Dealers: Page

Manheim opens bigger Las Vegas auction

Manheim Auctions opened the doors of a brand-new facility in Las Vegas, marking the beginning of a new era for Manheim's Greater Las Vegas Auto Auction. Located at 3225 South Hollywood Blvd., the Greater Las Vegas Auto Auction has grown from a 10-acre location to 42 acres. The expansion will allow the auction to more than double its current business. With the addition of an extra lane, the new facility

By Steve Finlay • April 6, 2001

PROVEN WAYS TO GET EXPENSES IN LINE

Last month, I noted that dealers at the NADA Convention sounded a common refrain of I have to get my expenses in line. I also noted that doing that doesn't happen overnight, but it can happen in short order if you take a few right steps. Dedicate one morning for an expense management meeting with all departmental managers. Review each individual expense. First, determine if it is essential. Second,

By Tony Noland • April 1, 2001

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

Seven tips on how to make your web sites sell for you

Dealer web sites are an exciting way to reach out to customers. But are automotive professionals taking the time to measure their effectiveness? Just because you have a nice web site doesn't mean it's doing the best it can to attract visitors and motivate them to buy, says David Saxby, president of Measure-X. It's a Phoenix, AZ-based company that helps those in the automotive industry measure business

April 1, 2001

A hard act to follow

He did more for the franchised dealers than anyone else in the system's 100 year history.Robert Maguire NADA chairman Bruce Kelleher, a 35-year National Automobile Dealers Association staff veteran, is stepping in as interim president of the organization after the death of its long-time chief executive, Frank E. McCarthy. When naming Mr. Kelleher to the post, the NADA Executive Committee decided not

By Tim Keenan • April 1, 2001

An inside look at AutoNation’s Internet operations

FT. LAUDERDALE, FL There is a noticeable difference between the people who plan and oversee AutoNation's Internet strategy and those at the retail level. The headquarters folks are laid back while the dealership operatives are intense. Stepping off the elevator onto the 24th floor in the AutoNation building (this city's tallest), one might expect to find a space-age type of office environment with

By Cliff Banks • April 1, 2001

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

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