North Texas Automotive

Today, high school students from 25 different schools went head to head at the North Texas Automobile Dealers Auto Tech Competition at Texas Motor Speedway. And while a few teams came out on top, everyone walked away winners. We're having a tech competition to engage students to show them the need that we have for technicians in our industry. And the skills the students are showcasing aren't just in demand. Because there's a desperate need in our industry for 76,000 tech students. 76,000 technicians across the United States. Vehicles these days are high tech and the automotive mechanics that work on them have to be highly skilled in what is now a technology focused career. There's definitely been a transition from a blue-color job to a white-color job now because of the technology that we have in these vehicles and the type of technician that we actually need moving forward. And it's a rewarding career. Well-trained vehicle technicians are not only in high demand, but they're also able to earn top incomes without ever having to enroll in a traditional college. Trade schools and things in this industry really can benefit the students and benefit them to where they can actually get into a career path where they can start making money and creating a living for themselves. Franchise dealers in North Texas employ nearly 30,000 people and many of those are nearing retirement. We have a lot of need to backfill and bring up technicians to grow our business for what's coming in the future. Which means every student at today's competition is walking away with a winning set of valuable skills for future success. It spurred their interest. A couple of them didn't even realize that this was something that they would even Now automotive technicians typically own their own tools, so the first, second and third place winners of today's competition received thousands of dollars in tools to help them start their blossoming careers.