The 2025 Wholesale Car Market Explained – Key Insights and What’s Ahead | Peter Kelly, CEO of OPENLANE

Welcome to the Car Dealership Guy Podcast. In this episode, I'm speaking with Peter Kelly, CEO of OPENLANE where we discuss a breakdown on how the wholesale car market finished off 2025, how volume trends are bucking expectations, and the key trends and challenges facing the segment in 2025. This episode of the Car Dealership Guy Podcast is brought to you by: 1. OPENLANE - The world’s leading online dealer marketplace for used cars, bringing you exclusive inventory, simple transactions, and better outcomes. Learn more @ https://www.openlane.com/ 2. Uber for Business - With Central, you can request a ride on behalf of your customers even if they don’t have the Uber app. If you’re ready to reduce the costs associated with maintaining shuttles and limit the liability of loaner vehicles, it's time to partner with Uber. Visit @ t.uber.com/CDGauto today 3. Dealer-Pay - Designed to increase productivity and customer retention, offering a dealer-specific payment acceptance solution backed by over 25 years of experience as a trusted payments partner for dealerships across the United States. To learn more, contact Julie @ julie@dealer-pay.com or call 636-442-4901. 🚨 Don’t forget to subscribe to Car Dealership Guy Bites, for quick, daily insights into automotive retail — delivered in less than 5 minutes: Subscribe on Apple: https://carguymedia.com/apple_bites Subscribe on Spotify: https://carguymedia.com/spotify_bites Subscribe on YouTube: https://carguymedia.com/youtube_bites Need help finding top automotive talent? Get started here: https://www.cdgrecruiting.com/ Interested in advertising with Car Dealership Guy? Drop us a line here: https://cdgpartner.com Interested in being considered as a guest on the podcast? Add your name here: https://bit.ly/3Suismu Topics: 00:13 How last year’s predictions played out 02:14 OPENLANE’s 2024 milestones 03:15 Leadership lessons from the rebrand 06:21 Advice for dealers in 2025 12:40 Trends impacting dealers next year 16:37 Tools with the biggest impact 19:52 OPENLANE’s focus at NADA Check out Car Dealership Guy’s stuff: CDG News ➤ https://news.dealershipguy.com/ CDG Jobs ➤ https://jobs.dealershipguy.com/ CDG Recruiting ➤ https://www.cdgrecruiting.com/ My Socials: X ➤ x.com/GuyDealership Instagram ➤ instagram.com/cardealershipguy/ TikTok ➤ tiktok.com/@guydealership LinkedIn ➤ linkedin.com/company/cardealershipguy Threads ➤ threads.net/@cardealershipguy Facebook ➤ facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077402857683 Everything else ➤ dealershipguy.com This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. #AutomotiveIndustryTrends #DigitalMarketplace #LeadershipInsights