Dealers: Page 105
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Case Closed: Rick Case Rocks
Talk with auto dealer Rick Case and you might think the recent recession had never occurred. He runs Rick Case Automotive Group, headquartered in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and sells new and used vehicles from 16 dealerships in three states, selling more than 21,000 vehicles a year. The company has grown primarily by acquiring open points. Case and his wife, Rita, co-own the auto group. Growing up, her family
By Lillie Guyer • March 1, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Auto Dealer Tammy Darvish Wins Woman of Year Award
Tamara Darvish, who fought for dealer rights on Capitol Hill after a massive termination of dealerships, receives Manheim auction firm's woman of the year award. Tamara is a shining example of an outstanding leader, role model and tireless advocate for our industry, says Manheim CEO Dean Eisner, citing Darvish's contributions to the auto industry, education and charities. He presents the award at
By Steve Finlay • March 1, 2011 -
Explore the Trendline➔
Courtesy of Kia Corporation
TrendlineArtificial Intelligence
Automakers and dealers alike are increasingly seeing the use case for AI within their operations. Explore some use cases in this trendline.
By WardsAuto staff -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Question of 1998: Should Dealers Have Own Websites?
Flipping through a 1998 issue of Ward's Dealer Business, I came across a story that made me chuckle because of its outdatedness. The headline asked, Should Dealers Have Their Own Web Page? Well, we've answered that. Show me a dealership today lacking its own website, and I'll show you a closed dealership. But back then, it was common for a dealership to forego with a web presence and instead rely
By Steve Finlay • March 1, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Subprime Loans Come Back
SAN FRANCISCO Dealers are selling more cars to customers with subprime credit ratings these days. That's good news and bad. Bad because many consumers saw their credit scores drop to subprime and non-prime levels after suffering job losses, home foreclosures and other recessionary ill effects. But it is good news to the auto industry that more lenders are easing up and extending loans to people with
By Steve Finlay • March 1, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Speeding Up, Slowing Down in Auto Dealership F&I Offices
It’s not just young dealership customers who can get fidgety in a dealership F&I office. “Everyone is in a hurry,” says Cindy Kanellis, finance director for the Freemont Automotive Retailing Group.
By Steve Finlay • March 1, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Auto Dealers’ Secret Weapon: Service Advisors
Many service advisors perform below their potential, a problem that is costly, yet easy to fix, says David Boyle, president of MPi.
By Steve Finlay • Feb. 24, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Chevy Volts Hit eBay; Mark-Ups Reach $4,000
The most expensive of three Volts currently up for bid at the online auction giant is listed for a “Buy It Now” price of $47,700.
By James M. Amend • Feb. 16, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Tata Going to Extremes to Improve Nano Appeal, Dependability
The bold plan to produce the world’s lowest-priced car has been beset by quality issues, production constraints, limited distribution, rising prices and inadequate financing.
By Mack Chrysler • Feb. 2, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Auto-Technician Classes Grow at New York Dealer Association’s Training Center
WHITESTONE, NY The Greater New York Automobile Dealers Assn.'s Center for Automotive Education and Training is stepping up its mission to become the Princeton of automotive-technician education. Conceived about 12 years ago to address a shortage of auto technicians, the center recently observed the fifth anniversary of its opening. Many members of its biggest class to date attended the celebration.
By Herb Shuldiner • Feb. 1, 2011 -
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The Compliance Foxtrot
Old dance studios used to put on the floor large oil cloths which had arrangements of footprints to demonstrate various dance steps. Follow the steps in time to the music with a little flair and, voil, you're dancing. The last several years have seen a slew of new compliance requirements for auto dealers the Information Safeguards Rule, the Red Flags Rule, the Risk Based Pricing Rule, to name a few.
By Michael Charapp • Feb. 1, 2011 -
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Car Dealer’s Way Up Slow, Way Down Fast
“We had a big showroom I built in 1996, and I had 179 employees,” says Art Laws. But one day in 2009, all of that would change.
By Nick Jaynes • Jan. 18, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Venturi to Focus on Marketing EV Battery-Management System
Venturi is not going to challenge Tesla in the U.S. electric sports-car market, because it can’t afford “to lose $200,000 on each car it sells,” CEO Gildo Pastor says.
By William Diem • Jan. 12, 2011 -
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Franchise Builder Heads U.S. Car Dealer Trade Group
Stephen Wade discusses his active dealership business and work for the NADA.
By Mac Gordon • Jan. 12, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Training Center’s Auto-Tech Classes Grow
Attending the fifth-anniversary celebration was a former New York police sergeant who graduated from the course and currently is a technician for a franchised dealer.
By Herb Shuldiner • Jan. 11, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
It All Begins With Pay Plans
Dealers have always tried to balance their employee compensation plans with the long-term benefit of their dealership, while also incentivizing short-term results. That balance has been difficult in the sales department and finance and insurance office. Paying managers a percent of gross profit without regard to terms furthers increasingly longer finance terms. When needing to reduce payment to reach
By David Ruggles • Jan. 1, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Used-Car Dept. No Longer Place to Hide All Your Sins
SAN DIEGO In the old days, when used-car dealers acquired their sometimes-deserved reputation for shady activities, many saw nothing wrong with keeping a fact or two from the unwary buyer. The used-car operation used to be the place where you could hide all your sins, says Doug Hadden, corporate sales and optimization manager for DealerTrack. Those methods don't work in the modern dealership, he says.
By James M. Flammang • Jan. 1, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
The Good, Bad and Ugly
Last month, we discussed ways to draw from the Disney model to make people want to go to your dealership for a great experience. Let's look at more ways to do that. Storytelling Show off your brag wall, the photos of all your delighted clients and their new cars, and plaques of recognition received from the community and the manufacturer. Tell stories your customers can relate to. Timeless and engaging
By Richard Libin • Jan. 1, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Dealers Eye 100% Service Absorption
Car dealer bliss comes when the back shop reaches a 100% absorption rate. That means service-operation profits are high enough to cover the costs of all the other departments at the dealership. An absorption rate past 100%? That would be dealer nirvana. Few dealers hit the magical 100 mark, but some come close, such as Stephen Wade, vice chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Assn. A dealer in
By Steve Finlay • Jan. 1, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Score One for the Team
Is 100% of your energy focused on scoring a touchdown? Or, when it comes to utilizing resources effectively, would you sometimes be satisfied to score a field goal? The majority of dealerships working in the digital space only care about scoring fast. This means that they sometimes pass up the chance to be on the scoreboard at all. The problem with this philosophy is that they never realize an acceptable
By Ray Fenster • Jan. 1, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Careful When Doing It Yourself
New car dealers have found that consumers respond positively to manufacturer certified pre-owned programs. So if they like those, some dealers have reasoned, why not create a dealer-branded certified pre-owned program? Any dealer thinking about creating an in-house CPO program should be aware of some potential legal pitfalls. The reason CPO programs work is that consumers view a certified pre-owned
By Michael Charapp • Jan. 1, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Dealers Rap Auto Makers Offering Prize Lures at Auctions
SAN DIEGO In remarketing their off-lease and other vehicles, some auto makers try to lure wholesale used-car buyers to auto auctions by offering them chances to win trips, prizes and assorted goodies. But such enticements comes under fire from some attendees of the National Remarketing Conference here. Rapping the practice of giving away the likes of golf clubs, trinkets and trash, is Horacio Trujillo,
By Steve Finlay • Jan. 1, 2011 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Some Panicked When Hard Times Hit; Auto Dealer Jay Cimino Didn’t
“We had to take a good look at where we were going if we wanted to survive,” says head of the Phil Long Automotive Group in Colorado.
By Lillie Guyer • Dec. 28, 2010 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Auto Dealer Jack Fitzgerald Proposes Plan to Replace Estate Tax
Proposal replaces the estate tax with an income-tax surcharge for the top 1% wealthiest Americans.
By Steve Finlay • Dec. 22, 2010 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Advertising Information Page
Find out how Wards Auto can help you meet your marketing goals. Please tell us a little about yourself before accessing our print and online menu, editorial calendar and production specs.
Dec. 16, 2010 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
System Enhances Car Dealership’s Back-Shop Efficiency
Automated dispatch makes sure workloads are distributed fairly and prevents technicians from cherry-picking the jobs they prefer to do.
By Jim Leman • Dec. 7, 2010
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