“The mission at NADA stays the same,” Stanton says. “We work for the dealer. We’re here to strengthen the franchise system, to help educate and advocate for the dealer business.”
Despite record 2020 dealership profits from car sales and Finance & Insurance products, there’s less demand for parts and service because COVID-19 has reduced wear and tear on vehicles, Lithia, Asbury and Group 1 report.
Closing rates for transactions on Clicklane are up “dramatically” compared to Asbury’s current online sales and lead generation platform, called PushStart, CEO David Hult says in a conference call announcing record...
Online sales tools are still basically lead generators, which “club the consumer over the head” until they ultimately come to the dealership to complete the deal, says Miran Maric, Asbury Automotive Group’s chief...
Panelists say dealers are offering what’s now a familiar menu of pickup and delivery and sanitizing customer vehicles, as well as new approaches where dealers get more value from customer data.
“People are falling in love with the second most lived-in space, and that’s the car,” Andrew Poliak, chief technology officer for Panasonic Automotive, says during a panel discussion at the recent CES 2021.
The used-car chain previously offered a seven-day return policy on used cars, but that’s getting to be less of a competitive advantage as more big chains ramp up their used-car operations.
Analysts are on the lookout for signs of a correction if demand should fall or supplies increase substantially – but so far there’s no correction in sight, says Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for Cox Automotive.
COVID has pushed more sellers to the market than usual, says Erin Kerrigan, founder of Kerrigan Advisors. She says year-to-date dealership acquisitions were up about 16% as of the third quarter, to 186 transactions.
“Yes, it was ragged. Yes, chaotic. Yes, we had to do things like put parts on airplanes” to keep assembly lines running, VW’s Scott Keogh says. In the face of COVID-19, VW’s U.S. sales were down 10% from 2019...