Talking Shop with Adam Novik – St. Louis’ New Car Guy
Written By Johnny Fugitt
Adam Novik loved cars as a child growing up in Chesterfield, but he never expected his professional career to follow this road. Starting as a porter who detailed and delivered cars, and later holding dealership positions including sales manager, e-commerce manager and finance manager, Novik’s variety of experiences provided a holistic view of the car buying process and helped him identify a customer pain point. This led to the creation of Tailored Auto.
Dealerships require long hours from staff, a challenge for Novik, his wife and their three kids, two of whom have autism. “At my level of work, with the hours I was working, I realized what I was missing because of inefficient processes,” he says.
Sensing the true value of family time, Novik created a service to save car buyers six, ten, twelve (or even more) hours in the car buying process while, at the same time, delivering cost savings as he negotiates on the behalf of buyers. “If I’m giving them back that six hours and then they get to spend their Saturday at their kid’s sports tournament or just have family time, that’s really what I’m all about,” says Novik. “Giving people time back so that they can spend it how they see fit, and for me that’s family.”
The pain point for car buyers needs no explanation. “It takes more than 13 hours for the average consumer to buy a car, and despite this investment of time, most consumers are not sure if they got a fair deal, purchased the right options, or should have leased versus paid cash or financed a purchase.”
After more than 15 years on the other side of these time-consuming and frustrating transactions, Novik finally had enough with processes stuck in the 90’s. “There’s no reason to spend six hours buying anything,” says Novik. “I tell people, if you went on Amazon and had to hit the ‘Buy it Now’ button for six straight hours, would you keep doing it? No, obviously not.”
Disruption in transportation, like in so many aspects of life today, is often focused on technology. From ridesharing to hourly rentals to autonomous vehicles to online buy-and-deliver startups, there are numerous efforts to revolutionize the way we move from A to B. But vehicle sales still follow the traditional relationship-driven, communications-heavy process at family-owned dealerships. Tailored Auto’s personal service approach solves a problem technology has yet to conquer.
For some clients, Tailored Auto simply reduces the hours of locating the right vehicle, haggling over price and preparing paperwork. These time and cost savings are not to be minimized. But for other clients, Tailored Auto also helps decide what the right vehicle is for the client. A conversation with Novik could save the car buyer many hours spent researching safety ratings, values and features or avoid the costly mistake of purchasing a vehicle that doesn’t align with the buyer’s needs. As purchasing a new car is not something most of us do often, the expertise provided by the Tailored Auto team eliminates much of the anxiety surrounding the process as well.
So what is this car guy’s dream ride? One might imagine it to be something luxurious and rare. It’s not. Maybe you expect it to be a supercar pushing speed records. Nope. Perhaps a classic Corvette, Thunderbird or Bel Air? Wrong again. Novik’s dream car shouldn’t come as a surprise given his passion for helping client’s find and purchase the best vehicle to meet their needs as quickly and painlessly as possible.
“I’m not emotional about cars,” says Novik. “I drive my dream car, actually, which is a 2016 Hyundai Genesis. It gives me all of the options and all of the comforts and luxuries of a car that’s $20,000 more.” Novik goes on to explain how the warranty, maintenance costs and versatility of the vehicle perfectly matches what he needs in a vehicle. “It’s my dream car because it makes sense logically and it makes sense to my pocketbook. And it’s a great car!”
The rational and reasonable vehicle makes sense for Novik as he picked the vehicle that perfectly aligns with his values. This is the service he provides to customers as well. Tailored Auto will certainly help clients pick out a high-end luxury sedan or bright red sports car if one of those makes sense for the buyer, but, instead of simply speeding up the process to own the flashiest or fastest vehicle on the lot, Novik also wants to help people find the right car for their values, needs and stage of life.
Tailored Auto does all of this for a flat fee of $600. While he works solely on the buyer’s behalf, Novik maintains relationships with dealers as he brings them new business and doesn’t waste anyone’s time. Some say time is the one thing we can not buy. Tailored Auto may not give you more time in this world, but they will help you spend 6-12 hours in a more useful, enjoyable and rewarding way.
