salesperson. And a lot of times call me back, say, hey, you're right, they didn't have service repair history. Like you spent three grand on your car, I don't even know what they spent on their car, and you know, that would drive them back to us. So um okay. So at what point then were you all like, hey, let's spin this into its own business and start selling it and sharing it with other dealers, right? Because at a s at a certain point, you're you're realizing that all right, a competitive advantage, we can improve upon it, essentially digitize it, but then also make other people, other dealers aware. So you're kind of giving up the secret sauce in a way, but then spinning it into a business. So how did that come to be? You know, I would have to, I was there, although I'd have to ask uh my older brother Sevi Astorg and um our CTO and co-founder uh Ken Wilkinson. Um they are much more affluent at that early process, but I do remember it just from being at the store and obviously being close with my older brother Sevi. Um, it was just the the idea that this information should be able to be shared. Yeah. Um, you know, if somebody's calling over the phone or submitting an internet lead and they're asking questions about a car. You know, at the time, you know, I think we had flip phones. I I don't know. I don't even know how you would even take a picture to send to somebody to illustrate the information you have to again uh continue that value building story. So his thought was hey, let's take this information, let's put it up into the cloud and somehow make it easy for a sales consultant or somebody at a dealership level to be able to share it. Um, and that's how it all started. So uh very basic idea that started with a refree folder that a lot of dealers were doing, we certainly were doing, and he just digitized it and made it in a way that where everything was heading, which is right here on this phone, or for that matter, through email or whatnot. So yeah, it's pretty, I mean, it's really a genius idea. Um in the early days, what was it like? You know, what do you remember about selling iPacket to the earliest dealers that were bringing it on, right? Because again, yes, everybody maybe had their folders and who I'm sure some of them had car faxes in there or maybe build sheets or or you know, some basic information about the car. But what was the initial feedback from dealers when you're going to them and and basically trying to say, hey, we want you to share everything about this used car with everybody that's interested in buying it? You know, what was that initial feedback like? You know, I I again hearing from Sevy about the initial feedback and and some of the early team members at iPacket, it was pretty tough. Yeah. Um, you know, there were scenarios where I know, you know, we there there there could have been showrooms that said, hey, you need to find the door. Um, but I I think we knew fundamentally that clients wanted to um uh purchase when they felt comfortable and when there was trust. And um this was our way of doing that at a store level. It worked so well for us on so many different levels, and it made such good common sense that we knew just with time, pressure, and consistency that this would catch on. And you know, as you know, Doug, like transparency is you know very, very important in this day and age. And maybe then it it wasn't quite as much, but um it it's something that we've been mastering for 14 years now because again, it worked for us at a store level. Yeah. Um, and anyways, just uh to answer that question, very tough. But we also ran into some stores that were like, that's beautiful, that's brilliant. I want on it. And um, and that's and that was obviously pretty exciting as well. Yeah. Well, so are 14 years is that the total age of the company at this point? I think it's about 14 years. Um and just looking back, I know that one of the first accounts that we had with iPacket, my grandmother, um, she was going through some treatments. And um, you know, they were visiting, I I think it was it was out west somewhere. And um Sevy thought, well, while I'm waiting for my grandmother to get her treatments, right, with with my dad, hey, drop me off at this dealership. I want to show them what I got. And anyways, um, so again, there's some that that didn't necessarily want to share uh the receipts. They didn't want to um uh I guess provide all the information, or at least they didn't see it at the time. And uh then there were some that were like, I love that. So yeah, I mean it's I don't know. I've almost never known uh a world without iPacket in it. It's just such a it's it's a great product. And I can tell you, I'm sure you can see these numbers, right? My sales team uses it every day, right? Some of them use it like exclusive. I have to remind them sometimes when they're especially on new cars. I'm like, hey, remember, you got to look in the uh Mercedes-Benz inventory tool to confirm availability on a new car before you just send somebody an iPacket because that's how much they believe in the product, right? That they're they're like, oh, I'd rather be in there for anything inventory related than even our own uh kind of manufacture internal systems. But um, what I what I want to talk about is what I believe to be your newest product, iPacket value, which I've now been using, I don't know, for uh several months, and I absolutely love it. Um I think that it's one of the single most innovative uh pieces of technology to influence kind of both the appraisal process and the merchandising process for a used car. And we'll get into that. I'm just curious, what how did iPacket go from these sort of digitized deal jackets uh to this tool that is essentially helping you to determine what a used car is worth? Um how did how did this product get kind of dreamt up? Yeah, so I I think that um there that's that's a long answer, but I think it ultimately, you know, um you brought up how your salespeople are using these packets and being sent out every day. And what we found an area where managers really uh spend a lot of time is within our sticker pooler, which is more or less just a cherry on top to our iPacket platform, just being able to get over 30 OEM uh verified stickers um uh coverage within the iPacket system. And what we're finding is that the sticker pull feature used by managers, if I told you how many millions of stickers have been pulled out of our system, it generated the question, well, why and how is it being used? And yes, some of that is merchandising. You know, some things can't be picked up on a basic Ven explosion like optional equipment and your cars, you know, specifically at Mercedes-Benz, definitely has have those with others. And, you know, we started asking the question why, but most importantly, you know, at a store level, again, going back to the DNA of iPacket and the DNA of really any product that we offer at iPacket is solving an everyday problem. And, you know, at um when I was working at the stores, um, working at our dealership in in Charleston, West Virginia, uh, pre-owned manager for for over six years. And, you know, I I struggled a lot of with the competitive sets just because our cars, specifically at our store, were just so unique at times. And um I would look into these competitive sets, whether it be on some of the different platforms or for that matter, in in the appraisal and pricing tool that we were using. And it just treated every vehicle like it was the same, similar to, for example, like every used car the same when we know that they're not. They have its own history, they have their own DNA. And what we what we found was is there was just these large variations in options that couldn't be picked up without manual input and no, you're hoping you're right. Um, and that's an area where we wanted to add transparency. So I think at the fundamentals of what we do at iPacket is to spread transparency, and that's what we're doing with iPacket value. Yeah, I I mean it makes sense. You're right. The a typical appraisal tool, and I'm not gonna pretend to have used them all, but I know that generally speaking, an appraisal tool is a VIN decoder at the end of the day, right? It's gonna decode what the make and model and year is of a car, and then you're gonna go in and input the miles, and you're gonna link it up to Carfax or AutoCheck or whatever you use, and that gives you an idea of what the vehicle's history is. Um, and that's all well and good. But like you said, every VIN, you know, is essentially just compared to every other year make model, and then doing a basic mileage adjustment, and then you kind of have to manually figure out the rest. And I think maybe years and years ago, that process probably worked a lot better. But I'd say nowadays there are a lot of manufacturers that have trim levels, some that don't. I mean, Mercedes-Benz kind of does, but really, even car even brands like Ford, which have, I don't know, 15 different trim levels for an F-150, there are still just a massive number of packages and options and colors and everything else that these trucks could have. And it makes a massive difference when you're going to resell that car. Um, because I think if most car buyers are honest with themselves, or right, I think we're all this way, that when we're shopping for a used car, like, yeah, we've got a certain maybe year range we're looking for and mileage range, and maybe we want the car fax to look a certain way and we want it to be a certain color. But after that, we're looking for how much stuff can I get for my money, right? I want the coolest wheels, I want the most options, I want this, that, and the other. And if you're appraising cars and you can't accurately and adequately determine what is this car that I have that I'm trying to appraise, or what is this car that I'm trying to resell have versus the competitive set, you're gonna either you're gonna misappraise it and you're gonna misprice it, right? And and that's why I'm loving iPacket value so much because it's taking what used to be a very manual process and making it almost immediate for me now. And I like to go fast. So not sloppy, but I just I don't like to, I don't want to have to take 30 minutes to appraise a car and and merchandise it when I could do it in three minutes. Yeah, I mean, I I think it goes back to, you know, Doug, somebody comes in, they want to buy a uh brand new GLE from you. They're very specific in what they want. You know, not only do they want the white, they want the macchiata beige, they want the AMG line, they want the night package, they want the pinnacle package, they want very particular options and equipment. And what we're finding is is when that vehicle that was so unique to that client when they bought it new gets traded in, sometimes it becomes distorted, right? And we know that because not only are they interested in it when they're buying it new, but we can tell based upon the data, the number one module that's viewed in iPacket is the MSRP tab. Yeah. Wow. It's you know, people are interested in what options and equipment are in a car. So, you know, I think ultimately speaking, what we're trying to do is add that transparency to the equation because when you're pricing these cars, or for that matter, appraising these cars, if you're treating a a vehicle that's not average, that wasn't average when it was new, it was very uniquely built and decided on, the same as an average car on the marketplace, then that's where it's like, okay, well, there's value that maybe the the the person trading it in didn't get that they should have gotten. And then there's value that the buyer is getting that you know, ultimately speaking, is it's great, but also that doesn't mean that's what the vehicle's worth. And I guess my point to this is at the end of the day, you know, if you could choose a vehicle that has a you know, you have two vehicles, they're priced the same, and one has a bad Carfax, one has clean Carfax, Doug, which one are you gonna buy? Clean Carfax every time. Every single time. And if you have a vehicle that has seven thousand dollars more worth of equipment than the other, and they're both priced the same, as a buyer, which one are you gonna buy? Yeah, the one that has seven thousand dollars worth of options. And and that is the true problem and the true transparency that we're adding um to to benefit the client and also to benefit the dealership with our coverage. Um, that you know, again, we've been we've been really storing and building for for quite some time now. So yeah, I love it. I mean, I I've learned from some very smart people in the car business, and I give them all the credit for the reason for the fact that I'm I'm here doing this still to this day. I know that if I hadn't gotten the training early on that I did, I'm quite sure I wouldn't have had the success that I've had in car sales and I probably wouldn't be making content and so on and so on. One of the very first things that I learned when I and I started selling used cars, by the way. I think a lot of people today think of me, they think of new cars when they think of me, but used cars are are where I got my start, and I'm very passionate about them because to me, the used car market is very efficient. New cars are very inefficient, right? Because you can generally get the same new car anywhere, more or less, but used cars are like houses, right? They're all, or snowflakes, whatever you want to say. They're all a little bit different, no matter how similar they might seem. And I learned in the very beginning that there are four things that determine the value of a car. And this is important when you're appraising it and important when you're reselling it. And they were color, equipment, condition, and miles, right? Color, pretty self-explanatory. A lot of people have certain colors that they want to drive or absolutely will not drive. And it's generally how a lot of people begin their search. Number two is equipment. And this to me ends up becoming one of the most important things, especially for certain types of cars, right? If somebody's looking for an old Toyota that's going to be for their kid, get them to and from school, they probably don't care very much about this. But if you're going to buy a luxury car, a sports car, even a commuter car that you're gonna really spend a lot of money on and you want it to be, you know, everything. That you've ever dreamt of on more, this is where people get really hung up is what options does it have? Does it have that trim package that I want? Does it have the wheels that I want? Does it have the driver assistance package? All of these other things. So there is so much value that is added there. And it is generally lost in most appraisals because, like you said, if I put a GLE 350 into an appraisal tool today, and I let's say it's a 2024 and it's got 20,000 miles on it, it's going to tell me, it's going to treat what was once a $65,000 GLE brand new the same as an $85,000 GLE. And if you don't believe that a GLE $350 could be $85,000 brand new, I assure you it can be, right? I've sold plenty of them. There's that many options and more. If I treat those two cars, one that was 65K brand new and the one that was 85K brand new as the same when I'm appraising it, then I'm going to vastly overappraise the 65K car. And I'm going to vastly underappraise the 85K car. Because when you're looking at that competitive set, unless you go through one by one and pick them apart and see what all those cars have, you're just going to get averages, right? I mean, that's what appraisal tools do. They give you averages, average miles, average list price, you can see average auction price, KBB. It's all averages. And cars are not average, right? They're all unique. And so I just think that I've always dreamt up, or I've always thought to myself, like, I wish there was a more effective way to appraise cars with the understanding that they are extremely unique. And then this tool comes around and it's kind of like the it's almost like I'm seeing now in real life the thing that I've sort of been imagining in my head. And so I just, and I'm not trying to blow smoke here. Like I just truly do think that it is so innovative that uh that, you know, very quickly now, I put something into iPacket value. And when I'm looking at a competitive set now, I'm gonna see what were all these cars brand new? Right? That's an extra piece of information served up to me in a very clean little sheet, if you will, that I would have would have been a completely manual process before. So immediately I can see, is this a car with a lot of equipment or is this a car with little equipment? And I can adjust accordingly on the fly. And that process now is 30 seconds instead of 20 minutes. So it's it's very cool what what this does. Well, uh pre I obviously love hearing the feedback. Um, you know, I know you've been using it for quite some time, and you know, I think ultimately speaking, you know, when you're looking at a vehicle, you're exactly right. You know, your make model trim, odometer is important, right? You know, you want to know what the odometer is on that vehicle. You know, one has 20,000 miles, one has 30,000 miles, could could shift the value of a car. And the one thing that we can't see without manual input, and oftentimes at a dealership level, we don't have time. Like there's we have all this going on trying to uh run our department or run our area of the business. We don't have time to get that far into the details every single time. And um, you know, at the end of the day, adding transparency to the that aspect of the business, it really benefits the client. That car that they single-handedly picked out and selected those individual options because it was unique and because they, you know, they wanted that AMG line, as I mentioned. Um, and at the same time, it really shares with the dealership at a quick you know, snapshot, as you mentioned, click of a button, exactly what they have and exactly what the market has. And I think the challenge that I had at a store level, you might relate to me or not, maybe many of our viewers, is a lot of the options that we're clicking, um, great information, right? You're we're clicking on the options, maybe in our appraisal and pricing tool. And, you know, that that's getting a market profile that we're then climbing into. But, you know, a lot of times that's because, you know, a lot of the information we're looking at is based upon manual entry. Like it's share, it's showing up in those buckets. Um, and we're heavily relying on processes across the nation that some dealers follow perfectly, others maybe not so much. It just depends. Where our system, it doesn't rely on any of that. It's just generated with um the fundamentals, uh, which is, you know, again, not only based upon the year make model and tremendous, but right off that Monroe label that we've been collecting. No, you're exactly right. I mean, it's we've we've been down this road together. The the competitive sets are generally not reliable because, yeah, they're they are requiring on the manual entry of dealers across the country. And, you know, most people are not gonna take the time to go in there and really click everything that a car has. So to have this done quickly, um, it's been a game changer. I mean, I'm just gonna go out and say it that, and I don't, I don't say that lightly. Um, it's very rare that I'm impressed by technology in the car business. I think generally speaking, the car business suffers from uh a severe lack of good tech. Uh but this is a tool that in some ways it's so simple, in other ways, it's just genius. Um, but you know, it's and again, it's it's part of the appraisal process. It's not the entire thing. And it's part of the merchandising process. It's not the entire thing, but it is, man, it just is really a time saver in in a lot of ways. And I'm curious, have you seen dealers that are using it doing anything creative with it? Right. I mean, I know it's still a relatively new product, but uh, is there anybody that's using it in a really creative way that you didn't necessarily dream up? Absolutely. Um, matter of fact, um, you know, our dealers, when they were looking at these competitive sets, and they were, you know, all the time we're getting this, hey, you have this vehicle, but I see one over here that is less or over there that's less or or more. And, you know, I think what they saw was is all of these vehicles, all of the pricing, and where the pricing is in relationship to its original equipment. And they're like, I want to share that with the customer. I want to share with them and inform them that, hey, listen, our vehicle is uniquely built. Our vehicle has more options than some of the ones that you're looking at out there. And that's how we're able to now add the market value summary right within the iPacket again to add additional transparency for the client that all these vehicles are so uniquely built and they're not all apples to apples. Um, they might look like it, but in fact, they're not. So that's an area that has just exploded, Doug, um, uh, when it comes to the market value summary. And the, you know, that makes a lot of sense for me because the iPacket program was made for, in the very beginning, for salespeople and to be used by salespeople, as well as managers, but prominently salespeople. And now they have that justification at their fingertips inside their iPacket that they're sending out. And again, just as we're justifying our retail value based upon, hey, we spent three grand on our car, it's got new brakes and rotors and tires, and we went through the works, and here's the checklist and the mechanical checklist. It's got clean Carfax, has all the information here to make a good decision. Oh, by the way, let me share our strategy and why, in fact, we're priced where we are based upon live comp. So that's something that we didn't dream up, but the dealerships dreamed up. And that's the beautiful thing about iPacket, is a lot of our product is formed um through dealer ideas and solving everyday problems. Yeah. Well, not only that, um, one question I did want to ask you is that what do you think is unique about iPacket in the sense that um, you know, you all still have the dealerships, right? I don't know how much time you spend in the dealerships, if that's still part of your your day-to-day or or Sevies for that matter. But, you know, I think a lot of automotive tech comes from uh two distinct buckets, either people that are have been like dealership adjacent their entire careers, or former dealers, right? You hear that a lot. Oh, I used to, you know, I used to work in a dealership and then I left and I went and started this company. But but iPacket still kind of exists alongside the Astorg dealerships, right? So do you think that that gives you a unique perspective to help continue to shape what iPacket does and what how it's best used because you're still living it every day? Yeah, I think we're very unique as a culture in that way. Um, you know, just overall team. I think we did the accumulation of automotive experience that works at iPacket. It's over like 280 years of experience inside of iPacket at a store level. So I think our culture is built around that. It allows us to be able to relate to our client, allows us to be able to enhance our product in ways that are actually impactful. Because again, it's one thing to see something from the outside and say, hey, this looks like something that might help someone. It's a whole nother thing when you've done it, and that's the only thing you've done for 15 years, and you see something and you're like, I know this so well that this makes so much sense. And I think that's the DNI of our culture. Um, I mean, to answer the question, you know, I'm you know, sitting at the dealership right now, I I can't help it. Um, but at the at the same time, iPacket keeps me so busy that um I I I can say that I don't have uh a lot of time to be in the everyday interactions right now, although um still love my valued customers that call me every day and want to make sure they're taken care of as well. But love that. So where does iPacket slash iPacket value go from here? Is there further enhancements that are coming to it? Are there, I mean, maybe some that you aren't willing to talk about, but what what's kind of next? What what future enhancements can we can we look forward to? You know, I love this question because I think at the end of the day, the possibilities are um I'm gonna say limitless because it's amazing now when you have AI and when you have pure data, like not touched, pure data that you can feed in there. It's amazing what it can do. And we're even experimenting and in coming out here soon with uh we we're gonna call it's more or less called ARC, average reconditioning cost. Because what we also have is one of the largest composites of service history receipts um out there on the marketplace today because what in the dealership place today, pretty cool, right? You can um ask one manager, hey, what do you estimate this car is going to need in the shop? Well, it's sight unseen. You know, we client says it has good tires. He sent a few pictures, he said it was just re you know, it had new brakes put on, but can't necessarily see it. So there's a lot of trust involved in that. Oftentimes, big frustration is you don't know about all the stuff until it's in the shop being done, right? So you can ask one person. I I always joke around because I'm like, hey, you know, one of our uh uh pre-end managers, hey, what do you think the reconditioning cost will be? And they'll say, why? We'll ask the new car manager and they'll say something totally different. So there's this huge gap in what people think that they're gonna spend and what they actually spend. And now with our data, we're gonna be able to really add additional level of transparency there that's never been able to be seen before. So super excited about that. But I think as a culture and as a team here at iPacket, the the future is just so endless. Um, you have a large group of people that every day come to work with passion, again, hard work, pressure, and consistency. Um, I think that we're really going to be able to make a continued positive impact on the car business and for dealerships. I love that. And yeah, that that's clever. I mean, a very natural progression for where this could go. And, you know, you got me thinking, one of the interesting things about iPacket and all of this service data that you have is that you almost have this advantage here where you're not you're not a DMS. I think j normally the the companies that have the most information about what it would on average cost to recondition a car are DMSs, but you're kind of DMS agnostic because you work with dealers that have all the DMSs, right? I mean, so you're not, it's not like you could only pull data from this set of dealers or that. I mean, you're pulling from your entire dealer group. And I think uh, or all your users, this is gonna be that's a a smart place to go. I think that that definitely would be helpful because and I don't know if it it's gonna maybe just look at an average overall or if it's gonna adjust based on the type of store you are. I mean, because uh every every store's got different labor rates, but or different levels of reconditioning that you know, what what's the average reconditioning if it's a certified car versus not, right? I mean, not I'm sure these are all things that you you've already been answering internally, but I could see a lot of really cool possibilities there. So it sounds like you all are leaning into AI to help, you know, make I don't know, interesting conclusions from all this data that you do have. Is that going to be kind of built into the tool or is that just something that you're kind of using separately to interpret the data that you already have? You know, um, you know, Bob George, he's the head of development at iPacket. And, you know, he um he's the experience that he has in this world. I think he's over 20 years of experience in this world. And, you know, it's really a part of everything we do. Um it's gonna be involved in our products, it's gonna be involved in our processes. Um, and again, through that, I think it's just really impressive when you input, you can input data, but when it's pure data, you get way well, you get pure results. And um, so I think we're really excited about the dynamic that can bring at a store level. Um, and ultimately speaking, impacting everybody involved, the client, the dealership, the sales consultant, the sales manager, um, in a positive way. Because again, I hear one of the biggest frustrations I hear in the marketplace is hey, listen, you know, it takes a lot of time, um, specifically while talking about iPacket value, it takes a lot of time to find like-for-like comps. You know, and and the other side of things is hey, there's nothing, there's not a worse feeling than getting in, you know, getting a car in the shop, lifting the hood, and getting a repair water that's dramatically different than what you estimated. Yeah. Because that kind of throws off the whole chain. So I think it's gonna be really unique, some of the insights that we're gonna be able to provide dealers. Um, you know, if they're an iPacket dealer, and that they'll be able to see it in their portal. Yeah, that's slick. I like that. Well, I'm I'm curious, Tyler, are there any questions that I haven't asked you that that you'd be interested to touch on today? No, I I don't I don't think so. I think um I uh really enjoyed the conversation. It was always good to see you, Doug. Yeah. And uh again, always love being here. So appreciate the invitation. No, my pleasure. And I just want to say thank you again for uh I I feel like I got uh an early phone call when iPacket Value was coming around, and I'm really appreciative of that. And it's been, you know, again, I just want to I want to give props to you and the team for coming up with something really innovative. And uh and also again, you know, I've seen a lot of vendors coming to go over I've been in the business 16 years, but 10 years where I am now, and and those 10 years I've been blessed to be very involved with the the day-to-day uh processes and decision making and and technology that we use. And and uh I think there might be only two vendor partnerships that we have that haven't changed in the 10 years that I've been there, and iPacket's one of them. And I say that just because I get a lot of questions from dealers around the country about what technology do you use and why and where you know, everyone's the big question these days is how can people integrate their tech stacks uh and and get them as efficient as possible, and everyone, you know, nobody wants to overspend, but they also don't want to miss out on tech that's worth having. And and so I just I feel like it's my duty to to report to the people that care enough to watch my videos and listen to my podcast, that hey, this is one of the partnerships that we've had that's never changed and for good reason. So kudos to you and the team for a product that adds a tremendous amount of value to anybody who's selling used cars and new cars as well, but used cars specifically. Well, Doug, I appreciate the feedback. And you know, I do want to mention the one thing that we take a lot of pride in, just as you take a lot of pride in at your dealership, is how you take care of people after the sale happened. That's what, you know, yes, it's great to it's great to add a new client, it's great to add a new dealership, uh part of our partners, but it's a whole nother thing on how we service them. And our team is um it's it if you could just see internally uh the processes and the people that we have in place take care of our dealers, it's it's really amazing. Our average ticket time is like, I mean, it it they are they have this down to an art. Um and they're they're handing a lot of tickets, a lot of dealer requests, and and they get them done efficiently, quickly, and right. And that goes a long way with our dealer partners. So, yes, we have a great product that really adds transparency, it does a lot for our dealerships and in many different ways, but on the other side of things, how we service those dealers is is at the same importance. And I think that's where we're really where we headed out of the park. Yeah. No, that's that's wonderful. And I think what I'd like to what I'd like to end this on is it is important for me to say this is that as much value as this, as the iPacket products add for dealerships and make our lives easier, um, this really is ultimately a consumer-focused product in the sense that what you all do benefits consumers greatly by giving them access to all the information, right? And so I think that a dealer that is using iPacket is a friendly dealer to a car shopper, right? Because you know you're gonna get all of this information. And I think it helps to make people feel more comfortable and feel more informed about a used car purchase, which is look, these cars, cars are expensive, it's a lot of money, right? So you need to know what's the car fax look like, what kind of service work was done, what's the history of it, what options does it have, right? Get the full picture. So I just want to point that out that this, yes, we can talk about all the benefits to dealers, but also car shoppers need to be aware that look, this is a very if you're receiving an iPacket, that is a good thing. That is a good thing. So, Tyler, thank you so much for being here today. I really do appreciate your time. And uh, you know, I'm sure I'll talk to you again soon, but it's been a real pleasure having you today. Hey, look forward to it, Doug. Thanks for having me. Of course.