When I got into the car business some 21 years ago it was easy for a consumer to save some money by purchasing a used vehicle.  Unfortunately, that isn't the case any longer. So, what happened? The used car market began to change dramatically in July of 2009 when President Obama signed the "Cash for Clunkers" Bill.  Normally when someone trades in a vehicle that vehicle is either kept by the dealer and resold or the vehicle is…

Ok, let’s get ominous…

True Car – is going to eat us all. Oh, they are coming alright, they look nice enough but they are already RICH with profits that dealers refused to earn  themselves. I intercepted some emails from TrueCar (*not true) and these…

Check it out folks...

Just hit the newswire folks… 9:00pm PST

TrueCar Launches National Compliance Campaign and Pro-Industry Product Changes

Sweeping changes include a more balanced advertising approach, revised billing model in some states, consumer membership program, and formation of a Dealer Advisory Council

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — TrueCar, Inc., which is devoted to bringing innovation to the car buying…

  I have never met anyone 30 years or older that has bought every car and went back for service 100% of the time to the same dealership. Once we face the this fact we can  figure out ways to get them back the majority of the time. Do the sales reps do a service walk every time? Do the sales reps call customers on there birthday. Does everyone really roll out the red carpet like the old days? This is a start.

The great thing about LinkedIn is that there's always something more you can be doing to promote your business, find connections, and drive traffic to your profile. The LinkedIn community is diverse, intelligent, and constantly growing. Successful business professionals are working to leverage their presence in this network to learn from their peers and succeed in their own business endeavors.

In that spirit, here are three easy yet effective ways to have a voice on LinkedIn in order…

In Google's latest attempt to make Google+ the biggest social network, they've integrated it into your search results.

Of course, this hasn't been done across all Google search results.  In order to see this integration, you must be logged into Google+ (though some have seen it simply logged into Google) and be using their secure search portal at https://www.google.com.  The company is calling this search update "Search Plus Your World" and…

Since we initiated the Up To Speed blog, I’ve received numerous emails that suggest that one of the biggest road blocks to retail automotive success is the dealership (or department) culture. Because this is our first newsletter of 2012, I decided it opportune to tackle this thorny issue. “Culture” can be defined as the shared values and practices of the company’s (or department’s) employees, and it’s important because it can make or break your dealership. Business cultures…

Mercedes, Dodge, Lexus, Lincoln and Chrysler are Top Leaders with Women Buyers

Women-Drivers.com has released its 2011 report showing the top car brands as rated by women. Each year, Women-Drivers.com tracks thousands of consumer reviews with regards to women’s…

Over the last fifteen years I’ve conducted numerous dealership sales meetings, at which we perform an interactive exercise called “Who Do You Know?” I ask each salesperson to write down just one name of someone they know in each of about 75 categories that I read to them over a twenty minute period. After the exercise is completed, I inspect the pages and pages of names that they’ve written down and I normally say something like, “Don’t talk to me about not having enough…

2012 is here……and your dealerships soft little underbelly is showing!!!

It is time to modernize your thinking and TAKE CONTROL!!

The time has come to take control of your dealership, your departments, your data and yourselves!!

It’s time to mold “old school basics” with “new school” tools and…

Man you’ve got a big ole’, good lookin’, juicy But!  To get a But like that, it must’ve taken many years of hard work to get that kind of But.  You’ve made excuses, exceptions, reservations, and countless other adjectives of limitations in an effort to border why you can’t do something. In short, you’ve allowed your But’s to render your…

People like acronyms, they always have. Acronyms are easy to understand.

I want to talk briefly about the acronym - “S.E.O. “. This has been the most common "word" found in subject lines, in every dealer’s email inbox this year. It is a very misunderstood word lately, it doesn't mean to "get customers" . It’s fun to say - and hip to talk about, but what does it mean?  

                     …

I thought this was awesome!!!!!!!  The concept is the same now a days, stay…

To: All Maryland Dealers

 

From: Peter Kitzmiller

 

Re: TrueCar/Zag

 

Date: January 4, 2012

 

It is the opinion of MADA that any vehicle referral program which requires a dealer to pay a fee only upon the sale of a vehicle violates Maryland's dealer licensing law. It is MADA's understanding that this is TrueCar/Zag's pricing structure.

 

Maryland licensing law is very clear.

 

In order to be a licensed dealer you must have a physical…

This is a pretty basic question, right? But when discussing this subject recently during 2012 annual business planning conferences with several client dealership service managers, I discovered that the answers were far more elusive than they should have been. Most of the NCM client dealers continually try to achieve 5% - 8% year-over-year improvement in Fixed Operations profitability. And those that successfully do so fully understand that it doesn’t just happen. This level of…

January 6th, 2012 by Kathryn Carlson

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Most dealership fan pages on Facebook are a lot like really bad first dates, they won’t stop talking about themselves.  The words “I” and “we” tend to be the most used words when dealerships post to Facebook.  Check your last 10 posts or your last 10 tweets. Are they all about you? Are they all about your vehicles, services or whatever you are pushing?  How many are about…

Are leads from live chat really leads?

If you are the general manager of a dealership that has never used automotive live chat service or software, you’re probably…