Dealers: Page

Awards for Ward’s

Ward's Automotive Group lands three national awards and one regional award in the American Society of Business Press Editors editorial excellence competition. Ward's Dealer Business magazine won a Gold national award in the Regular Staff-Written Column, as Editor Steve Finlay was cited for a pair of commentaries: Brand Loyalists Are Rare Breed that appeared in the July 2007 issue and The Alan Mulally

Sept. 1, 2008

Forecast Fixed-Ops Finances

Fixed-operations financial forecasting can be a task for dealerships. Managers often get overwhelmed with bringing all the components together. Even if a forecast is completed, the big questions are: Will it be right? Will I be able to hit it? How can I make my wish become reality? As the dealer or general manager, you have a responsibility to your managers to lead them though the process of financial

By Lee Harkins • Sept. 1, 2008

Explore the Trendline➔

Top 5 stories from WardsAuto

Automakers are evaluating their long-term strategies, revisiting their product mix, and approach to both retail and manufacturing approach along the way.

By WardsAuto staff

Dealers Need To Get Involved

I have a question for the dealer principals: How involved are you in your dealership's online efforts? Your involvement or lack of may determine whether your store is wasting money with its Web initiatives. You should set the tone for how the dealership is represented online. That includes design of the Web site, helping develop the online processes and determining which vendors to use. The role you

By David Kain • Sept. 1, 2008

How To Get Powerful Results from Your Search-Engine Marketing

Many dealers know the importance of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). They also realize a reputable SEM vendor or savvy Internet marketing expert can help create and maintain successful campaigns. Yet when it comes to measuring the effectiveness of their programs, most dealers give their SEM reports little more than a cursory glance. Many dealers think increased Web site traffic and lead generation indicate

By Jim Leman • Sept. 1, 2008

Getting Involved Online

I have a question for the dealer principals: How involved are you in your dealership’s online efforts? Your involvement – or lack of – may determine whether your store is wasting money with its Web initiatives.

By David Kain • Aug. 13, 2008

Bucket Walk Worth the Effort

Last month, I described four common traits of dealers with top-performing used-vehicle operations. One trait is a daily management process known as the bucket system or the stock walk. I received many e-mails asking me to define the process and cite the benefits it can offer the pre-owned department. The terms bucket system, bucket walk or stock walk describe a process to identify and control aging

By Tony Albertson • Aug. 1, 2008

Get a Grip On Parts Inventory

Parts in inventory are purchased with dealership working capital derived from a financial arrangement such as loans and lines of credit. Although the cost of money may account for a significant portion of the holding expenses, it is only one aspect. You need people to manage the inventory and a method to keep track of it. Inherent with having inventory are the other costs resulting from damage, theft

By GARY J. NAPLES • Aug. 1, 2008

Resource Automotive Launches Consumer-Service Website

Resource Automotive Inc. a unit of The Warranty Group Inc. launches www.mrclaims.net, a consumer service website designed to assist vehicle service contract customers with mechanical repair claims and other issues. The secure site allows customers to view their claim history and deductible information and offers a PDF format of the actual service contract agreement, available on a 24/7 basis. Customers

Aug. 1, 2008

New Ford Marketing Vice President Has Dealership Roots

A38-year industry veteran with dealership roots is Ford Motor Co.'s new vice president-U.S. sales and marketing. Ken Czubay, 59, served in various management roles at Ford from 1970 to 1983. He worked in sales and marketing at Nissan North America Inc. until 1987, when he took a position with the Suburban Collection, a group of auto dealerships based in Troy, MI. Until accepting his new Ford post,

By Ward's Staff • Aug. 1, 2008

Video Now a Part of CRM update from August 2008

Video messages are becoming a part of dealership customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Marketing firm DME Automotive uses a studio for dealerships to provide videos to customers via e-mail attachments and other forms of Web-communication. The videos range from product information to messages from dealers thanking customers for their purchases. The media is important to recipients but the

By Steve Finlay • Aug. 1, 2008

Understand the Big Picture

When we hear from dealers who say that they tried television advertising in the past and it didn't work, we ask what type of TV they used. Was it local cable insertion like (ESPN, CNN, CNBC) or a local broadcast affiliate (ABC, NBC, or CBS)? It's critical that we understand what options they chose, and why, before we can do a post mortem on the campaign and begin to build a new and successful TV ad

By Adam Armbruster • Aug. 1, 2008

Kia Hires New Marketing Chief for U.S.

Michael Sprague joins KMA from Ford, where he was group marketing manager for the Lincoln-Mercury unit.

By Ward's Staff • Aug. 1, 2008

Massive Q2 Loss Prompts GMAC to Study Future of Auto Leasing

The financing firm says GM will shoulder up to $1.5 billion of potential changes to the lending company’s lease portfolio in the future.

By James M. Amend • July 31, 2008

Control Non-Stock Parts

Parts in your inventory with a non-stock status (coded NS within the inventory control system) exist in two ways. One is with zero on-hand quantity. This type resides strictly within the dealership-management system for the purpose of demand testing. When sufficient demand occurs according to the user-defined phase-in criteria, the item is suggested by the system for stocking eligibility and reviewed

By GARY J. NAPLES • July 1, 2008

No-Haggle Pricing Works Here

No-haggle pricing is alive and well at Saturn of Fort Wayne, the Kelley Group's charter Saturn store in northeastern Indiana. We sold 601 new Saturns last year, 18% above 2006, says the dealership's general manager, Trent Waybright, who adds that every one went out the door at the suggested list price. That's the way it has been all along, and it has been a plus for customer satisfaction. Waybright,

By Mac Gordon • July 1, 2008

How to Make Dealers Happy?

How does an automotive lender make dealers happy these days? Very carefully, replies Tom Wirth, president of U.S. Bancorp's Indirect Dealer Group. His answer reflects a current cautious mood of the auto-financing industry. It hasn't been hit hard like its stunned home-mortgage counterpart. But it is dealing with tighter credit, higher risks and a weakened economy all of which makes automotive lending

By Steve Finlay • July 1, 2008

The Party’s Over!

The Ward's Dealer 500 may as well put away the champagne bottles. As if the industry needed any more proof that the heady days of the last several years are a distant memory, the party came to a crashing halt in 2007 for the nation's top dealers.For the first time in recent memory, the Ward's Dealer 500 is down — and it is down in all categories. Total revenue is down $3.9 billion in 2007 (from a record $62.6 billion to $58.7 billion) after posting a slight increase of $39 million in 2006.

By Cliff Banks • June 1, 2008

Dude, You’re Getting a Dealership! When?

Michael Dell of Dell Computers is a car dealer almost. He has the company, the money and the CEO. Now all he needs are dealerships. Dell's private investment firm, MSD Capital, L.P., with $12 billion in capital, has wanted to get into the automotive retail business for the last five years. Last month, it announced the creation of MSD Automotive Partners LLC. Jeffrey Rachor, who resigned as Pep Boys

By Cliff Banks • June 1, 2008

System Error: Bad Loans

San Francisco Automated decision-making which futurists see as a great leap forward has taken a big step backwards in the vehicle-financing world. Some lenders are deactivating computer systems that approve auto loans automatically, using predicative algorithms to analyze creditworthiness. The reason for pulling the plug? Major losses by lenders that had relied on the systems. Turns out, too many

By Steve Finlay • June 1, 2008

Accessories Departments Boost Dealership Profits

Dealers with established accessory departments report 30% of their customers buy accessories at the time of purchase.

By Derek Stark • May 28, 2008

GM Shanghai Pushing ‘Drive to Green’ Marketing Campaign

The program, which runs through 2012, involves a 3-point strategy that calls for developing vehicles with better fuel economy and lower greenhouse-gas emissions.

By Vince Courtenay • May 5, 2008

For the Best and Brightest

Raynard M. Fenster entered auto retailing in a novel way. He was a customer at a Saturn dealership when a fellow customer mistook him for a salesman and asked about a showroom car. After Fenster obligingly answered his questions and did an impromptu walk-around, the man said he'd buy it. I took him over to the sales manager and explained what happened, Fenster recalls. The manager finalized the sale,

By Steve Finlay • May 1, 2008

Father of F Pat Ryan Set to Retire

Patrick Ryan Sr., the of finance and insurance as a dealer service, will retire August 1 as executive chairman of Aon Corp. While giving up his executive duties, Ryan, 70, says he will continue to be a dedicated and interested shareholder of the publicly-owned Aon. In 1964, Ryan conceived the idea of dealers selling credit life and disability insurance policies to new-vehicle owners. He traveled ceaselessly

By Mac Gordon • May 1, 2008

A Formula to Avoid Trouble

When I was a young used-car manager, my dealer voiced concerns about an aging used unit in inventory over 60 days. He felt I should wholesale the vehicle and get it out of inventory. Easy enough. But if I did that, it would probably lose $1,000 at auction and that loss would be charged back to the total gross profit. This outcome was not good for me because I was paid a percentage of the department

By Tony Albertson • May 1, 2008

It’s 9 a.m. and a Late-Night TV Show Is on at a Dealership

If customers waiting for their cars to be fixed are watching late-night TV in the service-department lounge, it's not necessarily because the dealership keeps extended hours. It's likely because the store subscribes to the Automotive Broadcasting Network, a private TV network intended to entertain and cross-sell dealership visitors on available products and services. In a new alliance, CBS Outernet,

May 1, 2008