How Gary Rome Built an Award-Winning Hyundai Dealership

Award-winning dealerships are built on more than strong sales—they're built on culture, trust, and long-term relationships. In this episode, Gary Rome, President and CEO of Gary Rome Auto Group, shares the leadership philosophy behind earning the 2026 Hyundai Dealer of the Year Award and the Board of Excellence Award.

Rome discusses how investing in employees, supporting the local community, and prioritizing transparency have helped his dealership achieve lasting success. He also explains how affordability challenges are changing consumer buying habits, why leasing has become a strategic advantage, and how certified pre-owned vehicles are helping meet customer demand in today's market.

Key discussion points:

• The leadership philosophy behind Gary Rome Auto Group's award-winning culture
• How employee recognition and retention contribute to long-term success
• Why community involvement remains a core part of the dealership's mission
• How affordability is driving demand for certified pre-owned vehicles and leasing
• The importance of pricing transparency and customer trust
• What Rome expects for the second half of 2026 as inventory levels improve

Rome shares practical leadership lessons on building a dealership culture that benefits employees, customers, and the community alike.

Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick is powered by CBT News, your go-to source for the latest news, trends, and insights in retail automotive. Subscribe for more interviews with top industry leaders, dealership innovators, and experts shaping the future of automotive.

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Transcript

Welcome And Big Award Win

Jim Fitzpatrick 0:07

Welcome to Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick. A successful dealership is about more than just selling cars, it's about earning trust, investing in people, and community. Joining us now is Gary Rome, president and CEO of Gary Rome Automotive Group. You've seen him here before on CBT News. His uh Hyundai store recently received the 2026 Hyundai Dealer of the Year Award. So man, you just keep winning awards there, Gary Rome. Thank you so much for joining us.

Gary Rome 0:34

Yes, my pleasure to be here. And it's it's not me, it's we. We keep winning awards. Yeah, it's our team continues to do what we do every day.

Jim Fitzpatrick 0:42

Well, whatever it is you're doing every day seems to be working very, very well. So uh what what go what goes into that award? I mean, that's that's pretty cool.

Gary Rome 0:51

Uh it is a combination of things, of course, being successful and and having good CSI, being have being good in sales and service and parts, but you know, mainly it's about um what we do for the community, and overall they selected us. Um there was um ten dealers in the United States. We also won the Board of Excellence Awards, so we're one of four dealers in the country to win both. Wow. And then uh is really what it is.

Jim Fitzpatrick 1:19

It's fantastic. Well, congratulations to you and your team. I know it it does take a team to to win those kinds of uh awards, and uh sounds like you've got a great one

Building A Culture People Stay For

Jim Fitzpatrick 1:28

there. In fact, it's a perfect segue to my next question, which is creating the right culture. Talk talk to us about that. You've uh previously said that your employees are are really the backbone of your success, um, and you just gave them a lot of credit for winning these awards. But uh talk to us about creating the right culture in a dealership, which as you know, we still suffer in this industry with a high turnover rate. Um it's a it's a difficult uh job to get good quality people into retail automotive to begin with. You seem to have uh won in this area. So what's the case?

Gary Rome 2:01

We invest in our employees and we we take a we take interest in them. We actually last time we chatted, I told you that we have actually have a position called our corporate culture officer. Her name is Kathy. We call her Captain Culture. And every uh the whole month every month we have a whole list of events that we do. So we'll celebrate people if it was National Popcorn Day or National, it was National Pina Colada Day, so there's always a raffle or something going on. So we're engaging our team. Every month we have a birthday party, so we'll celebrate. We just had our July birthday party, so we celebrate everyone, and we really are invested in our employees. So when they have an anniversary, we celebrate with a handwritten note and a five-dollar Starbucks gift card. Same thing for birthdays, anniversaries. If you had a baby, if you got married, if you had a if you bought a house or whatever, you know, or if you lost a loved one, we'll send a memory lamp to your home. So we're really the the we spend more time with our teammates here at uh at work than we do with our family. So we really want to be invested in in them. And food helps too, so we're always feeding them. You know, whether it be a cookout or uh when we had the celebration for the um uh Dealer of the Year Award, we we had a New Haven pizza truck come up and we we fed everybody. So it's a really

The Annual Car Giveaway Tradition

Gary Rome 3:15

cool.

Jim Fitzpatrick 3:15

Yeah, you and you do give I follow you on on social, as you know, and uh uh you are always doing something to give back, whether it be puppy dog uh, you know, uh adoptions or whatever the case might be. You're always got something going on that uh where the public is participating in it and benefiting from it as well, right?

Gary Rome 3:33

Yes, yeah, yeah. We um we do have an initiative which I think is very powerful since 2010. We've been giving away a new car every year to a local high school senior. Yes, huge. And this year was especially moving. It was it was and and the smile on his face when he won. It was we have uh about 150 students qualified, the guidance counselors pick the top 20, and then their families come to the showroom, the band from the high school is here. We give every student a key, they put the key in the car, if it turns the lock, the door opens, the horn goes off, and they win the car, and their life is changed forever. And this year, the the young man that won, uh, and of course, and coincidentally, their graduation was the following evening. So they won he won a new car, and he graduated the next day. But uh our social media um somehow she posted it on TikTok and it was seen 800,000 times. Oh, I bet. Yeah, it was it was it was real. But um, we had some of the alumni come back who have received the cars over the years just to kind of tell us how it changed their life and that's huge.

Jim Fitzpatrick 4:37

Yeah, what a great idea. Yeah. Wow, that that that kudos to you for for for doing that and maintaining it. And uh, you know, that's always one of the things through tough times that somebody, you know, it's easy to put a line through and say, well, maybe we'll pass this year on it. But uh, but you've maintained it and it does mean a lot to those kids and those families, right?

Gary Rome 4:54

Yes. Yes, no question about it.

Jim Fitzpatrick 4:56

Yeah.

Why Buyers Shift To Used Cars

Jim Fitzpatrick 4:57

So let's talk a little bit about business today. Um, there's a lot going on, as you know, in in in the world. You know, we're at a war with Iran, gas prices are kind of high, there's a lot of uncertainty out there, interest rates really haven't come down all that much, affordability is still a factor. Um, you know, you you you're selling the right cars to be in that situation. But even the even the lesser expensive cars are still expensive, right? Yes. Um how's business uh overall and and what is your take on some of the things that are happening in the in the in the world and in the country today?

Gary Rome 5:29

I think you covered it all just by but in my in our world here, you know, what we've seen is the new car price, new car, you know, is almost fifty thousand dollars. It's forty-nine thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight dollars, and the average car payment is about seven hundred and fifty dollars-ish. So it's very expensive. And what we've seen recently is our new car sales are off about six percent, used car sales are up about fifteen percent. Okay. Um, clients are making the decision that I think I want to get a used car because I have this, there's a general feeling of malaise, right? They just I'm comfortable, I'm not sure what I'm uncomfortable about, but I don't want to make the commitment you know to uh to get a new car. I think I'll just get a 2022 or 23 certified car, which is half the price or close to half the price. And with a CPO vehicle, you get the balance of the 10 year 100,000 mile warranty. So they're making a decision like that. Even if the lease payment was the same on a new car, they're saying, I think that I'm gonna get a used car. So we've seen that.

Leasing First And How It Works

Gary Rome 6:26

Interesting. And then the other thing we've seen is new car, and and we're fortunate that we do a lot of leasing. Leasing pen is is almost 70%. It's quite high. Really? So we have a lot of return less return less ease coming, which is great because we want to see them in three years instead of you know doing a disservice to our client and having them get into an 84-month finance. Yeah. So we we're seeing them come back early, and the manufacturers, both Hyundai and Kia, have pull-ahead programs, so that helps us get them out early and maybe forgive the last three payments. But what we've seen is clients that were in a a more expensive, larger SUV are now downsizing themselves. Okay. They're moving to the little bit less expensive model. Interesting. Because everything is $100 more a month than it was, you know, everything. So somebody that was used to that low payment and they're wanting to get the same vehicle, now they're making a conscious decision to take the smaller, the little bit less expensive vehicle to get into that payment range.

Jim Fitzpatrick 7:27

Are you um driving that that incredible lease penetration? Has it always been that way? I mean, 70% is like three or four times the norm out there. Is that so are you dishing up lease payments along with purchase payments?

Gary Rome 7:39

And now talk to me about that, because that that's I I think that you know, for a long, long time people were just they were afraid to talk about leasing. Yeah. And where they just weren't comfortable doing. That's the first thing we talk about is lease. The first thing we talk about, and then if we do a buy-lease comparison, you can see that your lease payment is 30% lower, the term is 36 months, you don't have to put $5,000 down, you can put $2,000 down. Yeah. And then when it's time to get a new car, when it's time to get tires or brakes, you're getting a new car. Yeah. So it really makes a lot of sense. And and we are relatively conservative here, but we're doing a really good job explaining to people because you know, clients will say, Well, I don't own anything. I say, Well, when you finance it for 84 months, the bank owns it. That's right. So that's right. You know, so really you want to get the best car you can for the lowest monthly payment. And manufacturers, they are really incentivizing and cementing leasing because they want the clients to come back in three years. And we especially like that because with the price of used cars going up, there is usually some equity in their off-leased vehicle. Yeah. Right? So you can bring the car right, and then that's a great opportunity for us to certify the vehicle and sell it again.

Jim Fitzpatrick 8:50

That's right. That's right. And it used to be those vehicles went straight to auction, but now the OEMs have changed their program. You can get that, you can pick up on that trade-in, right?

Gary Rome 9:00

Sure. And if the if the buyout is too high, they'll give you a market-based price, which is a little bit more reasonable. But you know, I'd rather buy the car I know. Oh, yeah. And we can we we kind of call it when we sell it, when we sell it to a client as a certified vehicle, we say, well, this car is homegrown. Yeah. Right? Yeah. You took care of it. We sold it new, we serviced it here, and then we went through a you know a very extensive inspection to certify it for you now. So it's homegrown. This is the perfect vehicle.

Jim Fitzpatrick 9:26

That's right. Um, when I was uh in on the retail side, it was funny when people would use that and say, Well, I don't really own it. And you're looking at the trading going, You still owe three years on the car you're trading. So unless you go the next three years, you don't own that one either, to your point, right?

Gary Rome 9:41

That's right. And you'll probably want to get out of it in the fourth year anyway. Right. So look you're yeah. That's right. That's right. So that's where we're seeing you know, in the market. Um interest rates aren't helping, the uncertainty with the war, the gas prices. We've seen a spike in in the desire for for EVs all of a sudden that rebounded. Yeah. Um and especially used EVs.

Jim Fitzpatrick 10:04

Yes. This is this is uh seems to be all the rage. It seems to be a heck of a deal, and everybody wants a used EV. It's funny because they didn't want the new EVs, but they want the used EVs, right?

Gary Rome 10:14

Well, before they took away the Fed rebate of $4,000, right? It was it was an even better deal. So you had $4,000 from the Fed and from the state, you've had up to $5,000. So you had a huge rebate on a pre-owned vehicle that still had a warranty and was probably certified. Sure. It's half the price of a new car. That's right. I've seen, we've seen at at both Kia and Hyundai that the price of Us A Vs that we try to buy have gone up almost $3,000 since the war started.

Jim Fitzpatrick 10:40

Wow. No kidding. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody's passing those uh gas stations where it's three, four dollars a gallon, going, nope, I'm done. You know, California's even worse, obviously. But um interesting.

FTC Transparency And Doing The Right Thing

Jim Fitzpatrick 10:52

Hey, uh what since we spoke last, uh the FTC has obviously come down on dealers and you know said, hey, you guys gotta sit up and fly right on transparency and pricing and what have you. What is your take on that? Was Gary Rome Automotive Group uh ready for that? Or um where where do you stand on that?

Gary Rome 11:09

We've always been transparent on everything. I mean, everything we present uh is it's all transparent, everything is broken down. Um the fact that now we've added the dock fee on our website, it's a level playing field. Everybody's doing that. So it's not it's not, you know, but you you we you have to do the right thing. You can't do things and deceive your client and expect them to come back and buy a car from you. So we're very, very transparent up front. Um we have not you know seen any issues. We do use Comply Auto, right? So we're so we're our our website is we're constantly looking at that to make sure it's compliant, but yeah.

Jim Fitzpatrick 11:44

Yeah, that's good. That's good. And many of the dealers that I've spoken to uh since this uh has happened in the industry and the letters were sent out said this is the this is like one of the we're gonna look back, this is one of the best things that could have happened to retail automotive in years, in the sense that it does level the playing field, it gives the consumer a much better feeling about buying a car from a franchise dealer, and it doesn't, you know, it does away with the game playing, so to speak, that the that the consumers view us as doing. Um is that pretty much do you agree with that?

Gary Rome 12:13

That's the one that I agree with that, and and I think that as you know, customers today visit 1.8 dealerships. They're not, you know, they're not doing a lot of window shopping. So if they come into your dealership, they're here to buy a car. Yeah. So if they don't buy a car, it's our fault. Right. Right. So, you know, and our closing ratio is is almost 80%, 70% at Kia, 80% at Hyundai. So if somebody comes in, that they're here to buy a car. Wow. If you trick them and cut when and they arrive and say, well, that price is only good if you finance with us. Yeah, I mean that that turns them off. That turns them off completely.

Jim Fitzpatrick 12:47

No question about it. Or or some rebate that that there's nobody qualifies for, right? And yeah, they start stacking them uh pretty high, and it's like, all right, so this isn't even close to the price of the car that I can get it for, right? Right. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. Um wow, that's that's an incredible closing rate, by the way. You you got a strong, you you got a strong lease rate, and you got a strong closing rate there at uh Gary Rome.

Gary Rome 13:09

Well, part of it is we you're talking about the corporate culture, it goes back to that. Our employees, their our tenure is actually at least 10 years. So most of our employees have been here 10 years. We have we have we have employees celebrating their their 25th anniversary, 20th, 15th, 10th anniversary. Yeah, and when you see the same people when you come in for service and you see the same people when you come back to get your next car, it's a lot easier to to complete the sale than it is to start all over and make a new friend. Oh, for sure.

Jim Fitzpatrick 13:37

Yeah, and we all know that uh we love referral business way more than we love a fresh up that's never done business with you before, right?

Gary Rome 13:44

Would rather give you a hundred dollar referral than have to spend money on TV to attract somebody else.

Salespeople On Social Media

Gary Rome 13:49

That's right. That's right.

Jim Fitzpatrick 13:49

Are your salespeople um uh out there in social media as well? We see so much more of that now where salespeople are playing a role in the marketing of themselves and the auto group that they're working for through social media. Is that is that a a factor there?

Gary Rome 14:06

We are doing that. Unfortunately, not every one of our employees are doing that, but it's such a smart thing to do. It's free. People want to do business with people that are like-minded and that they can identify with. And and if you share things, you know, like we were talking about water skiing earlier, you know, the people see that on so on social media, they know that you're human and they really they're they're attracted to that. So we're doing a lot more of that. I include um a lot of our our employees in our TV spots, so they're right in there so they can see in there. And then uh if you ever come up to my area, I'd love to give you a tour of our store in our delivery area. We have uh a backdrop of our dealership, and then when the client comes in, we have the salespeople, we have a picture taken or a video with the customer with the backdrop, and then we ask the question, you know, why did you come to Gary Romano Group? They'll tell you why they're here. Yeah, sure. Everything you do for the community, because you gave me a great deal. I bought my last car here. You know, yeah. So that's just a great way to uh to reinforce and make the customer feel good that they made the right decision.

Jim Fitzpatrick 15:10

Yeah, wow. It seems I can't throw any negativity at you at all. You just keep coming back with a positive response there.

Gary Rome 15:16

I'm super positive. When when you say that there's a 70% chance of rain, I'm kind of crazy. I only hear there's a 30% chance of sun.

Jim Fitzpatrick 15:23

So that's that's that's the way uh car dealers need to be, right? Especially through times like this. Um how are you feeling about I guess the I know the answer already. How are you

Second Half Outlook And Inventory

Jim Fitzpatrick 15:32

feeling about the second half of the year?

Gary Rome 15:34

Well, I I think the second half is gonna be better than the first half. We had a really tough uh winter and um and and I uh the dealership's a little bit short on inventory because we we turned down some inventory, right, during December, January, February, March because we had we had feet of snow here. You know, we had it was it was really bad. And we had at least three bad snowstorms, and when it snows in our area, not like in Atlanta, but obviously, but it takes a whole week out of your business. Oh my god, it takes a whole week. The weathermen talk about it for two days ahead of time. It snows, we have to spend a day or day and a half cleaning. You you clean your driveway, and then it takes everybody a day or so to get back into the swing of things. Yeah, we lose 25% of our business with a snowstorm.

Jim Fitzpatrick 16:18

Wow, that's incredible. That's incredible. Um Having said that, you know, Toyota's done uh an incredible job of having like a 14-15 day supply of vehicles and keeping keeping it at that number. Um is that where where do you stand? What what kind of an inventory uh daily supply, I should say, are you carrying uh on new cars right now?

Gary Rome 16:39

Uh we're about a 61-day supply. Okay. I think the average dealer in our brands are over 80-day supply.

Jim Fitzpatrick 16:46

Yeah.

Gary Rome 16:47

So um it would be nice to have that pipeline coming in and then we could, you know, and it we could have the right vehicles in stock. But sure. Certainly, if you want to increase your your uh your return on sales and your net, you have to be mindful of the inventory and the floor plan expense. So so cutting that back is is good. And I I our manufacturer, both Hyundai and Kia are are seeing that too. So they want to help the dealers, and maybe I think their goal is to maintain a 45-day supply.

Jim Fitzpatrick 17:12

Yeah, yeah. Many of the dealers that I talked to uh on our MA show, what you know, I'll say what are the what are the top franchises that you'd love to get in an acquisition? Kia is like always in the top five. That's a hot franchise.

Gary Rome 17:25

Yes, yes. Yeah.

New Kia Facility Plans

Gary Rome 17:27

In fact, um my store, uh, the Hyundai store, we're about to celebrate our 30th year next year, and the Kia store will be celebrating our 20th year, and I'm just embarking on building a new facility for the Kia store in Enfield, Connecticut. So wow the time is the time is right to do that.

Jim Fitzpatrick 17:42

Yeah. What what's the exp what's the uh uh uh expectation in terms of an opening date on that?

Gary Rome 17:48

Well, we won't be starting until the spring, but it should be uh 10 months after we put a shovel in the ground.

Jim Fitzpatrick 17:53

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Money well spent, right, on uh on a new Kia facility. I mean, as much as dealers don't like to spend on new facilities, that's a pretty safe bet.

Gary Rome 18:02

I will say that is definitely the case. I know the Hyundai store, we were one of the first with the new design, the GDSI um design here. And when we built the new building, people came. Yeah, when we saw our sales more than double with the new facility.

Jim Fitzpatrick 18:17

Sure, no question. Wow. The very positive Gary Rome, president and CEO of Gary Rome Auto Group, and one heck of a skier, water skier. So thank you so much for spending some time with us. Appreciate it. I love catching up with you. Um and congrats on all those numbers. Wow, 70% lease penetration. Dealers may be calling you after this, going, show me the way, because who doesn't want that?

Gary Rome 18:39

By the way, real quick, um, when you have a 70% lease penetration, uh is the F and I manager mad at you for that because they're PVR or or No, the PVR, the PVR and lease, we we've we uh we have products that we make available to our customers and the PVR, you know, we're we're well nice you know over that $2,000 PVR and leasing as well. Wow.

Jim Fitzpatrick 19:02

Wow, that that you're winning all the way around. Congrats to you, man. That's great. Well again, great thanks so much for the time and great catching up with you.

Hope On Wheels And Pediatric Cancer

Gary Rome 19:09

I should mention before we go, is I'm still very active with Hyundai Hope on Wheels on the board. And um we've been we've been blessed to be able to present some really great uh sponsorships and grants to hospitals all over the country. And over the past 28 years, Hyundai has donated over $303 million to help find a cure for pediatric cancer. Wow. So we've been benefiting cancer on notice, right? And and it the the recovery rate was 80%. Now it's a little bit over 90%. But as a Hyundai dealer, you know, we're really not going to rest until we find a cure for that. When you buy your car, we donate $22 in the Hyundai matches in kind. So uh That is fantastic. Wow. Very powerful thing.

Jim Fitzpatrick 19:51

And as you probably already do know this number, but less than four percent of federal funds that go to cancer research go to pediatric cancer, right? I mean it's that's exactly right.

Gary Rome 20:02

It's not fair. And a lot of times the the young children have to take drugs that are made for adults. That's right. Because those that that's what's available. But it is it's a staggering statistic that every 36 minutes a family will hear that their child is mid-diagnosed with cancer, you know. So it's just it's such a shame.

Jim Fitzpatrick 20:20

Yeah, we're making progress. Yeah, yeah. One one car at a time, right? That's right. All right, man. Thanks so much. Stay well. Good to see you. Uh good to see you.

Gary Rome 20:29

Me too. Thanks for watching. Inside automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick.