He knows the housing market and house music. He knows cars and The Cars. An economist who moved from the real estate market to the automotive market — while moonlighting as a DJ — Cox Automotive chief economist Jonathan Smoke is among our first-ever honorees in the Automotive Intelligence Awards: Industry Analysts program.

Smoke joins the Auto Remarketing Podcast to talk about his career journey, day-to-day work as an economist and why putting together auto industry analysis isn’t all that different than penning a tune.

Listen to his conversation with Cherokee Media Group senior editor Joe Overby in the window below.

Smoke and his fellow honorees will be recognized in the April edition of the Auto Fin Journal publication and at the Auto Intel Summit, which is April 8-10 at the Embassy Suites in Cary, N.C.

Also included in the magazine and conference recognition will be the Automotive Intelligence Awards: Emerging Companies program, which will recognize emerging companies and entrepreneurs charging forward to make their mark on the used-car industry. These companies will be honored for improving a specific aspect of the business through technology.

In addition to respective luncheons at AIS recognizing these honorees, there will be panel discussions featuring representatives from the Automotive Intelligence Award recipients.

More details on those luncheons, panels and the full AIS agenda can be found here: Agenda | AIS & NRC 2025.