Auto Care ON AIR

Aftermarket Digital Marketing That Actually Sells

AI is changing how drivers discover and buy aftermarket parts, and the shift is happening faster than most teams are ready for. Mike Chung joined by Jon Hedges, founder of Hedges & Company, to unpack what “digital marketing” truly means in the automotive aftermarket when the customer journey spans Google search, marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, reviews, video, email, and in-store research with a phone in hand.  We start with the fundamentals: why being visible online is now table stakes, how the industry moved from paper catalogs to online catalogs and shopping carts, and why accurate product data and fitment details still decide whether a shopper trusts your brand. Then we get practical about measurement. Jon explains how to think about goals, which metrics actually matter, and how to avoid the attribution traps that make reports look great while sales stay flat. If conversion tracking is misconfigured, today’s algorithms will optimize for the wrong actions and send you more of the wrong traffic.  From there, we tackle SEO versus LLM optimization (LLMO) and what it takes to show up when consumers ask AI tools for shopping answers. Jon shares why original, useful content and technical signals like schema are becoming essential, and why trust frameworks like EEAT (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) will matter even more as agentic AI begins shopping on behalf of customers. The big takeaway: better data and stronger trust signals can help smaller aftermarket brands compete with much larger players.  Subscribe to Auto Care ON AIR, share this with a teammate who owns your web and marketplace strategy, and leave a rating and review so more aftermarket pros can find the show. Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2355351/fan_mail/new] To learn more about the Auto Care Association visit autocare.org. To learn more about our show and suggest future topics and guests, visit autocare.org/podcast

Mexico’s Vehicle Fleet Hits 36.1 Million

Mexico’s vehicle fleet just crossed a milestone that should make every aftermarket planner sit up: 36.1 million vehicles in operation. Stacey Miller sits down with Evaristo Garcia, Founder and CEO of IDF, to unpack the latest Mexico VIO data and what it means for the automotive aftermarket, distribution, and the North American supply chain. They talk through where the growth is really coming from (light vehicles), and why Mexico’s average vehicle age stays high and steady at about 16.2 years. That long-lived fleet is shaped by strong new vehicle sales and by something uniquely important to Mexico’s market: used imports from the United States, often called “chocolates.” If you sell parts, service vehicles, or manage inventory across borders, this mix changes how you forecast demand and how wide your catalog needs to be. Then they dig into the strategic shifts hiding inside the totals. Mexico is still a car-heavy market at roughly 56% of VIO, but trucks and SUVs keep gaining ground as global OEM strategies tilt away from sedans. We also explain IDF’s “modern segment” view: about 14 million vehicles from the last 10 model years, a huge opportunity for aftermarket businesses that want to win on newer applications without ignoring the long tail. Finally, they put Chinese automakers into perspective: more than 10% of new vehicle sales, yet only about 1.2% of the light-vehicle VIO today, alongside bigger penetration in medium and heavy trucks and real-world parts availability lessons. If you found this useful, subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave a rating and review so more autocare professionals can find it. Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2355351/fan_mail/new] To learn more about the Auto Care Association visit autocare.org. To learn more about our show and suggest future topics and guests, visit autocare.org/podcast

College, Trades, or Something Else? How Gen Z Is Rethinking Work

Most career advice assumes you already know who you are at 18. We don’t buy that, so we sit down for a real talk about uncertainty, pressure, and the messy path that actually leads to work you like. Jacki Lutz is joined by Zoi Holloway, our communications coordinator at the Auto Care Association, and her Gen Z niece Ayla Ross, a high school senior job shadowing for the week, bringing a fresh point of view on what it feels like to stand at the edge of graduation with more questions than answers. We get into college vs trades, community college cost realities, and why a four-year degree can still matter for “getting in the door” even when the work itself is learned through experience. We also talk about the technician shortage in the automotive aftermarket and why workforce development, scholarships, and initiatives to bring more women into automotive are becoming urgent. Along the way, Zoi shares how changing majors and following skills like writing, reporting, and storytelling led her into mass communications and a creative communications career. Then we zoom out to the bigger forces shaping every career decision right now: AI in the workplace, entrepreneurship culture, and the nonstop pull of social media. We ask what companies and associations can do to attract young talent, and why showing the people, the culture, and the “safe to try” environment matters as much as listing job openings. If you’re curious about automotive industry careers, marketing and communications roles, skilled trades, or just figuring out your next step, you’ll leave with a clearer framework and a little more permission to evolve. Subscribe to Auto Care ON AIR, share this with someone choosing a path, and leave a rating and review so more curious listeners can find us. Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2355351/fan_mail/new] To learn more about the Auto Care Association visit autocare.org. To learn more about our show and suggest future topics and guests, visit autocare.org/podcast

Aftermarket Data Reality Check

Inflation is forcing a new kind of creativity in car ownership and the ripple effects are everywhere in the automotive aftermarket. We talk with Rob Pietrowski, VP of Research at IMR, about what the data says when repair bills rise faster than household budgets: where demand stays steady because maintenance is non-discretionary, and where the real movement happens underneath through brand switching, outlet choices, delayed maintenance, and more price shopping. Rob walks us through how IMR measures vehicle maintenance and repairs at scale, including large consumer surveys and monthly repair shop surveying that captures what shops are seeing at the counter. We get specific about the trends that signal financial stress: growing interest in financing major repairs, the “install it for me” path where drivers source parts but pay for labor, and DIY remaining surprisingly resilient thanks to cost pressure and tools like YouTube. We also dig into how shops respond, including reported increases in customer price sensitivity and the reality of entry-level or private-label parts in certain situations. We zoom out to the long game too: high new-vehicle prices, longer loan terms, and an aging vehicle parc are pushing more owners to approve major repairs that might have been avoided years ago. Then we challenge easy assumptions about EV repair with replacement-rate insights across categories like steering and suspension, HVAC, and tires and why “EVs need fewer repairs” isn’t a complete strategy. Finally, we look at AI from two angles: shifting employment uncertainty for consumers and the growing battle to protect market research from AI-enabled survey fraud, plus the controversy around synthetic survey data. If you care about forecasting, consumer behavior, aftermarket trends, or EV repair opportunity, this conversation brings practical signals you can use. Subscribe, share the show with a colleague, and leave a rating and review. What trend are you seeing first hand in your shop or household? Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2355351/fan_mail/new] To learn more about the Auto Care Association visit autocare.org. To learn more about our show and suggest future topics and guests, visit autocare.org/podcast

How State Bills Shape Auto Repair Costs And Choice

A lot of the biggest threats to the automotive aftermarket don’t start in Washington. They start quietly in a statehouse, inside a bill that sounds harmless until you read the fine print. Stacey Miller is joined by Donovan Ringo, our director of state affairs and grassroots at the Auto Care Association, to break down what it really takes to monitor and respond to fast-moving state legislation across nearly every state in session. Donovan shares how his background at NAPA, from emerging EV strategy to hands-on workforce development, shaped the way he thinks about advocacy, training pipelines, and the future of auto repair. We talk about the real-world issues members flag every day, from parts restrictions and insurance steering to apprenticeship programs, scholarships, and state funding that can make or break technician recruiting. You’ll hear concrete examples of what’s happening right now: Utah language tied to OEM procedures that can effectively push OEM-only parts, Kansas momentum that mirrors Maine and Massachusetts right to repair efforts focused on access to OEM data, plus the on-the-ground reality of monitoring similar bills in Iowa and Georgia. We also dig into why “equivalent quality” definitions matter, how we educate lawmakers on certified aftermarket parts, and why a strong grassroots network and the Auto Care PAC (ACPAC) support help the industry show up with clarity and credibility. If you care about right to repair, consumer choice, repair affordability, and a healthy aftermarket workforce, this conversation connects the dots and shows where you can plug in. Subscribe, share this with someone in your state, and leave a rating and review so more people find the show. Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2355351/fan_mail/new] To learn more about the Auto Care Association visit autocare.org. To learn more about our show and suggest future topics and guests, visit autocare.org/podcast