Dealers: Page 134

Big dealership group puts giant parts operation under 1 huge roof

As Jeff Bazurto considered ways to streamline the Thomason Auto Group's wholesale parts operation, he thought about how much time the dealership network's delivery drivers spent loading parts at various locations. Our dealerships have always been centrally located, but our delivery trucks were still spending up to two hours a day just stopping at different locations to pick up the eight vehicle lines

By John Yoswick • April 1, 2001

You can’t sell it if you don’t offer it

Some dealership personnel think it's hard enough selling the car, let alone selling finance & insurance products. So what do those sales people do? They don't bother selling F&I at all. Or they will only pitch F&I products they are comfortable selling, such as extended warranty agreements. That's unfortunate because F&I is an important dealership profit center, especially if predictions materialize

By Steve Finlay • April 1, 2001

Explore the Trendline➔

Artificial 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

WARD’S E-DEALER 100: AN INDUSTRY 1st

It's obviously not the only important thing happening in automotive retailing. But using the Internet to sell cars is exciting, ambitious and revolutionary. THIS ISSUE OF WARD'S DEALER BUSINESS PRESENTS a first for the industry. It's our premiere e-Dealer 100, a list of innovative dealerships which have made the greatest strides in using the Internet to foster vehicle sales. We all know the Internet

By Steve Finlay • April 1, 2001

BOWLED OVER BY NADA CONVENTION

An additional benefit for management attendees is the opportunity to experience the tremendous size and scope of the industry they have chosen for a career. THE 2001 NADA CONVENTION IN LAS VEGAS WAS magnificent in size and scope. Imagine an industry that can attract 30,000 dealers, exhibitors, manufacturers and journalists to a single city. It was especially impressive for me as I had missed the two

By Nat Shulman • April 1, 2001

BIG 3 LAUNCH INTERNET PARTS PORTAL

In a month that saw more than 10,000 workers laid off from Internet firms, a new player emerged in the increasingly crowded online parts ordering market: The Big Three. Less than a year after DaimlerChrysler AG, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. unveiled plans to develop an electronic marketplace to connect to their suppliers, the three automakers announced another joint venture. This one is

By John Yoswick • March 1, 2001

FAREWELL TO A LATE, GREAT DEALER: JAMES MANCUSO

James Mancuso was a dealer well ahead of his time. He advocated and practiced customer service, customer satisfaction and fair dealing before those attributes became industry standards. Yet while championing fair play for the customer, he also stuck up for his profession, bridling whenever anyone took cheap shots at dealers. He was very protective of dealers, but at the same time he was a critic when

By Steve Finlay • March 1, 2001

FRANCHISE SYSTEM IS ALIVE AND KICKING

Focus on core competencies. Let the dealers be dealers, and let the factories be factories. REMEMBER A FEW YEARS BACK WHEN FRANCHISED dealers seemed like an endangered species? Some seers predicted that Internet car-buying services would turn dealers into little more than deliverers of vehicles sold on-line by someone else. Oh yeah, dealers would keep the privilege of servicing those dot-cars when

By Steve Finlay • March 1, 2001

Retreat is sounded as those leasing residual losses mount

Leased vehicle residual losses are taking their toll in the first half of the 2001 model year. At least six have dropped out of the business or cut back sharply. For parent automakers' leasing firms, that means less competition. But the captives are still struggling with major residual losses. The situation on residuals is regarded by industry insiders as the worst in seven years and more independents

By Maynard M. Gordon • March 1, 2001

TOO MANY SYSTEMS TIE UP TECHNOLOGY

Proposed network standards could make dealership life easier We hear all the time about this new computer age and its advantages - how it is going to transform our businesses, our lives. It surely is. But what about the problems this new age is creating?Possibly, the exponential growth of the information technology sector poses the biggest problem. Every day, new companies are touting the virtues

By Cliff Banks • Feb. 1, 2001

F&I school expands services by setting up business development center at Wisconsin dealership

An F&I training firm has added a new dealership service by setting up a business development center at a Wisconsin dealership.The customer creation and retention department is at Concours Motors, a six-brand Milwaukee dealership. Oak Career Training Services in Elmhurst, IL, set it up. Dealership employees staff it.Oak CEO James L. Nerad says, "Customer loyalty and repurchasing is a prime focus of

By WARD'S DEALER BUSINESS STAFF • Feb. 1, 2001

`CRITIC’ GIVES DEALERSHIP A THUMBS UP

I LOVE GOING TO DEALERSHIPS AS A CUSTOMER because regardless of the experience - good or bad - I have something to write about. At such times I feel like a newspaper food critic anonymously going into a restaurant, except I'm planning to critique a dealership.In September, I decided that it was time to retire my father's 1990 Oldsmobile. I was enjoying the low cost of operating the inherited old 88

By Tim Keenan • Feb. 1, 2001

What’s an Olds franchise worth?

Impending buyouts spark $2 billion tug-of-war What's an Oldsmobile franchise worth - and how tough will the negotiations become between GM and the 2,835 Olds dealers facing burial of their 103-year-old brand?Those questions, and more, frame the massive bargaining process now getting underway in a close-out that could cost GM up to $2 billion or more, depending on variable values for real estate, lost

By Maynard M. Gordon • Feb. 1, 2001

HOW DEALERS CAN AVOID STRESSING OUT

I ATTENDED THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF STRESS' 11th annual congress in Hawaii. Presenters, who came from all over the world, are giants in the field of medicine and science.The conference was intellectually way over my head, but the negotiated room rate was way under the standard fare. The Mauna Lani is one of the most beautiful hotels in the world, so it was like being on vacation in a learning environment.

By Nat Shulman • Feb. 1, 2001

World Omni debuts online financing and auctioning

Online dealer financing and auctions are coming simultaneously in early 2001 from World Omni Financial Corp., the financing and leasing arm of JM Family Enterprises.The financing system, developed with the Internet channel E-fin, will roll out shortly after the NADA convention among all of World Omni's 1,700 dealer customers.Designed to streamline the credit application process, the financing initiative

By Maynard M. Gordon • Feb. 1, 2001

GET POSITIONED FOR MAXIMUM PROFITS

The year 2000 was quite a "roller coaster" ride, during which we climbed to the summit and, beginning in October, started our descent. Early on, it was common to hear dealers say, "It was the best month I've had since I've been in business." In the past couple of month though the comments are more like: "I don't know what's happened." "It's the worst month I've had in years." "Traffic is at its lowest

By Tony Noland • Feb. 1, 2001

A BIG DEAL IN DETROIT:

Auto show makes "fierce competitors from 9 to 5 good friends afterward" No question that in mid- January, Detroit is the place to be if you're an automobile enthusiast. The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) is the most prestigious auto show in the country and one of the best in the world.Thank the Detroit Automobile Dealers Association for that.It was at the Detroit show where Infiniti

By Tim Keenan • Jan. 1, 2001

Detroit’s NAIAS

Adozen years ago, critics were telling Detroit auto dealers to kill the annual auto show. Most critical were the media Automotive News Publisher Keith Crain and Ward's Auto World Editor David C. Smith. But, there were many others, including the manufacturers, who felt the show lacked the luster the auto capital of the world deserved. Dealers agreed that the earlier shows were ho-hum. In kinder words,

By AL Rothenberg • Jan. 1, 2001

TRY THESE KEY STRATEGIES OF INTERNET MARKETING

Make your web site more than a testimonial to its designer While it's easy enough to throw money at the web to create a web site, getting people to actually stop by is another matter. Without proper promotion, auto dealer web sites most likely will languish in cyberspace as little more than technological testimonials to their designers.The easiest way to avoid this fate is to put together an arsenal

By J.W. Dysart • Jan. 1, 2001

The 10-Foot Rule

Most people like to do business where they feel welcome. Going to a store and having a clerk ask if you've found everything you need, rather than the customary "thank you" from the cashier when you leave, is very appreciated by most.What do you do to make certain that every employee in your dealership is doing his or her part to promote the most "customer friendly" atmosphere possible? Does every

By WARD'S DEALER BUSINESS STAFF • Jan. 1, 2001

`Lively’ Las Vegas awaits big NADA turnout

There's always a buzz when the National Automobile Dealers Association goes to glittering Las Vegas - and the 2001 show is sure to keep the excitement going.Always the biggest attendance draw of any convention city for the NADA Convention and Exposition and the American Import Auto Dealers Association (AIADA) annual meeting. (The other rotating sites are New Orleans, San Francisco and Orlando.) Las

By Maynard M. Gordon • Jan. 1, 2001

DCC Tackles Quality, Warranty Issues

In its first year in business, DaimlerChrysler Corp.'s $32 million Quality Engineering Center paid for itself, saving the company more than $54 million in repair costs alone. The 128,000-sq.-ft. (11,900-sq.-m) facility, which opened in Auburn Hills, MI in January 2000, pulls together about 150 employees from five different departments dedicated to reducing problems in finished vehicles and thus warranty

By Alisa Priddle • Jan. 1, 2001

CarDay partners with Planet Automotive and DCH USA

CarDay Inc., the first of its kind brick-and-click online exchange for used vehicles, has partnered with the Planet Automotive Group and Dah Chong Hong USA (DCH USA).Planet and DCH each generate more than $1 billion a year in revenue. Over the coming months, the groups will house and operate CarDay franchises in approximately 30 of their dealerships throughout New York and New Jersey as well as in

By WARD'S DEALER BUSINESS STAFF • Jan. 1, 2001

Who will buy Daewoo?

Business in U.S. isn't half bad despite woes back home Unfortunately for Daewoo North America, all of the recent publicity about its Korean parent company has been negative.Despite all the talk and speculation about who may some day buy Daewoo, Gary Connelly, senior vice president of Daewoo's North American sales & operations, remains optimistic - or at least stoic."It's business as usual," he says.Dealers

By Cliff Banks • Jan. 1, 2001

Former NADA economist Tom Webb joins Manheim

Manhiem Auctions has hired former NADA economist Tom Webb to be its executive director of industry analysis and chief economist. He will provide insight into the used-car market for the auto industry, as well as strategic direction for the company.Mr. Webb served in various capacities in 23 years with NADA. For 10 years, he headed the association's Industry Analysis Division. For 13 years, he was

By WARD'S DEALER BUSINESS STAFF • Dec. 1, 2000

ED MULLANE WAS THE GIANT FIGHTER

AUTOMOBILE DEALERS LOST ONE OF THEIR MOST prolific battlers for fair play when Ed Mullane died on Oct. 7.He was a champion for dealers' rights. He was at the center of action wherever there were controversies and fair treatment issues over the relationship between new-car dealers and Detroit.He defined the core of dealer unrest through a masterful command of language in many published trade articles.

By Nat Shulman • Dec. 1, 2000