🏎️ Mike | Motosaic | Car Consultant & Concierge

Picked up a lot of new followers recently, so it's probably worth reintroducing myself. I grew up in New Jersey, went to Wake Forest, and moved to Charlotte in 2009. Still here. I spent about twelve years in financial services consulting, including a stretch at Ernst & Young where I reached a partnership-level position. The work was complicated and I was good at it. We worked on problems that were on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. From there I went to Wells Fargo, and by any outside measure I had the kind of career people describe as safe. Somewhere in there I also got accepted to the FBI. I'd spent years deliberately building the profile you need to even be considered. Then I turned it down. The consulting career was moving too well to walk away from. Then in early 2023, Wells Fargo let me go as part of a larger displacement. It had nothing to do with performance, and that's what made it land the way it did. It made me feel vulnerable, and no longer untouchable. So I did what you're supposed to do. I interviewed, and within a few weeks I had two strong options in front of me. A role at Silicon Valley Bank, and a leadership position at Ford overseeing customer strategy for electric vehicles. The day my SVB welcome package arrived, the bank collapsed. Ford went into a hiring freeze around the same time. Both doors closed at once. It was at that point I decided to go out on my own, so that nobody else was dictating my future. What I had was a severance package and a small YouTube channel called The Driveway, about 300 subscribers, where I'd been working through what buying a car should actually look like for someone with a demanding job and no time to spend on it. That channel became Motosaic, which is what I run today. I work for the buyer and never the dealer. Executives, physicians, attorneys, business owners. People who are very good at their own jobs and have no interest in spending a Saturday in a showroom. Honestly it's the same work I did for twelve years. Understand what the problem actually is, run a real process, get the person to the right outcome. The subject matter just changed. And here we are now, three years later.

In an informal 𝕏 poll of 549 people, these were the most picked must-have features: - All-wheel drive: 38% - Heated and ventilated seats: 29% - CarPlay or Android Auto: 28% - Premium sound: 27% - Adaptive cruise: 24% Which one is your number one must-have?

Happy Veterans Day to all the men and women who stepped up to serve our country...allowing the rest of us to sleep peacefully. We are all grateful.

Hot take: A good price on the car does not mean you got a good deal. Your rate, loan term, trade-in value, and rebates you didn't know you qualified for all move the real number. The price is only one piece of the puzzle.

You hire a lawyer to read the contract, an advisor to manage the investments, and a contractor to build the kitchen. Then you spend $60,000 to $130,000 on a car, across the table from someone who does this every day, with nobody on your side. Does that make sense to you?

Buying a car at an auction is no different than buying one from a dealership. Same car, same price tag, same research. Right up until you find out what the car has been through. @Shannonjean what's one auction you didn't bid on that you wish you did?