Welcome to the Daily 5 report for Monday, Oct. 20. Sorry for the delay in today's report.
When someone wealthy or popular buys a home in your neighborhood, your home values stand to rise significantly. When a popular celebrity and sports hero invests in car dealerships for many millions of dollars, that's a vote of confidence in the business. Dealership buyers and sellers take notice.
So when legendary football coach and celebrity Nick Saban puts his own money down on Toyota and Lexus stores in Alabama, that's a message far more credible than his paid endorsements of the Aflac Duck or Vrbo home rentals.
Saban has already been well vested in auto retail for several years. But his latest deal, reported today by Gail Kachadourian Howe, signals that he's pleased with his investments and wants to grow more since his career-ending overtime loss coaching Alabama against Michigan in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2024.
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Other celebrities and sports figures have been dotting the dealership landscape for years, but Saban pushes it to another level of visibility. For football fans, he is quite literally everywhere with the Aflac and Vrbo ad campaigns going strong. He's also a host on the ESPN College GameDay broadcasts every Saturday morning during football season.
In fact, news of Saban's impending purchase of the Toyota and Lexus franchises in Alabama leaked Oct. 11 while he was hosting the ESPN show on the campus of the University of Oregon, Howe wrote. During a segment where a college student is picked from the crowd and given the chance to kick a 33-yard field goal for a cash prize, Saban's co-host Pat McAfee sweetened the $250,000 cash deal to include a new car, our story said.
"I'll buy you a Toyota from his brand-new Toyota dealership that he has," McAfee told the student, adding that Saban will get to "sell a Camry."
Speaking of confidence, U.S. dealers expressed a brighter outlook on the future state of the broader auto industry even as tariff and interest rate challenges continue, according to the third-quarter Automotive News Auto Industry Confidence Index.
Mark Hollmer reports that the franchised dealer sector scored 59.3, a 3.8-point improvement over the second quarter — and significantly higher than the automaker and supplier sectors. Automotive News analyzed results from a survey conducted Sept. 25-Oct. 1.
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— Philip Nussel, online editor
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