🚘 BMW 3 Series revealed, Dark Horse SC rules, Ram's V8 SUV

PLUS: Ferrari 296 Speciale, Roadster delayed, Price Is Right Bug  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Read online In partnership with Sign Up | Advertise Don't Buy SpaceX Stock. Buy These 3 Instead. The biggest IPO in history is live — $1.75T valuation, $135 open, $75B raised. And history says the retail investors who chase day-one hype are the ones who get burned. The SpaceX run created thousands of new millionaires. But it wasn't the people buying at the open. It was the ones positioned early, in the names set to ride the wave. Our analyst pinpointed 3 stocks positioned to ride the SpaceX wave — with entry guidance and price targets, a bonus 4th pick (the most undervalued name in the sector), and a 3-phase playbook for when to buy and when to sell. Over 2,500 investors have already read the report. Claim your free copy here. Get the Free Report 2026-09-30 🚙 Releases & Reviews The 2027 BMW 3 Series Is Here With 437 HP And A Factory Drift Mode (5 minute read) The 330 starts at about $50K with a 255-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder, and the M350 xDrive costs about $66K. The lineup adopts the Neue Klasse styling of the electric i3. Drift Moment, which cuts power to the front wheels, comes to the M350 by software update sometime in 2027. 2026 Ford Mustang Dark Horse SC First-Drive Review: The Perfect Mustang Doesn’t Need a Stick (12 minute read) The supercharged 5.2-liter V8 makes 795 horsepower, and prices start at about $105,000. The Drive's Byron Hurd ran a 10.9-second quarter-mile at Sonoma Raceway. He scores it 9.5 out of 10 and calls it even better than the last GT500. 📈 Technology, Market Data & Analysis Nissan Is Targeting a Stacked Hybrid Lineup in the U.S. by 2030 (3 minute read) The redesigned 2027 Rogue brings Nissan's e-Power hybrid system to the US in November, starting at about $37K. Nissan expects the hybrid to make up 30 to 40% of Rogue sales. A V6 hybrid is expected to debut in the 2028 Xterra, a body-on-frame SUV built in Mississippi. 2028 Ram Ramcharger Is a Burly V-8-Powered SUV Worth Waiting For (5 minute read) Ram's first SUV shares its body-on-frame platform with the Jeep Grand Wagoneer. Stellantis has confirmed V8 power in place of the Jeep's inline-six, plus an eventual SRT version. Car and Driver expects a 395-horsepower Hemi base engine and starting prices in the $60,000 range. 🛞 Car Culture The Mercedes-Benz C32 AMG Wagon Is The Unknown AMG (27 minute watch) Mercedes built about 1,500 C32 AMG wagons, each with a supercharged V6 of roughly 350 horsepower, and never sold them in the US. This federalized example is up for auction on Cars & Bids. Doug DeMuro calls it sportier than expected and gives it a DougScore of 55. Japan’s Most Expensive Cars Are Newer and Cheaper than Their Rivals (3 minute read) Hagerty finds most of the 20 priciest Japanese cars sold at auction were built after 2000, and together they total about $28M. That is less than the single top sale for German, Italian, American or British cars. A Japanese car first topped $1M in 2013, with a Toyota 2000GT. 🔧 Miscellaneous Your car’s data privacy problems are worse than you think (5 minute read) Researchers from Northeastern University and Consumer Reports found that all 21 vehicles they tested sent data to at least one third-party domain. Over half contacted advertising, tracking or analytics firms. Seven companion apps, including HondaLink and myChevrolet, sent VINs, phone numbers and precise locations to ad networks. Why Consumers May Soon Be Able To Buy Cheaper Red-Dyed Diesel (9 minute read) A 30-day Texas disaster declaration lets farmers and truckers use tax-exempt, red-dyed off-road diesel on public roads. Federal and state taxes add about 60 cents a gallon, per Bloomberg. The Autopian's Matt Hardigree calls it a short-term fix that could leave a shortfall in transportation funding. 🏁 Quick Links One idea shouldn't take six rewrites to post. Posting everywhere means rewriting one idea six times, so you post to one, or none. SureThing turns one idea into native posts for every platform. Put It on Autopilot This May Be One Of The Best Cars Ever Offered On ‘The Price Is Right’ (5 minute read) A 1973 episode offered a Volkswagen "Elegant Beetle" with a Rolls-Royce-style hood kit and painted roof, valued at $2,650, or about $20,000 in today's money. Chris Harris on Cars: Ferrari 296 Speciale Aperta (13 minute watch) After laps at Anglesey, Chris Harris calls the open-top 296 Speciale one of the more impressive cars he has driven this year, praising its hybrid integration and the return of physical steering-wheel buttons. BMW’s revamped i3 boasts up to 468 miles of range (4 minute read) The i3 50 xDrive starts at about $63K including destination and arrives in early 2027, with two motors making a combined 463 horsepower. Tesla’s Roadster 2 launch just got pushed back two more weeks. (1 minute read) Tesla moved its outdoor Roadster event from October 1 to October 15, citing a severe weather forecast, a week after reopening reservations for the car first revealed almost a decade ago. This Special Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale Is a Stealthy Salute to Carbon Fiber (4 minute read) The Perla Nera, one of 33 bespoke 33 Stradales, wears a body of hand-laid, matte-black carbon fiber in place of paint and is on display at the Alfa Romeo Museum until October 18. There’s a Surprising Twist in CAFE’s Emissions Rollback (5 minute read) From the 2030 model year, a vehicle counts as a light truck only if its towing plus payload capacity reaches 8,500 pounds, which The Drive says could push many midsize crossovers into the stricter passenger-car category. Indianapolis 500 Legend Gordon Johncock Dies at 90 (4 minute read) Johncock won 25 IndyCar races, and his 1982 Indy 500 victory over Rick Mears by 0.16 seconds was then the closest finish in the race's history. How did you like today's newsletter? 🟢 - Great 🟡 - OK 🔴 - Not good If you have any feedback or ideas for improving Today in Cars, just reply to this email! We read every one of your emails, just like you read ours. 🤝  Thanks for reading, Ethan   Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here © 2026 Today in Cars 228 Park Ave S, #29976, New York, New York 10003, United States Powered by beehiiv

Surprising channels are winning

Are you using Meta Ads and mailers?  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

September 30, 2026   |   Read online   Home service marketing is changing fast. Channels we wrote off a few years ago are producing some of our best results, while others are getting harder to scale. In a recent episode of the Owned and Operated podcast, Sam Preston and I break down what’s working right now, from Meta ads and mailers to the lead follow-up systems that turn interest into booked jobs. Home Service Marketing in 2026: What’s Actually Working     Check out these resources before you go any further… A U.S. welder won bronze in Shanghai, while a U.S. plumbing apprentice earned a Medal for Excellence at the “Olympics of skilled trades.” Could placing cones on roads generate $5k/day? Jack Carr breaks down the opportunity. Get your hands on my “$1M to $10M Operational Playbook” here.     The Marketing Playbook Is Moving Faster A few years ago, we could add a marketing channel and spend a long time figuring out how to get the most from it. Now, the window feels shorter. More contractors are competing for the same customers, and a channel that drove rapid growth can level off sooner than expected. I think of it as the elephant curve. You launch a channel, leads climb, growth flattens and eventually you need another source of demand. We’ve seen that with Google, and it’s why I’m paying closer attention to Meta, mailers and even lead sources I wrote off years ago. Some of those old channels are working better for us today. Angie is now our highest ROI lead source. A big reason is that we rebuilt how we respond to leads. We answer calls in about seven seconds, contact written leads automatically and have people follow up to get appointments booked. That’s the challenge for home service marketing right now: keep testing where demand comes from while getting much better at converting the leads you already paid for. Read: How Direct Mail Can Drive Your Business Forward   The Catalyst Experience Most conferences send you home with a notebook full of ideas. Catalyst gets you inside the shops, systems, and conversations that can help you put those ideas to work. Join home service owners and leaders in Akron, Ohio, May 3–5, 2027, for an hour-long Wilson shop tour, main stage sessions, tactical breakouts, and time to connect with operators facing the same challenges you are. Want to go deeper? Add the VIP day at Wilson for sales and leadership huddles, meetings with our team and small group AMAs with me, Jack Carr (JackQuisitions), and Wilson President Brandon Niro. Your Seat is Waiting What’s Changing Across the Channels Google is still a major source of demand, but we’re seeing more companies grow through Meta ads. Some large HVAC businesses are using Meta as a primary channel, while we’re currently testing it for drains. I’m also seeing renewed interest in mailers. These channels bring in different kinds of leads. Someone calling from Google about a broken furnace often wants service now. Someone responding to a Meta ad may still be comparing options. That changes how quickly you need to make contact and how much follow-up it takes to book the appointment. At the same time, Google’s ad tools are changing. We’re moving our Local Services Ads management into Google Ads, and Sam and I are watching how Performance Max and AI Max develop. We don’t know yet what those changes will mean for results, which is another reason to keep testing instead of assuming last year’s setup will keep working. What I’m Watching Lead volume is spreading beyond phone calls. In a market like Akron, we might receive 500 phone call leads and 2,000 written leads in a week. That changes the job of the call center. Answering the phone quickly still matters, but most incoming leads may need an immediate text, a call and continued follow-up before they book. We answer calls in about seven seconds and review that number weekly. For written leads from sources like Angie and Meta, the first response goes out automatically. Automation helps us make contact immediately; our CSRs take over to turn that contact into an appointment. Read: The 5 Home Service KPIs That Predict Future Growth Booking rate is where the math gets interesting. For lower intent lead sources, we consider 30% booked a good result. In our experience, automated texting can get those leads to roughly 15% to 20% booked. Consistent human follow-up can bring the rate to 30% or more. On 100 leads, that difference represents 10 to 15 additional appointments without buying another lead. Meta also demands a different approach to the offer. A retail HVAC shop might be used to selling systems for $12,000 to $14,000. Some of the companies finding volume on Meta are offering full systems closer to $9,000 to $10,000. That does not mean every contractor should cut prices. It means you need to understand the customer coming through that channel, then check whether the offer and margins work for your business. The scale of growth we’re seeing is another reason to pay attention. Some home service companies already doing around $50 million in revenue are still growing 20% to 30% year over year, with Meta playing a major role in their lead generation. We’re testing Meta for drains ourselves, but I wouldn’t copy another company’s budget based on its growth story. I’d look at its creative output, booking process, pricing and job economics first. The metric to watch is cost per sold job. Lead count and cost per lead tell you what a channel produced at the top of the funnel. Contact rate, booking rate, close rate and revenue per job tell you whether that channel can support profitable growth. Track those numbers together, especially as you test a new source of demand.   Build the System Before You Add the Spend If you want to test Meta, revisit Angie or add another lead source, start by tracing what happens to a lead today. Pull the last 30 to 50 leads from each channel and follow them from the first call or form submission to the final outcome. You need to know where the process breaks before you put more money into it. For each lead, record: When it came in and when your team first responded Whether you made contact and how many attempts it took Whether it booked, ran and sold The revenue and gross profit from the job, if it sold Break those numbers out by channel. A Google call from someone with no heat behaves differently from a homeowner who filled out a Meta form while scrolling Facebook. If you combine them into one booking rate, you won’t know which part of your process needs work. Make the first response immediate Audit your phones first. How many calls go unanswered? How long does it take to pick up? What happens after hours or when every CSR is busy? We answer in about seven seconds and watch that number weekly, but the first step is to measure your own performance consistently. Then audit every written lead source. Submit a test form yourself on your website and check what happens. Do the same for each lead partner you pay. Confirm that the lead enters your system, receives an immediate response and is assigned to someone who can book it. An automated text can handle that first touch; it cannot replace a person who follows through. Give lower intent leads their own process A CSR who is great at answering inbound service calls may need different training to work Meta or Angie leads. Those homeowners may be comparing contractors, may not recognize your number and may need help deciding whether to book. Give your team a clear process: call promptly, send a useful text, make another attempt if there’s no answer and keep following up through the channels the customer used. Track whether the team actually reaches the homeowner. Review a sample of messages and calls to see whether the CSR asks for the appointment and handles basic questions about timing, service area and price. The goal is to improve contact rate and booking rate, not to generate the largest possible number of follow-up attempts. If leads go quiet, look at how quickly you responded, what you said and whether the offer matched what they expected. Match the offer to the channel Before launching a Meta campaign, decide what you’re asking someone to buy. A broad “call us for HVAC” ad gives a homeowner little reason to act. A specific drain service or a clearly priced installation option is easier to understand. Work backward from your job economics. Know the price you can offer, the gross margin you need and the maximum you can spend to acquire a sold job. Meta may bring substantial volume, but a cheaper lead is only valuable if you can book and sell it profitably. You’ll also need enough creative to keep testing different services, offers and messages instead of expecting one ad to carry the campaign indefinitely. Run a controlled test, then make a decision Pick one service, one market and one new channel. Set a budget you can afford to learn with, and decide in advance how long you’ll test. Make sure the lead routing, CSR process and offer are ready before the first ad goes live. Review the funnel every week: leads → contacted → booked → ran → sold → gross profit. If leads arrive but few people respond, fix the first contact. If you make contact but bookings are weak, review the CSR approach and offer. If appointments run but do not sell, inspect pricing and the sales process before changing the ads. Once a channel works, keep improving it, but expect its growth to level off eventually. That’s when you test another source of demand or reach new customers through another market or service. The advantage goes to the operator who can test quickly and turn the resulting leads into profitable jobs.     What’s Costing You Jobs? These are the five mistakes I’d look for before spending more on a marketing channel: Calling a channel a failure based on lead volume alone. Check how many leads became booked appointments, sold jobs and gross profit. Treating every lead like an urgent inbound call. A Meta or Angie lead may need immediate outreach and repeated follow-up before they book. Assuming an automatic text finishes the job. It starts the contact; a trained CSR needs to work the lead through to an appointment. Running the same offer everywhere. Match the service, price and message to the customer you’re trying to reach on that channel. Adding budget before fixing the bottleneck. Find out whether leads are being lost at contact, booking or sales, then fix that step first. The channel can only produce as much growth as your team can turn into profitable jobs.     Pull your last 30 to 50 leads from one channel and track how many you contacted, booked and sold. From there, fix the biggest drop-off before increasing your spend or testing another channel.   How to Rank Your Google Business Profile in a New Market How to Rank Your Google Business Profile in a New Market Apple | Spotify | YouTube 👊 John   Disclosure: Some of the content and links in this newsletter are sponsored or affiliate links, which means we may receive payment or earn a commission if you click through or purchase. However, all opinions expressed are entirely my own.     Want More Owned and Operated? 📻 Listen to Owned and Operated on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple  📰 Subscribe to the JackQuisitions newsletter here 📰 Subscribe to the Entry & Exit newsletter here 🤝 Get your brand in front of 40,000+ home service business owners here     Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here © 2026 Owned and Operated 1501 Commerce Drive Akron, Ohio 44240, United States Powered by beehiiv