This person has more than 27,000 followers on Twitter, a contingent that includes auto industry executives, journalists, companies and dealers, along with consumers, investor-types and more.

But it’s likely you have no idea who this person really is — and that’s by design.

Since joining Twitter in December, the pseudonymous CarDealershipGuy account (@GuyDealership) has created a following of approximately 27,400 as of Wednesday afternoon.

CarDealershipGuy has taken the automotive Twitterverse by storm with insider insights on car-buying, dealer operations and the inner-workings of the used-car business — generally busting through the “opaque” walls of the auto industry with humorous quips, car-buying advice and unvarnished takes on industry news from the vantage point of a car dealer.

Auto Remarketing spoke with the person behind this account last week. And no, we’re not going to reveal this person’s name, but for the purpose of this story, we’ll use the name “Guy.”

“I’ve been in the industry for 15 years … I’ve seen a lot of different types of experiences, different types of dealerships, and customers that leave happy, (as well as) customers that are not happy with their experience,” Guy said. “One day, I was sitting there and i said, ‘I want to tell the world what I know.’”

Guy had never been very active on social media, but decided to create the pseudonymous account, which is not affiliated with Guy’s day job or company.

It was simply a way to connect with people and share knowledge gained through experience in auto retail.

“With no expectation — I didn’t go into this with a plan. I just went in and I said, ‘I’m going to just share my knowledge, and if it brings value to people, then they’ll follow me,’” Guy said.

And that they did.

Guy said the account went “viral” a week later and had 25,000 to 26,000 followers within a matter of months, “and it’s growing like a weed.”

This growth, Guy said, is like a “a microcosm for the fact that people are thirsty for this type of knowledge … They just feel like there’s a lot that they don’t know about the industry. It’s very opaque to the average consumer.

“And I feel like, from what i hear at least, that it’s very refreshing to hear a very authentic and genuine takes from someone who’s been an operator and a dealer for many years.”

Guy’s tweets have quite the range.

Some share his take on matters like how car dealers can beat Carvana, his opinion on major industry developments or humorous automotive irony, while others offer car-buying advice for consumers or threads on how geopolitical events might impact automotive at-large.

But what really moves the needle is “either stuff that’s very opaque, that your average consumer or even your sophisticated consumer would simply never know, or real-time anecdotes that I’m seeing on the ground floor that are as accurate and truthful as possible,” Guy said.

Or when the projections and forecasts come “to fruition.”

Guy has not tried to monetize the account and isn’t selling anything (other than cars to consumers), so that helps foster trust and create a sense of authenticity.

“Other than offering to sell cars to customers, which you’re providing real value with that, I haven’t made money, I haven’t sold courses. I’m not doing it for this,” Guy said. “I’m doing it genuinely because, No. 1, I enjoy teaching others and sharing my knowledge. And No. 2, it’s been an incredible networking tool for me.

“So, I’m growing a company. And from a recruiting perspective, from a relationship perspective, from an investor perspective, I think people get an inside look into my brain and into my thoughts and they see and it shows them how I operate, how I think through things,” Guy said. “You enter a relationship in (a warmer) stance because you feel like you know the person. It’s been really incredible from that perspective.”

Though Guy acknowledges that “I’m a capitalist, just like many of us,” making money from the Twitter account is not what it’s all about.

Guy says, “there’s no amount of money that I could make directly or nor would I want to make that will exceed the amount of value that I can create through the relationships and the people that i meet on this app.”

The “North Star” for Guy is sharing knowledge and building relationships.

“Everything that I know as an operator, all the dirty secrets, I just want to share everything … there’s been some confrontation, meaning I’ve had like probably once every two weeks, a dealer reaches out to me and threatens me or yells at me or gets pissed at me, saying I’m betraying my brothers, which is a complete load of [expletive],” Guy said.

“Because the best dealers that offer the best experience love what I’m doing and they’re reaching out to me with the opposite stuff. They’re saying, ‘This is incredible, I want to do something similar.’ And so, I think that if anything, it’s shown me, the honest dealers versus the dealers that are shaking in their pants because they’re scared of everyday car dealer knowledge being exposed. Which, again, I don’t think is bad; I think it’s great for the entire industry and it builds a stronger reputation for us as dealers.”

Twitter being what it is, there’s going to be the occasional attack.

But Guy says criticism, when done professionally, is welcome. The key for Guy is to respond with thoughtfulness, not snark. Criticism can be, “an opportunity as an operator, as a dealer to have a very real-time feedback loop with potential consumers,” Guy said.

Guy said the account has received attention from large automotive retailers, executives, Wall Street and “many different types of cohorts.” 

Guy also has the attention of folks who have signed up for a weekly enewsletter outlining thoughts on the industry.

“I’m going to start curating my weekly thoughts into an email, along with observations from the auctions and from the retail floor. And really packaging that all up into one note, which I’ll then put in and shoot out to my followers,” Guy said.

“I’ve gotten 2,000 subscribers in like 20 days and maybe like four posts (of promoting it), which is incredible … the interest in the community has been astonishing, and the fact that I’m able to gain people’s trust is an amazing feeling and I want to give more, because people trust me, so I want to give them more and just continue providing value,” Guy said. “It’s been really an incredible experience, just seeing it grow that fast.”

There are other mediums through which Guy sees parlaying the popularity of the account — for example, podcasts and live Twitter Spaces.

“This is an amplifier. This is a way for me to give back. To tell people, to show people everything I’ve learned over so many years of grinding in this industry,” Guy said.

“I don’t have any formal plans for this right now, but I do think that what I’m most excited about is ultimately when I’m going to remove the veil, start showing who I am, the progress I’m making at my company, share day-to-day stories and anecdotes from a real, operating dealer,” Guy said. “That’s what I’m really excited for.

“But other than that, i just want to continue bringing, grow the account, creating a different type of reputation and sort of stigma for what it means to be a dealer in 2022.”

What it means to be a dealer in 2022 (and beyond) likely would involve savvy use of social media and influence therein.

Take another dealer, Kelly Stumpe, for example. She grew up the dealership world and began her own auto industry career at a BMW store in 2016. And in 2020, she used that dealership savvy and automotive know-how to launch The Car Mom, a multi-platform resource to help moms and families make informed and confident car-buying decisions.

It has resonated with consumers, to say the least: The Car Mom Instagram account has 257,000 followers.

So is the auto retail space and automotive, in general, ripe for more social media influencers?

Guy thinks so.

“I think any industry that consumers feel disadvantaged or it’s opaque, there's an opportunity for a real practitioner, a real operator to share, I call it, asymmetric knowledge,” Guy said. “It’s stuff that I know that you don’t.

“And I think naturally, automotive has historically been that way. Yes, there's been a lot more transparency in the last five to 10 years, or increasing amount of transparency, but … we have not fully shaken off that stigma yet. And so, i think an account like this, with genuine authentic takes, not being scared to say what I think, even when it's not consensus, or it's just being very blunt and candid. I think that's refreshing to consumers, and they love it.”

So, about that reveal.

When will Guy’s true identity be known? Guy’s playing it by ear for now.  But the big reveal eventually will happen.

“I’m not going to stay pseudonymous forever … I think realistically, yeah it will help my business, because people will finally know, who’s the man or who’s the person, behind the account, the voice,” Guy said 

“I’m just not ready for that now and that’s just a personal decision. I still want to build. And not that I will want to stop building, but I think ultimately, it’s going to be really cool to see how when I start sharing day to day pictures and stories on me building my actual company.”