For a couple years now, rumor was that Cadillac king Don Massey was planning to sell his 16-store empire. The 73-year-old dealer would coyly dodge questions about such a deal. But rumor turned to fact as Massey, in his biggest sale ever, sold his...
Last month's column reported on the lack of impending novel solutions and cutting-edge opportunities. There appeared to be nothing more original afoot than the dusting off of old campaigns while the wait for a big solution to appear. It felt, to...
By all rights, 2002 should be one of worst years for new vehicle sales in almost a decade. Sales have increased every year since 1991 except for two, and one the declines was the small 1% drop-off in 2001 to sales of 17.12 million units from the...
Some dealers and manufacturers may disagree with this month's sales meeting, but it's for those of you who are concerned about your sales people giving out discounted numbers prematurely. That, as we all know, leads to customers taking our price...
NOT SINCE THE DAYS OF JOHN DELOREAN HAS General Motors seen such excitement over the possibility of a charismatic leader. Of course Delorean's persona and personal lifestyle ultimately destroyed any possibility of him leading an institution such...
The National Automobile Dealers Assn. Used Car Guide Co. and auto dealership distributor The Reynolds and Reynolds Co., form an online prototype joint venture to offer retail and trade-in transaction data from dealers to consumers looking to buy...
New car and light truck sales will moderate somewhat in 2002, but remain strong compared to historical standards. That's a forecast by Paul Taylor, chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Association, who studies various economic...
PAT LIND SUGGESTS REVAMPING CUSTOMER satisfaction surveys. Critics claim they're misleading. Lind cites the woes of a GM dealer who said here in January that most of his customers give his dealership a very satisfied score, but GM nevertheless...
Most of the dealers who sell General Motors Corp.'s dying Oldsmobile brand came to the national auto dealers' convention hoping GM would offer some new financial help for them, or even reverse course and decide to keep Oldsmobile going. But GM...
Don't eat shipping's extra costs Your manufacturer charges about 13% for overnight and emergency parts orders. Do you? Add an additional line to your doc sheet (new account number) to track the credits received when charging your customers for...