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Mile Marker
EVs, Auctions, and the Future of Auto Tech
In this episode, Shelly Frank, Director of National Accounts for DAA Southwest and DAA Rockies and co-founder of GROW (Global Remarketing Opportunities for Women) chats with Jamye Carpenter and Angela Simoes. Shelly shares her career journey from flipping titles to leading national accounts in the auction industry and offers a candid look at how the landscape has evolved with technology, compliance, and AI.
Together, they dive into the changing dynamics of vehicle remarketing, the rise (and resale challenges) of electric vehicles, and how technological advances are reshaping auctions, from fax machines to condition reports powered by automation. They also explore what consumers still don’t understand about wholesale markets, why certain EVs are tough to trade in, and how personal data compliance continues to play a key role in fleet and resale operations.
Whether you're deep in the auto world or just curious about what happens behind the scenes at auctions, this episode is packed with insight, laughter, and a few dream-car confessions.
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Angela Simoes:
Welcome everyone to another episode of the Mile Marker podcast. My name is Angela Simoes, your host, and I am here with a special co-host today, Jamie Carpenter, VP of Customer Success for Privacy4Cars. Thanks for joining me, Jamie.
Jamye Carpenter:
I'm so happy to be here.
Angela Simoes:
Excellent. And today's guest is Shelly Frank, director of National Accounts for DA Southwest and DA Rockies, and she's also a co-founder of Grow Global Remarketing Opportunities for Women. Thanks, Shelly for joining us.
Shelly Frank:
Thank you for having me.
Angela Simoes:
So let's just start out by having you give our listeners a little bit of your background, how you got into the auction world, and then also what DA Southwest Rockies does.
Shelly Frank:
Sure. So I started out at a very young age working for an insurance company, flipping titles into salvage certificates on totaled cars.
Angela Simoes:
Wow. Okay.
Shelly Frank:
So I've been in the industry working with cars for a long time. From there, I ventured into the auto finance world. I worked for Thrift and Loan, started out as a teller, worked my way up. I had an incredible mentor that just taught me the ropes since I was a baby in this industry. And I worked with him for about 10 years and he moved out of state, so I didn't follow him. So I just stayed in the industry. I worked in auto finance, so I worked with WFS Financial Fireside Bank, working on the remarketing, repossession insurance departments, and then I got poached by an auction. Nice. So I started in the actual auction world in 2008 and I've been working with the auctions ever since.
Angela Simoes:
So when you got into auctions, what was, I guess maybe one of the most surprising things? I mean, when you have an opportunity to get into auctions where your thought was like,
Shelly Frank:
It's a lot different. I can imagine it's a lot different than when I, being on the auto finance side, you have a perception of, oh, the car gets repossessed, it goes to the auction, you send them the title and they sell your car and then you get proceeds simple. It's so easy. And then you get on that side of the business and you realize all the detail and just little things that contribute to the sale of a car. It was quite shocking to me actually.
Angela Simoes:
And compared from then to now, what have been some of the biggest changes you've seen?
Shelly Frank:
Oh, definitely technology.
Angela Simoes:
Really.
Shelly Frank:
Yeah.
Angela Simoes:
Yeah.
Shelly Frank:
I mean, we've gone from paper to online faxing things, to having things emailed. I think AI is going to be our next big contributor to our industry. Before we didn't trust fax machines. We didn't really trust any of that stuff. Did you really get what I sent you? And so I think there's a learning curve and there's a trust factor in building that up as we grow in our industry towards all this new technology that's coming up.
Angela Simoes:
What are you most excited about in terms of, so you mentioned ai. Is it kind of a thing where you're thinking, oh, I can't wait until we can do this?
Shelly Frank:
Yeah. AI kind of freaks me out as it does a lot of people. I think that's fair. I've tooled around with it a little bit with chat GPT and Grammarly and using, and they're fantastic. They do a great job. I guess my thing that I'm looking the most forward to is seeing the progression and what it's going to do to people. What is it going to do at the auction level to the
Jamye Carpenter:
People? I think that's a big scare when you talk about automating condition report writing. Like, ooh, does that get rid of people? But it doesn't, right? Because you still have to have somebody that is making sure that the output was correct. For sure
Jamye Carpenter:
I think it will speed things up, but I don't think it's going to get rid of people. It may reduce the number of people, which you kind of hope I think.
Shelly Frank:
Right.
Jamye Carpenter:
That's going to help cut the bottom line. But I don't think it's ever going to get rid of people. And I do think that's a big scare though.
Shelly Frank:
I do think it is too. I don't think we can get rid of people. Our industry is still, 10 years ago it was all going to be online sales and we weren't going to be able to go, auctions weren't the brick and mortars were going to go away, and that just didn't happen. Our world, people want to be able to touch and feel and see. Right. So
Jamye Carpenter:
You also think when I go to an auction, it's for the experience and there’s nothing like it.
Shelly Frank:
That's true.
Jamye Carpenter:
I was a musical theater major, and when I go I feel like I am seeing theater. It is great for sure. You still have some auctions that sing the national anthem the way that they start the auction and they get up there and then to hear this chaos that's going on, but it's also musical to hear the band playing the auctioneers, auctioneer with the language going. So you hear the auctioneers all in their own language … It's just, to me there is nothing better. And I think that's why you're not going to get a completely online.
Shelly Frank:
No, I don't think that will ever happen.
Jamye Carpenter:
Yeah.
Angela Simoes:
Well, and then if you think back to how things have evolved over the past 50, even a hundred years, there are jobs that now exist that had you asked somebody 50 years ago, well, if we automate this, you're going to get rid of that position. But then now there's a new type of job and we can't even imagine what that would be. Right. Moving forward and they evolve out of the evolution of the industry. So I think that there's that as well. For
Shelly Frank:
Sure. Things develop from opportunity.
Jamye Carpenter:
Maybe we see that there is an AI director that is now managing a team that is going through the images or checking spot, checking the arbitration spot, checking the condition, report writing. So yeah, I think there'll be different jobs, but nobody wants to see people go away.
Angela Simoes:
Right.
Jamye Carpenter:
No. And I think we've seen so many movies where that's happened that that's embedded. The robots brain, the robots are taking over. Exactly.
Angela Simoes:
So how has even going simply from fax to email and those kinds of technologies, more efficient, reduced costs, made things faster. What have been the big wins when it comes to technology?
Shelly Frank:
Definitely I feel that, I think I was the last person on earth to go to online banking. But the efficiency, the turnaround time. I think for at the auction level, I feel that the lost paperwork paper, just in general, not having the storage you need for paper files, everything's in a folder that's accessible at your fingertips. So time to pull the file, to look up the information in the file, it's all right at your fingertips. As much as we don't like to see children on iPads a lot, I feel like we're just training them for what they're going to be actually needing in their future. It's
Angela Simoes:
Very true. Yeah, it's very true.
Shelly Frank:
Yeah.
Angela Simoes:
And so more efficient, how has that affected pricing of vehicles? And then I'll throw on top of that, when it comes to EVs and other types of vehicles, I mean, that's a whole new ball, the whole new game, right?
Shelly Frank:
Yeah, for sure.
Angela Simoes:
How has that affected things?
Shelly Frank:
I think from the buyer's standpoint, I'm not sure it really affects it too much on the selling at the auction level, but I think on the dealer purchasing part, I think that's a big deal to them transferring of titles, not having to go down and wait in a DMV line and just different little things that we sometimes don't really remember. All the things that go into when you transfer a car that release a liability, all the things that the auction can do, but taking the time to fill out the paper and hand write it all, rather than just having pre-filled on your laptop or pulling the information over from the information that's already in your system on the
Shelly Frank:
I think mean that all turns into money at the end of the day. I think time is money, and I think the more time you save by having things, not such a manual process is better for any company seller or buyer. So actually I think it does affect the auctions more than I thought before. I just started talking about it. But I think that it's just for compliance purposes. You can get down into compliance and the things that lenders require and the things that our standards have to be held accountable to on certain parts of what we do. The human error is pretty much taken out of it unless you're the original inputter of the situation. And then by the time it gets to a certain point, hopefully someone has caught the error before. It's critical.
Jamye Carpenter:
Okay. Well, in speaking of compliance, if you remember what, 10 years ago maybe that was the hot topic. There were compliance meetings at different auctions. Everything was about a compliance compliance. Now you don't hear anything about it. I think the biggest thing for compliance is deleting personal data out of vehicles. So working for a company that allows that to help is really important to me because I want to offer solutions that are helpful and that I believe in. I think it's the right thing to do. But I think besides that, arbitration's kind of gone away because auto MS now has a process where you can take a picture and it can be stored there and you're not having to put it in a closet somewhere locked a box, which was a real thing that we had to do. Yeah, I think just looking back 10 years, I would say that I can see how technology has really changed that landscape.
Shelly Frank:
Yeah. I mean, we're in the process of buying a new car. We don't even have to go to the dealer. They will DocuSign it and deliver the car to you. I'm like, well, we kind of want to drive it, but that's how easy, remember the days of spending so many hours in a dealership just waiting and going back and forth on the price and the,
Angela Simoes:
The haggling,
Shelly Frank:
All that stuff that has gone away. So I think in some ways technology has made it life easier and I think in some ways it's made it a little more scary. Yeah.
Angela Simoes:
So has that gone away because you're getting the best price? Let's say you configure your car online and it gives you a price, but you want to negotiate down. Is that something that you're able to do?
Shelly Frank:
Oh yeah. I mean, I think the availability of things on the internet and online and the research, you just have to be willing to put the time in.
Jamye Carpenter:
Well, and we have tools that we have that the normal consumer doesn't have, doesn't have
Angela Simoes:
True.
Jamye Carpenter:
So when I purchased my car, I was able to go and I saw the condition report. I saw the audit grade because I knew the auction where the vehicle was purchased. So I then could see what they paid for, it could see what they paid for it. And I just said, I think 3000 to $3,500 is fair for you to make off this card, but I'm not going to pay this price so that you can gouge me and make $10,000 off the card. I'm just not going to do it. And the guy actually got mad at me and jumped up out of his chair, and I said, I just want you to know that I'm offended by your actions. I will never purchase a car here. And I was upfront and honest with you with the tools that I had at my discretion and that I would be using them just because I'm a woman and I can do those things. Sorry, that upsets you. Maybe you should go back and talk to your husband.
Angela Simoes:
Oh my God.
Jamye Carpenter:
Wrong thing to say to you. So they ended up, I never stepped foot back in there, but they did deliver my vehicle to a Starbucks and I signed my paperwork there. Nice,
Angela Simoes:
Nice. Do you think the average consumer will ever have that kind of visibility?
Jamye Carpenter:
I think they're working on it, but there's so many things on the wholesale level that it is definitely a B2B business that the consumer wouldn't even understand if they had it at their disposal.
Angela Simoes:
Yeah, that's a good point.
Jamye Carpenter:
Yeah. So I know if would we even talked when I was at AutoCheck about having an AutoCheck report for wholesale and an AutoCheck report for consumers because there's even more information that we could provide on a wholesale report that the consumer would be confused by, what does this mean? I don't understand, but it would make a big difference to our wholesale customers.
Shelly Frank:
Yeah, for sure.
Jamye Carpenter:
So you could add it to the exception report, but if it didn't match the full history report. So there were a lot of things like that that we were discussing when I left. But yeah, I think because the consumer thinks that they know about vehicles, but until you've been on this side of it, I don't think you really do.
Shelly Frank:
No, I agree with that a hundred percent. It's nice to have your husband asking you
Jamye Carpenter:
Questions.
Shelly Frank:
What do you think about this?
Jamye Carpenter:
Well, let me just tell you about that. Yeah. Let me pull an MMR on that car for you. What's
Shelly Frank:
An MMR?
Angela Simoes:
So EVs for a while, I mean, used EVs were going for, you could buy a brand new one and then turn around and flip it and sell it for more. Right. That's changed. And even when I bought my car, there was at the time that they were hard to keep in stock. And so there was one on the dealer lot and we were trying to haggle and they said, well, listen, this is the price. If you don't want it, that person right there is going to buy it. So do you want it or not?
Shelly Frank:
Exactly.
Angela Simoes:
And so things have changed. So what are you seeing in terms of, I don't know, just the volume, resale value? How are things going?
Shelly Frank:
So I live in California, so every other car's a Tesla. Yes. I live here to you and white Tesla. But it's funny you asked that because the car that we're purchasing is an EV and it's a Cadillac ev.
Angela Simoes:
Oh,
Shelly Frank:
And sweet. Yeah, it is nice. And have, it's been a little bit eyeopening for me even in being in this business. The amount of EVs there are right now, the different manufacturers all have them. They do. Back in the day, there was only a couple very limited. I think it's dependent geographically on where you live on how much you're going to see. But I do feel like because there's so much out there and it doesn't look like it's going away, but you just mentioned about how that guy right there is going to buy it. There was a car we were interested in and the next day it sold.
Angela Simoes:
They're moving pretty fast. But there's just a lot more of them. There's just more of them and there's more. You go from dealership to dealership and dealership A could have two on their lot. Ford had, we went to see the Ford Lightning. Ford had two lightnings on their lot, and then we went to Cadillac to look at the optic and there was probably 30 of 'em.
Angela Simoes:
Oh, wow.
Shelly Frank:
So I think it's supply and demand. I have a relative that has been pretty anti EV for years, and they just purchased a Ford Lightning.
Angela Simoes:
Wow.
Shelly Frank:
I feel like because some of the manufacturers are putting out the trucks, and it all depends. The reason, one of the reasons why we're changing is the technology and the ranges have gotten longer. And what you can get now in your cars that you couldn't get on an EV two or three years ago is a
Jamye Carpenter:
Pretty big
Shelly Frank:
Difference.
Angela Simoes:
It is a big
Shelly Frank:
Difference.
Jamye Carpenter:
Why can't we trade our EVs in and get a better price for 'em? Why are they used EV prices so horrible? That's a good question.
Shelly Frank:
Yeah. We actually have an EV that they won't take on trade really? Well, it's leased. So to be fair, the lease isn't up on it yet. So the residual values on them upside down $10,000.
Jamye Carpenter:
Yeah,
Shelly Frank:
Right off the
Jamye Carpenter:
Bat. You're Mercedes, right?
Shelly Frank:
It's a Hyundai Ionic.
Jamye Carpenter:
Oh, I love those
Shelly Frank:
Two. Yeah.
Jamye Carpenter:
But that's what at the time wanted. But they had none in stock. And so I really wanted one because it was when gas prices were so high. I had a three hour round trip every day to work, and I was spending $300 in
Shelly Frank:
Gas.
Jamye Carpenter:
I went with the Tesla long range three series, and I can't get anybody to take it. Even Tesla doesn't take it for the price that it's worth.
Shelly Frank:
Right? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. No, at the time, two years ago, they were pretty new. So I think that was part of the problem is like, oh, these are going to be the hot new car, and then all of a sudden all these other manufacturers are starting to come out with their competitor to this particular car and now they're upside down 10 grand in it. So nobody really wants to take that back.
Jamye Carpenter:
And then I feel stuck because I don't want to be, which it's almost paid off, but I still would be lose the money.
Angela Simoes:
Wouldn't there be a market for fleets to pick up used EVs, and even if it was, for example, a city that needed employee vehicles for whatever reason, are those kinds of fleets looking for brand new, but they're looking for the deal? I would just imagine that if they could pick up a bunch of used vehicles at a good deal, wouldn't that be a good market for that? Are you not seeing that?
Shelly Frank:
No. We're kind of seeing our own business girls. Well, even contracts with big companies, the government companies with all the layoffs and stuff that they're doing, the company cars are going away. My daughter's boyfriend works for in a federal position. He has a company car. They're taking it away and they're making them drive to the office and then sign up to use the cars. So not everyone will have a company car. They're going to,
Angela Simoes:
Oh, you got to go in and check one out.
Shelly Frank:
You got to go in and check one out.
Angela Simoes:
Oh, what a pain.
Shelly Frank:
Yes. Wow. So I think that's changing. I think with all the EVs that are out there that are, I think that there's too many at this point right now. I think there's too many. Interesting. Yeah. I think that people want to get the new technology. That's what my husband's doing. He wants the new toys that are in the new EVs. And as long as that keeps going, where you can get more range, you can get better navigation, you can have autopilot, you can have all this stuff, it'll park for you. All these things that keep evolving, then it makes your car look like it's still like a matchbox.
Jamye Carpenter:
You don't think it has more to do with them not knowing what to do with the battery? That's what I wondered.
Shelly Frank:
No,
Jamye Carpenter:
No.
Shelly Frank:
I feel like it's the technology that's keeps improving on all this stuff. And 10 years ago, eight years ago, it was Tesla. That was it. Oh my God. Look at what Tesla does. And now Ford's doing it. Cadillac's doing it. Nissan's doing it. They're all doing it. It's just who has the most. And they all look like the cars are sexy cars too.
Jamye Carpenter:
I mean, we're not talking.
Shelly Frank:
The design of them is not. Yes, yes. I agree. Yeah.
Jamye Carpenter:
Well, I live in Hoax Bluff, Alabama, which is EV capital of the world. So when we moved there, I had a Tesla and there was a white Tesla that I would actually pass every day that lived not far from us, and they parked theirs outside so I could see it. And so we were the EV folks. Well then lately there's a red one, a gray one, another silver one, and I'm like in hos bluff, Alabama. That's crazy to me because you just don't think,
Shelly Frank:
Yeah,
Jamye Carpenter:
You think of the big trucks, you think of the folks that are working more of a blue collar job where they're working at a factory or working at the military base that we have nearby. So I can attest to the growing number because I can see it in my small little town.
Angela Simoes:
Maybe it's an economic decision. Even if they are blue collar workers and gas prices are so high.
Jamye Carpenter:
Correct.
Angela Simoes:
It makes their money their dollar stretch. Right.
Jamye Carpenter:
Well, and right now for the blue collar, you get such a great
Angela Simoes:
Discount. Discount. Yeah. The rebates and stuff.
Jamye Carpenter:
Yeah.
Angela Simoes:
What about the option, and then I asked this apologies to this kind of an ignorant question. So when we traded in our Jeep Grand Cherokee, it was an old one. It was like a 92 a long time ago, and it was like, oh yeah, this one's going south to another country. Is that an option as well? Are you seeing that same, okay, it's an older vehicle, but it's still an ev. It still has some value instead of crushing it. We're going to send it south somewhere. We'll send it overseas somewhere. Is that a market too? It just seems like there's so many different ways to reuse the vehicle asset that, how would you make that
Jamye Carpenter:
Decision? I'm wonder if that's a weight issue though, trying to get it because
Shelly Frank:
It's so much heavier of the battery. Yeah. I don't know. That'll be interesting to see. I feel like they will, for lack of better words, dumb them down here. Maybe keep the batteries. Maybe they need to do some studies on that. I'm not sure. I know a Tesla, the weight without the battery is probably less than a Ford F lightning, F-150 lightning. So I don't know. That's a good question.
Jamye Carpenter:
Yeah.
Shelly Frank:
It just occurred
Jamye Carpenter:
To me we need to talk to some of our exporters to see.
Shelly Frank:
Yeah,
Jamye Carpenter:
That's a good question. Yeah. We'll find an exporter to come on.
Angela Simoes:
I asked a smart question. I'm so happy. Yeah. You did
Shelly Frank:
One that I wouldn't have thought
Angela Simoes:
About. So you said you're in the market for a new vehicle, but what would be your dream vehicle?
Shelly Frank:
Well, unfortunately it's not going to be my car.
Angela Simoes:
Well, what if it
Shelly Frank:
Was, it's funny, my husband has a pretty bad commute currently. He works from home two days a week, but that could be changing as well. And it's so having the carpool lane access. So an EV is definitely makes a difference. His going to be his go-to type of vehicle. I don't know what my ideal car is. I haven't bought a car since, for me, since 2018. So there's been a lot of, and that's only because I don't drive. I have 30,000 miles on my 2019 car.
Jamye Carpenter:
Oh, wow.
Shelly Frank:
Yes.
Jamye Carpenter:
You would get a lot of money for that
Shelly Frank:
Trip. I know. I know. I mean, I work from home or I'm on a plane, so I don't drive a lot in my car. I get in his car or I see it get into test driving these new cars and I'm like, whoa, look at all this stuff. And I get into my car and it's like, oh, I still got to plug my phone in. So I just think it's a personal preference on the things he likes isn't necessarily what I like, but I'm not going to be driving it. So I say you do you. Right on.
Angela Simoes:
Well, I asked the question because we're also in the market, but I'm, I'm looking for a practical car to lug a lot of stuff around for the family. But if I could have my druthers, Maserati has a really nice, oh, I don't know if it's, I don't even know
Shelly Frank:
How the genesis is really nice.
Angela Simoes:
Yeah, I'm going for luxury on that one. I don't even know how it's rated. I don't know what
Shelly Frank:
The range
Angela Simoes:
Is. It's just beautiful and I like it. Then you go for it. And it's actually not even that expensive. I thought it was going to be outrageous. And it's actually not too bad. But I mean that will not be now we got to wait a few years. But yeah, that was,
Jamye Carpenter:
It also depends
Shelly Frank:
What do you need it for? Right.
Angela Simoes:
Yeah.
Jamye Carpenter:
And what am I going to be using this for now that I'm an empty nester? That's why I went with the Tesla three series, because I wasn't having to log all that stuff
Shelly Frank:
Around bunker gear.
Jamye Carpenter:
But I drove a Ford Explorer for years because it gave me the third row. It's the one that had the most room at the time.
Shelly Frank:
I'll tell you one of my favorite cars that I owned, I think I've owned 20 something cars in my life.
Angela Simoes:
Wow.
Shelly Frank:
I know it's bad. But probably my most favorite car was the Mazda CX nine. And why was it your favorite? I don't know. It was a fun to drive. It was fun. It was small enough, but big enough. It had the third seat if I needed it, but majority of the time it was folded down and I could just put groceries and soccer gear and baseball stuff and everything just fit back there. It was comfortable. It was high enough off the road, but low enough to feel like you're kind of in a sedan.
Angela Simoes:
So you really fit your life at the time. I
Shelly Frank:
Actually cried when I got rid of
Jamye Carpenter:
That car. I cried when I got rid of my Ford Explorer, Eddie Bauer edition.
Angela Simoes:
Very nice.
Jamye Carpenter:
We're kind of showing our age now. Yes, we are. We're nice. My daughter just bought the Mazda CX seven.
Shelly Frank:
Okay.
Jamye Carpenter:
The smaller version.
Shelly Frank:
And I wanted my daughter to
Jamye Carpenter:
Get that. She loves it.
Shelly Frank:
Yes.
Jamye Carpenter:
Loves it. And it gets great gas mileage
Shelly Frank:
For
Jamye Carpenter:
Her. Yeah, it does. Yep. That's a good car.
Angela Simoes:
Well, let's wrap up by asking, so we're here at the car conference in San Diego. What are you most excited about the show?
Shelly Frank:
Oh, I'm super excited to see our Grow women on their panels. I always get a big happy spot in my heart when I see us on stage and the women that are out doing their due for women in our industry. And how long has the organization existed officially? So Grow became an organization in 2022.
Angela Simoes:
Okay. So fairly new,
Shelly Frank:
But growing New Grow is growing and it's growing. It's growing. We've got some super exciting stuff coming up in the next year, but probably this conference. Yeah, I would say just learning about the new updated thing. It's always good to kick off the year. And then as the year goes on, we go to other conferences and kind of compare, remember when we talked about this in March? Well now it's November, what's going on? So seeing the progression and how far the industry's come, it's really come a long way in just the short time I've been in it. But yeah, I always like to see everybody.
Angela Simoes:
Yeah, that's been a big theme.
Shelly Frank:
Yeah.
Angela Simoes:
Everyone. It's like a reunion.
Shelly Frank:
It is. It's nice to see everyone.
Angela Simoes:
Awesome. Well, I hope you have a fantastic show. Thank you. Thank you for joining
Shelly Frank:
Us. Thank you.
Angela Simoes:
This has been great.
Shelly Frank:
It has been a fun.
Angela Simoes:
And yeah, we'll have to catch you the next car conference and kind of compare notes. How are things going?
Shelly Frank:
I would love that. Awesome. You have the new cars going.
Angela Simoes:
Oh, right. And that's, see, and hopefully I'll have my new car by then too.
Jamye Carpenter:
We can compare notes. Maybe I can trade my Tesla and have, let's all get
Angela Simoes:
Well, thank you so much, Shey. Appreciate it. You're welcome. Thank you.