Dealers: Page 126
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Courtesy of WardsAuto
Life in the Fishbowl
They may be big fish, but it's life in the fish bowl for publicly owned dealership chains. We face a high level of scrutiny from the media, Wall Street and manufacturers, says Mark Iuppenlatz, senior vice president-corporation development for Sonic Automotive Inc. He adds: We're under the microscope. So we tried to instill a high level of control and consistency. That means trying to use a standard
By Steve Finlay • July 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Bank of America Names Its Northeast Team
Bank of America Auto Group continues its expansion in the Northeast by naming a regional leadership team and planning to open a new office in the Boston area. The office will serve as a base of operations initially for 21 sales and credit associates. Plans are to grow with the expanding needs of the market, says Group President Tim Russi. The Auto Group expanded into the Northeast earlier this year
July 1, 2004 -
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
Mining for More Money
Friend Scott Harris, dealer principal and general manager of Bill Harris Auto Center, tells me, We don't wait for customers to show up. We go to them. Instead of regular advertising, they actively campaign for customers by mining information in their retail management system. The result: new business and better customer retention. Data mining is not new. It's something all dealerships should be doing.
By GILLIS WEST • July 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
JM&A Expands into Puerto Rico
Jim McDavid, JM&A Group's vice president of North America Sales, is taking a crash course in Spanish. Why the rush? It's because JM&A is expanding its finance & insurance training and product offerings into Puerto Rico, where F&I offices are few and far between. Of about 190 dealerships there annually selling 125,000 new cars, only 5%-10% maintain F&I departments like those in the U.S. Instead, Puerto
By Steve Finlay • July 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Digital Mobility
The growing controversy over the complexity of vehicle electronics, driver distraction issues and user-interface challenges, such as BMW AG's controversial iDrive, promise to make Convergence 2004 a lively event. Discussion and debate over key industry issues have been a part of the biennial symposium since it started 30 years ago as a response to stricter government mandates related to safety, fuel
By Drew Winter • July 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
ArvinMeritor Dedicates Tech Center
Standing in front of a glistening new complex that stands out like the Emerald City in the middle of gritty southwest Detroit, ArvinMeritor Inc. Chairman Larry Yost formally dedicates a sleek new $40 million technology center. He is joined by dignitaries as he inaugurates the Light Vehicle Systems (LVS) technology center, which has been operating since late March. Situated next to the company's roof
July 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Hurrah for Houston
Houston, the largest city in Texas, is the city with the most dealerships on the Ward's Dealer 500, our annual listing of the top auto retailers in the U.S. The city of Houston has 20 dealerships on the Ward's Dealer 500, the same number as last year. That doesn't include the stores in Houston's sprawling suburbs. Total revenue for the Houston dealers on the Ward's 500 this year decreased from $2.9
By Cliff Banks • June 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Dealers Bear the Brunt
I'm a dealer, a guy who likes to make deals. I execute the meet, greet, qualify, pick and close very well, and I'm constantly marketing for the next customer. My only other dealerly pursuit is recruiting salesmen. (Yes salesmen not salespeople; in my heart of hearts they're all salesmen, even the women. Same with acting; they're all actors these days). I learned years ago that success in the car business
By Peter Brandow • May 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Speed Demon
When Don Runkle went to a charity auction for the Women's Committee for Hospice Care, an old motorcycle buddy (GM's Bob Lutz) alerted him to a prized motorcycle on the auction block. The Suzuki Hayabusa (pronounced HIGH-a-BOO-sa) is reputed to be the world's fastest land vehicle. You know, Don, Lutz started, a real man would buy this bike. Runkle, Delphi Corp. vice chairman, stuck with the bidding
May 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Do You Need ASP ASAP?
More dealers are using Internet-delivered applications to help run their dealerships. These days it's rare to find a dealership that isn't using the Internet to conduct at least some aspect of their operation, often with the help of an application service provider (ASP). An ASP can offer advantages that we'll look at in a moment. First, let's define ASP. It's often used, not always understood. An
By JOHN HOLT • May 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Top Chains Bask in Sunbelt
The top eight megadealers in the U.S. have clustered their stores in six Sunbelt states, following the nation's population growth and avoiding the North's seasonal weather problems. A Ward's Dealer Business survey shows that 495 dealerships owned by those eight top-volume dealership groups, or 51 % of the total of 957, are located in California (155), Texas (129), Florida (73), Georgia (51), North
By Mac Gordon • May 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Dealers Rate Providers
Findings of the 2nd annual J.D. Power and Associates' Dealer Service Contract Satisfaction Study once again prove interesting as more than 3,100 dealers grade their providers. Respondents represent more than 4,500 dealerships of all makes and geography. Dealers were asked to rate their satisfaction with their primary service contract provider on a variety of issues, and help provide feedback to an
By BRYAN DORFLER • May 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Synthetics’ Profits Real
No doubt there are certain challenges new car dealers face when trying to increase profits on services in fixed operations. One area that is often overlooked, not because of sales volume or profitability, but because of lack of knowledge is the lube, oil and filter (LOF) service, and more specifically, the use of synthetic oil in connection with it. Understanding what is happening in the market, why
By ROBERT LANDERER • May 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Jaguar Dealership: We Treat Gays Like Anyone Else
Many of the customers at Jaguar of Tampa are gays, a result largely of marketing to them by both the auto maker and the dealership itself. Besides Jaguar's gay-specific ad campaigns, the Florida store periodically targets that consumer segment. It does so by placing its standard ads in gay publications such as Pride, a regional magazine. We've seen pretty good results whenever we do that which is
By Steve Finlay • May 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
New F&I Initiatives Spark Strong Dealer Interest
Two new-concept finance & insurance exhibitors report high dealer interest as they appeared for the first time at a National Automobile Dealers Assn. annual convention and exposition. They are RouteOne LLC, a one-system Internet clearinghouse for all of a dealer's loan applications and ExpressLink, a provider of point-of-sale vehicle insurance. At this year's convention in Las Vegas, RouteOne staged
By Mac Gordon • April 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
What a Difference a Lane Makes
A new initiative lets dealers run their vehicles through World Omni Financial Corp.'s fleet lanes at 22 auto auctions around the country. For the seller, life in the auction lane is often better if it's a fleet/lease lane, says Andrew M. Mahoney, a World Omni vice president who runs and co-developed the effort called Auction Advantage. Selling in a fleet-lease lane opposed to a regular dealer lane
By Steve Finlay • April 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
3 Big Trends Affect Dealerships
It's the golden age of automotive retailing, says Lloyd Waterhouse, who as CEO of information technology giant Reynolds and Reynolds Co., sees three mega trends affecting dealership operations. They are: The empowered consumer who, largely because of the Internet, enters the dealership informed, serious about buying and knowing the invoice price. A move from a standard four-walled dealership towards
By Steve Finlay • April 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
e-Dealer 100
Despite being almost 10 years old, the world of selling cars online, in many ways, is immature and volatile. Many dealers still have not seized the revolutionary change occurring around them, and leveraged it to their advantage. A web site and psuedo-Internet departments is not enough. When more than 80% of all car shoppers are going online at some point in the buying process, Internet marketing and
By Cliff Banks • April 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Danger in the Dealership
Sexual harassment is becoming more of an issue in the workplace. A claim can divide the workforce, create tremendous distraction, waste untold hours and end up costing a dealership plenty of money. Improperly monitored employees who banter on the showroom floor, jokes, use of the Internet, drinking and socializing after work all of these things can create a liability for the dealership when they take
By ART LAMBERT • April 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Grad Student Suspected in 4 Dealership Fires
William Cottrell's father says his 23-year-old son is bright and eccentric but not an eco-terrorist who torched vehicles at California dealerships. The FBI arrested the young man in connection with arsons and vandalism of 125 SUVs at four dealerships, causing about $2.5 million in damages in August. He's a physics graduate student at California Institute of Technology. The FBI says he used an alias
By Steve Finlay • April 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Warranty War Is Raging Anew
Far from being routed by the National Warranty bankruptcy scandal of 2003 or by the vigorous efforts of National's marketing twin sisters to re-enter the extended service coverage business, established and new providers are heating up the competition more aggressively than ever. The battle for extended service contract policies intensifies even as more manufacturers increase their own powertrain warranties.
By Maynard M. Gordon • March 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Las Vegas on a Hot Roll
Elvis Presley performed eight years of sold-out shows at the Las Vegas Hilton, putting that place on the map when it opened in the late 1960s as the first major casino hotel built off the Strip. So one doesn't know what to make of this: When the National Automobile Dealers Assn.'s annual convention hit town last month, the Hilton's giant freestanding marquee sign, the one that once heralded Elvis's
By Steve Finlay • March 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
The Rise and Fall of Automotive Leasing
Vehicle leasing continues a dramatic descent, in 2003 hitting its lowest level in a decade as more and more players, burned by residual losses in the billions of dollars, curtail their strategies or leave the game altogether. Wildly popular in the 1990s, leasing peaked in 1999 with 3.7 million transactions. Since then, it's declined 52%, to less than 1.7 million retail consumer new-car leases written
By Steve Finlay • March 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Those Maddening Surveys!
LAS VEGAS Auto makers' customer satisfaction surveys remain a big complaint for dealers. Alan Starling, 2003's chairman of the National automobile Dealers Assn. raised the issue in October by blasting how auto makers poll customers and how that data is used to measure dealer performance. Complaints include unfair scoring, too many questions and using the survey results to reward and punish dealers.
By Cliff Banks • March 1, 2004 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
MASS MARKETING
Cross/utility vehicles exploded for a 1.67 million-unit year in 2003, according to Ward's data. That was a 66% hike over 2001 and a whopping 208% jump from 2000. One of every dozen vehicles now sold is a CUV. So even those not connected to the auto industry would have difficulty missing the landslide of new CUVs on the road. Much of the popularity comes from the perception CUVs deliver the all-wheel-drive
By Bill Visnic • March 1, 2004
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